Conference testimonials
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You think you're on top of what’s happening in marketing? You think you know what's cooking in the digital marketing world? Then don't come to Fusion Marketing Experience. I go there to listen & learn from great people that are DOING it. I know a lot, but I keep learning at Fusion Marketing Experience, every time.
The Fusion Marketing Experience conference is what it says: a real experience with probably the strongest program of all marketing events in Belgium. I am a big fan and will be there again. Top speakers, top content, a special atmosphere and excellent networking, Fusion Marketing Experience has it all. After just two events, Fusion Marketing Experience became the place to be.
Marketing conferences are usually more of the same: the usual suspects as keynotes, the obligatory panel discussion and more of that. Fusion Marketing Experience was a relief: knowledgeable speakers with real content at an unusual location. And what attracted me most was the atmosphere, the feeling that participants were not present just for a chat and a drink, but actually wanted to use the insights into their daily business.
Fusion Marketing Experience is the only event in Belgium that really joins the channels together. A perfect fusion between top notch speakers, great networking opportunities and possibilities to share ideas with other peers in your industry or expertise. An event not to miss... I like! (or + or pin....).
The Fusion Marketing Experience events are a great opportunity to listen to and learn from subject-matter experts, no commercial pitches, only top speakers with top content. In a fast-changing business environment, my challenge is to keep learning and sharing with other peers in our industry …..that's exactly what the "Fusion Marketing Experience platform" helps me with.
When I saw Olivier Blanchard was giving a two-day workshop in Belgium in May 2012, I didn’t have to hesitate to enroll. As you can assume, I already knew Olivier. I have read his book Social Media ROI, and I found it to be one of the best Social Media books. When I noticed it was organized by J-P De Clerck, I knew the workshop would be good value since I already attended several seminars and events, organized by J-P and the Fusion Marketing Experience he launched. And I always came home with valuable insights and inspiration. Why Olivier? He is really focused on how to integrate social media into business. He starts from within the organization, not from the social media. It all comes down to grow your business. Don’t start building a social media program before you find an answer to “What will social media do for my company?”. As I’m working into B2B, understanding the business value of social media, the ROI is a real must. Once you’ve got that straight, once you have got your targets, you can share it within your company. Than the process starts of sharing, listening and educating. Olivier really helped me during the workshops how to sell the social media program to my management and how to start the process. I will never forget his story about the ‘culture of dudes’. If you look for inspiration on how to overcome objections, he is the man. During the 2 days many key topics on how to set up and execute a social media program were discussed. The organization of the workshop was - as usual - flawless. The location and the infrastructure were very good. I had a pleasant and inspiring two days.
Improving conversion: How to Focus On Customer Top Tasks
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During the first of his two keynotes at the 2011 Antwerp Fusion Marketing Experience conference, Gerry McGovern showed why and how businesses should focus on the top tasks of their website visitors and customers in general.Identify those customer top tasks, remove the distractions and clutter, make it simple, reduce the noise, and don’t fall for the cult of volume, Gerry says. In his presentation, which you find below, Gerry showed the do’s and don’t’s, using practical examples. A summary and some key takeaways.
You might ask yourself what the small image in this post, showing a master and his apprentice, means. With it, Gerry wanted to make a simple but unmistakably clear point: the customer is the master. We are the apprentices. Period. Indeed, it’s not about what we, as businesses or marketers think is relevant or even functional and effective but what about website visitors, and customers decide.
Gerry illustrated this point clearly with the two screenshots below from his presentation. Which of the two SIMS3 pages worked best from a conversion perspective: the left one or the right one?
Which page converts best?
Nearly all participants voted for the right one, as they always do when Gerry asks that question. However, reality showed that the left one worked best. As marketers, we tend to fall for what we think looks more flashy, beautiful or “nice” but we forget to look at what the people that matter most, those we try to do business with, actually prefer.
Putting ourselves in the shoes of potential customers is not a good idea. Involving the customer and actually measuring, testing and analyzing what he wants is. As Gerry says in his presentation: “Just get rid of the crappy stuff and focus on the good stuff.”
What works is what facilitates the customer top tasks
So, how do you know what is good? And where do you start? You know where to start: not in your boardroom but where the action happens: at the visitor and customer side. That’s still not an answer to the question “what is good”? Again a simple answer: everything that helps website visitors achieve their goals or “tasks” as Gerry calls them. You find out by asking, remote testing and analyzing.
Customer top tasks on the OECD website
All website visitors have tasks. As Gerry shows in the first few slides of his presentation, using the website of the OECD as an example, there can be many reasons why people visit your website, or interact via other channels for that matter.
The trick is to focus on the top tasks first. As the graphic in the presentation clearly shows, there often is a very long tail of tiny tasks and a clear “long neck” of top tasks. So, start making performing the latter easier for your visitors.
How? By removing every single element that isn’t necessary and makes it actually more confusing for people to fulfil that task. Indeed, “get rid of the crappy stuff”.
Gerry uses a Telenor case as an example. The company used to have about 4,000 web pages. After analyzing, it reduced that number to 400 pages. The result: conversion rate went up by 100%, the number of emails to customer service down by 35%, and the customer satisfaction ratings went up as well.
How many web pages do you need? Relevance over quantity
Should we reduce the number of pages on our website? #fusionmex Antwerp 2011 speaker Bryan Eisenberg seemed to say exactly the opposite, recommending to build more variations of web pages and certainly landing pages.
So, which is it? The answer again is simple: as long as the content and pages are relevant for the visitor and customer top tasks, they are good.
Furthermore, there is of course a difference between the number of web pages and the number of pages you use in testing. Furthermore, finally, it’s not only about the pages as such. It’s about everything that makes it harder for people to perform their tasks: bad forms, irrelevant stock images, confusing links and so much more.
Links, the essence of the Web and of your promise need more attention, as do other elements that make your customer’s journey easier.
The time of people is precious, don’t waste it
Online marketing should get rid of the cult of volume and the focus on the wrong metrics such as the number of hits or average length per visit.
If a website is functional, it takes a visitor to his destination fast, it doesn’t keep him busy. The time of people online and in general is crucial, don’t waste it.
For many websites the top tasks, that should be emphasized are obvious. On a hotel website, you want to book a room, right? In other cases, it can be more complex. That’s where surveying, remote testing and thus involving actual users come in.
Gerry advises to use remote testing, by the way, since people who perform tasks in these tests don’t feel watched and there is no pressure and thus room for mistakes.
Measuring customer top tasks in practice: testing requires being specific
When setting up such tests and seeing where visitors fail at completing their top tasks (and thus identifying conversion bottlenecks), you must give people precise tasks to complete. Be as specific as possible and hide what you want to test in a very concrete goal.
Task performance analysis
Using the OECD example, for instance, the question that was asked to visitors was “What is the title of Box 1.2 on page 73 of OECD Employment Outlook 2009?” The real major goal was to check whether people could find the OECD country surveys and reports fast, which was the number one identified top task of visitors to the site.
Next to asking the right questions, obviously measuring is key and a comparison of the median time on a specific task (in seconds) and the pre-defined optimal time on task is an important element here. Finally, note task performance is divided into three possible outcomes: success, failure and disaster.
It’s these kinds of exercises, focusing on customer top tasks, removing the distractions and confusing elements, and testing for continuous improvement that make the difference between a website that is effective and one that isn’t.
Check out Gerry’s customer top tasks presentation below.
Measuring Top Tasks: #fusionmex presentation Gerry McGovern
View more presentations from J-P De Clerck
