Article

3min read

CX Optimization Webseries APAC: Episode #3 – The Importance of Continuous Optimization in A/B Testing

 Testing as well is such a benefit from de-risking that decision making.

– Tom Shepherd, UX Lead at David Jones

Hosted by Serena Ku, Senior CSM at AB Tasty

Featuring Tom Shephard, UX Lead at David Jones

In the fast-paced world of digital commerce, A/B testing and continuous optimization are important processes allowing brands to refine strategies, improve customer experiences, and increase conversion rates over time.

One huge pitfall many businesses face is they look at what their competitors are doing and assume that it will work for them too. But remember, things are not always as they appear. 

In this third episode of our CX Optimization Web Series, Tom Shepherd, UX Lead at David Jones joins Serena Ku, Senior Customer Success Manager at AB Tasty to discuss the importance of Continuous Optimization in A/B Testing.

Discover how a business perspective can shift from “we think” to “we know”.

Episode #3:

Why is it important for brands to run A/B tests?

The main benefits are improved content engagement, increased conversion rates and reduced bounce rates. 

If you’re not A/B testing, you may already be behind your direct competitors. This by itself is a compelling motivation for why brands should start testing. Speeding up the time it takes to bring an idea or a concept to market is another benefit worth considering A/B testing.

Take note, businesses need to level up and be able to keep up with behavioral changes and look for opportunities where experiences are not achieving the results they  should be.

The Role of AB Tasty to empower David Jones’ CRO strategy

In a traditional UX setting, it is quite frustrating when you invest a lot of time mocking up experiences, taking those to customers, and later finding out that they just don’t work. 

The Australian luxury department store, David Jones, takes experience optimization seriously. They look closely to understand their customers in all facets. Using GA4 and FullStory, they can draw out ideas and build solutions that will make an experience more seamless, removing friction. With AB Tasty, they launch these experiences quickly and expose them to their customers to gather valuable insights. 

As a discipline within the user experience team, David Jones leverages AB Tasty and analytics tools to marry quantitative data with qualitative insights delighting every customer.

Winning customer loyalty

Customer loyalty is all about the experience. Its essence in the e-commerce landscape is where the digital store has made each customer feel highly valued.

Perfecting the art of customer loyalty requires both creativity and precision.That is why, like your local store attendant, EmotionsAI helps brands understand the emotional needs of audiences to bolster your Experience Optimization roadmap with effective messages, designs and CTAs that activate your visitors.

Factors to consider when testing?

Truly knowing your customer demographics and understanding their behaviors online will allow you to create a well-formulated hypothesis. Consider the time of the year when you launch a test. Is it an off-peak season, are you running promotions, or clearing stocks?  Analyze your data and focus on where your conversion points are. 

Tom suggests iterating and running as many follow-up tests as possible. If you tested something that worked, you might be up to something even greater. So test more iterations to unlock more results.

The wrap:

The strongest path to customer loyalty, higher conversion, and a customer base nobody can touch is having ‘differentiated experiences’. Start with a deeper knowledge of your industry and beyond. Know your customers and empathize with them. Be mindful that behaviors and preferences are ever-changing. Continuous optimization helps you adapt, execute strategies, and stay ahead of the game.

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Article

5min read

Tapping into Emotional Marketing | Talia Wolf

Talia Wolf reveals how emotional marketing can revolutionize your experimentation process and lift conversions.

Taking a customer-centric approach to marketing, founder and CEO of Getuplift, Talia Wolf, harnesses the power of emotional marketing techniques to increase visitor conversions. 

Her natural interest in conversion rate optimization (CRO) and experimentation was sparked through her early work in a social media agency, later moving on to become an expert in the field – consulting for many companies on the subject, and speaking on stage at Google, MozCon and Search Love.

Guest host and AB Tasty’s Head of Growth Marketing UK, John Hughes, spoke with Talia about emotional marketing as a tool for optimization, delving into how customer research can facilitate the experimentation process, reduce the rate of failure, and earn the buy-in from company stakeholders.

Here are some of the key takeaways from their conversation.

Based upon the idea that emotion drives every single decision that we make in life, the emotional targeting methodology shifts the focus of your online marketing content from your solution, features, or pricing, to your customer. Rather than playing a guessing game and simply reshuffling elements on a page, this technique requires a deeper understanding of human behavior. By identifying customer intent and buying motivation, you can create an optimized experience, which meets their needs and increases conversions.

Backed by academic research, the fundamental role of emotion in our daily choices can be integrated into your strategy to better cater to your customers by figuring out a) their biggest challenges and, b) how they want to feel after finding a solution. What is their desired outcome? 

With this in mind, you can optimize your digital communications with high-converting copy and visuals that speak directly to your customers’ needs. By shifting the conversation from the product to the customer, an incredible opportunity opens up to scale and multiply conversions.

Firstly, experimentation should be backed by research. From customer and visitor surveys, to review mining, social listening and emotional competitor analysis, Talia encourages extensive research in order to create the most likely hypothesis upon which to base an A/B test. 

Once you know more about your customers, you can review the copy and visuals on your product page for example, and from your research you might discover that your content is not relevant to your target customer. You can then come up with a hypothesis based on their actual needs and interests supported by compelling social proof, and write a brief for your designer or copywriter based on the new information. 

From there you can build your experiment into your A/B testing platform with a selected North star metric, whether it’s check-outs, sign-ups or add-to-carts, to prove or disprove your hypothesis. And, while we know that nine out of 10 A/B tests fail, emotional marketing facilitates the hypothesizing process, strengthening the chance of creating a winning experiment by testing variables that can actually impact the customer journey.

How to persuade stakeholders to support your experiments.

When it comes to CRO, there are often too many chefs in the kitchen, especially in smaller organizations where founders have a concrete vision of their customers and their messaging. 

Talia explains that a research-based approach to experimentation can offer reassurance as part of a slow-and-steady strategy, backed by evidence. This personalized methodology involves talking to your customers and website visitors and scouring the web for conversations about your specific industry, rather than simply following your competitor’s lead.

It becomes a lot easier to propose a test to a founder or CEO when your hypothesis is supported by data and research, however, Talia recommends resisting the urge to change everything at once and rather, start small. Test the emotional marketing in your ads or send out an email sequence requiring only a copywriter, and share the results.

When you’re trying to get buy-in, you need to have a strong hypothesis paired with good research to prove that it makes sense. If this is the case, you can demonstrate the power of emotional marketing by running a couple of A/B tests: one where the control is the current solution-focused content and the variant is a customer-focused alternative, and another which highlights how customers feel right now versus how they want to feel – two important variations which help you to relate better to your customer. The key to garnering support is to take baby steps and continuously share your research and results.

What else can you learn from our conversation with Talia Wolf?

  • Why B2B purchases are more emotional than B2C. (15:50)
  • How to stand out in a crowded market by knowing your customer. (20:00)
  • How emotional marketing impacts the entire customer journey. (25:50)
  • How to relate to your customer and improve conversions. (32:40)

About Talia Wolf

Conversion optimization specialist Talia Wolf is the founder and CEO of Getuplift – a company that leverages optimization strategies such as emotional targeting, persuasive design, and behavioral data to help businesses generate more revenue, leads, engagement and sales. 

Starting her career in a social media agency, where she was introduced to the concept of CRO, Talia went on to become the Marketing Director at monday.com, before launching her first conversion optimization agency, Conversioner, in 2013. 

Today, with her proven strategy in hand, Talia teaches companies all over the world to optimize their online presence using emotional techniques.

About 1,000 Experiments Club

The 1,000 Experiments Club is an AB Tasty-produced podcast hosted by Marylin Montoya, VP of Marketing at AB Tasty. Join Marylin and the Marketing team as they sit down with the most knowledgeable experts in the world of experimentation to uncover their insights on what it takes to build and run successful experimentation programs.