Split testing ideas to boost conversions
What is split testing, anyway?
Split testing, or A/B testing, is a method to increase sales from your marketing activity. Essentially, it means creating multiple versions of your ad, website, or landing page to show your audience. Then, you can identify and use the version that won the most sales for your business (the highest conversion rate). It really is that simple! And it’s effective, too.
While it’s true that the concept of split testing is straightforward, it’s essential to get the basics right.
Creating your A/B split test
If you’ve read any of our past blogs, you’ll know that we love a bit of consumer psychology here at DPMC. But sometimes, even the most seasoned professional can be surprised by what converts well. So, we recommend…
Keeping it simple
Most people recommend testing one change at a time because, if you change the entire design and content of your website or ad, you won’t know what’s worked. Perhaps the new headline attracted some customers, while the new images put others off. But we know that many small businesses don’t have the time or the budget for multiple split tests. Luckily, there are other ways to make sure you’re not over-complicating things…
Positive Polly or Negative Nelly
One way that you can make a consistent change to multiple parts of your online communications is to change up the perspective. Split testing your focus on your audience’s desires or pain points is a great area for split testing your written content. The example below shows how you can change the tone and focus of a headline and a call to action in a consistent way.
Positive Polly
Headline: ‘Learn the secrets to increasing your social media reach by 300% in one easy step’
Call to Action: ‘Increase my audience’
Negative Nelly
Headline: ‘Not getting enough hits on your social media channels?’
Call to Action: ‘Teach me how’
Imagery and Design
It’s surprising how much design and imagery can affect the conversion rate of your online marketing. Like the copy of your website, images can speak to your audiences desires, too. You can show your customers their dream scenario, so they imagine their improved life after buying your product. Or, you can show them their worst nightmare that your product or service will prevent from becoming reality.
While you’re changing images, it’s the perfect time to split test colour schemes. Changing the colour of your call to action buttons can have a HUGE effect on your conversion rate. Some argue that this is because certain colours evoke a particular emotion, while others may say it’s because it stands out more from the rest of the design. Whatever the reason, it’s definitely worth testing.
Splitting your audience
When it comes to splitting your audience for A/B testing, it’s important that half of your audience sees your ‘A’ version (control), and half sees your ‘B’ version (variation). Many online services, like Leadpages and Facebook, provide a split testing function that does this for you, so we recommend utilising these where you can.
It’s also important that your sample is representative of the population. A genuine representative sample needs thousands of hits and interactions to analyse. However, for small businesses, that’s not always a possibility if you’ve got timescales to meet. That’s why we suggest at least two weeks for a small business running a campaign.
Consider your entire marketing funnel
When split testing the effectiveness of your campaign, you should look at your overall marketing funnel.
Start at the beginning, by split testing your ads or email campaigns. Find out which brings most visitors to your website or leadpage. Then move on to your opt-in page, sign-up form, and follow-up emails.
DP Marketing Communications can help you with your split testing, whether you have an existing site or need us to create and test one from scratch. Contact us today for a free marketing consultation to see how we can improve conversions of your online marketing.
