The term optimisation organisation has now become part of the vernacular in digital marketing circles.
It represents the panacea for organisations that aspire to a culture of continuous improvement by adopting test and learn activities.
In this blog post, I outline 12 things that you should do to become an optimisation organisation.
1. Start thinking about testing!
It’s never too late to start test and learn activities in your company. To do it properly, though, you will need to think about how you can achieve the best results. This will involve devising an end-to-end testing process, involving external stakeholders and building an optimisation team. You need solid foundations in place before you can start building for future success.
2. Data should drive your test ideas
Every test idea you come up with should be grounded in an analytics insight. A problem statement such as
We are seeing a higher than expected drop-off of 15% from our landing page to our purchase page
is far more powerful than
We think we should be selling more products
and also allows you to be much more strategic in developing a programme of related tests and coming up with meaningful testing hypotheses.
3. Invest in an A/B & multivariate testing tool
The volume and complexity of testing you want to carry out, and the scale of your organisation, will dictate which tools you use for your optimisation work.
Companies like Adobe and Optimizely have enterprise-scale A/B and multivariate testing tools that come with a high price tag, but provide the ability to carry out multiple and complex tests with user-friendly reporting suites, and sometimes consultancy included in the package.
At the lower end of the cost scale, Google offers an impressive testing package with an intuitive interface but more limited functionality.
4. Invest in some help early on
It’s easy to think you can do it all yourself – remember, though, that despite the fact that testing doesn’t need to be complex, doing it right takes time and effort.
We can’t stress enough how important it is to enlist help to get you started on your testing efforts – whether from an external consultancy, or from the company who owns the software – as this will let you get up and running with minimal delay, so you can get the most out of your optimisation efforts.
5. Get senior stakeholder buy-in
This one is absolutely critical.
Without executive-level representation your optimisation efforts run the serious risk of never getting traction.
Any company trying to become an optimisation organisation will at some stage come up against major hurdles (e.g. lack of development resource, slow IT release cycles) that threaten to derail the whole strategy.
So you need the buy-in of a senior sponsor who can fight your corner and stump up budget when needed.
6. Have an optimisation lead
Organisations that try to execute an optimisation strategy without a dedicated optimisation lead generally fail.
The optimisation lead is the “glue” that holds together all your testing efforts. Better still, create a dedicated optimisation team that can focus purely on generating and running tests.
Without a dedicated testing function you start to rely on other departments’ resources and your testing roadmap risks running out of steam.
7. Involve the rest of the organisation, don’t work in a silo
It’s tempting to only involve the digital team in your optimisation efforts. After all, they are the ones who understand best what you’re trying to achieve, right?
Well that may be the case, but you will get the best inputs and the best results by including stakeholders from other departments in both idea generation and the sharing of test results.
Giving continuous feedback and progress updates also helps to keep interest across the company.
8. Evangelise the benefits of testing to other teams and departments
A big challenge with an optimisation strategy is getting other departments in your company to see what’s in it for them.
Your digital team may understand the benefits of testing, but don’t assume that everyone does. It’s up to you to go out to these teams and spell out to them how testing and optimisation can help them in their day to day jobs.
We’re confident you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction you get.
9. Keep people interested by turning it into a game
‘Gamification’ is one of those buzzwords that has been doing the rounds in the last few years, but asking stakeholders to predict the outcome of an A/B test can be a powerful way of keeping them interested in what you’re doing.
It injects a bit of fun into the process, and can help stimulate discussion between the different parties involved.
You could even set up a regular contest with a prize draw for the winner.
10. Start simple and build from there
When you’re just starting out on your optimisation journey it can often all seem a bit overwhelming.
Where do you start?
Well, there’s no doubt a whole bunch of different things that you could test from the outset – just make sure you start simple.
You understand your business better than anyone, so you’ll probably already know of some ‘low-hanging fruit’ that you’re pretty confident can give some good results.
This will help build your confidence, and show others that testing really does work.
11. Don’t be afraid to fail, as long as you are learning all the time
It goes without saying that not all ideas you test will end up being successful.
What you need to remember at all times is that as long as you are learning from the results of a test, it hasn’t been in vain.
If you launch a test and the challenger doesn’t beat the control, don’t think of it as a failure.
The learnings from the test can be every bit as valuable as from one that does win – sometimes even more valuable – so don’t be disheartened, and think of it as a natural part of the process.
12. Don’t give up!
Becoming an optimisation organisation doesn’t happen overnight. It takes hard work and persistence.
You’ll come up against lots of different barriers on your journey, and you’ll occasionally think that it’s all too hard.
Whatever you do, don’t give up. There are more companies who don’t have a structured approach to testing than those that do, so anything you can do will help move your company towards the front of the pack.
If you persevere, and keep learning from your testing efforts, before long you’ll have what it takes to be an optimisation organisation.
