The key to accumulating valuable data and maximising your marketing technology stack is test-driven experimentation.
Growth hacking or growth marketing have recently become popular terms for conversion optimisation. Their rise to prominence is partly due to increased automation in data collection and modelling, plus the evolving sophistication of marketing platforms. Here’s my take on the 4 critical factors that should be part of any data-driven growth strategy.
Experiment for fast, breakout growth.
Inquisitive investigation — the ability to adapt and refine our approach to problem solving — has been a primary driver of human evolution for millennia. An organisation that doesn’t actively encourage this innate human impulse for experimentation is unlikely to realise its true potential.
Business growth may be driven by optimising your marketing strategy and online assets but it is test-driven experimentation that can truly power success. At GrowthOps we take a ‘test, learn and scale’ approach to digital marketing. We’ve been working closely with some of Australia’s most recognisable brands to implement effective growth strategies, delivering improved results across their sales and marketing capabilities. A recent search optimisation strategy for one of our leading retail customers has seen a 35% increase in traffic and a 41% increase in organic transactions.
Listen. Observe. Engage.
If you want to achieve meaningful, sustainable growth, understand that your customers are your most valuable source of market intelligence. At GrowthOps, our unapologetic focus on creating an optimal customer experience means we combine user behaviour patterns, A/B testing, user session recording and data analysis to drive conversion, retention and growth. Listening to, observing and engaging with our client’s customers gives us the intel we need to optimise landing pages, websites and other digital assets that are fundamental to positive customer engagement and ultimately the success of our clients.
GrowthOps’ digital product design team recently worked with a major Australian energy provider to optimise the UX of their customer portal. Our user-centred approach, incorporating the techniques outlined above, yielded fantastic results including a reduction of over 1,000 calls per week (on average) to the customer service call centre.
For the duration of the project, we continually tested and evolved our tactics based on customer feedback. Every user interaction was tracked and the results of our analysis were fed back into our model. We analysed session recordings to identify the key factors driving conversion as well as the specific user behaviour that transformed the integrated customer portal experience. If something wasn’t working, we quickly re-tuned our strategy based on what we were hearing and observing from our users.
Growth. Are we there yet?
Optimising for growth through customer acquisition and retention is as much about the journey as it is about the destination. For the past 2 years, GrowthOps has been working closely with a global property and infrastructure client to develop a holistic, 3 year digital strategy to drive year-on-year growth. We’ve prioritised search, data aggregation and dashboarding, digital channel management and lead generation to drive 32% more traffic to the site and a 78% increase in sales leads.
GrowthOps’ approach to driving growth across the spectrum of digital marketing activity is to test, analyse and validate the end user response and the intrinsic characteristics of the behaviour they respond with. So we not only create a better customer experience as we go, but we’re continually generating data that informs and improves the accuracy and effectiveness of our digital optimisation strategies.
“Rapid experimentation across an entire company is the key to fast breakout growth.” Morgan Brown, Author of Hacking Growth http://morganbrown.co/
Know your customers better than they know themselves.
The ideal state of a growth strategy is where you know you have the message, the offer, the products — the optimal experience — that your customers are looking for. To uncover what this looks like you need to know your customers better than they know themselves. Data is king here; data generated through an iterative, user-centric growth process.
There are essentially three main phases in building this out:
Definition — define your growth model, map out your customer journeys, and identify your growth channels. Planning — interrogate your data, identify your goals, start building your roadmap to execute and achieve those goals. Execution — run your experiments, analyse them and then either automate or scale them (or junk it if it didn’t work and move to the next one, adapting your approach in response to what you are observing from your customers.)
Remember, conversion optimisation is a process. It’s a systematic method of identifying opportunities for growth and developing flexible, data-driven insights that help leverage these opportunities.
So if you are curious to find out more, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Our growth specialists can design and roll-out a targeted, innovative growth plan for your organisation.
By optimising your digital assets with insight, we will make it easier to identify and respond to emerging customer opportunities.
And that translates to growth for your business.
Written by James Bracken, Head of Digital, GrowthOps Brisbane.