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Part II in this series covered the importance of the roles of testing and modification in the development of successful conversion optimization. Now we will attempt to make sense of what we convert.

Step 7: Measure

SEO Moves - Max Return on InvestmentI remember a very energetic web guy back in the dot.com glory days who pitched us on his money-making system with the declaration, “He who has the most data wins!”

I must admit, I thought that was pretty cool and used it myself a time or two to impress people. But experience has shown me that quality data is really the key, because today we can measure things to the point of becoming overwhelmed.

Metrics are everywhere. Just watch a sports show on TV and you’ll see how every aspect of player performance has some sort of statistic. And if you have ever witnessed a presentation of data in a meeting you have probably also witnessed eyes glazing over and slow little pools of dribble accumulating out of the mouths of those present. Try and avoid that.

Quality data starts with the basics first:

  • Who – as much as we can easily collect by name and contact info
  • What – was it a red squeegee or an SEO scorecard request?
  • When – because at some point, we’ll need to know if the weekends are an active time period for us or not.
  • Where – Why in the heck are we getting so many sales out of Kentucky?
  • How Much – our average sales are below $2.00 – the merchant fees alone are killing us!
  • How Many – we took in 10 case forms yesterday, more than we did during all of last week. Why?

Once you have these core metrics you can compare them based on historical data over time and then you’ve got half the battle won already. But there is more to know. And the more you immerse yourself in simple data, the easier it becomes to start to peel out more granular information that turns into actionable data, such as:

  • The day of the week to send emails based upon highest open rates
  • Testing a new form with modified fields, resulting in a 40% increase in forms received, when previously two out of every three forms were abandoned
  • Determining sticky (or confusing) landing pages to increase average minutes per visit

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