More 2 Marketing

More to marketing. Welcome to more 2 marketing, the podcast on marketing and product and everything business. I’m your host, Susan, and today we’ve got a topic about. Something that I think is a bit special and I do love and I think people do this wrong or they don’t do it necessarily right. But it’s all about a B testing. And how it is indispensable. In today’s very hyper competitive environment, data is king. Data is gold, data is what you need to make informed decisions. Every decision, every tweak and every strategy needs to be backed by tangible evidence or it should there in most cases. But why? Because businesses crave growth. And they need to captivate their audience effectively. And this is where effective AB testing a robust methodology that empowers organisations to make informed decisions. Is driven by real user insights. Now we’re going to explore a bit of the intricacies of AB testing to give you a bit of a comprehensive guide to how to optimise campaigns, refining user experiences and driving conversions through data driven experimentation. So whether you’re a marketer, product manager or just curious about how businesses make their decisions, that’s to mystify AB testing and uncover the secret source about this data driven success. So AV testing, also known as split testing, is a research technique that involves comparing 2 variations of an element to determine which one performs better. Imagine presenting different versions of a web page or an email, or even an app feature. To similarly user segments simultaneously. By doing so, businesses can gauge the effectiveness of each variation and make data back decisions to enhance their offerings. But did you know that the roots of AB testing actually go back to the 1920s? It was pioneered by statistician Ronald Fisher, and he laid the foundation for randomised controlled experiments. Now it was initially done for agricultural trials, but it evolved over years, been used in clinical studies, direct marketing campaigns and eventually now it’s used quite a lot in the digital world and it’s one of the biggest foundations for modern product marketing. AB testing, when done right, can be a game changer to product marketing. But how? So First off, maximising the value of existing traffic. Attracting visitors is only half of your battle. The real challenge lies in the conversion of those visitors into law. Customers or subscribers. AB testing allows businesses to refine their offerings. Ensure every user interaction resonates with their target audience thereby, thereby, they are now increasing the likelihood of conversions. Reducing bounce rate and fostering engagement. Now, first impressions do matter when people land on a website, AB testing and powers businesses to captivate visitors from the moment they land on a page or open it up. By experimenting with different elements such as the layout navigation. Content presentation in all these different pieces that you have on your site. Images even businesses can identify them. Most engaging experiences reducing that rate, bounce rates and encouraging users to stick around longer. And This is why I love tools like Google Analytics because they help you see this along the funnel. Enhancing sales and revenue strengths. Revenue is how businesses survive. You need it as a lifeblood. AB testing allows companies to use data driven approaches to refine their marketing campaigns. Optimise the conversion funnels and tailoring product offerings to the targeted audience that they prefer, ultimately boosting sales and revenue. So that means you don’t have to offer it to everyone. You can actually tailor it to certain people coming in based on the data. Gathering and valuable audience insights beyond immediate performance improvements, AB testing provides a wealth of insights into actual user behaviour and preferences. Analysing experiment results helps businesses develop a deeper understanding of their audience. Informing future product decisions and development marketing strategies and also how to improve the user experience and all the enhancements that go along. Yeah. So now that we’ve had a bit of a chat about establishing the power of AB testing that see about some of the different variations and methodologies that can expand it beyond just the basic AB split test. The first one is multivariate testing, also with the the abbreviation MVT. Multi variant testing takes AB testing a step further by evaluating multiple variables and their combinations simultaneously. This approach helps businesses identify the optimal configuration of elements such as, say, headlines, images, and call to action buttons. To maximise desired outcomes. Another one is multi page testing. Multi page testing involves evaluating variations across multiple pages within a user journey. It’s particularly useful when you need to test small adjustments that must be consistent across various pages, ensuring a seamless user experience. Another one is fake door testing. Fake door testing is a clever way to gauge interest in a potential feature or product before investing resources in its development. By presenting a simulated version of the feature to users and tracking their attentions. Businesses can validate demand and make informed decisions about their product road map. So let’s talk about some of the elements now to test for AB testing. When you’re doing the experimentation in the digital landscape, there’s a whole pile of different opportunities here, and these aren’t limited. These are just a few different examples to help you on your Rd. The first one is, of course, headlines and sublines. And subject lines. Test different styles, word choices, and the messaging to find the most captivating headlines for your content and also your email campaigns. Call to actions ctas. Experiment with various different copy placements, design and formatting to optimise your call to actions. For higher click rates and conversions. It could even be discolours. Layout navigation. A seamless user experience is critical. Test different layout configurations, navigation structures and also content that you’ve organised for the pages. See what Google Analytics is telling you. Do you need all those pages? Can you reduce them? See what works and how it can help. Social proof and credibility indicators so. Many, many times, people like to actually hear what people think out there. Product reviews are huge testimonials, so have them and place them and test them and see what happens when you put their placement and the presentation of these elements. Like testimonies and reviews on different parts of your site. Trying to build. Trust and drive conversions here and see what happens when you start adding these indicators in there. And the last one we’ll talk about here is the visual elements in media. So evaluate the impact of different visual assets, ensuring that the content resonates with your target audience and enhances their user experience. Images, videos or these can make a big difference when done right. Now conducting an effective AB test requires a structured approach, so here’s a step by step. Guide to help you. So one identify improvement opportunities use data analytic tools, use feedback and industry benchmarks to pinpoint underperforming areas in your digital ecosystem. Now that you have identified them #2 formulate some hypotheses. Outlined and clear hypothesis that predicts the expected outcome of an experiment. This guides the testing process and helps to interpret the results. Three define success measures. It’s always important to have established performance indicators that KPIs. That will align with your business objectives, such as click through rates, conversion rates or user engagement rates metrics. Whatever it is, 4 create test variations. So develop those distinct variations that address the identified area of improvement or maintaining a consistent user experience across the other elements. 5 segment and randomise these user groups. So segment your user base and randomly assign them to different test groups to ensure unbiased results. Six the fun part. Run your AB test. Implement the test using specialised testing tools or a platform and monitor its progress. 7 analyse and interpret the results. Once the test concludes, analyse the data to determine which variation performs better based on your success metrics. 8 implement and iterate. And if a variation outcomes outperforms the control. Implement the changes, but remember optimization is an ongoing process. You need to continue to test and iterate. Now there are whole pile of tools to use to make or break your AB testing efforts. Here are a few popular AB testing tools out there at the moment for you to consider. Now these lists all. Change so check them out and also do some searching yourself, but you’ve got user pilot product growth platform with powerful AB testing capabilities, offering user friendly interfaces and data analytics. Omni convert. Tailored for E commerce, this tool really does excel in AB testing, segmentation and website personalization with a robust, robust cross device testing and debugging. Sure. Hot jar one. I’ve heard a lot of while not particularly and primarily in AB testing tool hot jars, qualitative insights like session recordings and heat mapping can complement your AB testing efforts by revealing the why behind the user behaviour. Now the spines power AB testing does come with challenges, so let’s talk about those so that you know what to look forward to overcome. So one of the first ones is always going to be insufficient sample sizes. To ensure that your sample sizes are statistically significant to involve to avoid those false positives and also inaccurate conclusions. The novelty effect focus on first time visitors or implementing measures to minimise the impact of novelty of your results. You’ve got to make sure you watch out for that, because sometimes those first time people aren’t the people that you generally want. They’re all the time, know your audience. Another is the external factors account for potential external factors such as holidays or global events that may influence user behaviour during your test period. Analysis paralysis. Establish those key objectives, prioritise KPIs and develop a structured approach to data to avoid getting overwhelmed by data. Now when you have your data, there are all you’re about to go through and actually set your papers. I should say you need to have some measuring. Measurements for success. It is critical some of the main ones you could consider AB testing are conversion rates. They’re directly tied to business objectives like sales or sign UPS. Click through rates. Relevant for testing users engagement on elements. Bounce rates useful for evaluating the effectiveness of elements related to the user engagement and retention. Time on page or session duration. Now this is an interesting one depending on what you do, but it indicates your users engagement levels. Another one is is definitely going to be your revenue and sales metrics like come on, it’s crucial, particularly if you’re in commerce and your versus scription based model or you’re selling things. By tracking these metrics, businesses can gain a comprehensive understanding of their AB testing efforts and make informed decisions to drive growth. Now. As we look to the future of AB testing. Every tasting is set to evolve with emerging trends and best practises, so I want to give you guys a bit of a keep your eye out, watch on these just to see how they may impact your AB testing now and into the future. So the first one is personalization and segmentation, so tailoring content and user journeys to specific audience segments will become increasingly important. AI, artificial intelligence and machine learning, they’re posing revolutionised changes to AB testing, automating test designs, identifying optimal variations and excelling decision making. So they’re very powerful tools. But you need to have the right data in. Them to make them meaningful. Continuous experimentation and agile methodologies. Embracing a a culture of continuous testing and iterative improvements is essential for staying competitive. Lastly, in this list, to keep out an eye out for is privacy and data governance. They’re changing in all different countries all the time, prioritising responsible data practises within AB testing initiatives would be crucial for maintaining user trust and compliance with regulations. I hope you’ve gotten something out of AB testing and what it involves. It’s not just a simple set and forget. You really need to understand your why and then have the tools to be able to get the data out of it when you’re doing all these changes to see what is working, you’ll continually need to go back. And see the data. See the user behaviour and change and iterate continuously. Nothing stays the same forever. That’s where AV testing can help you identify a missed opportunities. Thank you for listening to this podcast from more 2 Marketing. Don’t forget to like and follow to hear more podcasts. More to marketing.