11 Jan4 Optimization Roadblocks & How to Remove Them

Optimizing your conversion rate boils down to only 1 thing: making thoughtful changes to your website and/or online marketing touch points.  To do this, you need data, you need to know how to test, and you need to be able to implement change on a regular basis.  Despite boiling the concept down to its simplest language, online marketing optimization isn’t easy.

Here are four of the most common roadblocks we see on the road to optimization, and some suggestions on how to overcome them.

1.     Not Having the Necessary Skill Sets

Online marketing optimization requires a wide variety of skill sets: marketing, eCommerce, copy writing, visual design, web development, and more.  Many marketers try to do CRO without lining up the proper human resources, and this is a quick way to failure.  If you don’t have a decent copywriter at your disposal, optimization will be very hard for you.  If you only have one “web guy” (sorry for the sexist language) to handle your eCommerce, your development, and your SEO, optimization will be very hard for you.  If you try to get your Java programmer to improve your PPC ad groups, optimization might run you out of business!

Unfortunately, there aren’t any real tricks or secrets for how to overcome this type of challenge.  You simply need to hire, beg, borrow, or steal the right human resources with the proper, qualified skill sets.  They don’t need to be permanent employees, but they need to be available at least a couple of hours per week ‘until further notice.’  Remember that optimization isn’t a project, so it should be more like having the resources on retainer and at your disposal.  Of those skill sets, a web developer, a copywriter, and a web designer are crucial (assuming you are The Marketer).

2.     Not Having a Flexible Architecture

Some people try to save money when building or maintaining their website by using off-the-shelf shopping carts, content management systems, or even entire websites.  Making these kinds of choices will definitely cut costs up front, but they make continuous improvement pretty difficult.  We’ve had clients try this route for a few months only to give up and scrap their entire platform to start from scratch.  Others switch from off-the-shelf solutions to custom solutions in order to gain flexibility to test and optimize their conversion funnels on an ongoing basis.

The solution is two-part. First, if you are using an off-the-shelf system, and want to do optimization, you need to really know the ins and outs of the system you are using.  You need to have full understanding of what you can and cannot change.  For example, maybe you can change background colors, but not fonts.  Also, you need to understand whether or not you can test within your system using a tool like Google Website Optimizer.  Second, if your present system is really inflexible, and is limiting your optimization efforts, you need to think about upgrading to something custom, or at least more flexible.  Sorry, remember earlier when I said “online marketing optimization isn’t easy”?

3.     Not Being Willing to Accept the Risks of Testing

This one can be deadly.  Many marketers are getting excited about CRO and testing, but culturally, they and their organizations aren’t really ready to test their way to success.  These are the clients who panic when a test doesn’t “win,” switch back to the original, and never want to run another test.  [Note: tests don't "win" or "lose," they only prove or disprove a hypothesis and give you deeper insight into your customers' behavior.  Gains or losses are only a byproduct.]  I equate online testing to taking “calculated” risks; that you’ll lose some money on the way to making potentially lots more money.  However, if you’re in a financial position where a few days of a losing test result will put you out of business, you’re really not in a position to be optimizing conversion rate.

There are a few solutions to reducing the risks (or perceived risks) of testing.  The simplest way is to NOT look at your tests too often while they’re running. This will reduce the chances that you’ll freak out over statistically invalid data. Another way is to only expose small amounts of traffic to your tests. They will take longer to run, but it may make you feel more comfortable about the risk factor.  A third thing that may help is to educate yourself about the opportunity costs associated with NOT testing, and not testing aggressively.  This may help convince you that taking the risks is actually cheaper than doing nothing.

4.     Decentralization of Marketing Teams

Point #1 focused on the importance of having the proper human resources.   But don’t get smug just yet simply because you have all those bases covered!  How you structure your resources is a key factor in success too. We’ve seen clients with plenty of financial and staff resources struggling to implement their first set of recommendations 3-6 months into a subscription.  Often, the cause is that each resource area is housed in its own department (copywriting, newsletter, website design, PPC, direct marketing, email, development), each one led by a different manager, and incentivized by different goals.  If there is no one leader charged with overseeing the priorities of all these marketing groups, optimization efforts often stall when a particular recommendation requires unified action across groups. In the absence of a single leader, several problems often surface: a failure to prioritize optimization in one or more areas; lack of belief in the process; conflicting ideas regarding implementation.  Believe it or not, this sort of thing also can be a problem when a company out sources all of their marketing work to a variety of different vendors.  A failure to prioritize your optimization by one of more of your marketing groups is a death sentence to the optimization process.

The key to success is to have strong leadership, capable of incentivizing all of the key players toward the same goal, and capable of fostering a culture of optimization within the organization and as part of any relationships with outside vendors.