In The Wizard of Oz, the people living in Oz have never actually seen the Wizard. Yet he affects everything about how the city is run. Minus the Wizard, Oz would be a colorless town, not a destination that transforms lives.
Optimization is like Oz. It’s a high ROI item with a definite, measurable return. You don’t see it, but without it, your customer funnels will decline over time because you’ll have no compelling competitive advantage: content, design and flow that stamp your website as unique, just like your product or service.
Yet, unless and until optimization becomes a line item in your budget, you’ll have to “find” the funds for it. We suggest adding optimization as a line item now, before you need the Wizard’s help!
The case for optimization?
- An enduring increase in revenues and profits. If for some reason you later stop optimizing, the benefits will continue to accrue since the optimization cycle is already in place.
- Significant lift from relatively simple tests. What kinds of marketing activities would you launch to generate ten percent more sales? Optimization is the easiest way to grow there.
- Streamlined site management. Often “everyone” in the company thinks they have the best ideas for the website. Optimization allows you to prove them right or wrong and end the debating. Groupthink is how carousels often end up on home pages — and we’ve never seen one win an A/B test!
- Increased customer satisfaction. Since successful optimization is all about helping people get value from your company more easily, investing in optimization means happier customers who perceive and receive greater value.
- Optimization costs no more than a moderate ad agency, yet delivers a far greater return.
- If you’re spending money acquiring customers using paid internet advertising such as AdWords, increasing your conversion rate increases the effectiveness of that spend, thereby accelerating the growth of your business. A 20% increase in conversions means you can increase your bids 20% and still maintain ROI. We’ve seen as much as an 80% reduction in the cost to acquire paid customers at Cro Metrics.
When does optimization NOT make sense?
- If your revenues are so low that you really need to double or triple them for the possibility of any effort to be worthwhile;
- If you’ve just launched your company and the business model is still uncertain;
- If you have few sales or conversions. In this case, it’s impossible to get statistical significance on a given test.
It’s time to follow the Yellow Brick Road to enhance your business, using the power of compounding. Cro Metrics‘ goal is data-driven success, created behind the curtain with proven optimization techniques.