MarketingExperiments - Research-driven optimization, testing, and marketing ideas

We have written before about the importance of identifying and communicating a unique value proposition for your business and web site. Having a strong value proposition is usually the most important factor in determining the success of…

In a previous post I talked about our research findings on choosing a strong product or domain name. In general we found that you are better off choosing a domain name or product name that is descriptive and, if possible, includes at least…

In previous post I have talked about the proliferation of trash-content sites – typically sites with skinny content designed to make money by hosting PPC ads, or by making a percentage on affiliate relationships. The web is awash with…

More and more sites now try to capture visitors’ email addresses on the first page...whether it’s the home page or a landing page. Why? So that if that visitor doesn’t complete a purchase or registration of some kind during that visit, you…

As you may already know, we have been busy working on a series of certification programs. The first one, which started in April – and we’ll be running it again, starting in June – is the Foundations of Online Testing course. During the…

Here’s another question that came out of our last teleconference call on landing page optimization. “How important is it to carry over the image you use on the marketing piece over to a landing page. For example if my print flyer has image…

In response to our teleconference call on landing pages yesterday, we received the following comment: I am most interested in the dynamics of optimizing for organic search ranking vs conversion. Lots of tension there. Is there lots of…

NOTES: These are the notes for our interactive May 10 clinic on Landing Pages. The recording of the event will be posted here in a few days. If you are participating in the live teleclinic, we will ask you to refresh your page several…

In the world of optimization and the search for increased revenues, it is tempting to create our site pages in a way that deliberately “pushes” readers in one single direction. Our own optimization tests have shown time and again that by…

Our last clinic was on the topic of Landing Page Optimization. The response was extremely positive and after the close of the clinic we received dozens of emails from attendees who wanted us to critique their landing pages. As a result, we…

There’s a wonderful post and image over at the Church of the Customer blog. It points out that the Hilton Hotel online reservations service is not available between 2:00AM and 6:00AM. It seems their computer systems need a little shut-eye…

When testing, the validity of the data is a function of the how much a difference there is between your results, and the sample size. Simply put, if you have a larger variance between two results, then you will need a smaller sample size…

What are eco-ads? They spring from marketing strategies, often within large corporations, which address the need to present companies as being friendly towards the environment. Companies recognize that many of their customers are concerned…

Here are some interesting figures from a story on InternetRetailer.com Visitors returning to a web site are eight times more likely to make an online purchase than new visitors, according to new data from WebSideStory Inc. During the first…

Here’s another question that came in a few days ago. Someone wanted to know what the best practice is for changing the color or appearance of a text link after it has been clicked. Our Director Optimization, Jimmy Ellis, wrote up this…

This is another question raised during our teleconference call on Wednesday. We were looking at before and after versions of an offer page we had optimized. On both versions the “buy now” button appeared only at the end of the sales…

This question was raised during our teleconference call on landing pages yesterday. It’s a good question. There are times when simply saying “Add to Cart” on the button works just fine. But this is the case only with very simple and…