{"id":84346,"date":"2017-09-26T09:50:42","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T16:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegood.com\/?post_type=insights&p=84346"},"modified":"2021-04-13T20:58:18","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T03:58:18","slug":"cro-best-practices","status":"publish","type":"insights","link":"https:\/\/thegood.com\/insights\/cro-best-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Your CRO Best Practices Aren\u2019t Working"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s a story we hear often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ages and personalities change, the products change, but the problem behind the scenes is constant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CMO is aware of the importance of a strong conversion rate optimization strategy, and the company is adhering to CRO best practices \u2013 yet conversions are dismal, and ROI is suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We get called in to help identify and correct the problem, and what we find is more often than not chases back to user experience and something that can make or break your marketing efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a fundamental mistake that\u2019s easy to make, but difficult to see and admit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story goes like this\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This thinking error can tank sales and turn ROI upside down<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A health products company hired a new editor for their blog. He was fresh out of college, ready to make his mark on the world, and as smart as they come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was great hope that this hip fireball would \u201cbreathe life into the blog\u201d and bring new energy and vision to the workplace. At least, that was the CMO\u2019s take on the situation. A few old-timers on staff could smell the disaster coming\u2026 and come, it did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blog visits and interactions soon fell off dramatically. The new editor was funny, a bit quirky, and politically correct\u2026 but even loyal fans of the company and the blog didn\u2019t like the change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason for the problem was obvious. It really should\u2019ve never happened\u2026 but it\u2019s something we see cropping up over and over again: the new editor not only had no empathy for the target audience \u2013 he was way off in his assessment of who the target audience even was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This company\u2019s bread and butter business came from successful middle-aged women, not from twenty-something college students. That meant that, even though the company prided itself on adherence to conversion rate optimization (CRO) best practices, results suffered because there was poor alignment with customer preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new guy couldn\u2019t accept that assessment. He insisted that his methods would not only keep the older crowd happy, but would usher in a new era of buyers from the younger generations\u2026 all he needed was time to make that turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, the company didn\u2019t allow him to continue down that path for long. They replaced the blog editor with someone who understood the target audience and could speak their language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though CRO best practices remained in place during the new editor\u2019s tenure, those practices couldn\u2019t stand up against the downturn in user experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once consumers again felt understood, blog-originated conversions began to climb.<\/p>\n\n\nCRO best practices will fail if not aligned to consumer desire. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n

Why CRO best practices sometimes don\u2019t work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The root of conversions is essentially consumer experience<\/a> optimization. The more personalized your messaging and features are to your target audience, the better the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your CRO best practices aren\u2019t working, it\u2019s because they don\u2019t align with your audience’s preferences. It\u2019s even possible to get the message right, but fail in the presentation.<\/p>\n\n\nIf your best practices aren\u2019t working, it\u2019s because they don\u2019t align with your audience's preferences. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n

For example, Levi Strauss and Co. created a \u201cHotness comes in all shapes and sizes\u201d campaign to let their women customers (average size jeans 14-16) know their clothing looked good on all body types, not just on those who typified the common image of \u201chotness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re our customer, so that makes you hot,\u201d is a probable summation of the desired subliminal message Levi\u2019s wanted to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Makes sense, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a classic miss, though, Levi\u2019s used models for the ads who didn\u2019t look like their target audience at all. There wasn\u2019t a size 16 in the bunch. All were classically pretty and relatively skinny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The public backlash from the project did succeed at helping promote Levi\u2019s, but not in the desired way. Many women felt Levi\u2019s didn\u2019t understand them at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"cro<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Where to find your target audience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Going back to our initial example \u2013 the new blog editor who failed to speak to the company\u2019s audience \u2013 don\u2019t miss an important nuance of that situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not that the young fireball tried to address a non-existent set of buyers. Twenty-something women can be an excellent customer base for the right brands and products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ditto for Levi\u2019s. Women who wear size 4-6 clothing exist, but they shouldn\u2019t be confused with the plus size audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cardinal rule of conversion rate optimization is to make sure you\u2019re optimizing to your audience, not to someone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\nMake sure you\u2019re optimizing to your audience, not to someone else\u2019s. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n

Move beyond best practices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Baseball teams hire pitchers, not quarterbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both can throw a ball, but the positions aren\u2019t interchangeable. Put a quarterback on the plate during a major league baseball game, and you\u2019re begging for defeat \u2013 even if that player adheres to best practices for throwing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To succeed at conversion rate optimization, you must certainly understand and apply CRO best practices \u2013 but you have to apply them in the right way, to the correct audience, at the best time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Move beyond best practices, study your consumers in depth, then test changes that will improve the experience for the consumers you most need to reach.<\/p>\n\n\nMove beyond best practices, study your consumers in depth, then test changes. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t worry about the others. Don\u2019t try to market to everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Know your people, and focus on speaking directly to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking for help moving beyond best practices to providing an online consumer experience tailored for your customers? Schedule an intro call with The Good today, and we\u2019ll show you three areas your site isn\u2019t connecting with your audience within 15 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n