Since many small businesses (especially in today’s economy) don’t want to spend a fortune on testing and research, I was pleased to see Marketing Sherpa’s brilliant new article called “Case Study: Increase Conversions with Simple Site Redesign: 7 Steps” (you can read this article and see creative examples for free until April 15th). The article provides some great advice to companies looking to test redesigns on the cheap.
The key to testing on the cheap is knowing what the problems with the current page are — usually identified through your web analytics — then incrementally redesigning the page and asking for input.
By pulling together a “best customer” list (I define “best customers” as repeat customers or long-time customers) and asking them to provide input on your web page designs, you’re not only getting free advice directly from real customers — you’re engaging them and telling them that you value them as customers.
We did this in late 2008 during the Virginia Favorites web site redesign. Virginia Favorites has a best customer list they regularly promote exclusive offers to, and we sent them a link to a hidden web address for the new web site and asked them for feedback.
The e-mail we sent offered customers an exclusive sneak peak at the redesign that addressed features they had been asking for. If they completed a survey, they’d immediately receive a 10% off coupon. The SurveyMonkey survey the customers were asked to complete included specific questions about the design and an open-ended question for general comments.
We received many comments from this “focus group” and we made some tweaks to the new site based on the feedback.
The cost of the testing was minimal, and the conversion rate of the new site is over double the conversion rate of the old site (and higher than the industry average conversion rate).
Inexpensive testing works, and is a great solution for companies that don’t want to dedicate thousands of dollars to formal lab testing or focus groups.
