A/B Testing: Seeing the Forest
Written by Amy Gyoba on January 16, 2012
Have you ever heard the saying “not seeing the forest for the trees”? It means that someone doesn’t see the forest (the big picture) because they’re too busy looking at the trees (the details). We experienced this problem while performing A/B testing and want to share our lessons learned. In this case, it took some time to figure out why we weren’t getting conclusive results—we had been focusing too much on the small details.
Defining A/B Testing
A/B or split testing is exactly what it sounds like: testing one version of an ad or webpage against another one to see how a change to one component affects the conversion rate. Conversion, the desired user action, is defined before testing. It’s a key part of split testing because it determines which version is more successful.
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The Future of Advertising and NFC (PART 2 OF 2)
Written by ray.silva on December 2, 2011
What’s On the Horizon
Last month this blog gave an overview of near field communication (NFC) and how it can drive highly personalized marketing. This month we take a closer look at the benefits of NFC and how visionaries see it being deployed for marketing and advertising.
Earlier this year, Google quietly dropped QR codes in favour of NFC, launching Google Wallet, an Android app that allows smartphones to store credit cards, loyalty cards, and gift cards so that consumers can make mobile payments by phone. On October 5 Canadian mobile development company Gauge Mobile and media company NewAd teamed up to develop North America’s first Near-Field-Communication Ad Network starting with NFC-enabled advertising displays on college campuses. What next?
Let me be the first to say that slicker technology does not guarantee successful marketing campaigns. When campaigns fail, the problems are likely more to do with marketing strategy and execution than technology. NFC won’t solve such issues. However, given its many business benefits, I’m hopeful that companies will plan for NFC more carefully in order to deliver valuable information, maximize brand engagement, strengthen sales, and harvest deeper metrics.
Deliver information on-demand
Have you ever seen an advertisement and wanted to know more about the product or company? Then forgotten about it in the next moment? With NFC, users can tap/point their mobile device to an advertising display or product tag and receive information instantly. Not only could information include topics such as product benefits, ingredients, usage directions, and where to purchase, but users would be able to save the information for later action; or the retailer could include a ‘call to action’ such as a coupon or the opportunity to purchase online. NFC enabled media tells a brand’s story more effectively and captures the customer’s attention by providing valuable information when they need it most – at the point of impression.
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How Well Does Your Homepage Convert?
Written by Martin Wong on September 27, 2011
Your homepage is the first encounter many customers have with your business. How important is it to make a good first impression?
75% of web users admit to making judgments about the credibility of an organization based on the design of its web site. – Source: Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility, Persuasive Technology Lab. Stanford University, 2003
68% of U.S. online shoppers agree that they will distrust a site that doesn’t have a professional appearance. – Source: eMarketer, 2006
83% of businesses use the Internet to research and find potential vendors. – Source: Enquiro: Business to Business Survey 2007.
An effective home page is the first step to conversion. Take this quick audit of your home page to determine whether you could improve your home page’s effectiveness.
1. Does your homepage have a clear goal?
The overall goal of your website is to sell your product or service, but the goal of your homepage might be to entice clients to enter the site. The home page needs to give the user a reason to continue. It is the gateway to the rest of your website. Before looking at anything else, what is the goal of your home page? A designer must be intimately familiar with your goals in order to create an effective design. Your content and design should combine to support that goal.
For example, if you provide a moving service for companies, your home page goal could be “to get a business owner to call for an estimate”. If so, you need to provide on the page that allows a customer to make the decision to call you or at least explore your site. You might want to list the other services you provide which make you a one-stop shop for moving such as: warehousing and storage, rentals, office moves, or employee relocation? In the example below, the home page provides not one, but two, incentives to get in touch: “Live Online Support” and “Request an Estimate”.
If you are a custom home design firm, perhaps your goal is “to attract clients who share our design sensibilities” because you want to establish a reputation for modernist home projects. Therefore, your home page needs less information, but the design should be clean, minimalist, and reflect a modernist aesthetic while showcasing some of your projects. It’s unlikely anyone will buy a home right off the website, so a call-to-action would encourage clients to call you up and start a dialogue.
2. Can users find what they expect to find?
There are some basic components that should be instantly identifiable and easy to find. Users need assurance that they will be able to find their way around the site. Think about where you would expect to find elements such as:
- Your logo and tag line
- Navigation menus
- Contact information
- Site search
3. Is there a reason for every design element on your homepage?
Minimize clutter and make it easy for users to discern the goal of your homepage. Widgets, fancy navigation, or animated images may be eye-catching, but unless they contribute to the overall functionality of the homepage and its goal, all they do is distract. Distraction makes it harder for users to find what they need, whether it’s information or navigation.
4. Does your homepage layout prioritize important content?
Not all content on a homepage is created equal. One way a good design can prioritize content is through layout – the position of text or design elements. If you had to prioritize the content on your home page, what would that hierarchy look like? Now look at where that content is positioned on your page.
Studies have shown that we scan content according to an F-shape. Our eyes begin at the top left of a page, then to the right, then down. Are the most important messages on your website laid out to take advantage of the F-shape?
Source: Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, April 17, 2006: F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content
5. Do you highlight important content?
Point 4 explains how content can be prioritized through correct positioning on a page. But within each area of a page, you may want to highlight specific content – which can be text or graphical elements. To make important elements really pop out, you can employ numerous tactics:
- Whitespace: isolates the content or graphical element to make it stand out more
- Size: a larger image or font will cue the user that this information matters more
- Contrast: a contrasting colour or font differentiates an element from its surroundings. There is a reason why BUY NOW buttons are always high contrast.
6. Does important information look like an ad?
We are so inundated with online ads that our brains now filter out content that displays like ads, no matter how important the information. If there are important messages or call-to-actions, avoid design elements or positioning that could make them look like ads. In a now-classic experiment, users were asked to find the population of the USA from the US Census Bureau website. Even though this information was located prominently in big red fonts on the top right of the page, only 14% of visitors read and found the information.
7. Page response times matter
A 2006 study by Akamai and JupiterResearch identified the ‘4 Second Threshold’ as the average amount of time that an online shopper is willing to wait for a web page to render. It is now 2011. Computers are faster, networks are faster, and consumers are even more demanding when it comes to page response time. The homepage is the first contact customers have with your company. A fast-loading clean, crisp design will do more for your brand than a slow, content-heavy page. Go back to Point 3 – clutter. Clutter not only deters due to visual confusion, it can slow down page performance.
