CRO 101FIX YOUR FUNNEL LIKE A MAD SCIENTIST

April 15, 2015 was my first day as Growth Marketing

Manager for HubSpot CRM.

Ben, we need 250,000 CRM signups by the end of the year.

Ben, we need 250,000 CRM signups by the end of the year.

Can I get back to you?

Ben, we need 250,000 CRM signups by the end of the year.

Can I get back to you?

No. We need 250,000. Make it happen.

Ben, we need 250,000 CRM signups by the end of the year.

Can I get back to you?

No. We need 250,000. Make it happen.

This is what we would need in order to hit the 250k EOY goal.

This is what we would need in order to hit the 250k EOY goal.

This is what we were actually going to hit.

Based on my projections, we were only going to hit 50% of our end-of-year

goal.

What would you do?

CRO

CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION

According to Wikipedia:

“CRO, or Conversion Rate Optimization, is a system for increasing the percentage of visitors to a website that convert into customers, or more generally, take any desired action on

a webpage.”

According to Moz:

Conversion Rate Optimization is finding out why visitors aren’t converting, then fixing it. That’s it.

CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATIONThat thing

you want people to do

The % of people who

do that thing

Getting more people to do

that thing

Why is CRO important?

All of inbound marketing is built around points of conversion.

Success as an inbound marketer ultimately comes

down to your ability to drive conversions.

Here’s a famous (and patriotic) example of CRO at work...

In 2008, a presidential candidate hired a team of

expert digital strategists to manage his website.

The team ran countless optimization tests, with the goal of boosting the number of signups and

donations on the site.

Can you guess who that candidate was?

LP #001

LP #134

8.26% 11.60%

Through their optimization experiments, his team

was able to increase the conversion rate on his home page by 40%. And do you know what

that got him?

$60,000,0003M additional signups and $60M in additional campaign donations. Woah.

I think we agree: CRO is huge.

But here’s the problem...(well...3

problems)

We’re not investing in CROThe Myth(s):

We’ll just get it right the first time around

There are more important things to focus on

CRO sounds like an 80’s synth band

The Reality:

“Getting it right” takes a ton of learning and iteration

At a certain point, the time effort that it takes to grow your funnel begins to exceed the time and effort that it takes to fix your funnel

CRO might be the most valuable thing that your team could be focusing on

PROBLEM #1

We’re after Silver BulletsThe Myth(s):

There’s one “magic” hack/tip/trick/tool out there that will cause your conversion rates to skyrocket

The Reality:

There’s no such thing as a silver bullet.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.

CRO is about patience and process

PROBLEM #2

We want to be Don DraperThe Myth(s):

Brilliant marketing comes from genius ideas, and genius ideas come from idea-generating unicorn marketers that dream up ideas over fine scotch whisky and cuban cigars

The Reality:

Brilliant marketing does come from genius ideas, but genius ideas come from listening to your customers and from collecting lots and lots of feedback

You’re not Don Draper. Don’t aspire to be Don Draper.

PROBLEM #3

Brilliant marketing doesn’t look like

this

It looks like this.

So what do we do?

Audit Your Existing FunnelQuestions:

Where is the greatest opportunity for optimization in my current marketing funnel?

What specific conversion metrics should I focus on to drive the greatest impact?

Objectives:

Clearly laid out optimization goals

Key Performance Metrics (KPIs) for measuring optimization

STEP 1

An Audit of HubSpot CRM...The Funnel:

There were 1 of 2 stages of our growth funnel that we could have optimized: our ToFu user acquisition channels or our dedicated signup page.

Audit Results:

Because we had 3 different user acquisition channels and only 1 signup page, we decided that optimizing for Landing Page Conversion Rate would yield the greatest ROI

KPI: Landing Page Conversion Rate (LP CVR)

Ask the Right QuestionsQuestions:

What is having the biggest positive/negative impact on my conversion rates?

Why aren’t people converting?

Why are people converting?

Objectives:

Feedback mechanisms for collecting important qualitative and quantitative user feedback

Actively collecting the right feedback from the right users

Uncovering the core issues related to conversion

STEP 2

How do users interact with the signup page?Feedback Mechanisms:

Heatmaps, Scrollmaps, and User Recordings

Tools: HotJar, Lucky Orange, Crazy Egg

Findings:

People were engaging with the page (moving their mouse and scrolling) but would make it to the bottom of the page, then exit.

Clearly there was some interest, but there was an element that was either missing or that was driving users away

Why do users convert?Feedback Mechanisms:

Automated kickback email

Tools: HubSpot email tool

Findings:

There were a lot of reasons why people chose HubSpot CRM (features, ease of use, etc.) but the biggest one that stuck out was the price tag. People loved free.

Hi there,

Thanks for signing up for HubSpot CRM. My name is Ben and I work on the growth team here at HubSpot. I was curious: what was it about HubSpot CRM that made you want to try it?

Thanks!Ben

Ben RatnerGrowth MarketerHubSpot CRM

But wait...how do we collect feedback from the users who don’t convert?

Why don’t users convert?Feedback Mechanisms:

Exit intent popup poll

Tools: HotJar

Findings:

People didn’t trust that the product was actually free. They figured it had to be a trial or that there were hidden costs associated with the product.

Answer the Questions with IdeasQuestions:

What insights can we gain from our data to improve conversions?

How can we address the issues that are causing people not to convert?

How can we use the reasons that people do convert to drive higher conversion rates?

Objectives:

A list of well-informed experiment ideas, in the form of hypotheses (if we do X, then we can expect Y to occur, because Z)

Bonus points: prioritize your ideas with the ICE framework!

STEP 3

People don’t believe that

HubSpot CRM is actually free.

People don’t believe that

HubSpot CRM is actually free.

Let’s capitalize the word FREE!

People don’t believe that

HubSpot CRM is actually free.

Let’s capitalize the word FREE!

Let’s add a dummy pricing

calculator!

People don’t believe that

HubSpot CRM is actually free.

Let’s capitalize the word FREE!

Let’s add a testimonial that

mentions “free”!

Let’s add a dummy pricing

calculator!

People don’t believe that

HubSpot CRM is actually free.

Let’s capitalize the word FREE!

Let’s add a testimonial that

mentions “free”!

Let’s add a dummy pricing

calculator!

Let’s add a section

explaining what we mean by

free!

Applying the ICE Framework...

Idea Impact Certainty Ease ICE Score

Capitalize the word FREE 3 5 10 6.0

Dummy PricingCalculator 5 5 5 5.0

Testimonial with the word “free” 6 3 7 5.3

Section explaining meaning of “free”

7 6 8 7.0

Attempt to Fix the ProblemQuestions:

How can I design an experiment that will adequately validate my hypothesis?

How will I know when I’ve collected enough data to prove/disprove my hypothesis?

Objectives:

Statistically significant experiment data

STEP 4

The Anatomy of an ExperimentObjective (why we’re doing this)

After collecting feedback from both converted and un-converted users, we have found that a person’s belief that HubSpot CRM is free has a big impact on whether or not they convert. In order to improve LP CVR, we will experiment with adding a section to the signup page that explicitly calls out what we means when we say HubSpot CRM is free.

Hypothesis (what we think will happen)

If we add a “What Free CRM Means” section to the page, then LP CVR will increase by 25% because it will help people understand that HubSpot CRM is actually free

Experimental Design (how we’re planning to test hypothesis)

Standard A/B test - control variation vs. test variation A with Free CRM section

Analyze Your Test ResultsQuestions:

What did we learn from our experiment results?

Have we achieved the desired outcome of meaningful optimization?

What should we focus on next?

Objectives:

Experiment results documented and shared with team

Clear set of next steps for optimization

STEP 1

getdatadriven.com/ab-significance-test

Always be sure to share what you’ve learned!

So what happened?

“Be the best at getting better.” BRIAN BALFOUR

GROWTH HACKER

QUESTIONS?Ben Ratner

Growth Manager

@benjratner

(978)828-4215

Features:● Custom popup forms (and flows)● Automatic contact enrichment● Website conversion analytics

Benefits:● More ways to generate leads● More information about your leads● Better insight into web performance

Price:● Free

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