How to Develop, Optimize, & Promote CRO within a Business or As an Agency — A CXL Course Review
By: Mia Chaszeyka
Tags: Optimization, Cro, Cxl Institute, Cxl

Evangelizing for Optimization within Your Organization

This course is packed with advice on how to develop the knowledge and enthusiasm of CRO to other teams in your company. The first thing you want to develop within your organization is a habit or mindset of continuous testing, and the secret to developing this habit within a team is consistent communication around optimization. You might have to challenge the status quo in some cases. The key is to value quality over speed and conducting tests properly.

To promote CRO within your organization ensure frequent communication about what you’re testing, and make sure whatever you’re communicating is understood by everyone. Confusion creates doubt and in turn, it creates resistance to CRO. There are many ways to get other stakeholders or departments involved. For example, you can offer workshops, bring people on board to use similar methods (such as the ICE/PIE prioritization framework), or you can create company-wide “testathons”, where multiple departments can get involved in finding new testing ideas.

How to Optimize your CRO Program

This course is led by Clair Vo, an experienced optimizer and an expert in high-velocity testing program management. While it is ok to run one test at a time at the start of your optimization program, understanding how you can improve the speed and efficiency of your testing will yield huge improvements in the long run. You will need to measure more than just the output of test results as you mature your testing program. When you reach the stage of running multiple tests a month (in the beginning the ideal number is 4), improving results will be less about test-to-test results, and more about how you can use the resources you have more efficiently.

Higher levels of metrics will be able to tell you how efficient your optimization program is. Test results are outputs, so you also need to consider inputs, because they can be controlled. The number of tests you can run can be increased, as well as their quality. Start by setting goals, measure the performance consistently, and iterate from there. Measuring testing velocity should move beyond reporting the number of tests in a month. Tracking weekly or even daily performance against goals will show you a better picture of what can be improved in future tests.

Your testing capacity (how much can you test give your traffic and structure) will also tell you how many tests you can run in a year. This number is calculated by dividing your test duration (in weeks) by the total number of weeks in the year and then multiplying that by the number of funnels you can test at the same time. You should also establish your testing coverage. This is the percentage of testable days during the year. A good way to motivate people to run more tests is to count and display the days since a test hasn’t been run.

The quality of your testing program is typically measured through a win rate (win/lose/inconclusive). Tracking it over time will show you if it increases or decreases as you optimize your program. You will see your win rate growing quickly early-on as you deal with low-hanging fruit. Then the rate will typically go down as you reach a steady testing velocity. A good baseline win rate is 10%.

Building your Optimization Technology Stack

This course teaches you how to choose the right tools for optimization while making sure they generate an ROI. The first step is to define your goals and budgeting and the tools you choose should always be picked to fill a specific need. Optimization teams should opt for an 80/20 split between investing in people and tools. CRO tools are often quite expensive, but they also typically have a high ROI. The advantage of testing and analytics tools is that they can be shared with other departments, such as UX, design, and marketing teams.

Sometimes many departments are paying for similar contracts, even though the tool can be shared. This is mostly because some areas of a company can become siloed from others. Make sure that you communicate your plans to other teams as well, as you might be losing a lot of money by paying for the same subscription multiple times.

In the first stage of your CRO program, you will need quantitative data collection tools (GA), a qualitative data tool (such as UsabilityHub), a tag manager (GTM), and a testing tool (Optimize, VWO, Optimizely, etc.). In later stages, you will see value in tools that offer more detailed insight, such as heatmap/session replay tools (Hotjar), personalization tools, visualization tools (Tableau), and many more examples.

CRO Agency Masterclass

Building a CRO agency or adding CRO to your agency the right way is crucial for its success and growth. You first need to productize your services to be clear about what you sell. The disadvantage of using an hourly rate is that your interest is to maximizer the number of hours, and your client will want the cheapest options possible. Your interests and those of your clients do not align. It can also become complicated because not everyone can do the same work in the same amount of time.

The focus of your agency should be to sell retainers. The ideal package that you should offer is a full-service “done for you” model which includes landing page optimization, conversion redesigning, and conversion research. However, remember to be specific about exactly what you are offering without leaving room for interpretation. One CRO specialist can handle as many as 4–5 clients simultaneously (this will depend on exactly what you offer). Ideally, you will want to deliver a 3–5x ROI based on how much your client is paying.

Start by creating content such as videos and blog posts. Use your brand to boost your agency’s, since people can connect with the human aspect of the business easily. Create insightful content that sets itself apart in some way, and post it on your blog and other platforms.

Some tips to promote and sell your CRO offer:

Highlight how you are different from other agencies. Offer detailed case studies about how you worked with similar businesses and delivered value.

The standard expected conversion rate increase is 10–15% per month. Make sure to be specific about what your client should expect, but do not over-promise on things you are not sure about.

The client is expected to pay for the CRO-related tools, especially since these tools are often priced based on traffic. You can integrate the more versatile (and cheaper) user testing and research tools into your offer.

Avoid real-time chat for consistent communication as it will mess with your time management. Ideally, you should schedule face time with clients weekly. It’s crucial to maintain healthy relationships with your customer.

Be clear that results will not come immediately, and that it is likely that the first tests will fail. Your clients should understand that there is a learning process.

If you are looking to master conversion optimization and are looking for courses that provide value and provide you with the latest methods and research as well as real-world examples, then I highly recommend this mini-degree program. If you have any questions about this program or want to share some thoughts on the learnings with me, feel free to leave a comment or reach me via LinkedIn.