2 Ways to Look at Website Testing (and which is more effective)
I have found that teams generally view conversion and A/B testing in one of two ways:
Al-a-Carte testing: During the process of product development, or at a time when numbers are sluggish and they need to move, there are differing opinions about how to engage users the best, so teams run a quick test or three to identify the optimal version of a single point of contact: a CTA, a lead magnet, a marketing campaign, an email. AKA: You’ve reached a fork in the road, and you test to determine which direction leads to your goal.
Body-building testing: A team or team members uses the scientific method to continually test and iterate to shape your product over time and maximize growth potential.
Guess which one yields better results over time?
It seems obvious when it’s explained like that, yet so few companies actually do it that way. So let’s review the foundation of the body-building model.
The more aggressive your goals, the more holistic your approach needs to be.
A Holistic Approach
Weight loss and body-building are holistic, continuous, iterative processes that require work in nutrition, macronutrient management, water consumption, weight lifting, cardio, mineral management, sleep hygiene, environmental cues and triggers, habit formation and eradication… the list goes on, and each element is unique to each person. If you just cut out sugar or start walking four times a week, you’ll have some success, but you’re not going to go head to head against Mr. Universe. The more aggressive your goals, the more holistic your approach needs to be. It’s not just one thing that gets you to your goal, it’s all of them working together.
The same can be said of achieving a goal for a website or app--it’s about marketing campaigns, SEO, landing pages, user journeys, audience profiles, site functionality, data hygiene, communication style, sales style, understanding market forces… the list goes on, and each element is specific to each business. So it makes sense to approach your testing program in the same holistic fashion that body builders view their journey: it’s a slow shaping process involving every aspect of a complex dynamic. Only systematic iteration in the form of a consistent, continuous testing and growth program can do that. Small, isolated tests here and there aren’t going to cut the mustard.
It’s a lifestyle, a way to approach every day and every decision, not something you can dabble in only when you feel motivated.
Consistency
During any weight loss or body building journey, you face setbacks and challenges: your body adapts, you plateau, there’s a birthday party and you stuff yourself with cake (no? Just me? Okay then). Your product’s environment is similarly dynamic and constantly shifting: the market, your audience, your competitive landscape, economic reality. Any fitness coach or trainer will tell you that there is one key above all that leads to achieving a goal: consistency. It’s a lifestyle, a way to approach every day and every decision, not something you can dabble in only when you feel motivated.
Growth is a Stand-Alone Discipline
None of us come into this world looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger--not even Arnold Schwarzenegger. Your product or website does not enter the world perfect, either--but it can achieve aggressive goals through applying the scientific method to shaping exercises. The consensus among product-forward businesses is that product growth needs to be its own discipline: a function of product management, but approached systematically and fed with enough resources to really make an impact. Some call it demand generation, some call it digital product growth, some just call it conversion optimization, or growth product manager or A/B tester. Whatever you call it, this role should be focused on one goal, and one goal only: growing one specific metric (at a time). I talk more about this in the newsletter, so sign up if you haven’t!
Viewing a comprehensive testing program as a waste of time and precious resources is an inaccurate viewpoint that masks the real fear: what to do if the data tells me to go a direction I don’t want to go in?
Think Big
Fork-in-the-road testing is thinking small--small investment, small tests, small risk, small results. One of the things that scares most small to medium businesses away from a comprehensive testing program is the illusion of wasting time and precious resources. But that’s an inaccurate viewpoint that masks the real fear: what to do if the data tells me to go a direction I don’t want to go in? The answer to that one is simple: if you want to reach those big goals, you go where the data points you. What you think and what you want are completely irrelevant if the data says otherwise, and this is a hard, high hurdle to jump for some teams.
Think of all the websites that use a body-building method of product growth: Amazon. Bookings.com. Netflix. Apple. Google. Indeed. LinkedIn. They didn’t start out as giants, they grew into them, and now they dominate. They had aggressive goals that I’m sure, at one point, someone told them were ridiculous. But they got there, and you should be as unrelentingly ambitious as they if you want to dominate your chosen field. And these companies all use this holistic, continuous method across all three aspects of their growth: traffic (marketing), conversion, and reporting.
