Testing is what Marketers today are focused upon. In fact
about 2/3rds of the companies, all over the world, have started using A/B
testing today. It is the era of conversion optimization; yet, we are not
actually seeing what we are supposed to see. It is not easy to learn Conversion
rate optimization; it takes years of practice to emerge as an expert. An online
search on “content marketing company India”
can give you a list of agencies that claim to be experts in web optimization.
However, there is no way you can be guaranteed of your results. Even web
optimization agencies tend to make mistakes as they might be new to the game.
Understanding these mistakes can put you in a better position to avoid them.
Here is a list of a few common online marketing mistakes that most companies
make:
·
Creating
landing pages using the so-called“best-practices”: One thing you need to
understand here is CRO or conversion rate optimization is not the same as a
best practice. In fact there are no best practices when it comes to SEO or CRO.
The target audience for every type of business is very different. Unless you
conduct tests, it is very difficult to understand what works and what does not.
What might work for a website may not necessarily work for you. So if someone
calls a particular tactic as a best practice, do not adopt it blindly. If the
practice that you have adopted to create your landing page is getting you the
results you want, then that is the best practice for you. You will have to do a
lot of testing to get there.
·
Testing
the Wrong things: One thing you need to get right is understand what you
need to test. Many of the agencies today, in their effort to cut down expenses,
ignore the data-collection tools such as click testing, user-session recording
tools and heat maps. This results in insufficient data that creates confusion
in their minds about what to test. They end up picking up something random
instead of the actual analytics to test. There is no point of testing if your
tests are not really based on data.
·
Relying
on data that is self-reported: Data doesn’t mean just about any data.
Accuracy is very important here. If you rely on data that is self-reported you
may not get the results you want. By this I mean the data that you get from
user testing, forum feedback and surveys. This data is based mainly on the
stories of people and you cannot say that this is accurate as many people lie.
The analytics is the one that gives you the real story behind this. Any data
that you collect through self-reporting has to be validated through testing
before you use it. Split testing and analytics are things you need to use to
verify your assumptions that may be based on self-reporting. Else, all your
efforts go down the drain.
·
Not
understanding the scientific process: Most agencies that you associate
yourself with will bill you by the hour. You cannot just focus on the bottom
line without understanding why things are happening. This is going to take time
as there is lot of data to be collected and lots of tests to be done. It is
better not to go with an agency that does not take time to pursue the
dead-ends, dive into data, think or ask questions.
·
Offering
a complete done-for-you model: Although this might sound to you like a
premium service, this is actually a major mistake when it comes to CRO. Agencies
do this for the sake of job-security. They want their customers to depend on
them completely. They do everything including collecting data, making the
hypothesis and delivering results, all by themselves. This means they are not
actually working with their clients. This way the information they are using is
not actually adequate enough to come up with the right hypotheses. It is very
important for an agency to work with its clients. It takes both, the client’s
knowledge of customers and the agency’s expertise to collect data, so as to get
the right results.
·
Not being
able to influence client culture: The agency should be capable enough not
just to collaborate with its client efficiently, but also change the way things
are done at the client’s end. They have to meet with the client regularly and
discuss ideas. Only then will you start seeing the thought process that is
required for website optimization. This will keep you away from taking
decisions in a random manner. This is when you will start asking your agency
what data needs to be collected and when you can start your testing.
·
Having no
specialized CRO staff: If you don’t have the required staff for CRO, don’t
go for CRO. You need to have people who are excellent communicators and good
with numbers. These people need to be experts in statistics and data. They
should be able to distinguish between genuine numbers and otherwise. These are
the ones who should be able to transform the data into stories. They need to be
able to predict your future through this data.
·
Conducting
no tests before going live: Anything and everything needs to be tested and
validated before launching it live. This will help in avoiding costly mistakes
and adds to your reputation. If your brand is a small one, this mistake may not
seem bigger. However, it might still affect your profitability and reputation
in a negative way.
·
Rookie
mistakes: It is quite common to make mistakes when you are new. These
include not validating the statistics and not analyzing the traffic. If you
have a team that is experienced in adopting the right strategies for improving
conversions, you are less likely to make such mistakes.
Website optimization is not child’s play. It involves a
lot of hard work. If you want big results you will have to go with an agency
that has a lot of experience in optimizing conversions. Next time you run a
search on “content marketing company India,” make sure you go with an agency that has an experienced team
which doesn’t make any of the above mistakes.
Call us at +91-782-774-2414 or e-mail us at info@webbraininfotech.com today for
your enquiry.
