Interestingly, Ulta Beauty isn’t standing alone in this trend. The numbers for in-store shopping soared to a staggering 1 trillion dollars.

It appears that in the post-COVID era, people are stepping out to local shops. But here’s the digital twist – before hitting the pavement, 2 out of 3 American consumers are firing up their devices and typing something like “XYZ near me” in search of the perfect shop and product combo. (Quote and stats from holiday shopping insights by Think with Google)

This means that for businesses with brick-and-mortar stores, it’s high time to focus on conversion rate optimization (CRO) for local search and enhance the customer journey for local customers. You wouldn’t want the majority of consumers searching for the products you sell and not finding your store or visiting your website only to drop off.

In this blog post, we’ll delve into the concept of CRO for local search. You will also get to read some tips to elevate your strategy and learn how to leverage VWO for effective optimization. Let’s get started!

What is conversion rate optimization for local search?

The typical customer journey for local search usually kicks off with typing in casual queries like “near me”, or “best XYZ store in the city”. Alternatively, individuals may explore online directories. From there, it’s all about sifting through ratings and reviews, ultimately shortlisting businesses with the highest number of positive reviews and favorable reviews. 

Following this, they may choose to either visit the website or get directions to the store. When on the website, the usual practice is to seek additional information about the business before taking desired action such as completing a form, scheduling a call, or any other desired conversion method as outlined by the business.

CRO for local search starts with dissecting the customer journey mentioned earlier. It involves identifying any leaks in the conversion process and then implementing targeted campaigns to enhance it. Picture it like a detective story for your business – finding the weak points and strengthening them.

For instance, you might launch an SEO campaign aimed at boosting ratings, ensuring that positive experiences are prominently showcased. Simultaneously, improving the website’s user interface becomes crucial – making it a smooth and engaging experience for visitors. A/B testing different versions of the homepage is another smart move, figuring out what resonates best with your local audience.

In the world of local search, CRO is about understanding the journey, plugging any leaks, and fine-tuning each step to turn potential customers into happy patrons. Now, let’s delve into some effective strategies to inspire and elevate your local search CRO efforts.

Strategies to implement for local search CRO

a. Run campaigns to get more reviews as part of local SEO optimization

When a potential customer searches for your business or service in their city—say, by entering “Top salons in Akron”— they receive local search results of Google business profiles of salons with the best ratings and the highest number of reviews are prominently featured in the list.

Therefore, for a business aiming to excel in local search, it’s crucial to prioritize the accumulation of positive reviews and high ratings. To kickstart this process, consider implementing the following strategies:

i. Offer incentives

Provide coupons or discount vouchers for future purchases as a reward for customers who share a review or rating. This not only encourages feedback but also builds customer loyalty.

ii. Digital prompting

Apart from face-to-face requests to share a review, you can ask customers for their contact information during the transaction. Then, you can follow up with emails or messages, kindly requesting them to share their experience through reviews or ratings.

iii. Contests and draws

Engage your audience by running contests. Encourage participation by asking people to share their experiences for a chance to enter a lucky draw. This not only boosts reviews but also creates a sense of excitement among customers.

These are simple steps to kickstart your efforts. But is it all worth it? Let me share a compelling case study that illustrates the reasons to invest in this endeavor.

Ted’s Montana Grill, an American restaurant chain, discovered that a staggering 92% of their potential customers relied on online reviews to inform their decisions when choosing a local outlet. This significant statistic underscores the importance for any company to pay attention.

To enhance the local conversion rate, the team collaborated with a customer acquisition tool to monitor and respond to reviews across 41 Ted’s Montana Grill locations, spanning 466 online listings and business pages. A dedicated team of 61 employees oversaw review tracking for these restaurant locations and online pages.

The company implemented a multi-pronged approach to encourage customer reviews, utilizing channels such as email, SMS, in-store kiosks, printed receipts, QR codes, and online landing pages. An example of the email communication sent to customers is shown below.

This concerted effort resulted in an impressive 60,000+ reviews within six months. This not only optimized their local search presence but also provided valuable insights for the corporate team to identify locations requiring attention and enhance their overall operations. This case study on local SEO best practices underscores that gathering positive reviews and ratings is crucial not only for small businesses but also for large corporations.

By prioritizing customer feedback and employing strategies to encourage reviews, companies can enhance their local search visibility, foster customer loyalty, and ultimately drive more conversions.

b. Customize website landing page experience for local search

The heart of a potential customer’s local search intent lies in understanding the business’s relevance to the locals and how it is perceived by others in the city or area. Therefore, it is crucial to customize the page experience to be exclusively relevant to the local audience. Here are some effective ways to achieve this:

i. Build trust with testimonials and reviews

Add testimonials and reviews directly on the landing page to instill trust. Consider incorporating a widget that prominently displays ratings and reviews received.

ii. Localize your copy

Craft the copy of the landing page using local keywords and phrases. This creates a sense of familiarity for visitors, making them feel more connected to your business.

iii. Highlight local initiatives

Showcase your conducted events in the city through a dedicated section featuring carousel photos. This visual representation emphasizes your local presence and involvement.

iv. Quantify local impact

To further build trust, provide statistics on the number of clients served in the city, if data is available. Highlighting your local impact adds credibility and reinforces your commitment to the community.

A stellar example of a global brand optimizing its website for local search is Nike. The keyword “Nike NYC,” a popular local search term in New York, garners thousands of searches monthly. In response, Nike has tailored the visitor experience with a dedicated landing page for this specific query.

Upon visiting the page, the first fold features an image of New Yorkers running with Nike gear on a local street. The accompanying copy promotes a reward program exclusive to the city, creating immediate interest and showcasing the brand’s impact on the local community. This approach not only caters to the local audience but also reinforces Nike’s connection and commitment to the vibrant energy of New York City.

Additionally, the landing page features a section highlighting weekly running events in the city, accompanied by a social media widget displaying photos from previous meets. This not only enhances the brand’s image but also underscores its active involvement in serving the local community.

Towards the bottom of the page, there is a clear call-to-action (CTA) encouraging website visitors to locate Nike stores in New York. The CTA provides specific details about the types of products available in these stores, ensuring that potential customers have the information they need for an informed decision. This strategic placement aligns with local search intent, helping users seamlessly transition from online engagement to in-store visits.

Nike’s approach serves as a prime example of how attuning to local search intent elevates brand perception, fosters community engagement, and smoothly navigates potential customers from online interest to offline action. This comprehensive strategy positions businesses to thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of local search.

c. Monitor and test website experiences to improve local search experience

The website is optimized for local SEO and provides a tailored experience, successfully attracting traffic from both organic and paid searches; however, there’s more to be done. The next crucial step involves understanding how visitors from specific locations interact with the website through behavior analytics. Utilizing tools such as heatmaps, session recordings, form analysis, and surveys allows for a detailed examination of the reasons behind particular visitor behaviors.

To help you understand the scope of the behavior analysis, let’s delve into a hypothetical example. A company aimed to assess the engagement rate of its homepage, prompting the backend team to employ scrollmap tracking—a type of heatmap. This analysis aimed to understand how many visitors engaged with the page relative to its scroll depth. Here’s a snapshot of the scrollmap report from VWO:

The report reveals a noteworthy observation: 96% of visitors drop off at the 50% scroll depth. This insight prompts the team to consider hypotheses for enhancing user engagement. For instance, if a crucial CTA is positioned just below this point, they might contemplate moving it upward on the page or incorporating an eye-catching element or widget to encourage users to continue scrolling.

Other tools, such as session recordings, provide insights into the mouse flow patterns of visitors. Form analytics offer a detailed report on user pain points during form submissions, while surveys enable direct feedback from visitors.

These tools collectively provide a qualitative report on users’ experiences. Leveraging this information, you can create new and improved experiences or experiments (A/B test, Split test, Multivariate test) with innovative features to enhance overall user satisfaction.

Now, let’s delve into another hypothetical scenario. Imagine a brand with multiple coffee shops in different cities, aiming to generate leads for its upcoming coffee festival in New York and New Orleans. Take a look at the registration page:

Suppose the form analysis reports indicate hesitations at the address fields, and the scrollmap report aligns with most visitors leaving the page at the address field.

In response, the marketing team can hypothesize that users might be abandoning the registration form due to privacy concerns about sharing their addresses. To test this hypothesis, the team decides to run an A/B test with a variation that removes the address fields, anticipating an uplift in the form conversion rates.

It’s important to note that this is a one-time optimization. For sustained improvement in website experience and alignment with visitor expectations, periodic behavior analysis becomes crucial. For such, long-term optimization strategies, such as an experimentation loop, can prove invaluable. (You can dive deeper into the concept of an experimentation loop in our dedicated blog post to know more.)

Having explored strategies from the search results page to landing page experiences, let’s now examine how VWO can significantly contribute to the success of your local search optimization campaign.

Using VWO for local search optimization

VWO is an all-encompassing experimentation platform designed to enhance the entire digital touchpoint experience. When it comes to local search optimization, VWO Insights proves invaluable by providing robust behavior analytics features such as heatmaps, form analytics, session recordings, and surveys.

If your website attracts visitors from various cities and you specifically aim to optimize the experience for a particular city, VWO has you covered. The platform offers a segmentation option for both VWO heatmap and VWO session recordings. By selecting the desired city through the custom segment option, you can effortlessly generate targeted reports and insights.

As you navigate through the reports, you can make a note of your observations on the right side of the dashboard, leveraging them for hypothesis creation in preparation for an A/B test.

Now, the question arises: Can VWO facilitate A/B testing and rollout new experiences directly from the same dashboard and specifically for the chosen city? The answer is a resounding yes.

Building upon the insights gleaned from behavior analytics, you can execute an A/B test using VWO Testing, tailored for the selected city with the help of the pre-segmentation feature. Within the test setup section, under “Audience and Traffic,” you can designate the city for your A/B test. This precise targeting ensures that you optimize the experience for locals in that specific area without impacting users from other locations.

To deploy a new experience, VWO offers VWO Web Rollouts. Where you can just create your new experience with an intuitive visual editor and deploy it for your location via the custom segments. Here is a quick overview of VWO Web Rollouts:

Isn’t local search CRO a breeze with these features? The amazing part is that you can test it out for free, gaining firsthand experience of how seamlessly it aligns with your distinct business goals and website requirements. If you’re intrigued, here’s your opportunity to seize a 30-day free trial.

Conclusion

Local search conversion rate optimization proves to be a crucial strategy for businesses with physical stores in the post-COVID landscape. By gaining a comprehensive understanding of the customer journey and identifying conversion bottlenecks in digital marketing strategy, businesses can effortlessly convert potential customers into satisfied patrons. CRO campaigns for local search not only result in increased sales but also fortify customer loyalty, positioning local businesses for sustained success in the competitive local market.

Yes, that’s an astounding fact. 

But here’s the scoop – it’s not just a marketing tech fiesta; every corner of the B2B world is buzzing with competition, especially in the post-COVID digital boom.

What does this mean?

If you’re steering a digital ship in the B2B sea, you’ve got to be tip-top in what you offer and how you offer it. Any hiccup in meeting your website visitors or potential customers’ expectations along the sales cycles is an open invitation for your rivals to swoop in.

That’s why, more than ever, it’s high time to bet big on conversion rate optimization (CRO) to plug leaks in your conversion funnel and ensure your competitors don’t sneak in and snatch your share. 

In this blog post, you’ll delve into essential concepts, effective strategies, and the utilization of VWO as a powerful tool for B2B conversion rate Optimization (CRO).

So, buckle up, and let’s dive in.

What is B2B conversion rate optimization?

Conversion rate optimization in B2B entails fine-tuning the website or any digital touchpoint experience. This optimization is rooted in behavioral or analytical data, aiming for a substantial uplift in the website’s overall performance. The desired improvements extend to key metrics, be it ROI, lead generation, or achieving any other specific business objective. 

Given the elongated purchase cycles in B2B scenarios, CRO takes on added significance. Maintaining a consistent and relevant digital experience is paramount. On top of this, even a minor dip in conversion rates can reverberate significantly in terms of monetary value. So, optimizing for success is not just a preference; it’s a strategic imperative!

Let’s delve into how conversion rate optimization campaigns are practically executed, using the example of VWO, a B2B SaaS product that is into CRO and experimentation.

After creating a hypothesis for increasing conversion based on behavior and web analytics data of the home page, you can run several CRO campaigns like,

• Content optimization campaign: Crafting new H1 heading (Optimize digital experiences & maximize conversions) and text to enhance keyword ranking, focusing on primary terms such as A/B testing, personalization, etc.
• A/B test campaigns: Experimenting with new colors or text for “Request Demo” and “Try VWO for Free” calls-to-action (CTAs). Testing variations in the navigation menu or lead generation forms that pop up after clicking both CTAs.
• Personalization campaigns: Tailoring content based on client backgrounds, personalizing H1 heading based on the client’s industry like Edtech, eCommerce, etc.
• Server-side experimentation campaign: Conducting complex experiments, especially after visitors transition to paying customers, like testing the B2B product features.
• Website experience enhancement campaign: Enhancing the SaaS website experience by adding interactive widgets, chatbots, pop-up forms, etc.

These CRO campaign types are just to give you an idea and are not exhaustive. All these campaigns aim to make the visitor’s experience delightful and increase the likelihood of conversions. Now let’s explore some strategies to inspire your B2B conversion rate optimization efforts.

Five B2B conversion rate optimization strategies

Exploring the B2B landscape involves a distinct set of challenges, especially given the significant financial stakes in play. In B2B scenarios, a lead’s decision to sign up or engage with a salesperson is a result of careful research and a detailed analysis of the capabilities and success track record of the B2B product. Additionally, they seek a seamless experience that allows them to efficiently move to the next steps, such as scheduling a call or accessing valuable resources like whitepapers. In light of this distinctive context, here are some effective B2B CRO strategies.

a. Use a customer data platform (CDP) for comprehensive data insights

A CDP consolidates data from multiple sources, processes it, combines it, and cleans it, providing a comprehensive view of individual customer profiles or datasets for behavior trends.

The significance of a CDP lies in laying the foundation for all your CRO programs. By deriving insights from data-backed hypotheses, you gain the ability to monitor the entire customer journey and identify weaknesses within it. This is instrumental in crafting effective CRO strategies.

While a CDP itself might not directly pique the interest of potential clients or address their queries, it serves as a powerful tool for understanding the reasons behind challenges in engaging or converting them. It acts as a diagnostic tool, allowing you to uncover insights to inform targeted strategies to enhance customer experience and drive conversions. 

For example, your CDP report highlights an underperforming segment from Japan, identified through data from web analytics tools like GA4. To delve deeper into the issues faced by this segment, you integrate your CDP with a behavior analytics tool. On the behavior analytics tool, you can watch heatmap session recordings for the corresponding segment to gain deeper insights. 

For instance, if the heatmap reveals a significant drop-off in the testimonial section, it indicates a potential trust issue. In response, you can tailor your content strategy by adding testimonials from Japan or incorporating ratings from trusted sources in the region. Alternatively, if the drop-off occurs in the first-fold, you may need a dedicated landing page for the Japan geography.

So, you see, the CDP serves as a central hub for streamlined data management. It allows you to speed up the process of pinpointing user problems, understanding their behavior intricacies, and derive actionable insights. Armed with this information, you’re well-equipped to create targeted and engaging CRO campaigns that directly address the pain points identified through the data analysis process.

b. Showcase the product’s credibility through the copy and website elements.

Potential clients often delve into the history and past performance of a company during the early stages of product research. Therefore, your landing pages should strategically convey the credibility of your product through compelling copy.

Take, for instance, the landing page of Semrush.

Semrush strategically showcases that its product is trusted by a multitude of companies, including a significant number of Fortune 500 companies. What’s noteworthy is that the credibility isn’t merely asserted through text; it’s backed up with compelling statistics.

As a B2B company, crafting copy for your website landing page that effectively highlights your credibility is a crucial step. Consider A/B testing different variations of your copy to gauge the impact it makes on your audience. For example, Basecamp, a project management software, conducted A/B tests with a variation of their landing page featuring a copy showcasing their client base in the first fold. The result? An average uplift of 7.82% based on four tests.

c. Utilize generative AI tools to scale up CRO

Generative AI is rapidly transforming various business functions, and CRO is no exception. This innovative technology is revolutionizing key aspects of CRO, such as data collection, customer feedback/delight, experimentation, and personalization, leading to faster and more effective results in meeting customer expectations and enhancing their experience.

Take, for instance, Intercom’s use of generative AI in the form of a chatbot named Fin. Visitors can interact with Fin to seek answers to their queries. While promoting Fin is one goal, it also serves the purpose of providing potential leads with quicker resolutions to their inquiries.

With this approach, potential leads experience shorter waiting times—seconds rather than minutes. This automation contributes to optimizing human resources by reducing the workload on the marketing and sales teams. Furthermore, potential clients benefit from quicker doubt resolution, streamlining their research process and increasing the likelihood of moving forward with free trials, demos, or sales calls.

Another example of a generative AI-based tool for CRO is VWO Testing-Web. It allows you to generate optimization ideas based on website pages, reducing the time spent on the idea generation stage and easing the strain on the CRO team. This tool provides actionable hypotheses for pages, streamlining the CRO team’s work and increasing the A/B test rate while ensuring test quality.

If you are interested, you can learn more about this AI-based product update.

Embracing generative AI in your CRO strategy brings forth a wave of efficiency, innovation, and quicker responses, ensuring a seamless journey for your potential leads. Whether it’s Intercom’s Fin providing instant answers or VWO Testing-Web streamlining hypothesis generation, these AI-powered tools open doors to faster optimization and enhanced user experiences. As you venture into the realm of CRO, consider integrating these cutting-edge solutions to stay at the forefront of technological advancements and elevate your conversion optimization initiatives.

d. Build an experimentation loop for lead generation

For any B2B organization, inbound marketing lead generation from the website is a pivotal aspect. Instead of conducting random A/B tests, relying on an experimentation loop proves more effective. 

But what exactly does the experimentation loop entail? It’s a systematic process where you conduct an initial A/B test and then proceed to run a subsequent experimentation campaign based on hypotheses derived from the results of the preceding test. Let’s understand it through an example.

Imagine you have a standard first-fold landing page featuring an H1 heading, followed by subtext, and a clear call-to-action (CTA) prompting visitors to either book a demo or avail of a free trial. It might look something like this:

Now, let’s say you conduct a standard A/B test, perhaps altering the H1 heading or subtext. Upon concluding the test, you observe an improvement in the conversion rate of the CTA. Instead of concluding the experimentation process, the experimentation loop approach involves delving deeper into the A/B test reports using various filters and segments. 

For example, your analysis may unveil that a particular geographical segment is lagging in performance compared to others. In response, you can kick off a personalization campaign specifically tailored to this geography. Alternatively, you might initiate another A/B test, adjusting headings to incorporate keywords relevant to the target audience in that specific region or include product information that resonates with this particular segment. This strategic iteration is likely to deliver an additional boost to your conversion rate. 

By adopting the experimentation loop approach, you not only capitalize on the positive outcomes of your initial A/B test but also harness the insights gained to refine and optimize further. This iterative process ensures a more nuanced understanding of user behavior, allowing you to implement targeted strategies that address specific challenges or opportunities uncovered during the initial testing phase.

e. Make your lead generation form less overwhelming with a multi-step format

At the heart of any digital interaction lies the lead form—a pivotal element that marks the initiation of a potential business relationship. To foster a seamless journey for customers venturing into this realm, the lead generation process must be user-friendly and facilitate progression to the next steps, such as booking a demo call or accessing a free hands-on demo.

While the ideal scenario involves a concise form with fewer fields, many B2B companies face the challenge of seeking extensive information to deliver a highly personalized experience in subsequent stages. However, presenting a single form with numerous fields may overwhelm visitors, resulting in drop-offs.

To address this dilemma, a strategic approach involves implementing a multistep lead generation form. This innovative solution breaks down a multi-field form into manageable segments, mitigating the perceived intimidation and creating a positive user experience. By allowing customers and leads to input their information in smaller, more digestible chunks, this approach enhances user satisfaction and, ultimately, boosts conversion rates.

A compelling illustration of the effectiveness of a multistep lead generation form is evident in the case of VentureHarbour, a bootstrapped venture studio. The firm strategically implemented a multi-step signup form on its website, orchestrating the sequence to commence with steps that demanded minimal effort to complete.

The impact was remarkable. The transition from a single-step to a multi-step form made their conversion rate vary from a modest 0.96% to an impressive 8.1%, underscoring the potency of this approach in significantly enhancing user engagement and average conversion rate.

Moreover, incorporating periodic analysis of the form using form analytics tools allows you to closely monitor its performance. By leveraging insights gained through analysis, you can formulate hypotheses to further improve the form and initiate targeted CRO campaigns for continuous optimization.

When it comes to achieving success in B2B CRO, crafting a solid plan is imperative. The strategies discussed above can greatly enrich and guide you toward your goals. However, having the right tool is crucial for effective implementation. If you’re still in search of the ideal tool or considering alternatives, here’s essential information about VWO that you shouldn’t overlook.

Using VWO for effective B2B conversion rate optimization

From behavior analysis to personalization, VWO stands out as a comprehensive CRO platform, offering a diverse set of features to elevate your CRO endeavors. Leveraging VWO Insights, you can employ scrollmaps, heatmaps, form analysis, and surveys to gain insights into visitor behavior and understand the reasons behind drop-offs. The seamless integration allows you to transition from behavior analysis to creating hypotheses directly within the same dashboard. Subsequently, you can execute A/B tests using VWO Testing or run a FullStack A/B test. 

Also, VWO enables you to launch personalization campaigns through VWO Personalize. What sets VWO apart is its incorporation of VWO Data 360 (CDP), facilitating easy data management.

Adding to its impressive array of capabilities, VWO embraces generative AI to generate optimization ideas, create survey reports, suggest text, and promise much more in its evolving pipeline of features.

Curious about the success track record for B2B organizations? Let’s delve into a compelling case study involving VWO Experimentation Suites.

Hubstaff, a B2B company specializing in time tracking and project management software received hundreds of thousands of visitors on the homepage. Thus, even a slight dip in the conversion rate could translate to significant revenue loss. To address this concern and elevate its conversion rate, Hubstaff turned to VWO.

The Hubstaff team kicked off the improvement process by conducting a comprehensive behavior analysis of the homepage using VWO Insights. The insights derived from this analysis prompted them to embark on a complete redesign of the homepage.

Here’s a glimpse of the original homepage:

And here’s the variation with the new design:

The test ran for three months, encompassing a total of 259k visitors across the two pages involved. The result? The variation recorded a remarkable 49% increase in sign-ups, showcasing the effectiveness of VWO experimentation suites.

If these results have piqued your interest and you’re eager to explore more of VWO’s capabilities, here’s a 30-day free trial for you. It grants access to all the features and capabilities that VWO has to offer. So, do give it a try. 

In conclusion

B2B CRO is a must for any business looking to thrive in the post-COVID digital landscape. Fine-tuning the website or any digital touchpoint experience based on behavioral or analytical data can lead to a significant uplift in the website’s overall performance. 

By implementing effective CRO strategies like using a CDP, personalization, A/B testing, content optimization, and website experience enhancement, businesses can provide relevant and necessary information to the B2B lead along with a hassle-free experience to move forward in the sales funnel. With the help of powerful tools like VWO, businesses can drive measurable results, keep up with conversion rate benchmarks, and stay ahead of the competition.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

There could be many reasons for decreasing conversions and low click-through rates. In this blog, we’ll concentrate on three common scenarios that might be causing issues, regardless of your industry.

i. Form flow woes: You have a multi-field form to generate leads, but it’s not performing well and falling short of achieving the business objective of lead generation.

ii. Engagement deficit: Your content isn’t engaging and converting visitors to leads.

iii. Navigation flaws: Users struggle to find products from your navigation menu that has multiple categories.

Before making alterations to the current user experience or launching A/B tests to address these issues, it’s crucial to have a precise understanding of what’s going wrong. The figures derived from a web analytics tool merely serve as symptoms; uncovering the root cause of the problem involves delving into the user experience when they decide not to convert. This is precisely where a behavior analytics tool proves to be invaluable.

So, how can a comprehensive tool like VWO Insights-Web with vast application assist in tackling these three challenges? Let’s delve into it with the help of three case studies featuring high-growth businesses that successfully overcame these issues using the tool.

Note: Here’s a guide for you to refer to when you come across various features of VWO Insights-Web in this blog. It provides details of how these VWO features work cohesively for behavior analysis.

Success stories: How brands harness VWO Insights-Web to transform challenges into triumphs

Qualicorp discovered a form-filling conundrum: Indistinct field names

Qualicorp, a healthcare organization based in Brazil, aimed to enhance lead generation and boost conversions on their health insurance plans page. However, the page was underperforming. Enter VWO Form Analytics from VWO Insights-Web, which proved instrumental in analyzing the user experience.

The form analytics features provided valuable insights into user pain points, tracking metrics such as hesitation rate, ragged clicks, dead clicks, completion time, completion rate, and more. Upon analysis, it became evident that one of the factors contributing to the low form-fill rate was the need for discernible field names during the form-filling process. This, in turn, resulted in fewer users making it to the health insurance plans page.

In response to this insight, Qualicorp implemented an A/B test featuring a new design. The results were impressive, with the new design boosting the conversion rate by a substantial 16.93% in the primary goal.

Read the full case study.

Encyclopedia Britannica Group found blue to be the most engaging link color

The Encyclopedia Britannica Group, a venerable institution with over 250 years of global knowledge leadership, strives to ignite curiosity and enhance engagement with its content to cultivate a robust user base and drive subscriptions.

To optimize their approach, the marketing team at the group employed A/B testing through VWO Testing, experimenting with three colors—red, orange, and blue (control)—for in-line article links, coupled with calls to action, to determine the most effective option. Subsequently, the team utilized VWO Session Recordings to delve into click behavior, and mouse flow in order to see how users perceived these different colors. 

During this analysis, a noteworthy observation emerged: many users attempted to click on words highlighted in blue, even though these words weren’t actual links. Recognizing this user behavior, the team decided to keep the blue color for the actual links, resulting in a remarkable 10% improvement in their click-through rate. 

Additionally, the team harnessed VWO On-Page Survey capability to uncover the most pressing inquiries users had about the topic. Armed with this valuable insight, the company took proactive steps by designing an accordion feature on its website, showcasing the top Q&As derived from the survey for each article. The outcome was impressive, with over 23% of users engaging with the accordion to access answers to their questions.

Read the full case study.

Shopclues improved the product searching process on the navigation bar by focusing on user feedback

Shopclues, a prominent e-commerce player in India catering to 42 million visitors, took a strategic approach to enhance its Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) initiatives. In a meticulous analysis of each element, the focus was on tracking conversion signals. The tool of choice for this endeavor was VWO Insights -Web, utilized to delve into user behavior on the category page.

Through VWO Heatmap analysis, it became evident that filters such as “new arrivals,” “best selling,” and “price sorting” were capturing the majority of user attention. Users had to navigate by clicking on these filters and then sifting through products to find what they were looking for.

To streamline this process, Shopclues’ CRO team leveraged VWO On-Page Surveys to directly gather feedback from visitors regarding these filters. Armed with valuable insights, a variation was crafted that eliminated the extra step for users. This new approach presented visitors with products matching their chosen filters right away in a horizontal display in the navigation.

The new top navigation bar delivered 50% more CTR. Not only did the improvement in visits-to-order (48% from the category page) translate to higher revenue, but it also improved the quality of visits.

Read the full case study.

These three case studies serve as compelling illustrations of how VWO Insights-Web proves to be a valuable tool in addressing common challenges across diverse industries. It excels in pinpointing the root causes behind low conversion rates, showcasing the versatility and effectiveness of this solution.

And does VWO Insights-Web stop here? Not at all; there’s more to explore and leverage.

Beyond optimization: VWO keeps a watchful eye on your user experience

Imagine you’ve honed your user experience using data from VWO Insights-Web or another tool, implementing a series of optimization campaigns over a quarter. As the quarter concludes, assessing the performance of these optimizations becomes crucial. How do you go about it? Well, VWO provides a solution – the Insights Dashboard. 

This tool empowers you to effortlessly track and analyze the effectiveness of your optimizations. The dashboard offers a comprehensive view, shedding light on friction points and experience scores derived from user satisfaction, delivering valuable insights into the performance of your enhancements.

Notably, you can easily identify pages with low scores and validate the reasons using heatmaps and scrollmaps. Furthermore, pinpointing visitor segments with low experience scores allows you to tailor customized plans for these segments.

This is just one application 

The dashboard is also invaluable in the early phases of behavior research, providing insights into friction points contributing to low conversion rates. 

Thus VWO Insights-Web provides comprehensive and versatile solutions throughout the entire lifecycle of website enhancement and optimization efforts. Let’s see what some of our clients have to say about the tool. 

Rave reviews: What users are saying about VWO Insights-Web

In conclusion

VWO Insights-Web is a tool that enables proactive and continuous monitoring of your website experience score. It empowers you to identify issues using features like heatmaps, session recordings, on-page surveys, and form analytics for low-performing pages and visitor segments. Once you formulate a hypothesis, you can seamlessly run an A/B test from the same platform and subsequently track the experience score. This makes it a one-stop shop for the entire experience optimization process.

So, if you’re ready to give it a try, here’s an all-inclusive 30-day free trial of VWO. It encompasses all the capabilities and features that will assist you in making informed business decisions when choosing an optimization tool.

In the pursuit of some trendy sneakers, Corey thought he hit the jackpot on an online fashion store. Everything seemed perfect – the ideal pair, the right price, you know the drill. However, that’s when things took a turn for the worse.

Upon clicking ‘Add to Cart,’ Corey confronted a dreaded account registration form. Numerous mandatory fields stared him in the face, and there was no quick option to log in with Google or Facebook. Given the morning rush, Corey wasn’t in the mood for a digital obstacle course. So, he decided to bail, thinking he’d just grab those sneakers from his usual store in the upcoming festive season.

As someone working hard to increase sales from your website, doesn’t it bug you that the e-commerce store missed out on a seriously promising lead? I mean, Corey visited from a search engine, so the SEO game was on point. Plus, he liked the sneakers and their pricing – total green lights for customer and product research. But then, bam, the website experience drops a red cross and just kind of ruins the vibe that other teams worked hard to build. 

If you find yourself empathetic to the described situation and want to steer clear of a similar fate for your website, it’s time to consider diving into behavior analytics. Also, if you find yourself in the dark about the intricacies of user behavior analysis and how it could be a solution, then this blog post is for you.  

We’re going to break down behavior analytics for you. We’ll start by introducing the concept, walk you through how it works as per business objectives, help you choose the right behavior-tracking tool, and why you should consider VWO for behavior analytics. 

Let’s roll!

What is behavior analytics?

Behavior analytics involves systematically tracking visitor interactions with a website and its critical components. The goal is to gain insights into how the website is perceived and identify any pain points that visitors may encounter. For example, the online fashion store that Corey visited could analyze how he hesitated when faced with the sign-up form. This analysis serves as a foundation for devising potential solutions to the identified issues.

With behavior analytics, you can dive into the visitor activity, like mouse flow, clicking patterns, scrolling habits, moments of hesitation, and even instances of frustration. The results of this analysis are then compiled and presented visually, providing a more nuanced understanding of customer engagement and potential pain points. Behavior analysis can be done using heatmap, clickmap, scrollmap, form analytics, session recordings, and surveys. 

Here is a short intro to each of these features in case it’s the first time you are reading these terms. Otherwise, you can move on to the next section. 

• Heatmap: A heatmap is like a color-coded map showing where visitors click (hotspots in red) or don’t click (spots in blue) on a website. It’s a quick visual snapshot of what’s popular and what’s not.
• Clickmaps: This is a type of heatmap that visually displays where visitors click on your website. They show the click activity on different elements, such as CTA buttons, images, text, and URLs.
• Scrollmap: This is a type of heatmap showing how visitors scroll on a webpage. It highlights the average depth of scrolling and pinpoints visitors’ drop-off on the web page in terms of percentage (Like 25% drop-off at this point.)
• Form analytics: This tracks how visitors interact with your website forms. It reveals who completed, abandoned, or hesitated during form submissions and even provides the time visitors took to fill them out.
• Session recording: This is a feature that captures visitor actions, including clicks, mouse movements, and page scrolling, providing a playback of their journey across the website.
• Surveys: This enables you to collect insights on a specific page or entire website by conducting surveys and asking visitors questions about their experience. 

Now, let’s delve into how you can gain insights into your customers’ experience through behavior analytics.

How to tap into customer experience with behavior analytics

To grasp how visitor behavior analytics can unravel the intricacies of your customers’ experiences, let’s take a journey akin to Corey at the fashion store to buy sneakers. We’ll construct a parallel experience for each stage of the funnel and then reconvene on the other side of the table to explore how behavior analytics can be instrumental in pinpointing potential friction points.

Top of the Funnel (ToFu):

The journey kicks off with a quest for insights on sneaker shopping, guiding to the fashion store’s blog addressing “What to look for when buying sneakers.” Within the blog, strategically placed CTAs in the middle and bottom prompt Corey to venture into the product list page titled “Our Best Sneakers.”

Middle of the Funnel (MoFu):

On the “Our Best Sneakers” page, Corey peruses a variety of sneakers and engages by clicking on the “View product” CTA for the selected sneaker.

Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu):

Upon discovering the ideal pair, Corey faces the pivotal decision to click “Add to Cart,” proceed with account creation, and ultimately make the purchase through the checkout page.

Now, armed with this breakdown, let’s use behavior analytics to dissect each stage and uncover those friction points that may have disrupted the flow.

Let’s start with web analytics

Before getting into behavior analysis, you can start with web analytics. With Google Analytics, you can set a funnel exploration report for each of the steps mentioned earlier. The completion event for ToFu is clicking on the “Our Best Sneakers” CTA from the mentioned blog, for MoFu, it’s “Clicking view product CTA,” and for BoFu, it’s making the purchase.

Once the data starts rolling in, you’ll have a clear view of the conversion rate and customer drop-off rate for each stage of the funnel. Now, let’s delve into how behavior analysis can come to the rescue, especially when you identify a stage where the drop-off exceeds our benchmark. 

Here, it’s a hypothetical scenario with an elevated drop-off at each funnel stage to illustrate how behavior analysis can be the key to uncovering those elusive pain points. 

Carrying out behavior analysis

a. Low conversion rate at the blog post

Suppose the blog is acing its ranking for the chosen keyword, and there’s a substantial influx of traffic. However, a notable chunk of visitors is detouring away from the blog post, failing to progress by clicking on “Our Best Sneakers.” Which is leaving a mark on the conversion rate, dragging it below the benchmark you’ve set.

Now, armed with behavior analysis features, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and uncover the reasons behind this diversion. Starting with the scrollmap, you can see how many visitors are dropping off by checking the percentage scroll depth. The scrollmap will allow you to find what percentage of visitors are dropping before seeing the first text CTA to the product listing page.

If the scrollmap reveals a significant number of visitors dropping before seeing the CTA and validates the drop-off at the funnel, you can formulate a hypothesis. Perhaps moving the text CTA up the page or analyzing the content to ensure it remains engaging, steering clear of lengthy paragraphs or text-heavy sections, could be potential avenues for improvement.

Suppose, visitors aren’t dropping off, and the content keeps them engaged. The next stop in the analysis is the heatmap reports. 

These reports can shed light on how actively visitors are interacting with the text CTAs. If the CTA’s texts are indicated by a cool blue hue in the heatmap, it might be time to craft a hypothesis. To amp up engagement, you can consider tweaking the CTA text, experimenting with different colors, transforming it into a prominent CTA image banner, or even exploring the option of removing the CTAs and introducing a floating side widget.

So, you see scrollmaps helped in figuring out how visitors were engaging with the content, and heatmaps gave clues on how well the CTAs are doing and if their position on the page is hitting the mark.

b. High drop-off at the product listing page

Suppose, visitors are bouncing off the product listing page. In this scenario, you dive into the reports of heatmaps and clickmaps. If you spot a trend of lack of clicks on all CTAs of the listed product, it might be time to redesign CTAs to catch the eye and be super user-friendly. To double-check, you can peek into some session recordings to see if visitors are casually scrolling past those CTAs before. Also, this might help you understand the role of the product image size (whether visitors are trying to click on them to expand.)

Now, if the clickmap report on individual product lists doesn’t reveal a clear pattern or there is a significant difference in clicks between various products, you can ideate to bring the products with higher clicks up the page and bring new ones in place of the non-clicked ones. 

So you see, when you’re digging into visitor behavior on product listings with multiple CTAs, heatmaps, and clickmaps capture the overall trend of clicks. Meanwhile, session recordings precisely let you know how visitors are experiencing the page and whether those CTAs are being shrugged off.

c. Low purchase rate on the product page

If the quantitative analysis shows low purchases from the product page, start by studying heatmap and scrollmap data. This will help you understand how visitors navigate the product page and whether the add-to-cart button is getting enough clicks. If the clicks on the call-to-action (CTA) are low, consider redesigning either the CTA or the entire product page. Experiment with image positioning and CTA placement to see if it makes a difference.

If the add-to-cart CTA is performing well, move on to examining how new visitors interact with the registration form. Use the form analytics report to identify hesitation, frustration, rage clicks, and completion rates, assessing the overall form performance. If it’s not meeting expectations, brainstorm and implement new design ideas for the forms.

For a more in-depth analysis, explore session recordings to observe how visitors are filling out the form. This will provide additional insights for optimizing the registration process.

Don’t forget to use all of these features to assess the checkout page and determine if it’s user-friendly for payments. During the BoFu (Bottom of the Funnel), deploy exit surveys to gather direct insights from high-intent leads about their experience. At this stage, the response rate to surveys is high, and you get quality feedback on the most crucial stage of your funnel.  This information can guide improvements in design, pricing, and the overall checkout experience.

So, if you see, using multiple features for behavior analysis provides you with highly detailed insights into visitor behavior. These detailed observations can lead to valuable ideas for improvements or experimentation.

It’s worth noting that you don’t always have to kick off with web analytics. If you have just rolled out a new page experience, caught wind of issues through customer feedback, or noticed a decline in sales trends, you can go straight to behavior analytics. 

Your funnel might be different, but the above approach and the features used can act as an inspiration to you. Take a cue from it and strategically use these features to decode the behavior patterns of your customers or visitors. 

Now that we’ve covered the details on how to conduct behavior analysis, let’s progress to the next step: shortlisting a tool for the job.

How to choose a tool for behavior analytics

Selecting a behavior analytics tool is mainly driven by the need to address business-specific challenges, set goals, and the allocated budget for the project. In addition to these considerations, here are some guardrails to assist in narrowing down the tool.

a. Explore tools that give full-featured free trial or free plan

Securing a thorough free trial is incredibly valuable for understanding the capabilities of a prospecting tool. It offers insights into the customer service experience and how well it aligns with established practices, all without committing financially. Prioritizing such tools in the initial phase is a smart move for any business. Additionally, consider exploring tools with forever-free plans, especially if you have budget constraints or just setting up your behavior analytics roadmap.

b. Look for tools that provide instant value

Consider exploring tools that provide features with quick turnaround times. Take generative AI, for instance. Its popularity is on the rise, transforming the scale and speed at which businesses deliver solutions. Its applications are now extending to processes like behavior analytics. 

As your organization grows and places greater emphasis on behavior analytics for optimization, the manual task of sorting through each report for insights can become cumbersome. Fortunately, analytics tools are incorporating Generative AI solutions to automate insights derived from survey and heatmap reports, streamlining the entire process. It’s advisable to explore tools that offer features in this area to enhance the efficiency of your analytics endeavors.

c. Prioritize privacy-first tools

Privacy is a fundamental right of every human being, and when you are analyzing the behavior of your visitors, you must be using tools that are privacy first. Here are some features of a privacy-first tool:

• It allows data minimization, collecting only necessary information and obtaining user consent transparently. 
• Allows user whitelisting to limit account access based on user location or IP address, and access is restricted to only those designated areas.
• Offers security measures, including encryption and adherence to international privacy certifications, to ensure data protection. 
• The tool prioritizes data residency compliance. Additionally, it employs data anonymization techniques, respects deletion timelines, and incorporates privacy principles into product development, showcasing a privacy-by-design approach.
• Provides user consent mechanisms, opt-out options, and adherence to privacy laws such as GDPR, CCPA, and others for user privacy. 

In essence, a good privacy-first tool integrates transparency, user control, and robust security practices to uphold privacy standards effectively.

Now that you have a grasp of behavior analytics and tool selection, consider exploring VWO Insights – Web, a tool with compelling reasons to be on your radar, regardless of your business stage.

Behavior analytics with VWO Insights – Web

VWO Insights – Web stands out as an all-in-one product, providing heatmaps, session recordings, form field analytics, and on-page surveys. The setup process is straightforward, and its uniqueness lies in its approach to sampling visitors. Based on the volume of visitors purchased, it uniformly samples visitors from the traffic directed to your website (or specific pages where the VWO tracking code is present). This ensures a representative set of data across a month. Each visitor is counted as unique, meaning that once a visitor is sampled, all data points for heatmaps, recordings, and forms are collected for that visitor, regardless of how many times they return in that month. This approach ensures that your quota isn’t depleted simply because someone is visiting multiple times.

To add to its sophistication, VWO Insights-Web also provides access to generative AI features, such as Generative AI-based surveys. This empowers users with cutting-edge technology to achieve success swiftly. To illustrate, here’s how it generates survey reports using generative AI, streamlining the otherwise tedious process of extracting insights from a vast dataset:

Now, let’s talk pricing. VWO Insights-Web offers a forever free plan that covers up to 5000 monthly tracked users. Once you get used to the tool, you can explore and choose from plans like Growth, Pro, and Enterprise, tailoring your selection to the specific needs of your business. This flexibility allows you to scale up according to your requirements and budget as your business grows.

When it comes to safety and compliance, VWO stands out as the only tool among its competitors that adheres to stringent standards. It complies with GDPR, CCPA, PCI DSS, HIPAA, ISO 27001:2013, ISO 27001:2019 certification, and SOC 2 Type II. This commitment to various regulatory and security measures ensures that your data and user information are handled with the highest level of protection and following industry standards.

Feeling intrigued? Take the leap and give it a try with a full-featured 30-day free trial. If you prefer to learn more before making any decisions, check out the fascinating success story of the 250-year-old Encyclopedia Britannica. They used VWO Web-Insights to comprehend visitor behavior and successfully increased their click-through rate by 10% through experimentation. It’s a compelling testament to the tool’s effectiveness in real-world scenarios. Also, you can get a detailed read on how VWO handles behavior analytics.

Final thoughts

Creating a website with the best practices is a solid start, but the real insight comes when visitors start interacting. Analyzing their behavior becomes crucial, as imperfections and friction points may only become evident when you put yourself in your customers’ shoes to understand their experience.

It’s not uncommon to anticipate growth in A/B testing. But how did JellyTelly, an internet-based television network with a low sign-up rate on the homepage, achieve such explosive growth? Well, the agency that handled CRO for Jelly Telly started like everyone else—formulating hypotheses and creating a simplified homepage variation for the A/B test. What set them apart was their savvy move of segmenting only new visitors for the A/B test, leading to a solid uplift in results.

You might wonder what’s the deal with segmentation in the A/B test and why it makes such a significant impact.

To put it simply, segmentation is similar to the meticulous strategies employed by teams in the Big League, where they segment opponents’ team players based on recent form and performance and experiment with their gaming approach. No one-size-fits-all strategy here — on such a professional and super-competitive level, the teams adjust their game plan for both in-form and out-of-form segments of opponent batters and pitchers. This approach ensures that a team can apply strategies in different situations, understand players effectively, and utilize teammates’ potential.

Similarly, you can’t always have a general A/B testing approach when you have multiple segments of visitors on your digital platform. For example, it’s far more effective to A/B test your checkout page for frequently abandoning segments than all the visitors. Segmentation gives specific insights into visitor behavior and optimizes the bandwidth of your A/B testing tool. 

So, if you’re just dipping your toes to explore segmentation in A/B testing, you’ll definitely want to check out this blog post. We’ll cover the how-to’s of A/B test segmentation and best practices and show you how easy segmentation is when you are using a platform like VWO.

Let’s understand how to segment A/B tests.

When you’re running an A/B test, you can carry out pre and post-segmentation. Pre-segmentation is all about digging into existing visitor data to create visitor segments for a test. And post-segmentation? That’s breaking down the results you get from the test. Here are some commonly used filters to create segments for pre- and post-segmentation in A/B testing:

• Geo: USA, India, United Kingdom.
• Device: Mobile, tablet, and desktop.
• Traffic Source: Direct, search engine, referral, affiliates, social media, paid, etc.
• Activity: New visitor, returning visitor, event abandonment, event complete, etc.
• Other: Time of activity, browser.
• Custom segments: Business-specific segments.

[For instance, consider using a country filter to create segments like the US, India, UK, etc.]

Now, let’s take a closer look at how pre- and post-segmentation can be useful in your A/B testing.

Pre-segmentation: The slice before the spice

“I am seeing a rise in cart abandonment, what should I do?”

“How do I reduce that bounce rate from Japan?”

“How can I improve the completion rate of that course?”

These questions naturally pop up after digging into the website data from our analytics platform. Solving these issues might involve A/B testing with some hypotheses you come up with. Well, here pre-segmentation can come in handy. Instead of testing everything on all visitors, here is how you can solve the above problems and similar ones that you face:

“I will segment cart abandoners and run an A/B test by positioning the promotion block above the fold.” 

“Let’s A/B test Japan traffic with a translation widget in the variation.”

“Let’s A/B test low-engagement students segment with a variation having smaller duration videos.”

With this approach of pre-segmentation, you will more likely see an increase in your conversion rate, as you are targeting segments that are a key source of the problem. Even if it fails, you can move to test the next hypothesis without subjecting a larger visitor base to the experiment. Also, pre-segmentation optimizes your use of the A/B testing tool as many of these platforms charge based on the usage-based pricing model. 

Keep in mind: The effectiveness of pre-segmentation hinges on the tool at your disposal and how adeptly you handle and assimilate visitor data. Contemporary businesses lean on sophisticated solutions, such as customer data platforms (CDPs), to store and seamlessly integrate data from diverse sources. This not only enhances the accuracy of segmentation but also boosts the results of activities driven by these segments.

Post-segmentation: Unraveling the puzzle

You have finished A/B testing, and now it’s time to delve into the reports with post-segmentation. It might seem like a bit of an optional thing, but whether your A/B test hits the jackpot or takes a detour, post-segmentation is the secret sauce—it spills the beans on why things went the way they did, laying the groundwork for future improvements.

In post-segmentation, you can filter all the visitor data for a particular segment to understand how it performed or you can square off two segments like mobile versus desktop or returning visitors against the new ones, revealing the nuances in their experiences and how it impacted the conversion rate. 

Moreover, delving into post-segmentation after a test flop can bring you closer to understanding customer expectations and needs. Take the example of Uncommon Knowledge, an online education portal. They hit a roadblock in their A/B test featuring the latest design trends. Still, the post-segmentation analysis revealed a key insight: their primary audience predominantly falls within the 45+ age group, who are not used to the latest trends.

So, when you engage in post-segmentation after an A/B test, you’re not slamming the brakes on A/B tests; you’re building on them. This approach addresses the common challenge of hitting a creativity wall with A/B testing as you generate fresh hypotheses through in-depth analysis. It is a more strategic approach—what we like to call the experimentation loop—to A/B testing. In this loop, you launch a new experiment based on a hypothesis from analyzing a completed A/B test. It’s a far superior method compared to the randomness of traditional testing.

Now, let’s dive into the practical side of things and explore how to effectively carry out segmentation using a tool like VWO.

How does VWO handle pre- and post-segmentation?

Let’s understand the segmentation functionality in VWO with an example. Say you’ve got a cool smartwatch e-commerce store. In recent analytics reports, you notice a decline in the conversion rate among visitors using the Windows browser. The analysis led to a hypothesis of adding a sitewide time-based discount offer widget to see whether it uplifts the conversion from Windows visitors. You create an A/B test variation having the widget below the main menu.

With VWO, if you are thinking of running an A/B test to see the effect of this offer on visitors with a Windows browser, you can pull it off with just a few clicks, thanks to its user-friendly dashboard. Once you’ve punched in the web URL you want to test and sort out your variations and goals, it’s a breeze to pre-segment using the standard segment option tucked away in the audience and traffic section. Here is how it’s done on VWO.

Now, for the same time-based widget, if you want to kick things up a notch and dive into some advanced pre-segmentation —like you have a hypothesis to A/B test visitors who have a 60-second time spent duration on the homepage. For such use cases custom segment is your playground. You can segment users by behavior-based segments such as exit intent, time spent, and scroll-based criteria. Additionally, you can segment by location, IP address, query parameters, or anything specific to your site.

Here’s how it works:

Also, you can include, exclude, and even mash up segments for your A/B test. For example, a combined segment of people who have 60 seconds spent on the watch store homepage from Idaho. 

You can even create segments based on attributes you’ve tracked with third parties like Clearbit, Segment, etc. If you want to know more, dive into the nitty-gritty of custom segments with all the details in a knowledge-base article.

Now, let’s say you’ve conducted the A/B test for all users, and you’re keen on diving into post-segmentation using VWO to see how control and variation fared across different segments. Beyond the standard and custom segments we explored earlier in pre-segmentation, VWO has got you covered for comparing how the A/B test played out for various segments of visitors. Like, you can see how conversions from the desktop segment fared against the mobile segment. You can even compare multiple-goal performances. 

Also, imagine you’ve got a boatload of data, and you’re itching to dig deeper into specific segments. Like, maybe you’re curious to slice and dice based on countries for the mobile segment. In that case, VWO lets you slice and dice those segments with visitor dimensions, making it a breeze to unravel the nitty-gritty details of the performance. 

If you notice, VWO is like your trusted toolkit, handing you all the controls you need to finely segment your A/B tests during both pre and post-stages. If you find this intriguing and want to give it a spin, we offer a 30-day full-feature trial for a complete hands-on experience. Remember to give it a go! It’s worth mentioning here that access to some of the above features depends on the chosen plan and pricing. 

Now that we’ve got the scoop on segmentation and the tool to wield, let’s dive into some savvy best practices to make the most out of it.

Best practices for A/B test segmentation to kick off on the right foot

a. Prioritize bigger segments for A/B testing

After applying basic filters like country, age, and device in your analytics tools, spot the segment with the most visitors. Make it your A-list for testing, and break it down even more based on conversion rates.

Now, for the high-converting sub-segment, A/B testing with new features, the latest arrivals, or step up your game with website personalization. These segments are your core visitors. If an A/B test variation clicks with them, consider integrating it into the regular experience for all visitors.

For the low-converting sub-segment, dive into the analysis using user behavior analytics tools like heatmaps, session recordings, and clickmaps to pinpoint friction points. Formulate hypotheses based on your findings and run A/B tests to observe the impact on the conversion rate. It’s about diagnosing the issues, crafting solutions, and fine-tuning for better results.

b. A/B test new experiences for small segments with high conversion rates

Using the same filters as before in your analytics, you might spot small segments with a high conversion rate. This could be a sign of an untapped visitor base. For these segments, consider crafting a new experience or even developing a variation landing page dedicated to this specific segment and conduct a Split URL test. To test the waters, increase traffic through paid and social promotion to observe if the newly found visitor base maintains a consistently high conversion rate. Such an approach to experimentation helps in exploring and capitalizing on hidden opportunities.

Say, for instance, in your analysis using a country filter, you might stumble upon a small segment of visitors from Canada (a region you don’t usually target) with surprisingly high conversion rates. In this scenario, consider crafting a landing page tailored specifically for Canadian visitors and test it against your original landing page using a Split URL test. To validate your findings, run a paid promotion to drive more traffic and ensure statistical significance in your tests. If the results are promising and show a positive trend, you might consider implementing long-term strategies like content marketing to fully tap into this previously untapped market.

c. Dive into post-segmentation only after the test reaches statistical significance

The allure of stopping an A/B test midway can be strong, especially when you see a higher conversion rate for a variation, thanks to the real-time reports most tools provide. However, this impulsive decision might lead to a false positive (type-1 error) result, and conducting post-segmentation based on this premature data could lead to inaccurate assumptions for future actions.

It’s wiser to let the A/B test reach statistical significance before diving into post-segmentation. Market-leading tools like VWO showcase significance in their reports, but if your tools don’t showcase it, then you can turn to online statistical significance calculators to make informed decisions about stopping the A/B test. Patience can save you from hasty conclusions and guide you toward more accurate insights.

d. Combine segments to get more precise with your experiments and results

As your business expands and website traffic surges, it becomes crucial—and almost mandatory—to merge segments for both pre and post-segmentation in A/B testing. For example, instead of solely running an A/B test or analyzing reports for people residing in Idaho, consider this: for pre-segmentation, it’s more effective to create a combined segment of individuals living in Idaho using the Safari browser. With a more targeted pre-segmentation, you’re not just scratching the surface; you’re delving into the nuances of a specific group, enhancing the precision of your testing strategy.

Now, when it comes to post-segmentation with combined segments, you gain a richer understanding and key insights compared to broader segments, especially when dealing with a high volume of visitors. It’s about fine-tuning your focus to extract more meaningful information from the data deluge. 

Note: VWO lets you combine segments via its custom segments feature. Here is a screenshot of it. 

Final thoughts

Segmentation is a fantastic addition to your experimentation mix, significantly elevating your understanding of visitor behavior. Incorporating both pre and post-segmentation into your strategy can be a game-changer. However, finding the right approach for your business might take some experimenting. The learning curve can be steep initially, and you might encounter deviations from your assumptions.

But here’s the key—keep building your road based on the data you acquire. Soon enough, you’ll witness the potent impact of segmentation driving your A/B testing programs. It’s a journey worth taking for the valuable insights and optimizations it brings to your A/B testing game. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Kim conducts a series of surveys to gather customer feedback. However, analyzing the large volume of responses requires a significant amount of time and effort, and there is a possibility of missing out on valuable insights. Also, pilot testing the new survey structure and question format consumes time and delays the deployment. She needs a quicker way to deploy surveys and see what’s important in the survey data to make better decisions about her products. 

If Kim’s problem resonates with you, then read on, for we’ve got a solution up our sleeves – surveys backed by generative AI technology. 

Let’s explore this revolutionary technology, its differences from traditional AI, and how it simplifies creating and analyzing surveys for marketers, product managers, and decision-makers alike.

Decoding generative AI

Generative AI is like a tech whiz that looks at a bunch of data, spots the tricks and traits, and then gets super smart about it. Once it’s all savvy, it can make up fresh stuff, create new patterns, and even repeat the information it has learned. 

Take the example of Google’s Bard chatbot, trained on a huge dataset of text and codes in more than 1000 languages. It has learned to recognize patterns and properties in text and code and can perform 21 functions, including generating new content and code, answering questions, and more. Additionally, Bard is trained on images, enabling it to write captions, answer questions, and categorize, organize, and share images based on the input text provided. I couldn’t resist and asked it to share photos of a cute baby panda, and it didn’t disappoint me. Aren’t they a feast for the eyes?

Like Bard, many generative AI applications have come up, such as Sonix for music generation and DAll-E for creating realistic images, revolutionizing everything from healthcare to art and design. 

What sets generative AI Apart from traditional AI?

Understanding the distinction between generative AI and traditional AI is pretty straightforward. Generative AI is a subset of AI that has the remarkable ability to craft brand-new content learning from the dataset it has consumed. 

On the other hand, traditional AI is like a rule follower. It gets trained for certain jobs by analyzing stuff and making sure it answers in a predefined manner. For example, think of a customer service chatbot like Amazon Lex. The following image shows the backend of the chatbot on the left, where you can predefine output for input, and on the right, the screenshot of the front end shows how it analyzes the user input and responds with what it is trained to respond. So, traditional AI can’t come up with new ways to do a task; it just sticks to the rules it learned.

Because of generative AI’s superiority over traditional AI, it is getting adopted faster by businesses. Whether you’re a marketing intern refining your copywriting or a seasoned CMO overseeing the creation of a multi-million-dollar global marketing campaign, generative AI has an application and use case for you. One of the use cases is understanding the voice of your customers with generative AI-backed surveys.

How generative AI can enhance and ease the survey process

a. Automating the process of targeting survey respondents

With traditional survey approaches, audience targeting is often based on generic filters such as funnel stage, demographics, geo-location, etc. As a result, the survey sample may contain a significant proportion of the audience who are non-responsive or irrelevant to the survey questionnaire. It can lead to low response rates and a lack of quality responses, ultimately affecting the accuracy and usefulness of the survey results.

Generative AI offers an elegant solution to these challenges. By leveraging its ability to analyze vast amounts of data, generative AI can create segments based on audience activity and pinpoint the most relevant survey respondents. It ensures the right audience is reached without over-contacting a broader sample. Not only does this approach save your valuable resources, but it also enhances the quality of the data by targeting a more relevant audience, leading to more accurate and insightful results. 

b. Creating and personalizing survey questions

Have you ever participated in a website survey and felt like the questions didn’t apply to you? Manual survey creation can sometimes lead to generic or ambiguous questions that miss the mark. It can result in low-quality responses, making it difficult to get accurate and useful insights. 

But with generative AI, you can create unique and personalized survey questions that are more likely to resonate with customers and generate high-quality responses. Also, it can seamlessly scale to create customized surveys for a large number of customers without sacrificing the relevance of the survey. 

By creating questions that are tailored to the customer’s interests and survey goals, generative AI can significantly increase response rates and address the issue of disengagement that is often seen in traditional surveys.

c. Predicting survey design success and response rate

Sometimes, you wonder if your survey draft is engaging and following best practices. It can lead to a lot of back and forth before publishing, which can increase the lead time.

For this, generative AI automatically assesses survey questions and design, providing scores based on best practices and alerting about any issues. It ensures that your survey is well-structured and effective.

And that’s not all. Generative AI also estimates the percentage of respondents expected to complete the survey and the time it should take. It helps to address the issues of engagement uncertainty, allowing you to send out surveys with confidence.

d. Generating survey summary and insights report

It is a time-consuming task to manually sift through survey data for actionable insights, requiring a dedicated team to collate reports every time.

But with generative AI, you can get a concise summary of your survey results instantly to understand the most important takeaways and determine what actions need to be taken based on the feedback provided by respondents. Also, it actively analyzes the feedback from the survey to suggest specific and actionable steps for improvement. Whether you need to refine a product feature, adjust a marketing strategy, or address customer concerns, generative AI paves an efficient and effective way to drive change to your strategy.

Why generative AI is a survey game-changer

Generative AI-based survey is not just about making the whole process of survey deployment and analysis easier and faster, but also about bringing benefits that are beyond operational gains, ultimately leading to a reduction in spending and resource allocation. 

a. Accelerates the rate of adapting to customer expectations

Analyzing survey data can be a time-consuming and challenging task, but it’s crucial for ensuring your website remains aligned with customer expectations. The longer it takes to make necessary improvements to your digital touchpoints, the greater the risk of impacting your website’s ROI. Research shows that a staggering 81% of customers are more likely to make repeat purchases if they have a positive experience. Therefore, any delay in adapting to their needs could drive valuable leads to explore alternative options. 

Fortunately, with generative AI, you can streamline the analysis process, drastically reducing the time required to enhance the digital touchpoint experience and promptly meet customer expectations, thus safeguarding your customer relationships and maximizing ROI.

b. Mitigates human bias that can prove costly

Whether you’re crafting a survey or delving into its analysis, there’s always a space for human bias involving misaligning your questions, missing critical response patterns, or inadvertently focusing on the wrong customer segment. These missteps can be costly. 

However, generative AI operates solely on data-driven decision-making, provided that it’s trained on a quality dataset (we will discuss it in the next section). It eradicated the possibility of human bias, ensuring you don’t veer down the wrong path or, worse still, commit a blunder that can prove costly.

c. Optimizes human resources allocation

Automation through generative AI can optimize the allocation of human resources within an organization. It is beneficial for product managers and marketers, who can delegate the repetitive and time-consuming aspects of survey administration to AI-powered assistants. These professionals then can allocate their valuable time and cognitive resources only to decision-making and creative brainstorming related to surveys. Another advantage of using generative AI is that it frees up the professionals to work on other tasks, ultimately leading to better human resource efficiency.

Things to think about before diving into generative AI surveys

Generative AI-based survey is a promising tool and you might want to consider it to keep up for the benefit of the business. But here are some considerations you must take into account.

a. Reliance on data quality and quantity

To train generative AI models, companies need a large dataset that represents the complete demography of their customer base. The dataset must be well-organized and labeled. Any misrepresentation or bias in the selection of training data can lead to malfunction of the generative AI-based survey. 

For example, an e-commerce brand uses a generative AI-based survey model to gather feedback on a new product line. The model is trained on biased data against certain groups, and as a result, it will sample the wrong audience for a survey. Such a scenario could lead to a low response rate, lack of quality feedback, and a poor business user experience, underscoring the importance of addressing bias in AI models.

b. Budget strain on data protection and privacy

While generative AI technology offers exciting possibilities for improving user experiences, it comes with crucial privacy considerations. The top priority is to enhance user experiences without compromising data security and user privacy. For instance, if we use generative AI to create personalized surveys, we need to collect user data, attributes, and events from business properties. To do this, businesses must obtain explicit consent from users and explain the purpose and scope of data utilization. By taking these measures, we can ensure transparency while still taking advantage of the benefits of generative AI. 

Another step is to fortify defenses against unauthorized access, employing robust passwords, encryption, and access restrictions. It puts a strain on the cybersecurity budget. As per survey findings by IBM, AI cybersecurity budgets are 51% greater than they were in 2021 and are expected to climb an additional 43% by 2025. Thus, safeguarding user data in the age of generative AI is an ongoing commitment that requires careful planning and significant investment.

VWO’s AI-powered surveys for swift customer understanding

Let’s move forward to see how VWO is powering its legacy tools like the VWO’s on-page survey to make it easier for businesses to deploy and analyze surveys.

VWO’s on-page survey is famous for its user-friendliness, allowing you to create and deploy surveys with just a few clicks. we have taken it to the next level by introducing an AI assistant that streamlines and accelerates the survey workflow. Let’s take a closer look at what the AI assistant brings to the table and how it can significantly improve your surveying experience.

a. AI assistance to craft surveys

The new AI assistant makes survey creation a breeze, as it generates tailored questions to match the goal you set. You can even regenerate your questions until they’re just right or effortlessly rephrase AI-generated ones with a single click, making the process efficient and saving you precious time.

Suppose, Kim wants to gather user feedback on the new product release through a survey on the company’s web forum, where customers are most active. With VWO’s AI-assisted survey, Kim sets her goal to identify pain points, and the AI assistant generates relevant questions that explicitly ask about user satisfaction with the latest product release. This approach ensures that Kim deploys a survey with precisely the right questions, ensuring she is collecting the right response.

b. AI-generated survey summary with actionable insights

VWO’s AI-powered survey reports deliver a deeper understanding of your audience’s sentiments, providing concise summaries of survey results and valuable feedback. Beyond that, the Generative AI suggests actionable improvements based on the feedback from the respondents, ensuring your surveys don’t just gather insights but also guide you toward meaningful enhancements.

So, when Kim receives a large number of responses, the AI-powered survey reports play a crucial role in providing her with a concise summary of feedback, highlighting important insights and actionable suggestions. For instance, Kim notices that users are expressing confusion about the new interface of the product, which is a recurring theme in the feedback summary. The AI insights recommend a solution, suggesting that Kim should offer a guided tour of the updated interface. This guidance not only saves her time but also equips her with valuable recommendations for improving the feature and staying ahead of competitors by creating fast and continuous change( who still use outdated and cumbersome survey methods.)

An AI assistant like VWO can help you streamline your surveying process, saving your time and resources while delivering valuable insights to improve your product or service. If you want to give it a try, you can sign up for a free trial here and request the feature which is in the beta phase.

Making the most of generative AI-based survey

You must be excited to try your hands on a generative AI-based survey tool, aren’t you? It’s crucial to remember that generative AI tools thrive on precision in their prompts. Here are some handy guide points to help you get the most out of your first survey prompts and design:

• Make sure to specify your goal and the information you seek from the survey (e.g. I aim to assess the impact of ABC product updates and collect user feedback on their experiences, so create survey questions accordingly).
• If you are seeking information about respondents, specify what information you want to seek like company size, age group, location, etc. (e.g. create survey questions to ask about respondents’ company size and location).
• Specify the length of each question, the number of questions, and the tone (e.g. create five open-ended questions with each having 100 characters in length. Keep the tone conversational).

Here is one prompt to put it all together: “Generate five conversational survey questions about ABC product updates, beginning with a query about company size. Each question should be 100 characters long and aim to collect user feedback on their experiences. Make them open or close-ended as per relevance.”

Once the questions are created, you must iterate your prompt till you find suitable survey questions. 

The future of generative AI

A survey by Bain & Company predicts a high degree of automation throughout the customer life cycle, especially in demand generation and self-service sales. 

In terms of financial impact, a staggering $79 billion market by 2030 for generative AI-based applications that specialize in automation and improving productivity, and an off-the-shelf AI software market of $227 billion.  

Thus, we can safely say that generative AI has immense potential to accelerate automation, reshape industries, and surpass human-level performance, driving a multi-billion-dollar market and transforming the business landscape at an unprecedented pace.

Conclusion

To wrap up, the integration of generative AI in surveys has revolutionized the process by optimizing and automating each step of survey creation. This not only helps businesses keep up with evolving customer expectations but also saves valuable resources. As AI technology continues to advance, we can expect more sophisticated features to be added, resulting in even greater accuracy and speed. With this bright future ahead, the possibilities for businesses to gather valuable insights and make data-driven decisions are endless.

So, like Kim, if your to-do list is seemingly endless and you’re swamped with surveys, make sure to explore generative AI-based survey tools for better decisions and a more efficient workday. 

Note: At VWO, we strive to empower our customers with the latest technology. Our goal is to make your complete CRO cycle, from analyzing user behavior to delivering personalized experiences, as streamlined and effortless as possible using generative AI. We are continuously updating our products to ensure that our customers can benefit from this amazing technology and stay ahead in the game. Keep an eye on the product updates page for the latest updates. 

But what exactly does digital customer engagement mean? Let’s break it down in plain and simple terms. 

What is digital customer engagement?

Digital customer engagement is connecting with your customers in the digital space using various internet tools. It involves building relationships, creating customer loyalty, and providing a memorable experience for your customers. 

As a customer, you must have received a personalized birthday wish via email or a website must have prompted you with a live chat for immediate assistance. That’s all part of digital engagement. 

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, where competition is fierce and attention spans are shorter than ever, mastering digital consumer engagement is crucial. It is the key to standing out, staying relevant, building long-term customer relationships, and thriving in the online marketplace.

Now, we move forward to understand why it is important to prioritize digital engagement.

Benefits of digital customer engagement

In today’s age, digital customer engagement is not just a buzzword; it’s the lifeblood of your online business. If you want to thrive in the competitive digital marketplace, engaging with your customers on a personal level is not an option but a necessity. 

Let’s dive deeper into the benefits of digital customer engagement and answer the question: Why is digital customer engagement important?

Builds strong customer relationships

In the digital world, customer engagement is like a secret ingredient that makes your brand unforgettable. 

When you engage with your customers in a meaningful way, you become a trusted friend they turn to again and again. Think about your favorite local coffee shop. The barista knows your order by heart and greets you with a warm smile. That’s not just great coffee; it’s exceptional customer engagement. In the digital world, it’s about knowing your customers’ preferences, addressing their needs, and making them feel valued and heard. That’s the kind of connection that keeps customers coming back to your website or app for more. 

Boosts customer loyalty

Customer loyalty is the holy grail of business, and digital customer engagement is your treasure map. Engaged customers are not just one-time buyers; they’re your brand advocates. They’re the ones who sing your praises to their friends and followers on social media and keep coming back to choose you over the competition. They’re not just promoting a new product; they’re sharing valuable tips, responding to comments, and creating a community around their brand. 

Drives growth

Digital customer engagement isn’t just about warm and fuzzy feelings; it’s a growth engine. Engaged customers are more likely to convert, spend more, and stick around. When you engage with your customers effectively, you’re not just boosting sales; you’re increasing the lifetime value of each customer. 

For instance, imagine you run an online store, and a customer visits your website. They have a question about a product, so they click on the live chat option. Within seconds, they’re chatting with a friendly and knowledgeable support agent who answers their questions. That seamless experience not only clinches the sale but also creates a loyal customer who’s likely to return for future purchases. 

Enables the business to adapt and thrive

In the fast-paced world of the internet, change is the only constant. Customer preferences evolve, new technologies emerge, and competitors are always one click away. That’s where digital customer engagement shines. 

Imagine you notice a sudden drop in website traffic, and you’re not sure why. With the right digital engagement tools and analytics, you can quickly identify the issue, address it, and get back on track. It’s like having a GPS for your online business, helping you stay on course even when the road takes unexpected turns.

Digital customer engagement strategy

Having a well-thought-out digital customer engagement strategy sets the direction for all your digital channels and online presence. It ensures that you are not only connected with your audience but also leave a lasting impression.

We will look into some of the key strategies and tactics that can spearhead your digital customer engagement:

a. Web experimentation

You must constantly experiment with your website to enhance digital customer experience and engagement. By analyzing user behavior, you can identify pain points, areas of improvement, and new opportunities. Web experimentation involves making data-driven changes to your website to optimize its performance. 

A key web experimentation method is A/B testing. It can help you compare two versions of a webpage to see which one performs better. Such experiments can lead to substantial improvements in conversion rates, user engagement, and overall customer satisfaction. For example, the following image showcases two variations and control (original version) of the product page that are A/B tested to improve conversion.

b. Customer experience personalization

Customer experience personalization is like having a digital concierge that tailors every interaction to the individual customer. It’s about using data and insights to create a personalized experience that resonates with each customer. 

For example, if a customer frequently shops for running shoes, your e-commerce website can showcase the latest running shoe arrivals the next time they visit. These personalized touches go a long way in keeping customers engaged and coming back for more.

c. Content marketing

Content is the lifeblood of your digital engagement strategy. It’s the bridge that connects you with your audience, providing valuable information, entertainment, and solutions. Various forms of content, from whitepapers to webinars, play a pivotal role in creating digital customer engagement:

Whitepapers, reports, and ebooks

These in-depth pieces of content demonstrate your expertise and thought leadership. They offer valuable insights and solutions to your audience’s pain points. By providing free access to well-researched whitepapers, reports, or ebooks, you not only educate your audience but also establish trust and credibility. For example, VWO provides an in-depth A/B testing report that helps marketers get valuable insights about experimentation.

Online courses and webinars

Hosting online courses and webinars showcases your commitment to helping your audience grow and learn. These interactive formats allow for real-time engagement, enabling you to answer customer queries, address concerns, and build relationships. By consistently producing high-quality content that aligns with your audience’s interests and needs, you become a go-to resource. This keeps your audience engaged and encourages them to stay connected with your brand throughout their customer journey. For instance, Bain & Company conducts regular webinars on important business topics to regularly engage with their clients.

d. Integrated customer support

Exceptional customer support is the cornerstone of any successful digital engagement strategy. In the digital age, customers expect quick and convenient ways to get their questions answered and issues resolved. A robust contact center, equipped with knowledgeable contact center agents, is essential for delivering top-notch support. These agents are the human touchpoints in your digital space, available through multiple channels like chat, email, or phone. They play a crucial role in providing real-time assistance and creating positive customer experiences.

Moreover, a well-integrated contact center can also collect valuable data on customer interactions, allowing you to better understand customer pain points, preferences, and behaviors. This data can inform future engagement strategies, helping you continually improve customer relationships and build a base of loyal customers.

e. Multi-channel engagement

In today’s interconnected world, your audience engages with you through multiple channels. An effective digital engagement strategy embraces this multi-channel reality. By being present and responsive across all these channels, you create a seamless and consistent customer experience. Whether a customer reaches out via Facebook Messenger or your website’s live chat, they should receive the relevant experience as per the funnel stage.

f. Mining data-driven insights

Data provides valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and pain points. By continuously analyzing this data, you can refine your strategies, uncover new opportunities, and improve customer relationships by using a digital customer engagement platform.

For example, an educational portal is striving to create a vibrant online learning community. It uses a customer engagement platform to collect and analyze customer data from multiple sources and derive valuable insights. By tracking student behavior, preferences, and learning patterns, they tailor content and resources to individual needs, ensuring a personalized educational journey. This data-driven approach not only fosters greater student engagement but also boosts overall satisfaction, making the educational portal a trusted and preferred destination for eager learners

Digital customer engagement examples

Top-performing companies in the world utilize digital engagement strategies to keep delivering the best customer experience. Here are three examples to inspire you.

Nike

With thousands of product offerings in its arsenal, Nike understands the importance of tailoring the customer experience. They’ve built a digital engagement strategy that’s akin to having a personal shopping assistant right at your fingertips.

Here’s how it works: When you visit Nike’s website, they invite you to choose your interest. Whether it’s a specific sport, product category, or athlete, you’re in the driver’s seat. 

Once you’ve made your selection, the magic happens. Nike’s platform serves up a curated selection of products that match your chosen interest. It’s like having a virtual shopping aisle customized just for you. This approach makes the browsing experience not only convenient but also highly engaging.

Customers can explore products that align with their passions and preferences, creating a sense of connection with the brand that goes beyond just making a purchase.

IMB Bank

One of the best banks in the world, IMB Bank, wanted to improve customer engagement on its digital platform. Recognizing the need to enhance its digital customer engagement, this global banking giant utilized VWO.

IMB Bank began its journey by analyzing the user journey on its digital platform. Through funnel analysis, they uncovered a significant bottleneck – approximately 37% of users were dropping off at the first page of their personal loan application form. Armed with this insight, they decided to roll up their sleeves and launch an A/B test using VWO.

The existing personal loan application form page (control) was tested against a variation. The variation introduced several strategic elements, including highlighting unique selling propositions (USPs), showcasing awards, mentioning the time taken to complete the steps, enhancing the overall form design for easier navigation, and providing clear instructions at each step to enhance user clarity.

The results? A 9% increase in users completing the form.

IMB Bank’s success story with VWO is a shining example of how leveraging digital engagement strategies can yield not only higher engagement but also impressive conversions. 

Spotify

In the ever-evolving world of digital music streaming, Spotify orchestrated a brilliant strategy known as “Spotify Wrapped” back in 2016 that has become music to its users’ ears. This annual campaign is a testament to the power of personalized engagement. 

Spotify Wrapped offers users a delightful recap of their year in music and podcasts, presenting a customized list of their top tunes and most-played podcasts. It’s like a musical journey down memory lane, perfectly tailored for each user. Also, users can easily share this recap on their social media platforms, igniting discussions and fostering connections with friends.

This campaign isn’t just about celebrating the music; it’s a digital engagement masterpiece. By curating a unique experience for every user and encouraging them to share their musical journey, Spotify not only engages its audience but also creates a sense of community. 

Spotify Wrapped has become a yearly tradition that users eagerly anticipate, strengthening their bond with the platform. It’s a shining example of how personalization, user-generated content, and social sharing can drive digital customer engagement.

Also, check out this conversation from the VWO Podcast to know how you can capture and action the voice of your customers.

Digital customer engagement trends in 2023

After 2020, brands are finding new ways and deploying new technologies to acquire, engage, and retain customers. Here are three major digital engagement trends to watch in 2023.

Generative AI

In 2023, companies will be using Generative AI to transform digital customer engagement. From personalized content and recommendations to innovative chatbots and product design, Generative AI is redefining the rules of engagement.

Thanks to Generative AI, companies can analyze data streams such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and social media activity to curate content and recommendations that cater to individual interests and preferences. For example, Netflix uses generative AI to recommend new movies and TV shows, and Amazon uses it to generate personalized product recommendations for its customers.

Moreover, conversational AI and chatbots powered by Generative AI provide 24/7 customer support, answering inquiries and collecting feedback naturally and engagingly. These AI-driven interactions create a seamless and personalized customer journey.

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)

AR and VR technology create immersive experiences that blend the digital and real worlds. AR adds digital elements to our physical surroundings, while VR transports users to entirely virtual environments. Businesses are using this technology in innovative ways. For instance, furniture companies are allowing customers to virtually place new furniture in their homes using AR. Clothing brands are enabling customers to try on outfits in a digital mirror. 

AR/VR is also revolutionizing customer support. For example, a car company can use AR to allow a customer service representative to see what a driver is experiencing through their windshield, providing real-time instructions to troubleshoot an issue. These technologies offer a unique way to visualize products, fostering a deeper connection between customers and brands.

Hyper-personalization

Hyper-personalization is all about delivering unique, tailored experiences to individual customers by leveraging data, analytics, AI, and machine learning. It helps redefine digital customer engagement and keeps customers coming back for more.

Businesses collect a wealth of data, including demographics, purchase history, browsing behavior, and social media activity, to fuel hyper-personalization. This approach serves as a dynamic catalyst for digital customer engagement by delivering relevant, captivating content. For instance, retailers can send personalized emails suggesting products based on past purchases, while streaming services recommend content aligned with viewing habits and preferences.

Hyper-personalization nurtures stronger, more personal relationships by demonstrating a profound understanding of individual needs. It’s a game-changer for businesses looking to stand out in a crowded market and build loyal customer bases.

Watch the webinar to learn more about personalization:

Conclusion

In the fierce competition to stay at the top of the business, the ability to establish personal, timely, and relevant interactions with your customers is essential for distinguishing your brand. It requires demonstrating not only a deep understanding of your customer’s unique needs but also having the right products and services to meet those needs.

Digital customer engagement is not simply a technological undertaking to experiment with; it is something that enables you to develop strong relationships with your customers, foster meaningful engagement, enhance your cross-channel marketing efforts, and maximize your return on investment to unprecedented levels.

FAQs

You must have started with lots of questions (related to the use case, budget, impact, etc.). Then, there is a very high probability that at each stage of the buying process, you must have come across some content that answered a doubt and let you move forward. In the end, you must have chosen the tool that resolved all your doubts.

Content is like a signpost that leads you to the destination while moving on an unknown path. On that unknown path, you followed the signpost that made things clear for you. Similarly, your potential client is also moving on that unknown path. So, do you want to build signposts that will appeal to them? 

If you’re interested in building content that will brighten your potential client’s path to the destination, we have six B2B content ideas for you. Each idea includes examples that have leveraged these formats to increase engagement and conversions. 

1. Pillar pages

In any successful content marketing plan, pillar pages play an integral role. Essentially, a pillar page refers to an extensive and detailed content piece that delves into a broad topic within your industry or business. It functions as a central hub that connects all the relevant subtopics and content on your website, providing links to and from other pages and content.

Pillar pages should give a comprehensive and captivating perspective on a subject matter. Additionally, they should be visually appealing, user-friendly and incorporate a variety of multimedia elements, including images and text. 

Pillar pages work best in improving conversion at the top of the funnel (ToFu). A pillar page can attract more traffic to your site as it showcases expertise, authority, and trustworthiness, which makes content rank higher in SERPs. 

Take the example of the pillar page created by VWO on A/B testing. 

It touches on the broad topic of A/B testing and explains all the related subtopics to make it exhaustive and compelling simultaneously. The guide page showcases a table of contents that makes visitors aware of the content and jumps to a section of interest. 

The guide has images and actionable tips, making it visually appealing and easy to digest. Also, a call-to-action to email the guide allows for achieving the objective of generating a lead. 

The landing page has achieved a top-five ranking in the SERPS for keywords such as A/B testing, with a monthly search volume of over 10,000 in countries like the USA. This has resulted in a substantial influx of traffic to the page. Additionally, it projects VWO as a thought leader in online experimentation. 

That’s the power of pillar pages. Though it takes significant time and effort to create these, the rewards are worthy of all the input. 

2. Visual-based storytelling

In the age of information overload, the human attention span is fleeting, and your content strategy must include modern content delivery mediums based on visual storytelling. Content formats like Google Web Stories, short videos, and video series are becoming popular as they are visually appealing and quick to consume. 

Visual-based storytelling does not aim to replace long-form content formats such as pillar pages, guides, landing pages, and blog posts. Instead, it offers a distinct approach to engaging with audiences by conveying content concisely and narratively. This unique mode of storytelling can be highly effective in enhancing brand awareness and expanding the reach to a broader audience, which in turn increases the conversion at the ToFu.

Mailchimp is one of the leading players in the email marketing and marketing automation space that incorporated visual base storytelling with its Mailchimp Presents initiative.

Mailchimp Presents shares content related to entrepreneurial spirit via video and audio-based content. The video series and films engage the audience with stories and motivate them to be entrepreneurial. The subtle CTAs to Mailchimp offerings promote the brand and how it can help businesses scale up.

Such initiatives bring a fresh perspective to the brand’s outreach initiatives rather than just promoting links to new blog posts. Though such initiatives require significant capital and human resources investment, a small business can start with other visual-based mediums like Google Web Stories, YouTube Shorts, etc.  

3. Webinars

A webinar is an incredibly engaging and powerful way to communicate ideas, share knowledge, and build connections with your audience. A survey in 2021 that included 115 marketing practitioners concluded webinars as the most effective ToFu demand generation tactic.

Additionally, webinars are one of the few strategies where there is two-way communication between you and your audience. Many companies conduct ask-me-anything (AMA) webinars to resolve doubts and questions related to the product, which helps increase the conversion rate at the middle of the funnel (MoFu).

By bringing in guest speakers and thought leaders from your domain, you can capture your listeners’ attention and draw them in, helping them to connect with your content on a deeper level. Also, by incorporating personal anecdotes, case studies, and examples from your own or other brands’ experiences, you can bring your content to life and inspire your listeners to take action.

For example, CNBC organized a @work Spotlight Series event in 2020 for CXOs on changing business scenarios and leveraging technologies at work. 

The virtual event series featured esteemed guest speakers from Fortune 500 companies, offering invaluable insights to participants. With an intuitive and engaging experience, including targeted breakout rooms, the event fostered dynamic two-way conversations between attendees and guests. 

The results were remarkable, with over 20,000 average views on weekly live streams and a staggering 1 million unique visitors to CNBC’s Digital Events Hub, showcasing the event’s widespread success.

4. Case studies

In the B2B realm, case studies serve as a powerful medium to highlight the positive impact your product has brought to your clients. They also serve as compelling evidence for potential clients to evaluate your product based on the tangible results achieved by competitors or players within the same industry. 

Case studies are a collaborative effort between your company and your clients, and the data presented in them must be accurate and genuine. Exaggeration or understatement can lead to legal implications, which is why case studies are considered a highly reliable source of information for companies to assess the effectiveness of a product.

Take the example of VWO’s Success Stories. 

The success story landing page indicates the brand name, industry, utilized VWO product, and improvement in the conversion metric. 

It allows a potential customer to easily skim through the numerous success stories, identify their industry, and report uplift before delving deep to get more information. Additionally, it enables the sales team to share relevant case studies while they are conversing with a potential client to finalize a deal. 

Thus, case studies aid in giving a final nudge to a client to buy the product, as they showcase the product’s potential and answer doubts related to the product’s performance. Which helps in converting leads from the bottom of the funnel (BoFu) into clients.

5. Online courses

Online courses have become increasingly popular over the years and for good reasons. Many companies offer paid and free courses to increase brand affinity, revenue, customer retention rate, and project domain expertise.  

A good online course targets a specific topic catering to a specific user segment. It enables learners to delve deep into the topic and equips them with valuable knowledge. An online course should clearly outline its duration, prerequisites, a comprehensive table of contents, and expected learning outcomes. 

Online courses are efficient in converting leads at the ToFu by providing domain-specific courses and at the BoFu by providing product-related courses. 

Take the example of HubSpot to understand the power of utilizing online courses as part of the content strategy.

HubSpot offers a wide range of online courses that include certification programs related to marketing/sales and training programs on the HubSpot Product stack. Here is how it has helped Hubspot:

• Established HubSpot as a thought leader in the marketing and sales space. Which in turn, enhanced brand reputation and credibility.
• Lead to higher customer satisfaction and retention rates because training courses offered on HubSpot Academy have helped customers achieve their marketing and sales goals using HubSpot’s products. 
• Enabled a partner ecosystem, which includes agencies, resellers, and integrators, by offering partner-specific training and certifications. It has helped partners gain expertise in using HubSpot’s software and services, enabling them to deliver better results to their clients and drive business growth. 

The utilization of online courses has been instrumental in creating an ecosystem where HubSpot clients and partners receive comprehensive training to maximize their return on investment (ROI). 

As a potent medium for delivering valuable content, online courses have played a pivotal role in building a loyal customer base, fostering customer success, and enabling partners to deliver exceptional results using HubSpot’s offerings.

6. Whitepapers

A whitepaper is a detailed and comprehensive report that focuses on a particular topic. It aims to present a problem and its solution in an unbiased and convincing manner. Unlike promotional materials, a whitepaper does not endorse or criticize any company. Its main purpose is to educate rather than sell products or services. Normally, whitepapers are around 10 to 15 pages long and offer an authoritative perspective on the subject.

The structure of a whitepaper comprises several sections, including a title, an extensive summary, a table of contents, an introduction, an overview of challenges, proposed solutions, recommendations, a concluding statement, a brief company background, and a call-to-action (CTA).

A whitepaper by The OpenGroup on cloud computing can serve as a great guide to understanding how a whitepaper is written and structured. This whitepaper focuses on building Return on Investment (ROI) in cloud computing. It begins with an executive summary and an introduction that outlines the context and existing challenges. The subsequent sections delve into specifics, including financial value and ROI models. These insights are designed to assist you in maximizing ROI from cloud computing. The whitepaper concludes with a summary, references, and acknowledgments. 

Notably, it incorporates factual information and statistical data to establish credibility and underscore the expertise of The OpenGroup. The entire whitepaper educates you and elevates your knowledge about the topic without being promotional, which is the purpose of this content format.

Whitepapers are created to establish expertise and cultivate trust within the industry. Positioned at the initial stages of customer engagement, they provide valuable insights and help generate potential leads. Importantly, whitepapers offer informative solutions without directly promoting a product or service. 

Boost content performance with VWO

It’s not enough to just create content and never look back. In order to truly optimize your content and improve engagement, you need to take a data-driven approach. 

It means understanding how visitors interact with your content, identifying areas for improvement, and A/B testing to ensure that your content is not only high-quality but also effective in achieving your goals.

VWO enables you to enhance conversion rates by monitoring and optimizing your content. One common use case is to utilize VWO Insights to analyze the scroll depth at which the majority of users exit high-traffic content formats such as pillar pages and blog posts.

A scrollmap looks like this:

Once you know the scroll depth where most users are leaving, you can utilize VWO Testing to test how adding an image or interactive element can improve the conversion. Additionally, you can move important elements like newsletter sign-up above the point. 

Furthermore, VWO Insights provides access to useful data like heatmaps, session recordings, and survey responses, which can aid in understanding visitor engagement with your content, enabling you to generate data-driven hypotheses. You can then optimize your content by conducting experiments with VWO Testing.

Grab a free trial of VWO and learn how to improve important media conversions like social media shares, email-ups, user duration, etc.

Tying it all together

To conclude, these six content ideas can play a significant role in B2B improving conversion rates at different stages of the sales funnel.

The pillar pages provide comprehensive information on broad topics and bring traffic from organic sources, while visual-based storytelling engages audiences and increases brand awareness. 

Webinars build connections and offer a two-way communication platform, case studies highlight a product’s positive impact, and online courses foster an ecosystem of thought leadership along with a loyal consumer base. While whitepapers help you build trust, showcase authority, and generate leads at the top of the funnel.  

Although it requires significant resources and effort, the results are undoubtedly worth it in the long run.

If yes, then you will agree that training is a very important component of outdoor sports. The training simulates the real scenarios of the game to identify shortcomings and make improvements. Yet, its benefits extend beyond mere performance enhancement, as it also facilitates learning in areas such as nutrition and psychology, ultimately leading to an overall improvement in one’s sportsmanship.

Similarly, conducting online experiments is like training your digital property. It not only enhances your conversion rate but also provides valuable opportunities to gain insights into various facets of the digital landscape, resulting in the overall growth and development of your company.

Don’t believe it? 

In this blog, we have aggregated five real-life examples to showcase how experimentation induces learning related to various aspects impacting your visitors’ digital experience like content, conversion funnels, experimentation approach, and design. 

Let’s begin.

1. Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies, a technology giant, places significant emphasis on experimentation. The company’s commitment to this practice is exemplified by CEO Michael Dell’s occasional communication with the Digital Analytics team regarding ongoing tests. Experimentation has not only made a positive contribution to the multi-billion dollar revenue, but it also has induced some learnings for the company. 

In one of the fireside chats with VWO, Narayan Keshavan, Head of the Design Analytics Team, shared his insights. The following learnings helped them improve their whole experimentation cycle and approach.

a. Don’t follow experimentation trends blindly

In one of their experiments for the website in China, the team at Dell tried to add a promo banner in the Navigation bar, a trend followed by a leading eCommerce website in China. But for Dell, the conversion rates dropped by adding a banner.

They learned that a trend should be followed carefully as every website is unique, and the user experience analysis should preside over each experiment.

b. Keep a neutral eye on an experimentation idea

The Dell Technologies team found that it’s natural to expect a lift in conversion rate from variations. But, the foundation of the whole effort is to run an experiment and not prove something. Thus, the optimization team must have a neutral approach toward each idea. It helps negate biases while running the experiment and post-analysis of the data.

c. Don’t fall for testing myopia

Testing myopia is a term used by the Dell Technologies team, which means you are so focused on improving a metric that you forget the effect on other metrics. 

Let’s say you aim to enhance the Click-Through Rate (CTR) of the primary Call-To-Action (CTA) button on one of your landing pages. You conduct tests using captivating banners and observe a surge in the CTR of the primary CTA. While this experiment may seem successful based on this one metric alone, a deeper analysis reveals that the bounce rate has increased due to a decrease in website speed caused by the banner’s size. As a result, even though the conversion rate has improved from people who engage, many visitors are leaving the site without engaging because the page takes too long to load.

Therefore, it’s crucial to take a holistic approach to experimentation and analysis instead of obsessing over a single metric.

Watch the complete webinar:

2. Uber Eats

Uber Eats started its operation in South Africa as an online food delivery service. But can you imagine that it is now a virtual mall that sells jewelry, clothing, and other accessories? Here is the screenshot of its product page:

Starting with the food delivery and diversifying to become a virtual mall happened because of experimentation. Uber Eats in South Africa has ingrained a culture of experimentation, where they depend less on market research and more on experimentation in the real world. Experimentation has allowed Uber Eats South Africa to grow 149% month-on-month in its non-restaurant vertices. 

Here is what the experimentation taught them and facilitated expansion outside food delivery.

a. A tool with an easy setup and automation enhances the experimentation culture

Uber Eats’ team recognized that a simplified experimentation setup means less dependency on development and fewer entry barriers, which motivates team members to partake more in experimentation. Also, by automating post-analysis and deploying the winning variation, the workload on the team is reduced, which speeds up the experimentation rate. It collectively promotes a culture of experimentation within the company. 

b. It’s important to take time while creating a hypothesis

The hypothesis is the foundation of the experimentation, and even simple-looking tests might turn complicated if there is a fault in the hypothesis. A hypothesis must be based on data insights and behavioral analysis. Also, the hypothesis must specifically mention the website element that needs to be tested and the expected improvement that you expect at the end.

For instance, if a CTA button on a landing page with a low conversion rate is identified through heatmap analysis to have fewer clicks and less attention, changing the button color to make it more prominent could be a potential solution. In this case, the hypothesis could be: “Changing the color of the CTA button to X color will result in a Z% increase in conversion.”

In addition, the team at Uber Eats advocates for testing one hypothesis at a time with various methods like A/B testing and Multivariate testing rather than testing multiple hypotheses with the same method to achieve better results.

3. MakeMyTrip.com

MakeMyTrip.com is an online travel aggregator in India that gets 44 million visitors per month. The two-decade-old company has first-hand experience with digital transformation and changing user demands. The experimentation culture has positively contributed to the 64.1% Y-O-Y growth that the company saw in 2022.

In one of VWO’s webinars, Aakash Kumar, head of the user experience at Makemytrip.com, revealed some critical experimentation-induced learnings. 

a. Fewer purchase cycle stages don’t necessarily mean more conversion

It’s a general notion that a few stages between awareness and purchase will lead to more conversion. However, the design team at MakeMyTrip.com found something interesting.

Their typical hotel search user flow started with searching for destinations on the homepage, which led to a page with a list of hotels. On clicking a hotel tab, a page opens with a hotel description followed by offered accommodation types. The team noticed that many mobile users who ended up converting were choosing the cheapest room option and there was a low conversion rate for premium rooms. 

After conducting a thorough analysis of user behavior and data collection, the team found that the hotel details page’s description was causing users to scroll excessively, leading them to select the first room type they saw after scrolling. To address this issue, the design team introduced an additional step that allowed users to select the room type before completing the transaction.

The whole optimization effort led to an increase in the booking rate for premium room types. 

b. Design changes should be gradual and not drastic

Drawing on their decades of experience in experimentation, the design team has discovered that design changes aligned with user needs should be gradual rather than drastic. Following the ideate-experiment-learn cycle during website design experimentation is crucial. Subsequent design changes can be based on the team’s previous experimentation and learnings, which helps to minimize risks and reduce negative impacts on the conversion rate.

Watch the complete webinar:

4. Netflix

Netflix has a culture of experimentation and learning, which helped it transform from a DVD mailing service to a streaming service giant with 230+ million paid subscribers worldwide. Here is what Netflix has learned about experimentation from decades of experience.

a. A successful idea can come from an unlikely source

Netflix has an open culture where anybody can see the running tests and associated results. The naturally low win rate of experiments brings humility and humbleness to the team. It opens up doors for every team member to share ideas and experiment with user experience. There are instances at the company where ideas from experts have failed, but ideas from executives and engineers have brought unexpected wins. The democratization has enabled them to get massive revenue-generating ideas from unlikely resources. 

b. A failed experiment in the past can achieve success in the present

Customer behavior and preferences are evolving, and at Netflix, they have found that revisiting past failed ideas and deploying them at present can find success. Sometimes, the analysis of the failed ideas suggests that they may achieve success in the present or the new user group. So creating a repository of each experiment along with its analysis is beneficial to redeploy and find success in the future.  

5. Frictionless Commerce

Frictionless Commerce is a 13-year-old digital marketing agency with a focus on enhancing the sales of Shopify websites by utilizing buyer psychology techniques to influence and convert new buyers. The agency has helped 118+ DTC brands and carried out A/B tests for them to improve conversion rates. Here is what the people at Frictionless Commerce have learned about buyer’s psychology due to these experimentations, which can help create copies and headings for landing pages.

a. Showcasing expertise and brand story create a sense of connection

People like to associate with brands who are experts in their domain and specialize in crafting the product or service. Additionally, a brand’s narrative, detailing its origins and the obstacles it overcame, can foster a sense of connection with the visitor and drive them further down the path to purchase.

b. Adding surprising facts can negate the midway quitting

Behavior analysis can help you understand the scroll depth at which most visitors leave. The team at Frictionless Commerce has found that adding a surprising fact at such points can reduce the midway quitting as it gives a burst of energy to a visitor to know more. 

c. If doubts are not solved, then the visitor will leave

If a landing page fails to address a visitor’s specific query, they may feel hesitant to trust the product or service being offered. The team discovered that four particular factors – the absence of features, unclear pricing, subpar features, and confusing design elements – can all contribute to a negative perception and generate doubts in the visitor’s mind.

To avoid these pitfalls, marketers should aim to view the landing page from the visitor’s perspective and ensure that any potential doubts or concerns about features, pricing, or design are addressed and resolved through testing.

This learning, along with other insights, helped the company in shaping A/B testing campaigns for their clients. 

One of their clients is into selling shampoo bars. The team at Frictionless Commerce carried out an A/B test which was influenced by the above learnings. Here are the controls and variations of the test created with VWO. You can see that the variation is trying to solve a doubt that will come naturally to a visitor’s mind. 

The test resulted in a 5.97% increase in the number of orders. 

Begin your experimentation journey with VWO

The five examples show that experimentation not only enhances the conversion rate but also generates valuable insights that can lead to new user experiences, business ventures, and cultural shifts, ultimately propelling the company to greater heights.

Also, we saw in the case of Uber Eats, one of the key contributors to success is the availability of a user-friendly experimentation tool that enables the rapid scaling of experimentation efforts. 

However, choosing an experimentation tool is not an instant decision. You have to evaluate the compatibility with your business and get hands-on experience with the tool before spending a buck. 

To facilitate this process, we have created a 30-day free trial that provides full access to all the offered capabilities without any financial obligations.

So, If you are new to experimentation or considering a switch from your current setup, we recommend reading our detailed guide on VWO’s free trial, which provides complete information about working with the world’s leading experimentation platform.