Trade up from cube to corner office - OpenText TeamSite Optimost
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http://engage.opentext.com/products/optimost
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WhichTestWon.com
This guide was collaboratively developed by OpenText Optimost1
and WhichTestWon2
OpenText Optimost is a comprehensive web testing, targeting, and personalization software
solution that enables marketers to deliver engaging, profitable websites and campaigns.
Optimost includes self-service capabilities as well as professional consulting to help you test
confidently when the stakes and complexity are highest, immediately when speed is of the
essence, and accurately so you can match the right content to the right customer.
With guidance and tools from Optimost, you can build long-term success and take your testing
programs from invisible to invincible. Optimost has partnered with property and casualty, life,
and health insurers worldwide.
WhichTestWon (WTW) is the dedicated A/B testing and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
resource that reports on the latest in testing trends and techniques. WTW produces the popular
Test of the Week, where testers guess which test version they think won, and are then shown
the real life results. WTW also produces testing and CRO-related interviews, awards, and popular
conferences.
3. Contents
Introduction ///
Become more strategically relevant
to your organization
Organizational roadblocks to centralized CRO ///
Testing & CRO limitations
The biggest testing hurdles
Get yourself on track
Office politics
Revamp office culture through testing
Test in line with industry regulations
Overcome organizational challenges
Change the culture: Planning ///
Define your testing roadmap
Create a testing roadmap timeline
Build a testing roadmap
Build flexibility into your testing plan
Additional roadmap design considerations
Develop a roadmap with limited resources
Change the culture: Prioritization ///
The dangers of RATs
Prioritization system
How does prioritization help you?
Push back the HiPPO
Change the culture: Build smart hypotheses ///
Hypothesis building in your industry
Change the culture: Continuous optimization ///
Continuous optimization checklist
Key to the C-suite: Tie CRO to business KPIs ///
What Are KPIs?
Common KPIs
KPIs beyond website visitors
Use KPIs that matter to management
Conclusion ///
How do you know when you’re there?
Get in touch
4. Optimost.com Trade Up: From Cube to Corner Office
Do you feel like you’re slaving away, trying to boost your
company’s website conversion rates with little sustained
success?
Are you meeting stiff resistance before you can even express
or implement your ideas? Or perhaps you see the impact you’re
making, but wonder why you’re not climbing the ranks?
If this situation sounds familiar, you’re not alone.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is such a simple idea
and a powerful marketing strategy. But those who aren’t
familiar with it—and haven’t seen its full potential—scarcely
believe it when optimization experts, like you, promise happier
customers and millions in higher revenue.
We know you know there’s a better way. And, that’s why
we’ve produced this guide. It shows you how to make your
organization as clear-eyed about CRO as you are.
By showing you how to deliver on the promise of CRO, this
guide will help you be more persuasive, more relevant, more
sought after, and more successful in your organization.
5. Optimost.com Trade Up: From Cube to Corner Office
We developed this guide based on proven success working with hundreds of enterprise customers across
many industries. We’ve helped them achieve annual revenue uplift—from tens of millions of dollars to
hundreds of millions of dollars—all through optimization.
B U T H O W D O Y O U G E T T H E R E ?
This how-to guide provides practical advice, expert strategies, and step-by-step instructions to help
you overcome obstacles and help your organization accelerate success. You’ll also set yourself up as a
more a persuasive, relevant, and successful CRO expert, tester, and digital marketer.
So, if you feel stuck in your cube and want to move to that corner office, read on to empower yourself
and move to the next level.
Let’s get started!
These companies share common traits. They’ve all:
> Built a dedicated team.
> Invested in learning and codifying best practices.
> Recruited executive champions.
> Tested before every feature release.
> Put customers at the center of their decision-making process by making sure
testing and optimization are at the heart of their digital experience development.
6. Optimost.com Trade Up: From Cube to Corner Office
B E C O M E M O R E S T R AT E G I C A L LY R E L E V A N T TO Y O U O R G A N I Z AT I O N
To get ahead, you need to make testing and CRO more central to your organization.
Overcome organizational challenges
by building consensus: Agree with your
colleagues on what defines success, and
stress how testing can achieve success
for every department throughout the
organization.
Align internal business objectives and
get stakeholders involved in the CRO
process: Plan and prioritize what to test,
develop smart hypotheses, and continually
optimize your hypotheses to build a record
of repeat successes.
Communicate the value of CRO
and testing: Spread the word about
your testing initiatives, and develop
team-building activities that engage
stakeholders to help them understand
the value of testing.
Speak management’s language by using
the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
they respond to: Tap into the metrics
that matter most to management; then
communicate the value CRO delivers
using their terms.
BROADLY SPEAKING, HERE’S HOW:
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Now let’s go through each of these steps in more depth.
7. Optimost.com Trade Up: From Cube to Corner Office
T E S T I N G & C R O L I M I TAT I O N S
Testing and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) requires a lot of time, money, and effort.
Many companies aren’t convinced it’s worth allocating significant resources to testing or CRO.
Does this sound like a belief held in your organization? If you’re having a hard time convincing
management about the value of testing, you’re not alone.
We’ve worked with many testing experts in your shoes and helped them change the game at
their organizations, so take heart and read on!
8. Optimost.com Trade Up: From Cube to Corner Office
T H E B I G G E S T T E S T I N G H U R D L E S
In 2015, WhichTestWon’s State Of Online Testing Report found the biggest hurdles stopping companies
from testing more included:
1 Inadequate time, funding, and staff
2 Limited testing knowledge
3 Limited traffic
Let’s look more at all
of these constraints
and explore ways to
overcome them.
9. Optimost.com Trade Up: From Cube to Corner Office
O F F I C E P O L I T I C S
Beyond budget, time, resources, and knowledge, culture
is one of the biggest challenges likely holding back many
organizations from maximizing the value of their testing
and optimization efforts.
In fact, office politics is probably the biggest conversion
killer out there! Case in point: the HiPPO
(Highest Paid Person’s Opinion). The HiPPO might
single-handedly be accountable for squeezing the life
out of your CRO efforts.
Your HiPPO may be responsible for the death of more
meaningful tests each year than all other corporate
roles combined.
10. Optimost.com Trade Up: From Cube to Corner Office 23
Deflate the HiPPO
Everyone talks about “the elephant in the room,” but the
HiPPO often doesn’t get the mention they deserve. And
that’s too bad, because the HiPPO needs to be addressed—
and deflated.
HiPPOs are problematic when they base decisions on
conjecture instead of data. It’s like a wild card. Their opinions
may make perfect sense, or they may be totally out in left
field. Either way, their suggestions may not actually be best
for the business or your customers.
In reality, your users may feel or act much differently.
And, that’s what matters most!
To maximize profits, your site needs to reflect what
works best for your customers. But, you can’t know
what that is if you aren’t testing.
If your HiPPO is (ironically) pig headed, you might find
yourself in a tricky position. You’ll need to rein in their
unfounded ideas, while still getting their support for
CRO and testing resources.
If this seems an impossible task, the good news is, it’s
not. It’s actually quite simple. You just need to use a
data-driven testing approach.
My wife was on the website last
night and found the navigation
confusing. We should fix this.
An actual HiPPO quote
“
”
11. Optimost.com Trade Up: From Cube to Corner Office 24
Data-driven testing approach
To tame the HiPPO, data is your best weapon. Use data,
not anecdotes, to drive decisions.
That means testing, measuring, and analyzing every
step of the conversion funnel on your website. Any site
changes should be made because you have quantitative
proof that they will improve the outcome you’re driving.
That said, if your HiPPO remains adamant their opinion
is right, co-opt them through data-driven testing.
Incorporate your HiPPO’s suggestions into your test
planning and prioritization. It’s a great strategy to help
you get ahead, because it helps show your HiPPO you
value their ideas. Doing so is important to garner their
support. Also, planning and prioritizing helps you bring
order to the chaos and decide what to test first.
Senior management will love you if they see that
you’re not only doing the work right, but doing the
right work. When you do both, your HiPPO can show
he or she is delivering more overall value to the
company. And, in turn, your work will be deemed more
valuable.
As the CRO owner, you probably already have much
more detailed data than your HiPPO. So, you can easily
use it to your advantage to fuel your CRO/testing
agenda.
Do the work right,
and the right work
12. Anticipate roadblocks your CRO program might hit, before they arrive.
Get step-by-step guidance to overcome them and change your organization’s culture
through better planning, prioritization, and more.
Learn how to get your executives to listen, love, and lavish resources on you and your
team.
No!
We never mention p-values, t-stats, two-tailed tests, or confidence levels (well, ok, we
do mention confidence levels once, in a footnote. We couldn’t resist).
This guide is NOT about how to run a test or interpret its results (though we have a great
deal to offer on that score, if you’re interested). It’s about how to make better decisions
about where to test, what to test, and get the most resources, skills, buy-in, and attention
for your conversion rate optimization program.
It’s a step-by-step guide to make you a superstar!
Is this yet another guide to optimization?
Thanks for reading the preview!
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or go tohttp://tiny.cctrade-up