Harnessing Customer Motivation:How one company increased conversion by 65% by aligning page elements with customer desire
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Today’s speakers
Jon PowellSenior Manager, Executive Research & DevelopmentMECLABS Institute
Matthew KleinAssociate Vice President, Partner SolutionsMECLABS Institute
Ben FilipSenior Manager,Data SciencesMECLABS Institute
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Experiment: Background
Background: A national bank.
Goal: To increase the number of sign-ups for new checking accounts.
Research Question: Which sales funnel will produce the highest conversion?
Test Design: A/B variable cluster split test
*Note: Test has been anonymized to protect partner confidentiality.
Experiment ID: TP1548Record Location: MECLABS Research LibraryResearch Partner: (Protected)*
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Experiment: Background
For this test, the customer for both the Control and Treatments have arrived at the homepage of [BANK] and clicked on the “Open in Minutes” checking deep link.
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Checking selector tool
• Four-question checking selector tool
• Suggested package with secondary choice
• Can select account and begin pre-registration, go back and change their answers or manually browse other checking options
Experiment: Control
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Three-product tab
• The checking selector tool is removed, and instead, customers are presented with three account options from
which to select
Experiment: Treatment #1
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Single-product
• Single-product focus with similar “Open Now” CTA
OPEN AN ACCOUNT IN
MINUTES
Experiment: Treatment #2
Our checking account is perfect if you want a simple account for
everyday needs
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CONTROL
OPEN AN ACCOUNT IN
MINUTES
Experiment: Side-by-Side
Our checking account is perfect if you want a simple account for everyday needs
TREATMENT #1 TREATMENT #2
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Experiment: Results
Relative increase in account applications65%Treatment #2 resulted in a 65% increase in account applications.
AppsRelative
DifferenceLevel of
Confidence
Control 9.70% -- --
Treatment 1 15.4% 58.7% 98%
Treatment 2 16.0% 65.0% 98%
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CONTROL TREATMENT #1
OPEN AN ACCOUNT IN
MINUTES
TREATMENT #2
65% in applications
59% in applications
What did both treatments have in common?
Our checking account is perfect if you want a simple account for everyday needs
How was the team able to determine which changes to focus on?
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Key principles
C = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) - 2a ©
Wherein:“C” = Probability of conversion
“m” = Motivation of user (when)“v” = Clarity of the value proposition (why)
“i” = Incentive (additional) to take action
“f” = Friction elements present
“a” = Anxiety elements present
Conversion heuristic
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Key principles
C = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) - 2a ©
Conversion heuristic
Definition: Motivation
The immediate compatibility of the marketing message to the recipient’s motivations.
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Today’s focus
Today, we will be posing four questions that, when applied in a marketing context, can help us detect the story of the customer and inform
us on how to align our messaging and processes with it.
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Who is the customer?
• Our baseline ideas about our customers are formed by our customer theory.
• A customer theory is an understanding of the customer that enables us to more accurately predict the total response to a given offer.
• Through both qualitative and quantitative research, companies should constantly strive to develop and strengthen their own customer theory.
Customer theory
As marketers, our job is to “close the gap” in our customer theory through qualitative
and quantitative research methods.
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Who is the customer?
ObjectiveWhat are the customer’s main goals and desired outcomes?
MotivationWhat core motivations drives the customer’s actions?
ExperienceWhat are the past experiences of the customer?
AuthorityWhat level of authority does the customer have to make decisions?
PersonalityWhat is the personality of the customer?
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Who is the customer?
• At this point, our customer theory was limited in its scope. We knew little about the precise motivations of the visitors coming to this page.
• However, we were able to leverage what we could know about customer motivation to generate a greater response.
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Where did they come from?
If you knew the customer arrived at the homepage via URL or bookmark, what does this tell us about their motivation?
1. The customer already knows what the bank is.
2. Perhaps they already have a relationship with the bank.
3. Perhaps they know what they are looking for and do not need much selling.
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1. Who is the customer?
2. Where did they come from?
3. What have they done?
Key questions
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What have they done?
In this case, the customer has clicked on the “Open in Minutes” deep link. What does this tell us about the motivation of the customer?
1. The customer is already interested in opening a checking account.
2. The customer might be in a hurry or desire a quick process.
3. The customer is ready to make a commitment.
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1. Who is the customer?
2. Where did they come from?
3. What have they done?
4. How do we expect them to proceed?
Key questions
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How will they proceed?
Navigate to homepage Click “Open in Minutes” deep link
Logical next step in customer thought
sequence
32
1
?Open a new account as quickly and easily
as possible
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CONTROL TREATMENT #1
OPEN AN ACCOUNT IN
MINUTES
TREATMENT #2
65% in applications
59% in applications
Case Study Results
Our checking account is perfect if you want a simple account for everyday needs
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Key principles
“The marketer must listen completely. We listen in order to hear … Hearing (with our ears and our eyes) enables us to
discern the ontology (the nature, the being) of the customer. This ontology enables us to understand who the customer is. And this understanding enables us to predict
what the customer will do.”
Source: Marketer as Philosopher — Reflection #7
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Experiment IDs: Student ExampleRecord Location: MarketingExperiments Research LibraryResearch Partner: Ecoline Windows
Background: B2C company, running multichannel marketing campaigns
Goal: Drive traffic from physical mail campaigns to the site.
Primary research question: Which homepage will produce the greatest lead capture rate?
Approach: A/B split test
Experiment: Background
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Experiment: Control
Who is the customer?They are Canadian consumers that likely own or lease out residential homes and have windows to replace or to upgrade in prep of the cold season.
Where did they come from?A large percentage of customers are arriving from a Direct Mail Ad in circulation
What have they done?The have followed up on the ad and likely taking the first step to investigate
How do we expect them to proceed?Based on the information above, they should proceed to get more details about their 3 free upgrades
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Design Capture Rate
Control 5.6%
Treatment 11.5%
% Relative Change: 104%
Relative increase in capture rate104%By matching the headline and sub-headline to the customer’s motivations, the treatment was able to achieve a significant difference in end-conversion response.
Experiment: Treatment
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Summary: Key principles
1. Key Principle #1: Motivation is the single most important factor in the sales process, but it is an external factor outside of our control.
2. Key Principle #2: In order to understand this motivation, we must listen for the clues that customers give us by observing who they are, where they are coming from, what they have done and how they will most likely proceed.
C = 4m + 3v + 2(i-f) - 2a ©
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Live Optimization: Jacuzzi
Primary Audience: Prospective customers of Jacuzzi-brand hot tubs
Page Purpose: Gather leads in exchange for promotional brochure
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Live Optimization: Playa Realty & Management
Primary Audience: Property owners
Page Purpose: Acquire potential property management leads
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Live Optimization: PowerDMS
Primary Audience: Prospective customers of PowerDMS software
Page Purpose: Schedule a PowerDMSsoftware demo
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Live Optimization: United African Organization
Primary Audience: African immigration activists
Page Purpose: Encourage donations and memberships
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Live Optimization: Baby World
Primary Audience: Parents
Page Purpose: Drive page visitors toward product pages; build email list
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Next Clinic: Version APage design
• Version A uses a two-column grid with images and
text on both sides.
• The page uses the Arial typeface throughout the
design (headline, body copy and signup form).
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Next Clinic: Version BPage design
• Version B utilizes a one-column grid for the
body copy.
• The form is placed directly in the eye path.
• The page uses a branded typeface within the design
(headline, bullets and form) to add congruence to the
page.
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Live June 10 at 4 p.m. EDT
• The exact changes that achieved a 51% increase in lead generation• Why each of those changes improved performance• How you can apply the same principles to your pages• Key strategies from the underlying theory of page clarity
Join us for the next live 35-minute Web clinic to discover:
To see the results
To join live, register at the link below:
MarketingExperiments.com/BrandDesign
Customer Motivation
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See how you can conduct research with usMECLABS conducts rigorous experiments in the new science of optimization. We apply our discoveries to help leaders optimize the financial performance of their sales and marketing programs.
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