We Are Humans, Not Robots. Thoughts on Optimizing Campaigns

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Today we’re thrilled to feature a guest post by our own Brian Pohuski. As manager of Interaction Design at Randall-Reilly, Brian’s team builds and optimizes thousands of campaign websites, microsites, and landing pages — reaching millions of visitors per month. He is passionate about user experience, obsessed with information architecture, and proud to be a third-generation coder.
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People enjoy easy-to-read information they can relate to.
Suppose you are telling a friend about a new position or product/service. How would you explain the job or product? What is some of the language you might use? By observing our day-to-day conversations, we can begin to understand the importance of framing our content in natural language.
Humanizing information is key.
Often, companies get too wrapped up with details and lose sight of one simple fact: We enjoy natural communication.
That does not mean immediately remove all bulleted lists on every page. Short, to-the-point information has tremendous value for readers, but we must always remember who our audience is and how we are communicating. There is a time and place for everything, and too often, I see clients make the mistake of displaying key information without considering the human element.
How do we make sure changes are helping and not hurting conversions? Test!
Here are some simple steps to follow when performing a test:

  1. Determine the objective
  2. Analyze the audience
  3. Form a hypothesis
  4. Test
  5. Implement changes (if test is positive)
  6. Review

Here at Randall-Reilly, we perform A/B and multivariate tests to get positive results for our clients every day. Whether big or small, conversion increases mean more money in your pocket, and we continually strive to improve and serve you better.

Consider a recent A/B test we performed:

A client was offering solid features for a job posting; however, we hypothesized users were not engaging with this industry-standard set of information.
What we did:
We changed the landing page headline to reflect company values in a conversational and casual way. Our thought, was this: The potential applicant would become more engaged with information simply by humanizing the most significant headline.
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Original (Control)

 
Regional, Daily Turn Driving Jobs
$3,000 Sign-On Bonus
Pay up to $0.43 per mile
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New (Test)

 
Drive the Future
Modern Tech. Great Pay.
Earn up to 43¢/mile for daily turn drivers.
What was the result of this small change?
We achieved 1.56 percent in conversion improvement. While this might not seem significant, we perform additional tests to combine small improvements into big gains over a campaign’s lifespan.
Meticulous testing and attention to detail are the keys to optimizing (and humanizing) a campaign.
 
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