Today consumers are in control, more choices, more media with more time and money being spent online. Attention spans are rapidly dropping and the key now is not only to get them onto your website but to make then convert.
Relationship marketing is not new, we grew up with it, ok maybe not the generation Y readers among us but the oldies like myself remember this approach to a degree. In Malta we are still blessed with a high degree of this in the retail sector. An example being the barber that knows my name, knows the cut I like and takes the time to get to know me and all his clients. He keeps me going back, not only because he is excellent at cutting the little hair I have left but I like the familiarity. This approach is making a comeback online.
Website owners are beginning to realize that taking more of a consumer centric approach, listening to what your consumers what, taking action and never neglecting the opportunity to learn from every transaction you make from your customers is vital in the success of your business.
So as an SME you have a much higher competitive advantage with companies that have bigger budgets to throw around and can reach a large number of consumers at once.
How to meet the needs of your many consumers using just one website
With a little bit of knowledge you can start tracking how your website is being used by the individuals that visit you.
Let’s say you run an e-Commerce website that sells Maltese wines online, a typical pattern might look like this:
- 40% Don’t get past the first page (Show no interest past the home page)
- 15% Select red wine, 13.5% of these abandon at selection, 1.5% convert to checkout
- 20% Select the recommended wine
Ok so let’s jump right into the 13.5% that drop off after the wine selection and examine this.
- Do you have a vast selection displayed on the page?
- Are your visitors new to Maltese wines?
- Do your visitors need a helping hand with selecting the right wine for the meal?
- Are you offering them enough suggestions as recommendations?
This can lead to further testing called A/B testing or sophisticated multivariate testing, also known as multivariable testing. In A/B testing, one or more new versions of a page or single site element compete against the original.
For example, two new versions of a headline might compete against the original headline.
Multivariate testing, on the other hand, is like running many A/B tests concurrently, where there are multiple elements being tested at the same time. For example, two alternate product images, plus two alternate headlines, plus two alternate product copy text, for a total of 32 possible combinations (including the original control versions).
What’s important to understand about multivariate testing is that it not only shows you which combination of elements generate more sales or pull more leads, but also reveals which individual elements influence visitor behavioural versus those that do not.
You can go one step further and that’s the Taguchi Method but I want to keep things simple in this article.
I guess you can see how valuable this information can be to the decisions you next make in adjusting your website from what your visitors are telling you.
In part two I’ll cover ways to go about this type of testing on a budget…..Feel free to comment on ways you have improved your site from your visitors feedback and usage patterns.