I have always stressed that headlines and text copy matter a lot on landing pages. We have published a number of case studies which provide a proof in case: 127% increase in conversions by doing a headline change and single headline change increased conversions by 90%. This case study is also similar in essence: text copy around main headline was A/B tested and large gains in clickthrough and signups are seen.
AwayFind helps users step away from their inboxes while still letting them receive important and urgent emails in a timely manner by notifying them of those emails via SMS, Voice Call or iPhone/Android apps. They wanted to improve conversion rate on their homepage which gets a mix of traffic from organic, direct and PPC (Adwords) sources.
Headline is the first thing a visitor notices on a page. If it is not clear, a visitor would just take a broad look at page and leave after a few seconds. But if your headline catches his attention, he would try to understand more about your offering by looking at the copy. So, getting headline right is crucial but getting copy right is equally important. AwayFind have an interesting headline which says: Checking email every 5 minutes? Stop! In their original page, this headline was extended with another headline (of exactly same size, font and color). It said: Let us find your urgent messages. Here’s how their homepage looked:
Original homepage
The team at AwayFind thought of simplifying the copy around headline and slightly changing the layout as well. They used Visual Website Optimizer for doing this A/B test. Here’s the variation:
Variation (91% increase in signups)
Note how they removed second part of headline and instead replaced it with a sub-headline.
AwayFind thought the new copy was slightly more compelling and that the new layout draws the eye more naturally to the call to action button. And, by jolly, they were right! They saw a 42% lift in people clicking through from the home page and a 91% lift in people completing the setup process. They admit it themselves: the results were shocking! Small change, big results.
Regarding Visual Website Optimizer (VWO), they mentioned that VWO made it easy to implement the test and even easier to track the results.
What they learned was that a little copy can go a long way. Four new sentences dramatically improved their results. As a follow up, they are planning to test the new copy with the old layout to see which of these variables created the biggest impact–a more direct copy comparison.
Numerous times our clients and customers ask: how many visitors do I need to test in order to get statistically significant results in an A/B test? Unfortunately, there is no straightforward answer to this question as it depends on a number of factors. In the past, we have provided you with an A/B test duration calculator in Excel and also provided with an online tool to calculate the same. However, how it is calculated is sort of a black magic.
In following presentation, I describe just what exactly happens when we calculate number of visitors needed for an A/B test. As the presentation aims to be a high level overview, I won’t be delving into mathematics of it.
Hope you like the presentation! Please let me know if you have any questions or need clarifications.
As a wise man has said: choice often causes indecision. Trouble with online retail websites these days is that they have huge catalogue of products and often such abundance confuses new visitors. This is even more so the case when the product that is to be bought is not something we buy often such as home construction supplies. We often either rely on the advice of construction workers or ask for reviews online. So, imagine the confusion a visitor will face when he needs to choose between single or double bubble insulation? Most visitors will not know such terms.
EcoFoil, one of the retail division of Clickstop, is a leading supplier of radiant barrier and foil bubble insulation for home, pole barn or commercial buildings. They realize the importance of information that can help buyers make decisions. This is why they have a help section which says “Need help finding the right product?” which links to a virtual map and that helps visitors figure out what product they need depending on which part of their home they are trying to insulate.
In the original design of their homepage, the position of this help section was below the fold where users had to scroll down to see it. Plus, with another section adjacent to it, often it wasn’t noticeable. Here’s how their homepage looked:
Control (Help section center below the fold)
The team at Clickstop thought it could be better to put the help section above the fold where even new visitors can see it without having to scroll down the page. So, they conducted an A/B test using Visual Website Optimizer and found that the Variation indeed worked better. Much to their surprise, the variation with help section above the fold showed an improvement of 86% in sales over the Control. Here’s how the variation looked:
Variation (Help box moved to left sidebar, above the fold)
Needless to say, Ecofoil are very excited about such an upswing in sales. Kendra Smith of Ecofoil also mentioned that Visual Website Optimizer was crucial to help her confirm her theory to increase conversions by moving the help box above the fold on the webpage.
Yep, that’s true! Our private investigators went to North Pole and caught Santa A/B testing gifts with little Eskimo kids. Apparently, ahead of worldwide gift distribution that is to happen soon, Santa wanted to be 100% sure that his choice of this year’s gifts “clicked” with kids. Don’t believe me? Well, here’s a pic to prove Santa is really an effective experimenter:
To really get into mood for A/B testing, Santa was also (rightly) wearing a chain inspired by Visual Website Optimizer logo .
This blog post may be last one for year 2011, so I wanted to wish all blog readers a joyful Christmas and an exciting new year. May 2012 brings you happiness, smiles and bountiful supply of extra sales and conversions 
By the way, did you notice our cool new Xmas inspired logo (above)?
Usually navigation menus are common across all pages of a website. But, should you have navigation menu on a landing page as well? Or, should your landing page be unique in itself and there is no need to include global navigation menu? This is a perfect case for A/B testing and one of our customers, Yuppiechef, did this test and found out that removing navigation menu doubled their conversions.
Yuppiechef is a leading online store selling premium kitchen tools throughout South Africa. They are known for their customer service, quirkiness and passion for getting people excited about eating together and spending time in the kitchen. They used Visual Website Optimizer to A/B test the effect of removing the navigation menu from one of their landing pages.
Yuppiechef wanted to increase the rate of Wedding Registry signups (conversion goal) generated from the Wedding Registry landing page on their website. They tested two pages against each other that were identical, save for the main navigation bar at the top of the page. As simple as that. On that landing page, there was a mix of various traffic sources including: Google Adwords (Search & Display Network), Facebook, 3rd Party Advertisers, Directories, Organic Search and Direct traffic. Here’s how the original page looked like:
Original page (with navigation)
As far as designing the variation is concerned, the hypothesis was that the option without the navigation bar would provide fewer distractions, and help the user focus on the primary reason they had landed on this particular page. Here’s how the variation looked like:
Variation page (without navigation) — 100% increase in signups
They were certainly surprised by the results! The new variation of the page without the navigation bar at the top of the page delivered twice as many conversions as the original page! The conversion rate jumped from 3 to 6% with an effective 100% increase in conversions. Who wouldn’t be happy about such results?
This is what they thought about results: “Simpler is better. Try assist the user in focusing on their primary objective by eliminating distractions.“. With regards to A/B testing tool they used, this is what they had to say: “Visual Website Optimizer provided an easy and efficient way to implement the test in no time at all. The reporting was also detailed enough to give us the insights we needed to declare the test an unequivocal success.”
Hope this case study gives you an inspiration to test navigation menu on your own landing pages. We don’t guarantee that you will also increase your conversions by 100% but this test is certainly an easy one to setup. And, who knows, maybe you do significantly increase your conversion rate. The only way to find out is to actually setup an A/B test.
Apparently, small changes can have big impact on a company’s bottom-line and this case study is perhaps the best example of it. Length, structure, position or design of forms can have tremendous influence on conversions. We have a number of case studies that demonstrate the same. One case study describes how removing a signup form (from landing page and adding it in later steps) increased conversions by 60%. Another example is of our own homepage: when we removed the form and converted it into a popup, signups increased by 50%.
This case study is about an A/B test run by Springest, which is a platform to help people get the most out of themselves and their career by connecting them to the best ways to learn and develop personally and professionally. Eduhub used to be their brand name in The Netherlands. Their business model involves providing brochures to the visitors who request for them (once they find a suitable course provider). Brochure is free, but users need to fill a lot of information in the form to access it.
Springest aim was to increase form completions on the brochure information request form. So, they decided to use Visual Website Optimizer to create alternative version of the form and see if it increased the form completion rate. Here’s how their original form looked like:
Original brochure request form
They tested one variation of this form, with some parts changed. They removed the intro text and logo and added social proof to the sidebar: quotes from users and logos from well-known Dutch brands. They also removed the asterisk for required fields and changed it to a ‘optional’ text behind fields that are optional. Here’s how variation looked like:
Variation (generated additional €50,000 for Springest)
The variation resulted in 5.21% improvement in form completion, with 97% certainty (statistical significance) based on over 2,500 conversions. They were partly surprised, because the form itself hardly changed. Their changes were mostly about taking away possible obstructions or doubts in the user’s mind and it seems the social proof removes doubt for at least some of the visitors. Although 5% doesn’t look like much, it adds directly to their bottom-line; they estimate this change to be worth about €50,000 this year alone. Isn’t that a great ROI for doing such a simple A/B test?
Based on this test, Dennis Paagman (from Springest team) had following learnings:
You should watch out for too much explanation and guiding texts, we think the text above the form was confusing and maybe even increasing user’s doubt. Just let people find things out for themselves and don’t explain everything. Forms are so ubiquitous on the web, everyone knows how to fill them in.
Even though Springest are extremely happy about results of this test, they don’t want to stop improving and they already have extensive plans for follow up tests. For this form, they want to split it in two parts and also test it with less fields. As soon as they launch a complete new layout of their website, they plan on A/B testing every part of it.
Springest think Visual Website Optimizer (VWO) was very valuable when it came to this particular test. This is what they have to say about the tool:
The great thing about VWO is that it’s possible to run tests without the need of developers. The editing of text, even within form labels, works flawlessly. We did have to change something in the actual Javascript used to make the test (this is in VWO’s advanced options) work, because we have a slightly different form for each product.
The best thing about using VWO is that when we think of new ways to test our site, we have the possibility to implement them right away.
We are very happy for Springest as they increased their conversion rates significantly. This case study definitely shows how even smallest of changes can have such large impact. So, always keep A/B testing and, of course, we recommend Visual Website Optimizer for doing the same
Editor’s note: this is a guest post by Jeremy Reeves, who is a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant who has produced millions of dollars in excess profits for his clients. To learn more about Jeremy and how he can grow your business, head over to www.JeremyReeves.com or download his FREE special report “The 3×3 Formula For Doubling Your Profits In 60 Days Or Less” at www.3×3Formula.com
The world of Internet marketing and conversions is changing as we know it. Consumers are getting more savvy. Places like Google are putting a stranglehold on how you can market your products. Competitors are popping up in every nook and cranny.
In short, conversions are plummeting and it’s getting increasingly harder to grow your business online.
Because of this, it’s more important than ever to take a stroll through your business and remove any weaknesses in your marketing funnel.
This article will show you how to do just that.
The first marketing mistake you’re making is that you aren’t displaying your core value proposition to customers both immediately and throughout your entire sales process.
Your value proposition is what makes you stand out from your competitors and what gives your customers and prospects a reason they should buy from YOU instead of your competitors.
(It can also be called a USP)
When I look at most websites, I don’t see the #1 reason WHY I should be on that website. Instead, the big mistake people make is saying things like…
…“we’re the best at X”.
We’ve been in business for 10 years.
Our product is more reliable than our competitors.
Uhhh… yea – SO WHAT?
Those things don’t matter to your customers. They’re SURFACE level benefits. They don’t make you stand out. They don’t immediately give value to the person looking at your website.
If you get it right – your customer should be able to walk away from the computer… go on vacation to the Bahamas and remember your value proposition while sitting on the beach sipping rum n coke’s.
That may sound a little far-fetched… but it’s the truth.
Here’s an example.
My value proposition can be stated like this.
“I help businesses maximize their sales funnels and increase profits by 20% – 100% or more without increasing expenses.
On the other hand – a weaker version would be something like “I help small businesses increase profits”.
That’s what MOST people say.
But it’s not specific.
HOW do I help increase their profits? I do it by maximizing their sales funnel… and I also do so without increasing their expenses.
Let me give you one of my favorite USP’s of all time.
Fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less – or it’s free.
This is what Domino’s Pizza used to jumpstart the business into what it is today. Unfortunately they can’t use it anymore because of legal issues (too many people were getting in car accidents) but the value proposition was so strong that they’re still a very successful business today… even though I personally hate their pizza.
Now here’s what I love about value propositions.
You really DON’T have to rack your brain for months trying to create the “perfect” value proposition.
What you do instead is come up with 3-5 of them and TEST them. Usually in PPC ads.
This might seem insignificant but you need to trust me on this… every single website has assumptions of what works and what doesn’t. I’ve worked with dozens and dozens and dozens of different clients over the years and every single one of them had conversion-killing assumptions on their website that they didn’t even know about.
For example… the vast majority of people these days still don’t think that long-form salesletters work.
But here’s the truth.
They DO.
Awhile back I wrote a guest post on this blog called Anatomy Of A Long Salesletter.
Because of that blog post, SOME of the readers kept an open mind and got in touch with me to create long-form letters for their websites. And lo and behold… I gave them big increases in their conversions and profits. One client right now is already looking at a 200%+ increase in leads.
Those who didn’t? They’re still losing thousands of dollars each month because they’re assuming longform letters don’t work.
Another assumption people have is with videos. Some people think they work for EVERY audience. Some people hate them. Some people think only autoplay works, while others can’t stand autoplay.
One of my clients thought that a video wasn’t going to work for his audience and that we’d create both a video and a text salesletter. The plan was to show the video to cold visitors, and the text to his warm prospects that were on his list.
We did this because in previous tests, text won over video. So we assumed text was going to work again for this particular product.
The funny thing is… the VIDEO actually won. And it won by about 30%. So if we assumed that the text would win – this client would have lost about 30% of his revenue.
The point is this.
TEST EVERYTHING. (And use Visual Website Optimizer!)
Here are a few things you can test that most people have assumptions about.
That’s enough to get you started.
Remember… your prospect is the one who is putting money in your pocket. Not you. When you do ANYTHING on your site – you have to mentally be transporting yourself into the mind of your prospect and adding what THEY want you to have.
This means that your language has to be congruent with them… your pricing has to be congruent with them… your bonuses… and your product. The funny thing is, most people develop products that THEY want to have out in the marketplace.
But if you really want to not only boost your conversions but really gain traction in your marketplace, the products you create should come out of a want and NEED… not what you “think” they “might” want.
So the question you’re probably asking yourself is… how do I figure out what my audience wants?
Let me tell you a personal story which describes this personally.
When I first started my career… I was only a copywriter. These days I do a lot more than just copywriting because I realized everything in marketing is linked together, but back then I only wrote copy.
In probably my third month, I had a client who asked me if I knew how to create html. I said no. He was upset because now he had to find someone else who could take the copy I wrote in a word document and transfer it online.
The next client came to me… and the SAME thing happened.
At that point, the lightbulb went off in my head. So what did I do?
First – I learned html and basic CSS so that I could create salesletters for my clients and hand it back to them in “ready to test” shape.
Second – I started LISTENING to my clients more. These days I actually create new services based on what my clients NEED… not what I want to have out there.
For example I have a service where I create automated webinars for my clients and they have to do nothing but read the script I give them. Normally creating automated webinars takes weeks or even MONTHS of their time… but now I can save them probably close to a hundred hours of time because I do it all for them.
Now… that’s how I do it in my own business. But if you’re selling products and not services, here are a few more options you can use.
First is surveys.
This is a GREAT way to do it. There are dozens of survey companies you can choose so just pick which one you think is best for you.
When you’re setting up your survey you have to make sure to give them some kind of gift for filling out the survey. It doesn’t have to be much. Maybe a $10 gift certificate for your website… or a free report… whatever.
Another thing you can do is simply CALL your customers personally.
First of all it’s going to make a huge impression on them because nobody ever just calls clients or customers anymore and simply asks how they’re doing, how you can help, etc.
But more importantly… people LOVE to talk. They’re going to spill the beans – especially if they know you’re genuinely trying to help them.
And a third way to do this is to have a contest on your blog.
First what you do is put a contest on your blog (as well as send them emails)… and ask them what they need. Whoever gives the best response and comes up with a product you come out with… gets it free.
Now I just want to stop for a second and make sure you realize JUST how important and valuable this is. This is what separates “good” companies from companies who blow past their competition year after year and dominate the market place.
When you understand your customer better you can start getting to know their wants and desires on a DEEP level. And when that happens, you can start to fill in your marketing back-end – if you haven’t already. And if you already have then of course you can make it even bigger and more profitable.
But the real value from having a well thought out back-end is that you can then start optimizing sales funnels, instead of just pages.
Let’s first get a clear look at what I’m talking about when I say “sales funnel” instead of a single page.
There are various different sales funnels you can have, but one typical one we would see online is something like this.
Landing Page > Salesletter > Upsell > Downsell > Thank You Page
Now let’s add in some numbers to each of these pages. Again, I want to make it crystal clear that YOUR numbers are going to be very much different than the numbers I’m about to show.
I just want to show you how powerful this can be.
Let’s start with conversions numbers.
For this example, I’m going to leave out your landing page for simplicity… since for many people reading this, you may not have a step before your salespage.
So in terms of your “conversions”… we’ll assume your salesletter is converting at 2%. Your upsell is converting at 20%. And your downsell is converting at 20%.
Now let’s look at traffic.
We’ll say that you’re getting 5,000 visitors per month to your salesletter. That’s a little under 200 people per day, which is definitely possible.
Ok, next, let’s look at prices.
Let’s assume your front-end offer is priced at $97… your upsell is at $197… and your downsell is at $67.
Now that we have all the “base” numbers – let’s add that up to get your “before-testing” number. Then we’ll give just a 30% increase to each of these numbers and see what it turns out to be.
Salesletter – 5,000 visitors X 2% = 100 sales x $97 = $9,700
Upsell – 100 visitors X 20% = 20 sales x $197 = $3,940
Downsell – 20 visitors x 20% = 4 sales x $67 = $268
Ok… so now we have our base numbers. That means right now you’re making $13,908 per month.
Now let’s look at what happens when you increase EACH of those funnels by just 30%… which is absolutely possible and really not that hard at all.
Salesletter – 5,000 visitors X 2.66% = 133 sales x $97 = $12,901
Upsell – 100 visitors X 26.66% = 26.6 sales x $197 = $5,252
Downsell – 20 visitors x 26.66% = 5.3 sales x $67 = $355
That gives you a total of $18,508 in monthly gross profit… which is an increase of $4,600 per month.
That $4,600 increase per month could EASILY buy you a new employee who can get you more traffic… become your affiliate manager to dramatically increase your affiliate base… or any number of things.
And remember, this is for a SINGLE product. Plus it’s not including customer lifetime value. And I’m not including what happens when you increase the TRAFFIC you get to these pages when you start split-testing landing pages, emails, banners, PPC ads and everything that actually funnels traffic to the money pages. That’s when it REALLY gets exciting and the numbers start compounding.
Now… we’ve been talking a lot about numbers. Your number may be bigger or smaller than what I just went through, but either way it’s exciting.
Knowing your numbers is CRUCIAL to any online or offline business. The reason is because if you don’t know your key metrics, you have no idea how healthy your business is. You might think it’s doing well – just to find out something unexpected happens and all of a sudden the floor falls out beneath your business.
Now, I don’t know your business so I’m not really sure what numbers you need to know. However there are a few very common numbers which EVERY business – online or offline – needs to know.
So let me give you them and give you a brief description of each of them. Then I’ll tell you how to USE this information to grow your business.
My question is… do you even KNOW what your numbers are?
Value Per Visitor – This is pretty basic. You want to know how much each VISITOR is worth to your website. The cool part about this is it’s incredibly easy to figure out. Just divide the number of visitors you had over the past month/year/ or week… by the amount of money you made.
For example if your site had 20,000 visitors last month and you made $20,000… that’s an average of $1 per visitor.
Figuring out that metric is important, but even more valuable is when you break it down into segments such as traffic source, page, and possibly even further like gender, age, and other variables if you can figure that out for your business.
Lifetime Customer Value – This is one of THE most important metrics you can ever figure out. By understanding this metric, you can then determine how much money you can spend on advertising… employees… inventory… and everything else that makes a business tick.
But here’s the little caveat to this metric. Actually, there are 2.
First, you want to know how long it takes for the average person to complete his or her buying cycle. For example if you have a continuity program and are tracking the lifetime value of a person entering that program – you have to determine the average length that person stays in the continuity program… and if they buy other products while they’re in there.
So if your membership program is $50 per month and your average customer stays for 4 months… you have a customer lifetime value of $200 over a 4 month period. Then, of course, add in any extra back-end products they bought during that time.
And remember… you’re going for the AVERAGE of all your customers. So don’t calculate this for one customer… do it for about 100 or so. Or even more if you can. The more customers you average into this, the more accurate the number will be.
Now, the second caveat is that you want to determine a COMFORTABLE timeline in which to calculate this number. For example – some businesses have customers who stay with them for many years… or even decades.
However the reason you’re determining this number is to figure out how much you can spend to acquire a new customer, so you might not want to spend $500 to get a new customer if you won’t make that money back for 5 years.
Or maybe you will… it all depends on your business model and how short or long-term you are in your thinking.
Cost Per Conversion (or Cost Per New Customer Acquisition) – This one ties heavily into the 1st metric which was value per visitor. The reason is because if your value per visitor is $1 and your cost per conversion is $1.50 – you’ve just discovered that you’re losing money.
Here’s an example.
Let’s say you’re doing SEO, PPC and affiliate marketing. For examples sake, let’s say each is bringing in $10,000 per month. That means you’re making $30,000 per month GROSS profit.
And let’s say that OVERALL, you’re spending $20,000 per month which means you have a net profit of $10,000 at the end of each month.
Now – what if you broke that down?
When you break it down, you might realize that you’re spending $2,000 on SEO per month and making $5,000 per month gross. That’s $3,000 net profit.
And your affiliate system is bringing you in $15,000 per month gross – and you’re giving away 50% commissions so your net profit is $7,500. now you’re up to $10,500 NET profit.
But whoops – wait – didn’t I say you were only making $10,000 net profit between all 3 channels? Yep… I did.
Because what you didn’t realize is that you’re making $10,000 gross profit per month on PPC, however you’re SPENDING $10,500 – which means you’re actually losing $500 per month on your PPC campaign.
Now that you have that information – you know EXACTLY where to focus your efforts. In this case you’d probably want to optimize your PPC campaign to get it profitable. Or, ditch it and focus on what’s making you the most money… which is your affiliate program.
This, of course, is a very simplified example. You’ll have to run your own numbers to figure out where you stand.
I hope you’ll take this information and apply it in your business. If you’ve read this far, you obviously care about your business. And that’s great! I suggest going back through this article and creating a “to-do” list based on what you think will have the biggest impact on your bottom-line.
Get ‘er done!
The case study we are publishing today answers a dilemma that many software companies encounter at one time or another. Should they offer a “free trial” option? Will it decrease the paid signups? One previous case study answered which button increased clickthroughs by 47%: ‘Try demo’ or ‘Buy now’. This case study answers whether having both at the same time has any effect on sales and conversions.
GetResponse is one of the leading email marketing platforms in the world with more than 210,000 customers across 183 countries. They prominently place a “Buy Now” call to action button on their homepage. They also have a “Free Trial” plan but it was not available on the homepage and could only be found on certain pages. Here’s how their homepage looks like (notice the prominent “Buy Now” button”):
Original homepage
GetResponse wanted to test if adding a “Free Trial” button on the home page will influence the number of purchases of paid accounts and number of registrations of free accounts. There was a perception that providing a “Free Trial” button will decrease the number of signups so it was quite a critical test. They used Visual Website Optimizer to quickly setup an A/B test in which variation had an extra “Free Trial” button next to the “Buy Now” button. Here’s how the variation looked like (notice two prominent buttons):
Variation: 158% increase in trial signups
The results they found after running the test were astonishing. GetResponse noticed that by adding free trial buttons on homepage, the number of free accounts increased by 158.60%, while there was no negative influence on the number of paid accounts created via homepage. That is a very strong proof in favor of providing a “Free Trial” button on the homepage itself.
On asking what lessons can be derived from this test, this is what Agnieszka Dabrowska, GetResponse Brand Manager had to say:
It’s worth testing different variations of Call to Action (CTA) on the homepage. We expected that by adding a free trial button on the homepage the number of paid accounts would decrease. We were positively surprised by the results. Not only did we manage to keep the sale at the same level, but we also noticed a huge increase in the number of free trial accounts, which will also result in a bigger number of upgrades in the future.
She further added, “Visual Website Optimizer (VWO) is a great tool that lets us test different variations of the homepage on a small sample of visitors. Thanks to VWO, we managed to find out the perfect combination of CTAs on GetResponse homepage and increase the overall conversion”.
GetResponse plan to constantly run different tests with Visual Website Optimizer. They will test effectiveness of different tag lines, order form versions, pricing variations, etc. We hope they always keep increasing their sales and conversions.
We have published quite a few case studies in past regarding the positive influence of call to action buttons. The testing could be in the form of adding a call to action button when original design didn’t have one, testing a different one or even in the form of different text for each call to action buttons.
Consolidated Label, one of our customers, A/B tested a new design with a prominent call to action button on their test page. Their original web design did not have any call to action buttons so they tried making an A/B test with one. They did expect an increase in conversions but they didn’t expect it to produce 62% increase in conversions over the original design. The testing helped them gauge the difference a single button can make. Consolidated Label manufactures custom printed labels for retail products in a variety of markets including Food, Beverage, Health & Beauty, and Health markets.
Here are the screenshots of both the Control (original design) and the variation (new design).
Control
Variation (with call to action button) 62% increase in conversions
On asking what lessons they learnt from testing, this is what Tracy Gamlin of Consolidated Label had to say:
Make your desired conversion goal obvious, but harmonious to the rest of the design. Also, giving people a few places on a page to get to the conversion accommodates different types of users. For example, the people who just want to get a quote get their button at the top of the page, whereas people who need more substantiation get the opportunity to quote further down the page after they’ve read more copy/seen more images.
Tracy further added, “We’ve found VWO to be immensely valuable for all of our testing needs. Ultimately, it confirms our feelings with actual data – and many times it even surprises us!”.
If you still haven’t started A/B testing, now is a good time to give Visual Website Optimizer a try with unlimited simultaneous tests.
We have published numerous case studies regarding user behavior while shopping online. Sometimes, it’s the color of the checkout button that makes the big difference and sometimes it’s A/B testing checkout process that helps our clients make more money. Today, we are publishing a case study that explores effect of having a live chat widget on signups.
One of our customers, Ez Texting, found that putting a live chat widget helped increase their signups by 31% over the original design (which did not have a live chat widget). Ez Texting provides web-based text messaging services to over 50,000 clients ranging from small organizations to Fortune 500 firms. Here’s how their original signup form looked like:
Control (original design)
Variation (with live chat widget): 31% increase in signups
Ez Texting put an Olark chat widget on the variation and created an A/B test using Visual Website Optimizer. And, as you know, they managed to increase signups by 31%. The chat widget was strategically placed so that if a user has any doubts before making successful signup, he could ask it on the live chat widget.
Josh Malin from Ez Texting is a deep believer in power of A/B tests and hence had following to say:
“I know that testing can contradict deeply held beliefs but it is helpful every now and then to go through a test that confirms this. It makes it that much easier in the future to test other long-held beliefs. And of course it’s always great to have solid data to explain the inclusion of some counterintuitive element on our front end sales site to everyone else at the company”
On asking Josh how much Visual Website Optimizer was valuable for their A/B testing, this is what he had to say:
“Absolutely essential. We have used all sorts of manual and automated A/B testing methods, but VWO is the most pleasant to use.”
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