Conversion Optimization Consultant: Guide to A/B Testing

Learn best practices in A/B testing from a conversion optimization consultant

Today, inbound marketing offers more control over your advertising message than ever before. Through access to complex data points, it?s possible to know more about who is visiting your site, how they are responding to your message, what drives them to action and what isn?t working.

The key is refining your approach. One effective method is through A/B testing. With the right software, A/B testing costs next to nothing to implement.? Testing is a way of examining marketing variables in order to identify what brings a better response rate. A/B testing your marketing approach is a great way to understand and identify what is working and allows you to refine your message, drive more traffic to your site and generate more leads from the traffic you are getting.

Working with a conversion optimization consultant can help you better understand the process behind A/B testing. If you decide to try testing yourself, here are several guidelines and best practices to consider before getting started.

1. ?Keep it simple. Only conduct one test at a time.

If for example, you test a new email campaign directing visitors to a landing page at the same time, you?re testing the landing page, the results can be easily become confusing.? You have no way of verifying what caused a specific effect. As a general rule, don?t conduct multiple tests at the same time.?

2. ?Test one variable at a time.

In order to determine how effective an element is, you need to isolate that variable in your A/B testing. Whether it is a page element or graphic, a call-to-action or an email campaign, only test one variable at a time. By focusing your testing on an entire page, email or CTA as the variable, you can often achieve dramatic results.

3. ?Don?t overlook small changes

While big sweeping changes can often increase lead generation numbers, small changes can be just as important. When developing your tests, remember that even something as simple as changing the color of your CTA button can offer significant results. In fact, often small changes are easier to measure than big ones.

4. ?You can test a larger variable such as an entire landing page.

While you can test the color of a CTA button as a variable, you can also test an entire landing page, call-to-action, unique offer, or email as a variable.? Instead of testing a single design element like a headline or image, consider creating two separate landing pages as variable and test them against each other. This is a higher level of testing and can result in dramatic results!

5. ?Measure as far down your lead funnel as possible.

Your testing can have a positive impact on your conversion rate, but how is it affecting your sales numbers? A/B testing can affect your bottom line. You may find that while your conversion rate mat drop, leads may be more qualified and result in higher sales numbers. As you create your tests consider metrics like clickthrough rates, leads, traffic, conversion rates and demo requests.

While conducting A/B testing is a valuable skill to learn and understand, working with a conversion optimization consultant can help you to gain insight into this method.? A conversion optimization consultant like Marketing Matters Inbound can go much deeper into the process helping you to determine which variables to test, setting up controls,? and working with you to understand the significance of your results.? A/B testing is a proven method for fine-tuning your marketing approach. A qualified conversion optimization consultant can help you to maximize results and increase your marketing?s ROI.

Marketing Matters Inbound?is an inbound marketing firm specializing in online conversions, content?strategy, call-to-action mapping and traditional media placement. Our experience in?B2B digital?marketing?andtraditional media?allows us to deliver results through a strategic media mix. We believe in?aligning and merging marketing and sales/operations for optimal return on your marketing investment.