1. A test was conducted on Sermo's physician-only social network website to determine if changing the barrier page design could increase lead rates for returning visitors. 2. The test involved splitting visitors randomly to either see the original single-article barrier page or a new treatment page showing headlines and dates of multiple recent articles. 3. The results showed that the treatment page featuring multiple articles increased second visit lead capture rates by 197% compared to the original single-article page.

1. Sermo Barrier Page Test
TP1483

2. Background: The only physician’s-only social network, Sermo.
Goal: To increase lead rate.
Primary research question: Which barrier page will result in a higher lead rate
for returning visitors?
Approach: A/B variable cluster split test
Experiment ID: Sermo Barrier Page Test
Location: MECLABS Research Library
Test Protocol Number: TP1483
Research Notes:

Experiment: Background

3. • Each article page
focused on one specific
piece of research
performed with Sermo’s
platform.
• To see the details of the
research, prospects
would enter their
information into a modal
box lead form.
Article Page
Experiment: Background
Study Summary (email)

4. 0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
40.00%
45.00%
50.00%
Conversion Rate
There is approximately a 30%
variation in conversion rate from
the highest to lowest performing
articles.
Article #1 Article #2 Article #3 Article #4 Article #5
Experiment: Background

5. From Observation to
Hypothesis:
• The wide variance in
conversion rates indicated
that some articles were far
more relevant than others.
• Thus, the team
hypothesized that the
customer needs to be
presented more
opportunities to discover
relevance.
Original Page
Experiment: Control

6. Treatment • The team reduced the
amount of real-estate
dedicated to the current
article.
• Eliminated post statistics
while still keeping the
primary content.
• And then listed newsworthy
headlines and publish dates
of the most recent Sermo
surveys in the primary
column.
Experiment: Treatment

7. Original Page Treatment
One
specific
article
Multiple
articles
Experiment: Side-by-side

8. Experiment: Results
Design Lead Gen Rate % Rel. Change
Single Article 18.2% -
Multi-Article 54.1% 197.3%
197%
The treatment template increased 2nd visit lead capture by 197.3%
!
What You Need to Understand: By giving the rented list more content options,
Sermo was able to increase second visit email captures by 197%.
Relative Increase in 2nd Visit Email Captures

9. Sermo Barrier Page Test
TP1483