Split Testing: How to Improve Your Site Conversions

Do you split test the opt-ins on your website?

Want to get better results?

To learn how to create effective split tests, I interview conversion expert Joanna Wiebe.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode I interview Joanna Wiebe, a copywriter, conversion expert and founder of CopyHackers.com--a website designed to help you improve your conversions. She's the author of the Copy Hackers ebook series.

Today Joanna will explore how split testing can help improve your email opt-ins and much more.

You'll discover how to alter your headlines and buttons to improve your website opt-ins, as well as what tools to use to analyze results.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Split Testing
What led Joanna to copywriting and conversions

Joanna says she fell into the field of copywriting. After leaving law school, she was looking for her next opportunity. When a friend who worked at an agency said they were looking for a writer, Joanna got the position, along with the title creative writer. (She thought copywriter sounded too boring.)

A couple years later, Joanna went over to Intuit (makers of Turbo Tax) as senior copywriter. Once there, she says she finally figured out what copywriting was ... and understood that it was not boring!

Joanna explains the difference between a creative writer and a copywriter. A creative writer is a person who is more likely to come up with tag lines and concepts for ads and campaigns. It's someone who abstracts a message from insights. On the other hand, from Joanna's experience a copywriter is more of a scientific writer. Copywriting is not about you. It's about listening to people who are potentially nothing like you to find the right message, she says.

According to Joanna, split testing became more readily available eight or nine years ago, and testing tools, like Optimizely, VWO and Omniture (before it was acquired by Adobe), were starting to pop up. So the company started split testing different approaches to solving problems. They would test them using actual data: website visitors or email subscribers helped them test by voting with their clicks or their credit cards.

This led Joanna to start Copy Hackers about three years ago.

Listen to the show to discover how creativity stifled Joanna in her first position as a writer.

The ad at the bottom of Copy Hackers

To capture email addresses Joanna uses a solution called Bounce Exchange. They have been experimenting with ways to get people's attention.

There’s a little guy in the corner of the website and it says “Click here to get a free guide.” It appears as you’re scrolling down the page. Once you click on it, it gives you the opt-in box.

Bounce Exchange is software presented with a service, Joanna explains. For best results, you work with their creative team and they come up with variations. They split tested different content and "The Free 2015 Persuasion Guide" got the best response. Now they are testing different messaging for the guide, as well as ways to get people to opt-in.

Listen to the show to learn what other content Joanna tested against the persuasion guide.

The exit intent popup

Exit intent means when the mouse moves up into a certain range to indicate someone is leaving your website. In this case, when the Copy Hackers' exit intent box appears, readers are given the choice. “Yes, get the free guide” or “No, I reject the persuasion guide.”

Joanna says this king of messaging is about having your audience make a decision between a choice and a consequence.