I have been working with a client for several months now.
We started right as they were re-doing their website, but my coaching was focused on their business and strategy, not their site or its design.
Nevertheless, I did get a chance to see their new site design and there were several things I liked about it.
I was sure it would perform better than their older version.
But there was one thing I didn't like. I'm not talking about “didn't like” as in a personal preference.
I'm talking about one issue that I felt would hinder their conversion.
It was the hero image at the top of the home page. It was wrong. It was distracting. It didn't help convert their target audience.
I had a ridiculously simple way to fix their issue.
When I told my client about the issue, it was clear that he also wasn't sure that hero image was helpful.
But he wasn't sure what the right image would be.
And while the two of us brainstormed a bit, my final answer was that he'd need to test a few options.
And that's when I introduced my super simple, crazy simple, did I mention how simple it was, approach to testing the options.
Nothing happened. Not one thing.
You know how you can share some brilliant insight and still not see it have its proper impact?
Yeah, this was one of those times. He said he would tackle it. He said he was on it.
But in reality, he was worried about figuring out how to test and capture a variety of changes.
So he didn't move on the issue. For weeks. And then for months.
One day he decided to try this ridiculously simple approach.
I gotta give him credit. One day he decided not to let the fear of failure hold him back.
He tried what I had suggested.
And immediately contacted me to tell me how magically simple, and amazing, my suggestion had been.
His site's greater results made us both very happy!
If you've never heard of split testing, then you should pay close attention.
See, the issue was that the site had a hero image that wasn't going to help it convert customers – at least in my professional opinion.
But with a split test, you could replace the image with another, or many others, and see how they each performed (in terms of conversions).
That's what my client did.
And he didn't need to code a single thing. He didn't need to worry about plugins, themes, or anything else.
You should check out Optimizely too!
What he did was sign up with an account at Optimizely, the leaders of split testing.
Without any contracts, on a month to month basis, you can sign up for as little as $19.
But what makes this so ridiculously easy, is that once you set up your account, you can click on any element of your site and change it to create an alternative to test.
Any element can be changed – from a word, a phrase, a color of a font, or a background image.
And none of it requires you to make any changes back with your existing theme or plugins.
The Result
In terms of ease, Optimizely says it best,
A visual point and click editor offers a full range of customization, right at your fingertips. Edit text, images, colors, arrangement, and much more with the click of a mouse and instantly launch your new looks.
You don't need to code a thing!
But ease of use is only one part of the equation. After all, what matters is the real insights that come from the split tests.
In the case of my client, he saw a double digit difference in performance between the old hero and a new hero image he tried.
A double digit difference in sign-ups. That's money in the bank right there.
Check out these results as well – a 40% increase!
So my only question to you is this: what stops you from optimizing your site to deliver better results?