3 Steps To Improving Your Online Performance

How-Do Conference Speeding Up In The Slowdown “3 steps to improving your online performance” by Paul Rouke User Experience Director at PRWD Web: www.prwd.co.uk Blog: www.paulrouke.co.uk 4th June 2009 @ Liverpool Science Park

My background Joined 1st e-commerce team in 1999 in design and usability role 7 years experience focused on: – improving conversion rates – increasing average order values – improving number of returning visitors – converting offline shoppers to online shoppers

Where I work A few clients we work with directly A few clients we work with through agency partners Improve performance of existing websites and applications Design and build high performing websites/systems/applications

How I help businesses Website Evaluations Benchmarking Analytics & Testing Training

What areas can businesses expect to improve? online sales online enquiries return-on-investment marketing spend conversion revenue-per-employee

Understanding visitors Measuring performance Testing & improving

What is gorilla user testing? Cheap Enlightening More natural environment Delivers actionable results

How to do gorilla user testing

Specify key objectives (with a story)

Choose at least 5 people to take part

Tell them a story

Watch, listen and make notes

Collate, prioritise and plan changes

How do you give your visitors what they want?

Understanding Visitors – A case study “Receiving and Converting More Sales Leads From Online Enquiry Forms”

Key Principles

Keep them simple

Only ask for the minimum info required

People are busy, they don’t have time for big forms

Online enquiry forms

Which form will visitors most use?

Which form do visitors most use? 14% 86%

How well do these enquiries convert into sales?

How well do these enquiries convert into sales? 17%

How well do these enquiries convert into sales? 17% 55%

Use basic user testing to better understand how visitors use your website Understanding visitors

Step 1 - Analytics A couple of options include...

Step 2 – Plan resource

Who has analytics installed on their website? Keep your hand raised if you use the data to make informed changes

Step 3 – Determine key goals Online enquiry Download a document Application Subscription Purchase

Step 4 – Segment your traffic

Step 5 – Specify key journeys

Step 6 – Invest time and resource One of my favorite quotes from Avinash Kaushik is his “10/90″ rule, which says: “for sites with $100k to spend on analytics, they should invest $10k in software and invest $90k in great staff.” http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/

Use analytics and segment your traffic to identify where key potential customers struggle to complete their objectives Measuring performance

Testing - What Test variations of different page elements Page components Page layout Placement of specific items Call to action - graphics or messages Links - design, colour, size Copy text Headings/sub headings Buttons - design, colour, size Forms Field layout on forms Number of items on a form Number of steps within a multi-step process Retailers Product page layout Cross-sell or up-sell modules Photo quality Use of reviews Use of videos Product pricing Special offers or promotions

Testing - Why

Testing - How List of software and vendors courtesy of Craig Sullivan

Who has carried out split testing on their site? Keep your hand raised if it proved worthwhile

Testing and improving – A case study “Test location of enquiry form to determine which version visitors prefer”

Stage 1 – Decide what to test

Stage 2 – Run the test

Stage 3 – Examine results

Stage 4 – Implement

Stage 5 – Go back to stage 1 Why? Testing isn’t just a one-off activity that will transform your website performance – it needs to be carried out continuously

Don’t ignore the full customer journey

Use split testing to make highly informed, continual improvements to your online platforms Testing & Improving

Understanding visitors Measuring performance Testing & improving Watch 5 people use your website and identify where it can be improved Set up 1 visitor journey, segment your traffic, then watch how many drop out. Then decide if your website can perform better Carry out 1 split test then decide for yourself if its worth it

Thankyou for listening to “3 steps to improving your online performance” by Paul Rouke Office: 0161 918 6729 Mobile: 07739 745 126 Web: www.prwd.co.uk Blog: www.paulrouke.co.uk Email: [email_address]

Any questions...?