The Single Best Way To Boost Sales On Your Site - Forever
By Steve Shaw
Posted Sunday, August 8, 2004
Imagine if you could put something on your web site that you know will increase your sales and boost your profits.
Imagine if you could adjust your web site in a way that you know will maximize the amount of visitors you can convert to subscribers.
And you can do all of this, and carry on doing it, without any shadow of a doubt in your mind that what you are doing is of benefit to your business.
This article details exactly what you can do to achieve this - and although it really is remarkably simple, so few people are actually taking advantage of it.
So what's the secret?
It's the very simple technique known as split-testing. This term refers to the method by which you display a different version of a web page (such as a sales page) to different visitors, and then measure which version of the page pulls the greatest response.
For example, let's say you have two versions of your sales page, your current page, Page A, and a new page you want to test, Page B. Both pages simply display a different headline, and you want to measure which headline brings you the best results.
So you put both pages up on your site, and show each one alternatively to each visitor. Visitor A will see Page A, Visitor B will see page B, Visitor C will see Page A, and so on.
You wait until you have say 20 sales from both these pages combined. Then you examine your stats to see which page pulled the most sales. Let's say Page A pulled 7 sales, whereas Page B with the different headline pulled 13 sales.
You then know, without a shadow of a doubt, that putting Page B up on your site, and removing Page A, is going to massively increase your sales - in fact, if you do the math, by about 86%.
If the result is less clear cut, you can simply wait until you have got more results in, and a clear and consistent leader emerges.
So how do you go about implementing split-testing on your site?
There are two distinct elements in the process:
Firstly, showing the separate versions of the page to different visitors
Secondly, knowing which version pulled which response
There are also two different ways of implementing the former:
Show a completely different web page, i.e. a different URL, to different visitors
Show the same web page, or URL, but with one or more elements on the page changed
You may choose to just change one or two elements on the page, or you may wish to present a completely different web page to test out a new approach.
Get's complicated, doesn't it?
Well it's not really - it all depends on exactly what you want to achieve.
You may believe a new headline would improve your sales levels - so all you do is test out that headline to see if it really does work as you have expected.
There is of course far more than just the headline that you might want to test out - you may want to test whether one testimonial would do better in a different position, or a reworded first paragraph would pull in more sales, or a photo of you in the top corner would improve results.
You can either do it intuitively, or scientifically. The scientific method via split-testing is of course far superior, as you are directing your business based on real results, rather than often-misguided emotion.
But doesn't it get rather...technical?
It can do - but it certainly doesn't have to be.
There's a script available at splittestgenerator.com that's currently completely free, and is designed especially for non-techies.
There are numerous other scripts available elsewhere too. And if you know about server-side programming, or can hire a programmer who does, it's easy enough to implement split-testing on your site using most web-based languages like PHP, ASP or Perl.
And if you're in any doubt about whether you should be split-testing, then you must also be in doubt about the future of your ebusiness. As Declan Dunn has so clearly stated, "There are two types of companies; those who test, and those who lose money." Which category do you fall into?
About the Author
Steve Shaw runs ListInferno.com, the free list-building service that can add thousands of 100% opt'in leads to your list every month. Start adding thousands of subscribers to your list today at (http://listinferno.com/) - sign up is completely free.
