Conversion Testing Best Practices

Conversion (B2B/B2C)

Marketers are beginning to understand the value of testing but still so few are doing so. This post is a summary on building a testing environment within your org (beyond simply purchasing the platform) and best practices for the tests you will run.
This is from a session I moderated at OMS San Diego. The top 8 suggestions come from the discussion between all of us. The contributors can be followed on Twitter at Brooks Bell, Eric Hansen and Allison Hartsoe.

8 Suggestions for Best Practices for Testing:

1. It's a bad idea to just throw "spaghetti on the wall" as Brooks Bell says. Have objectives and focus.
   Just do it, start.

2. Paid search landing pages are a good place to start.

3. Make changes to your headlines and bullet points first. These are often most effective.

4. Expect to run lots of tests with "blah" results. It's a process and you might get 2 or 3 out of 10 with interesting results.

5. Generate internal excitement about the tests. Ask people to guess which one will win and post the results.

6. Segment the test visitors by big buckets such as new, repeat, brand or non-brand term searched. This may give you a clearer understanding of the results and what to test further.

7. You must have good people working with you to make testing fly.