11 Essential marketing questions you should be
asking for your business

Agenda
What we’ll cover
▪ Why start with questions to ask for your business?
▪ 11 questions to ask - and how to find the answers
▪ How to find the right questions for your business
Bonus: Giveaways from ExperimentZone.com

Intro to AJ Davis
Founder, Experiment Zone
AJ loves helping brands improve their conversion rates
by improving customer experiences.
Expertise:
- Finding user experience issues & solving them
- Identifying small and large changes that improve
conversion rates
- User research, analytics, and conversion rate
optimization
Reach me
aj@experimentzone.com
LinkedIn

Why questions?
3 Reasons
(1) Learn things. And know what you aim to
learn ahead of time.
(2) Avoid aimless data collection.
(3) Insights provide value - and lead to
action.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
What is it?
Process for improving the customer experience, so visitors
ultimately convert (take a desired action).
This might include:
▪ More people ordering on the site
▪ Increase of visitors filling out a form or submitting a lead
▪ More email sign ups
With existing traffic, you get more visitors to take the action.

CRO Process
Balancing act
We power good decision making with a balance of
qualitative and quantitative insights.

Q0: What are the business goals & objectives?
Why? All good businesses are built with goals in mind.
The questions only apply if they help achieve goals.

Q1: Who are my customers, really?
Why? Build empathy and grow connection.
Speak to your customers, their needs, and their pain points.

Question 1
Your Audience
How? Interviews, Surveys & Analytics
▪ Identify what is important to customers
▪ Learn about common attributes and behaviors in your
niche audience
▪ Uncover related interests and needs that your
audience may have
Example Insight:
Our niche audience cares about health and adventure.
They often travel & prioritize exercise and clean eating.

Q2: Where are the leaks in my funnel?
Why? You need to focus your attention on the biggest leaks first.

Question 2
Your Funnel
How? Analytics & behavioral data
▪ Identify where visitors first interact with your
business
▪ Understand where they leave your site along the
customer journey
Example Insight:
After landing on our site, visitors are most likely to leave
from a collections page.

Q3: Do visitors understand what
the business is - on first impression?
Why? First impressions make a big impact.
And visitors are easily distracted.

Question 3
First Impression Testing
How? First Impression Testing
▪ Find out what visitors notice first
▪ Understand the emotions evoked by the first
moments of seeing your brand and site
Example Insight:
Visitors get that we sell children’s apparel, but they
didn’t understand that we use organic fabrics.

Q4: Why do visitors leave after finding
a product or service?
Why? Visitors have taken action on your site but leave.
Find out what’s missing or getting in their way.

Question 4
Cart Abandonment
How? Exit Intent Surveys
▪ Find out the reasons people are abandoning your
site - in the moment they are leaving.
▫ Are they leaving for a promo code?
▫ To find an answer about shipping?
Example Insight:
40% of visitors said they were leaving to find a discount
code, so we may want to make it easier to use our
promo codes.

Q5: Are visitors having a difficult time finding
things in the navigation?
Why? Visitors need to be able to easily identify
where they want to go on the site.

Question 5
Navigation
How? Tree Testing
▪ Find the top areas of confusion in the
navigation
▪ Understand where people get lost
▪ Evaluate the findability of products & topics
on your website.
Example Insight:
Visitors can easily find our core products (shoes)
but struggle to find accessories (socks, shoelaces).

Q6: Are there major friction points
killing conversions?
Why? Find out if there are things preventing people
from becoming customers. Revenue opportunities.

Q7: Where are these friction points?
Why? Knowing where people are getting stuck helps prioritizing on
problems that matter to conversion.

Q8: Why are there these friction points?
Why? Knowing why these are problems makes it easier to move to a
solution that will work.

Questions 6+7+8
Pain points
How? Analytics, Click Tracking & Usability testing
▪ Uncover where visitors are dropping off in your sales funnel (page-to-page)
▪ See if visitors interact with key pieces of information & CTAs
▪ Find top points of friction across your customer journey
Example Insight:
Visitors mostly drop off on the product detail page.
Visitors didn’t scroll far enough down the PDP to see the product video.
Participants are confused about how the product works until they see the video.

Questions 6+7+8
Pain points
Usability Testing & Surveys
Analytics Platforms Click tracking Tools

Q9: What improvements should I make (first)
to our site?
Why? Prioritize your efforts to improve conversion. Focus on low
hanging fruit & iterating.

Q10: Did this change work (and improve
conversion)?
Why? Have a plan to learn from these changes,
instead of hoping they work.

Q11: How much did this change
improve things?
Why? Sizing the impact can - and should - help refocus
on the highest impact improvements.

Questions 9+10+11
Solutions
How? Test Prioritization & A/B Testing
▪ Prioritize tests that are low effort, on brand, and in high impact
areas.
▪ Design a test plan before testing and measure afterward.
Example Insight:
Visitors converted at a higher rate when we showed product
swatches on the collections pages.

Questions 9+10+11
Solutions
AB Testing and Personalization Platforms

11 Questions
To ask about your business
0. What are the business goals & objectives?
1. Who are my customers, really?
2. Where are the leaks in my funnel?
3. Do visitors understand what the business
is on first impression?
4. Why do visitors leave after finding a product
or service?
5. Are visitors having a difficult time finding
things in the navigation?
6. Are there major friction points killing
conversions?
7. Where are these friction points?
8. Why are there these friction points?
9. What improvements should I make
(first) to our site?
10. Did this change work & improve
conversion?
11. How much did the change improve
things?

Next Steps
Visit Us
Need help answering any of these questions?
▪ Find us at ExperimentZone.com
▪ Get conversion fixes customized to your site with our FREE
Conversion Report Card.