Around a month ago, as I was reviewing a certain monthly report , I realized that Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) goals were not being met. I began by looking at the overall CRO performance all year around and realized that it remained static and even dipped for some months.
I realized we needed a new strategy and therefore began my quest for CRO strategies. I started researching methods that worked for different scenarios and if I was missing out on something. Initially, it seemed like I had done it all! Social media postings, campaigns, increased CTAs, keyword optimization, you name it!
However, as I delved further and read through an article on historical blog optimization I realized all it takes is a little experimenting and out of the box thinking. What’s refreshing about Inbound marketing is that you never really have exhausted all your options.
I then began to come up with some variations of the existing tools we have available for conversion rate, more of which you’ll read about later in this blog. I documented the before and after of the inbound marketing experiments I planned on conducting to increase conversion rates.
Wondering why we at Znbound are so optimistic about the scope of Inbound Marketing? Well, what started off as a simple google search to increase conversion rate, ended up being an entire project with the goal of increasing conversion rate by experimenting and analyzing and led to some very surprising results, the good kind of surprise!
Inbound Marketing Experiment 1 : CTAs
Um what could possibly be surprising about CTAs helping boost conversion rates? Well, I’ve got news for you!
The experiment
We decided to try different types of CTAs on existing blog pages and site pages. We also decided to have some CTAs containing the keyword the page was ranking for and the others without. We documented our findings before the CTAs were added as well as after.
The process
We tried three different types of CTAs on several different existing pages including blog pages and site pages. We tried slide in CTAs including an image and the offer, On page form CTA as well as picture CTAs on different parts of the page.
The result
To our surprise we got 13 more submissions using the slide in CTAs for one of the blog pages and overall more submissions using a slide in CTA vs a picture or on page form CTA. What was also interesting was that CTAs that included the keyword that the page was ranking for did better than those that didn’t.
Inbound Marketing Experiment 2 : Gray mail
Gray mail and conversion rate optimization in the same blog? Can’t be right! Well apparently all those contacts that were considered “disengaged” and thrown in to a gray mail list aren’t all that disengaged.
The experiment
We decided to email contacts on hubspot that we did not include in our initial mailing list as they were on a “gray mail” list due to their inactivity and lack of response.
The process
We emailed around 4,000 contacts that were on our gray mail list with a link to a landing page for an eBook.
The result
An overwhelming 13 submissions! Yep, you read that right! A simple email chain ended up reengaging 13 contacts!So next time consider emailing that list labelled as disengaged every now and then.
Additionally, after doing some research regarding the possibility of a relatively lower open rate we concluded that there was a chance that a lot of times emails sent to the users end up going to their social and promotions tab. We tried using a third party email sending software to a bunch of our contacts and ended up getting 9 more submissions!After I finished my first set of experiments , the next step was to analyze the results and apply what worked and what didn’t. I was also simultaneously coming up with new experiments that could have an impact. You have to remember, not everything will always work, but you’ll never know what will till you give it a shot.
Conclusion?
Never stop coming up with different kinds of inbound marketing experiments. But as you do that it’s important to remember that it is essential to track all of your findings or else the experiments are a waste. There’s a lot of trial and error involved when it comes to Inbound Marketing and figuring out what works best for an organization. What might work for an ad agency might not necessarily work for a educational institution.
