Research, REsearch, RE-Re-search. . . CXL REVIEW
This is my second week in the Growth Marketing Course, and what have I learned? That I have more self-discipline than I thought. It does take me a minute to adjust my mindset to sit and watch analytical videos, but that is what the whole process is all about, so it works…
What is that?
You are getting in the mindset of your customer, understanding their journey, and how your content helps them flow through to the checkout line.
I dove into the identifying and amplifying growth channels section, led by Sophia Eng. She understands how to make the whole thing sound like a Sunday brunch. She took us through why content is crucial for growth marketing and explained the process of how to manage your digital marketing platform using SEO and SEM techniques.
She also explains that vanity metrics are bogus. Nobody is making revenue from the like button but Facebook. So, ya, your ego still isn’t helping you grow.
I have noticed something else crucial and every single marketing and copywriting guru shares it in their emails and every other space they can: pain points. Even when I read David Ogilvy, he talks about pain points and how they relate to banging out stellar copy. So, pain points. Get them where they hurt — then fix it.
Understanding the Process of Your Online Presence
Basically, we need to make sure we understand a few things before we dive into the research. We need to know the difference between:
- Domain authority- how your site compares to other sites in your industry, lane, niche
- Page authority — how well you set up for crawling(Google Scans), your activity in keeping your information fresh, ie. Content schedule
- Site popularity — How well the people using your site are doing: bounce rate, click-through rate, site traffic, the attention your site is getting throughout the process, too.
Now that we understand these terms, we can dive into SEO to work on your SEM optimization. You want to make sure that you are choosing your KPI wisely when you set your goals. Not everything can be a key point.
You want to brainstorm and find the issues and then prioritize what you are looking to achieve. This is the process we need to prepare for when we start doing our conversion research.
Sophia shares that there should be “an overlap with CRO, UX, SEO to take a look at… what’s the best experience on the site and how is it converting.” This is the baseline for the rest of your content optimization.
Once you do that, you can have an educated interaction as well. There are ways to expedite crawling on your site using fetch it functions and all your fancy analytics and Google sitemaps tools.
Now, there is a ton of fantastic info in this section. Sophia digs deep into optimizing your pages for SEO and SEM functions. She explains how to deal with negative feedback from customers on social media, stating that,
“…even if it’s a bad review and you respond, you’re doing the right thing. You’re present for them, and that’s important to your customers.”
Getting to know your customer personally is always the best way to get the truth factor into your hypothesis. Just a reminder that what you are doing is for the customer, and being present is essential, no matter the situation throughout the process.
She closes with how PPC is for hyper-focused customer marketing and keyword difficulty. I want to share it all with you, and it is good stuff. However, I have other things to write about. You’ll have to go sign up for the course.
Research and Testing: The CXL Peep Show
So, best practice is just the tip; it is not optimization. Peep runs these next couple sessions and goes over a hella’ lot of information. The point, though? “The Discovery of what matters.” and you cannot do that without going more in-depth.
We do that by making your tests more useful. At least that is what boss-man Laja said.
Do you know what else he says? It all boils down to finding out what their pain points are… Ya, hear that? Pain Points. . . There it is again. It is important because, “If we know that stuff, we can put forth messages that resonate with them.” He said that, too.
Now, he points out that there are two ways to gather that info but makes it known that research should be before testing. If you are going to test, you need a hypothesis — This pain point is here because XYZ and our product is the solution.
When you do research, you are also answering questions and saving time. Sometimes finding answers to build your process trims the informational fat, redirecting your focus. But, do not go in all willy-nilly, and never assume. Bias is a hot spot on the heel of growth marketing strategy. COLD HARD DATA PEOPLE!
Conversion Research
Just a reminder:
…your opinions don’t matter
That reflects throughout his testimony. Even when you have those explicitly obvious reasons, test them out. You may find new leads digging into information that you already think you know.
Additionally, you may get a hold of a client with a good website at first glance. Dig deeper because issues are harder to spot. These are usually a case of “what worked for one guy, didn’t work for that client,” which is probably why they have you optimizing — something is not connecting the customer to the checkout button.
Find that money leak, and you’ll be manifesting some strong bonds with the boss man. If you are the boss-man, sweeter.
“The process of testing is to get qualitative guidance.” Peep Laja
Research XL Model
How do we do all that without being all willy-nilly then? Work that model.
The Research XL Model has four features that help you organize the website audit. And yes, they are in a specific order — another funnel. . . kinda.
- Clarity — Does my page clearly share what I am offering and how it works.
- Friction — Where is there an issue on the page that is causing stress.
- Anxiety — Too many steps, not clear instructions, anything that stresses them.
- Distraction — Any task or link on the page that is taking away from the main objective.
Each of these levels has a type of test you can create to help you figure it out. There are also a lot of websites out there to help you make that process more fluid.
There is some logic behind the strictness of how to gather data. For example, if things aren’t clear, they will have the following three issues, and so on.
Usability Testing
This is the answer =>find those pain points and test ways to fix them. There is so much information in these classes that you will have to do some of the work. I cannot do it all for you. Stop being lazy.
I mean, it gets really juicy in there. Lots of ways to build testing, surveys, heat mapping, Heuristic analysis, OH MY!
When you purchase or get into the scholarship program, you’re going to wonder why you chose to sweat, pouring through all those free online classes. DO NOT GET ME WRONG. It is how I got my start, and that free shit is excellent. Hell, I am on the scholarship, too. So, this is free shit, but it’s the best one I have taken so far.
To Be Continued. . .
