Can't really agree much on this article and I have the sense it is somehow written out of frustration and lack of experience.
The '6 hidden costs' can all be addressed, some are not even hidden like time, running tests take time and resources like anything else. The other factors like speed/performance and confusion can all be solved very easily.
Some of my take-aways for testing
- Don't focus on small changes like buttons, copy etc.. these are mostly useless yes
- Make radical changes, e.g. on stickermule can try to have the whole product to make a sticker to checkout on 1 page or start with configuration first and then select sizes etc..
- To filter out false positives, compare same sample of data (e.g. organic traffic is good) for the same period range before a winning test went live and after
Personally I have seen some great results with the above tips in mind, from B2B making visitors perform small actions first or showing a demo vs. presenting them with a form immediately (4x more leads) to e-commerce sites adding a direct checkout vs. normal checkout path (lower avg. order but much higher conversion rate to largely make up for it) etc..
You could argue these are part of product (which a conversion department should be part of, not marketing) but without doing the testing you can only guess about the outcome. And sure many tests are fixing usability (e.g. seen 250% increase in registrations by fixing telephone number prefix and date of birth field formatting) and UI issues but that's part of it.
It's unfortunate to dismiss another view point as you're frustrated or inexperienced while ignoring the actual points made.
The biggest point being #1:
Resources are finite. Time spent on A/B testing cannot be spent elsewhere. How you use your time determines your growth trajectory. A/B testing is a growth tactic, but it's not always the best use of your resources.
There is absolutely no way to solve this problem. You'll always have a trade off to make when it comes to how you spend your resources and time. You shouldn't neglect that cost when deciding if a/b testing is necessary for your organization.
Btw, keep in mind, I admit we still do some a/b testing. It's just not an key component of our growth strategy.
I agree it might not always be the best use of resources, this depends on a wide array of factors within your business.
What I mean is that don't see it anywhere as a hidden cost in the true sense of that word as you know it takes resources and time, but more so about wrong priorities and business value.
As for the other points, they are so easy to solve:
>>Lost conversions
Trade off you need to make beforehand and need to be aware of with the end goal in mind which is to improve your main conversion metrics.
>>Performance
Most decent conversion platforms use fallbacks and also your way of setting up experiments makes a big difference.
>>Confusion
Letting other departments know what you're doing and what's running, might be harder in big corps though.
>>Speed
This goes for everything in a company I think (new feature/product releases, quick fix vs. proper solution etc.). I personally don't mind spending x amount of time to improve y % in conversion rate, so comes down to setting good KPIs and testing what really is important to your business.
>>Focus
Can be done with a proper conversion team that has all these roles covered (bit hard to set up but possible) or making the conversion department a client within the company. Also the teams mentioned work for other departments as well and improving conversion is a win across the board not just for the conversion team.
Tarifa (ES), has some small 'digital nomad' scene and nature, sea and mountains. Other option is Granada (ES), some of the highest mountains of Europe, good weather but nature/mountains a bit dry compared to Switzerland
Brasov (RO), fast internet (faster than UK), good food, friendly people and more nature and mountains (Carpates) than you can hope for (and bears for bonus points). Also good priced vs Switzerland and nature wise looking very similar, Brasov and surroundings being more unspoiled. With what you would spend in Switzerland you'll be able to live 3-4 months in Brasov in the same conditions.
+1 for Tarifa (as long as you don't mind the wind!). I spent some time there about 10 years ago (can't believe it's been that long!). I remember meeting a few 'digital nomads', although I don't think the term was commonly used back then.
It's close to some nice Spanish cities (Cadiz, Jerez, Sevilla, Malaga etc) if you want a change of scene on the weekends, and you can get a ferry to Morocco which takes about 30 minutes.
English is widely spoken, but if you're interested in learning Spanish there's a great little language school in the town.
Don't rule out of all of Spain! Northern Spain is nice and parts have a similar climate to the UK. But yes some places in mid and southern Spain can be hell in summer.
And then you apply for a job and wait... wait... and wait some more with no updates. Rather fix/speed up recruiting than making bogus slides. If a customer (or applicant) expresses interest in your company, also be humble and give an answer within acceptable time.
- If this is a real LP, remove all navigation, your goal is to catch e-mail addresses here
- The headline and paragraph below are quite the same, use the paragraph to explain what I can do with it but keep it broad (plan your vacation, prepare a sales pitch, share recipes..)
- "Invite me" is a strange choice of CTA wording as you don' get invited but rather create a group. Why not "Create Group" or "Get started" alternatively can add some text below 'ready in 30 seconds' as you do below in the copy.
I own a content website with well targeted affiliate partnership. Currently at a bit over 1,000 Euro a month pure profit, as all traffic is organic.
I didn't touch the website in about 2 years. Now that numbers are growing month on month, I'm freeing up some some time add more of the specific content which brings in the money.
Also trying to scale the above for different related markets and languages. Hope to get it to +2k within the next year.
Working in betting for >5 years. In EU, if real money involved, you will need a gambling license. Bit hard to provide you with more help with the little information you gave.
The '6 hidden costs' can all be addressed, some are not even hidden like time, running tests take time and resources like anything else. The other factors like speed/performance and confusion can all be solved very easily.
Some of my take-aways for testing
- Don't focus on small changes like buttons, copy etc.. these are mostly useless yes
- Make radical changes, e.g. on stickermule can try to have the whole product to make a sticker to checkout on 1 page or start with configuration first and then select sizes etc..
- To filter out false positives, compare same sample of data (e.g. organic traffic is good) for the same period range before a winning test went live and after
Personally I have seen some great results with the above tips in mind, from B2B making visitors perform small actions first or showing a demo vs. presenting them with a form immediately (4x more leads) to e-commerce sites adding a direct checkout vs. normal checkout path (lower avg. order but much higher conversion rate to largely make up for it) etc..
You could argue these are part of product (which a conversion department should be part of, not marketing) but without doing the testing you can only guess about the outcome. And sure many tests are fixing usability (e.g. seen 250% increase in registrations by fixing telephone number prefix and date of birth field formatting) and UI issues but that's part of it.