I’m of the opinion that it is not hard to convince your client of anything, if it’s forwarded with: “this will get you more leads/make you more revenue.” However, as soon as the word “test” gets thrown in the mix, even when goals are on target, things have been known to screech to a halt. So if the client is happy with performance and you’re hitting goals, how do you convince them it’s for the better future of the account to start targeting some conversion rate optimization testing techniques? To start our August series, here’s a 5-step plan to help get your client onboard with tricky, but beneficial, CRO and testing!

• Research your competitors.

 The best motivator can be explaining to your client that being behind the ball in paid search, can lead to some expensive days down the road. Seek out your top 3 PPC competitors for your highest converting keywords and check out their landing pages and conversion path. What can you learn? What feels better about their setup than yours? Explore their cart functionality, button colors/calls to action, landing page copy and headlines…the trick is to just take notes. Use these ideas to start the hamster wheel for ways to improve your conversion path.

• Put together a plan and implementation strategy.

He who fails to plan, plans to fail. Cliché, but so true. You’ve done your research and determined which tests you would like to implement to increase conversion rate, but now you have to find a way to present that to your client in a way that makes business sense for them. Explain what you found when researching the competition and exactly why what you want to change could improve conversion rates. For instance: let’s say your competition’s checkout process has one fewer step in the conversion path. Let your client know that if it’s possible to test out that even slightly shorter checkout process, your account could see an increase in conversion rate. People shop online because they like the ease of it, why not shorten their checkout? Use logic when presenting these ideas to the client and get down to why the tests could be beneficial.

•  Estimate the benefit to the client and report it to them.

Check out Analytics and your conversion funnel. How many customers were bouncing out at the page mentioned above that you’ve requested to cut? Let the client know how many customers they lose on that page. Based on average conversion value numbers, estimate a dollar amount that those lost leads or sales may be amounting to. Of course never guarantee anything, but showing data on what business could be slipping through the cracks is an incredibly effective way to gain CRO testing buy-in from your client. If you can include a timeline for full implementation, even better!

•  Pull data from previous CRO tests you’ve completed.

 So you’ve delivered the plan and strategy, along with the estimated benefit that the client could gain from implementing some CRO techniques. However, they’re still a bit hesitant. Go back to previous accounts or situations where you’ve put together a similar strategy or testing schedule and show your results (good and bad!). If things didn’t work, explain why and how you corrected course. If things did work, show how you’ll replicate similar tactics for the current project. Letting your client know you’ve done this before can help ease their fears about things going terribly awry.

•  Once you get a yes: you had better make it count!

You just cashed in a lot of collateral with your client to get them to allow you to start messing with a successful checkout or conversion path…do not waste it! Implement your plan and strategy as you discussed with them. If the game plan needs to change mid-timeline, be sure to clue your client in on how and why the plan is changing. They’ve given you their trust to put forth your best effort and you have to be sure to do so if you ever want another similar shot in the future.

Tell us about how you discuss CRO with your clients! Share your experiences and techniques in the comments section below to discuss with the PPC Hero team and other PPC Hero readers. As always, thanks for reading and stay tuned for the rest of the CRO series this week! Related posts:

1. PPC Hero Landing Page Optimization Podcast – Business Plan Pro
2. Developing a PPC Strategic Plan
3. How To Gain Client Buy-In for Mobile PPC
4. Client Services: How to Gain Buy-In Early
5. Is Internet Marketing School Worth It? A Story About My Full Sail Degree.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2012 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Conversion Rate Optimization, Intermediate PPC Strategies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.