What if every time you visited your favorite store, everything looked exactly the same? Or it was so crammed with stuff you could barely move down the aisles? Would you keep going back?

Probably not. So why is this problem so common with eCommerce websites?

Instead of staying lean, they grow larger and larger . . . and things get ugly. The sites end up with dozens or even hundreds of bloated pages with no eyepath; they get overrun by ever-smaller fonts, graphics, ads, and photos; obsolete information and broken links sprout like weeds.

A friend of mine works in a brick-and-mortar store where the owner believes that if you can't turn around without knocking something over, people will think he's going out of business. "The shop looks empty," he says when my friend tries to change things up, knock off the dust, and discount stuff that hasn't sold in years.

The reality is that even the conservative display changes and occasional culls my friend gets away with allow customers to "discover" products that have been there awhile. "The store looks great," they often say. "Did you get some new things?"

On the other end of the design spectrum are my friends Brad, Lew, and Gregory, who own a contemporary home furnishings store in Phoenix. They believe in frequent, major revamps, mashing older and newer things together in dramatic ways that keep their regular customers guessing (and excited).

For most retail websites, the sweet spot falls somewhere in between. And they have an advantage over brick-and-mortars, because eCommerce sites can test a radical redesign idea and see what happens before rolling it out. Multivariable testing gives online businesses the opportunity for "breakthrough thinking" and much higher conversion rates if executed properly.

As our research brief on the subject says:

"When you can test only one change at a time, you are under pressure to think of a 'good' change . . . something you think has a high likelihood of delivering improved results. This can lead to cautious thinking. However, with multivariable testing you can test as many changes as you like. This takes the pressure off and gives you enormous creative latitude, opening the door to breakthrough ideas you might otherwise never have tested."

The caveat is whether a site will get enough traffic in the time allotted for a test. That determines whether the tested changes are statistically valid and significant. In other words, if showing your redesign to only 10% of your traffic means it will take years to get to 95% confidence in your findings, you might want to up the ante.

So go on, move some things around. Try a whole new approach. The payoff could be huge.

And if you're looking for ideas to test, come to our 5/7 Web Clinic on optimizing eCommerce websites.

One of my favorite “Flintisms” is a warning against “unsupervised thinking.”

In essence, it means that when a visitor gets to your landing page, it should be easy to find what they really want. Make sure they know they’re on the right site, and don’t obscure what they came for. Think Alice, always keeping that Brady house in order.

Simple, right?

Not so fast.

Our TSS team was recently brainstorming ways to help a partner with a very cluttered landing page, “featuring” at least twelve different, competing products, plus an extensive left nav list for a hundred product categories, a deal alert sign-up competing with a search field, warranty purchase options, shipping account logins, shopping cart item counts.

The page looked like a Moroccan bazaar.

“You have a shotgun approach on this page. It takes you everywhere,” Flint said.

Now, some folks enjoy strolling through the Internet equivalent of a Moroccan bazaar, nav’ing and clicking through pages and pages of products they didn’t necessarily come for.

It’s called shopping.

Some folks like it, and some (including me) just want to go in, get what they came for, and get out.

In my humble opinion, the current design was friction-city because of all the competing information blasting visitors.

“They’ll lose to someone with a cleaner Value Proposition,” said Flint. “Why should someone buy from this site and come back again?” AKA, no relationship was established.

Another problem was no—zero—eyepath, due to competing constituencies. It looked to me like LP turf battles had brand managers and co-op manufacturers fighting like The Brady Bunch kids (plus Alice) all trying to get in the front seat of Carol’s 1970 station wagon.

Key questions began to emerge. We needed a framework.

What new page design would result in the best "mind trail"? That is, what are people doing now; what do we want them to do; and what’s in the customer's mind? Where do we want to send people to make the most money?

This page needed help, and that’s what we’re all about—what will get it done; for the partner, and for the customers. We’re here to eliminate that unsupervised thinking and clean up that confusing clutter.

Stay tuned to find out how we do it.

FADE IN: GENERIC OFFICE CUBICLE — DAY

A man, shopping online for a high-end product.

We see flash cuts between the man’s face—looking increasingly aggravated—and his computer screen, showing dozens of similar Web sites, each one just as friction-inducing as the next. . . . .

CUE DRAMATIC SCORE, CUE MOVIE TRAILER VOICE-OVER GUY

In a confusing world of online stores all offering hundreds of choices, the lowest prices, and discount delivery, two companies will join forces to optimize a landing page that millions have seen before. . . .

SWITCH TO SUMMER FUN SCORE

This summer, get ready for one of the best landing page tests ever, when MarketingExperiments and their ideal partner team up to increase conversions beyond their wildest dreams. . . .

CUE NEEDLE-BEING-PULLED-OFF-A-RECORD EFFECT

Or not.

CUT TO: OFFICES OF MARKETINGEXPERIMENTS – DAY

FULL SHOT: Director Flint McGlaughlin, backlit by 10 computer screens.

FLINT: What’s the partner’s willingness and ability to make changes?

CUT TO. . . .

Okay, so this work in progress is not likely to be a blockbuster hit, but it does have a viable premise — “X leads to Y” — the movie producing equivalent of a Value Proposition.

In this scenario, lack of data leads to less than ideal project results.

“The point of finding the right thing to test is having the right data,” said Flint in a recent Training and Solutions meeting, as we discussed the challenges of a recent project. “All of the information we need to design this [landing] page is in [the company’s] metrics program.”

Unfortunately for those who partnered with us, someone in their organization was unwilling or unable to get us the information we needed to help them achieve the best results.

Whether you’re a hired gun or an internal testing team, the roadblocks to optimization efforts — corporate politics or culture, bureaucracy or malice, laziness or indifference — may well be insurmountable without one critical element: professional project management.

Marketers should insist that their online testing and optimization projects follow the same project management best practices that have shown real results for corporate IT projects.

Let’s start with project sponsorship. If you’ve ever attended a Project Management Institute course, you know the importance of engaged sponsorship from a strong leader or leadership team within the organization. That sponsor must be empowered to cut right through the smoke, the flak, or anything else being blown or thrown, in order to achieve the established objective of the project.

Having said that, if the project’s scope isn’t adequately defined at the outset, if establishing the key requirements (for example, access to specific data) has fallen short, then producing the deliverables will be a nightmare. The project is set up to fail from the beginning.

Paraphrasing Flint, it’s all about a company’s willingness and ability to make recommended changes.

Even if you get access to the data you need, if the IT team can’t or won’t help you implement, if the project sponsor is a sponsor in name only, or if inertia cannot be overcome . . . well, your optimization project is really done before it’s over. Stick a fork in it and . . .

FADE TO BLACK

Bob Walker, a frequent clinic attendee, recently emailed us a great question about Friction and Anxiety in the context of the MarketingExperiments Conversion Index, c = 4m+3v+2(i-f)-2a, where “f” stands for the element of Friction in the conversion process and “a” stands for Anxiety...

Here’s what Bob wrote us:

“I've attended a number of your free webinars and hope to enroll in some of your courses in the near future. But I have one question that is vital to something I'm working on right now. In the context of your Conversion Index, what's the difference between Friction and Anxiety? I'm having trouble getting a sense of where one begins and the other ends. It seems to me like friction causes anxiety, rather than it being a separate entity. Thanks!”

Both have a psychological basis. As Dr. McGlaughlin would say, conversion takes place in the mind, not on the page.

For the purposes of the MarketingExperiments testing methodology, Friction is defined as a psychological resistance to a given element in the sales or sign-up process. Anxiety is a psychological concern stimulated by a given element in the sales or sign-up process.

First, Friction. The resistance.

Friction is “the aggravation factor.” One of the most effective ways to increase conversion is to decrease resistance and aggravation. In the most basic terms, we reduce options (but not too much). We reduce length (but not too much). We reduce difficulty (but not too much).

For example, we would usually start by testing a reduction in the number of fields a prospect has to fill out. We would recommend not asking for any more information than absolutely needed at any point in the process (whether that is sales, subscription, donation). We’d attempt to overcome any remaining Friction by offering the ideal Incentive—an appeal—to complete the conversion sequence.

Now, Anxiety. The concern.

Anxiety is “the security factor.” It can be more lethal to conversion than Friction, because while a highly motivated person will put up with a lot of aggravation to get what they want, concern about loss is almost always greater than the desire for gain.

Think about those emails saying you’ve won the UK lottery. What an ideal Incentive! All you have to do is give this official looking organization just a few details: your social security number, your bank details, etc. Virtually no Friction there, but lots and lots of Anxiety. If you don’t experience any Anxiety when giving strangers your vitals, you’re not a normal customer! One of my favorite quotes from Dr. McGlaughlin is, “Trust is the ultimate remedy for Anxiety.”

Which specific techniques have been shown to relieve Anxiety? We teach the Anxiety Relief formula in the Landing Page Optimization course, which is a great foundation for anyone truly interested in becoming a Landing Page Optimization expert, but meantime I would suggest reading this research brief specifically related to Anxiety: Optimizing Site Design: Eight Ways to Increase Site Conversion by Reducing Customer Anxiety.

Of course, there are myriad problems with most Web sites that aggravate both Friction and Anxiety, and we’ll continue testing both our current techniques and new ones in our efforts to overcome these twin value inhibitors.

Did you catch our free Web Clinic on Wednesday? The topic was Measuring What Matters: How simplifying your metrics can increase Marketing ROI by up to 75% — and if you joined us, chances are you're already implementing new ideas and tools to improve your analytics.

If you couldn't make it, you can view the presentation here and download our free MarketingExperiments Essential Metrics Tool here (Excel file).

Metrics isn't the sexiest topic, yet it's one that most marketers have been grappling with for years and still don't have many concrete answers. In our live poll, 74% of the marketers characterized their experience level with Web analytics as moderate to novice.

There's a lot more to cover with metrics than our one-hour session allowed: Different tools, the type of website and levels of data, your depth of experience with analytics, to name just a few.

Many attendees told us the big takeaway was our blueprint for distilling several data points into just four key measurements — and using that to get beyond numbers and into your customers' mindset.

To paraphrase Dr. McGlaughlin, too often the focus with analytics is on us: the actions we're trying to force or entice, the conversion rates we want to see, the transactions and revenue we desperately need to achieve. Those are valid measures, but they obscure the intentions of our prospects and customers when they visit our sites.

The trick is taking all those raw numbers and using them to create a snapshot of what your site visitors are thinking, as well as what they're doing. That's what really helps us adapt our processes and content and improve ROI dramatically.

Several attendees requested another Clinic on this topic, so we'll likely revisit metrics with a new session in the months ahead. In the meantime, please enjoy the complete Clinic and try our Essential Metrics Tool with our compliments.

We'd appreciate any feedback you have on the metrics Cinic or Tool, and invite you to post any other metrics-related comments you'd like to share.

Still sifting through plain old text search results? How old school of you.

Apparently, “blended” search results are becoming all the rage for GenY, says a new iProspect study. That is, search results containing images, videos, news, blogs, and reference results on the same page.

The study found that 31 percent of users are now clicking images, with twice as many searchers aged 18–34 clicking them compared with those over 35. 17 percent are clicking on videos. The most frequently clicked vertical within blended search is news.

While Google kicked off the blended results craze nearly a year ago, and MSN and Yahoo followed suit later in 2007, newbies Askx.com and searchmash.com are among the blended search engines trying to find a toe-hold in Google’s world.

What does it mean for online marketers? It’s time to optimize all of your digital assets.

Video press releases. That podcast of your CEO giving a brilliant speech. Sneak preview images of sexy new products. Post them to your own site, tag them, and inject them into other high-profile content streams, like YouTube or top blogs like BoingBoing.

Start paddling now to catch the blended results wave.

One-third of those surveyed also said they consider those in the first few pages of search results the leaders in their space. The assumption is that if you’re really a player, you’ve got search all figured out by now.

Another interesting finding: We’re getting more impatient in our pursuit of instant gratification, regardless of our generation. More users than ever are clicking only on the first page of results, the study showed —68 percent in 2008 compared with 62 percent in 2006 and 48 percent in 2002.

The new bottom line for CMOs?

• Page one of search results, “classic” or blended = product/information/service leader.
• Page two or three = your company is middle of the road, maybe a nice fallback option.
• Page four or higher = start packing your cardboard box (don’t forget your stress ball).

There’s a mountain of data available from your analysis tools (and you should be using more than one, by the way), but do you know where to find the real ROI gems?

Are you creating a solid foundation for measuring your marketing efforts before you race down the hall to the boss’s office?

To help you answer those questions, I’ve spent the last week trolling through test data and speaking with our analysts about our next free Web Clinic on Wednesday, Aug. 16: Measuring What Matters: How simplifying your metrics can increase Marketing ROI by up to 75%.

After doing the research for the Clinic, it appears MarketingExperiments and Cory Treffiletti, president and managing partner for Catalyst SF, are singing the same song: Click-through rates don’t impress savvy CEOs.

He even uses this analogy in his recent blog post, “Please Stop Asking About Click Rates!”

“In the offline world, how many times have you seen someone hop into a taxi cab as a result of seeing an ad on the cab, and ask to be driven to the store featured in that ad? This is the functional equivalent of tracking click-through rates — and if you look at it in those terms, it sounds a little silly.”

Well put, Cory. We couldn’t agree more.

In this tough economy, experienced and inexperienced online marketers alike would do well to focus on data quality over quantity and get back to basics:

• How much is it costing you to acquire customers?
• How many of them are there?
• How much are they worth?
• What’s their lifetime value (LTV)?
• What’s the net result?

Our upcoming Clinic is designed to help you lock on to the ROI indicators and metrics that matter most – to you and your CEO. We hope you’ll join us for this free Webinar.

So you’ve got your Value Proposition honed like a Puukko knife and your landing page is optimized for a smooth, anxiety-free glide to the checkout.

Now comes the scary part. The leap of faith that you, the “customer not present,” his bank, the card processing company, and your bank all have to take together to finish the transaction.

If you’re the proprietor of Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop.com, how do you know it’s Rod Flanders buying all those Itchy and Scratchy comics and not Bart?

In the current economy, wouldn’t it be nice to feel confident you’re going to get paid?

And what about everyone else (mentioned above) who gets a taste? Of course they should be paid fairly for services rendered, but how can you avoid paying the excessive fees that eat away your net returns?

You may want to check in with our friend Scott Adams of The Direct Response Forum, a non-profit trade association that helps companies navigate the vast gray area between their checkout pages and their bank accounts. The DRF is holding its 19th forum in San Diego, Aug. 11-13, focusing on the latest ways to save money and avoid being ripped off in that gray area.

Topics will include basic training in credit card processing, chargebacks, and recurring charges. And panel discussions between merchants, card companies, and service providers will cover best practices, regulations, and security.

Let’s see: Potentially saving thousands of e-commerce dollars. San Diego in August (or whenever, really). Throw in a carnitas burrito from Taco Express, and it could be the best business trip you take all summer.

Ever tested an optimized landing page that followed all the right tactics, dramatically improved the page’s look and feel, got kudos on all the internal previews – and still got trounced by the ugly duckling control page?

All Web marketers have been there. That’s why we test in the first place. But each time this situation pops up, it seems to throw us for a loop.

Today the MarketingExperiments team reviewed a test that fit this scenario precisely. The control page was a bare-bones, ultra-vanilla layout: white background, plain black text, bulleted copy and simple name and e-mail signup form. There was even a prominent typo.

The tested treatments were far more polished and professional, with masthead logo images, a few testimonials, images of client logos, copy with select phrases bolded, and different text on the “submit” button. An “Anti-Spam” medallion next to the short form was added to reassure registrants.

Remarkably, the conversion rate was nearly 14% for the bare-bones control, compared to a 7-9% range for the two treatments. We can’t show the pages, but here are a few takeaway lessons:

• Beware of copy revisions that significantly alter the offer. From headlines to “submit” buttons, it's easy to underestimate the power of two or three words to tilt the needle the wrong way. Example: “Free Access” vs. “Send me Tips”.

• Not every hero shot will save the day. Images aren’t a slam dunk, whether they are of people or product. Using a relevant photo generally attracts the eye, and the right one can add a little sizzle to the page, but portraits and logos run the risk of being divisive. Example: Logos of your Fortune 500 clients could turn off some small companies and single-shingle prospects.

• Don’t count on an incentive to lift response. Thinking of adding a freebie to make your opt-in offer more appealing? Tread carefully. It might not hurt response, but it might not help either. In this test, the treatment offering a free report finished dead last. (Keep that in mind before you produce that next whitepaper you’re certain every prospect will love.)

While these pages are going back to the lab for additional testing, the early results helped isolate several elements that should make a big impact on subsequent rounds. It’s a good reminder that even tests that fail can improve our optimization efforts, and that we still benefit … even when the ugly ducklings win.

I got a shiny, snailmail brochure today touting a famous research organization’s upcoming workshop. One track offers expert advice on social marketing to “Generation Y.” According to the blurb, selling to this audience requires a “non-traditional approach” that includes “adding YouTube and Facebook to your marketing mix and leveraging user-created content.”

Yawn. It sounds so 2006, I’m already asleep.

As I said in an Oct. 2007 blog post, if it gets to be 2008 (Mr. or Ms. CMO) and your product isn’t in the top 10 search results on Baidu, embedded in South Korean social networks, wrapped around a Brazilian YouTube video, certified carbon neutral, and bookmarked on a Google phone, better get out the cardboard box and start packing your stress ball.

Yet I’m sure hundreds of CMOs will shell out thousands to attend the yakfest, hoping to gain an edge and keep their jobs.

Why does it seem that all of these events are led by Baby Boomers who’ve never skated, surfed, played Tekken 6, or shopped at Karmaloop? I say spend your $2,000 to come on down to Jax Beach and holla at these kids surfing by the pier on spring break instead.

According to the South by Southwest interactive festival Web site, a similar panel at that conference discussed and nominated “ten terrible ad campaigns that abused the ideals of people-powered media.” The campaigns the panelists roasted included:

• Businesses pretending to be bloggers.
• Businesses pretending to be journalists.
• Businesses pretending to be “Joe Blow” in order to flog their products in blog comments.
• Bloggers and vloggers who turn out to be paid floggers.

Trouble is, the panel voting on “The Worst of the Worst in Social Media Marketing for 2007” included reps from companies that oh-so carefully arrange for product pitches on blogs.

As Jack Nicholson said, “My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch.”

My advice to those who want the scoop on social media and reaching the elusive GenY:
#1: Don’t lie.
#2: Don’t have others shill, lie, and pretend to be authentic for you. You will be discovered, and you will probably regret it.
#3: Be authentic. If you are a zillion dollar global leviathan, own it, be it, learn to love yourself. Don’t try to be something you’re not. It’s as repelling as grandma wearing Zoë Bikini. You don’t want to see it, and neither does GenY.

Did any of the companies mentioned in this blog (except of course my fulltime employer, MarketingExperiments) pay me for it? Not a chance.

For more on this subject, check out the MarketingExperiments Creed – our attempt at an in-house reminder to keep it real. And let us know if you’ll be dropping by the beach. Our own GenY crew just got a new grill and they’re waxing their boards for these killer waves.

According to a new Nielsen Mobile report, 90% of cell phone users with data services think pushing ads to their device is unacceptable. (Of course, irritation with the process didn’t stop half of those who had seen an ad from responding).

Now, at least two companies are working on technology that enables cell phone users to easily pull digital content to their phones when they want it instead.

They’ve created a two-dimensional code (think UPS packages -- and see the "Space Invaders" image at left) that, when photographed with a cell phone camera and processed with onboard software, pulls content to the user from pre-loaded databases. Essentially, it turns your cell phone into a barcode scanner, but better.

Any business using the technology can upload content to the system then create a unique 2D code to use on packaging, billboards, flyers, newspaper and magazine ads, display windows—anywhere it can be photographed with a phone camera.

For example, Mobile Discovery, a company associated with Case Western Reserve University and Scanbuy, partnered with cell service providers and Billboard magazine to use the 2D code in an ad for a new album. Readers photographing the code instantly received content such as sample songs without having to type in URLs or use search services.

The beta test project requires users to download the software to their phones, but Mobile Discovery envisions a day when the software comes bundled on all new cell phones.

Scanbuy says the marketing applications are virtually limitless, from using it on business cards to buying tickets or entering contests to accessing the latest bus schedule.

I can certainly picture it in viral campaigns – think 2D code stickers on light poles, bumper stickers, and fast food packaging.

Will it catch on as the latest marketing craze? What do you think, mobile marketers?

Mission: Take a Web site with multiple domain names, channels, and products, and make it sleek, sexy, and ready for boffo business (in other words, optimized).

The twist? This major optimization project has to be completed and live in mere weeks–when the site will get a tidal wave of traffic from its promotion on an upcoming TV series.

At today’s Training and Solutions Session (TSS), analysts and managers from the MarketingExperiments science and journal teams learned several techniques to help us deconstruct and solve online marketing challenges like these.

The question posed by Dr. Flint McGlaughlin: “What is the most effective way to help [the company] capture the highest yield from the TV opportunity?”

Put another way: What can we, or should we, change or test–with only four weeks until showtime? We can’t test everything that needs to change.

As most marketing researchers know, to achieve confidence in your findings, a test must have run a certain number of cycles. Four weeks isn’t much time to complete valid tests. Within these constraints, Flint asked, what is the best that we can accomplish?

After hearing which elements the group would change first, Flint recommended a simple, linear “ultimately optimizable” approach:

• Pare down the number of confusing, competing URLs;
• Sequence the offers, highlighting the product being advertised during primetime;
• Create a moderately-priced subscription offer to complement the main product; and
• Capture email addresses at every opportunity along the transaction path.

The thinking behind that approach: Maximize simplicity and revenue. And focus on the areas with the biggest potential impact given the time crunch.

Which of these changes will be implemented? How well will they meet the objectives? Will these ideas continue to drive revenue long after the series ends its run? That’s why they call it a cliffhanger.

Tune into our summer or fall Web Clinics for the answers…