What’s the X Factor in A/B Testing?

Sometimes marketing can feel a little bit like a science experiment. You get an idea, make a plan, put it in action, test it, and see if it you’ve found the secret formula. Of course, the truth is there’s no secret formula. In reality, the biggest X factor in achieving success through your A/B testing is testing the right things in the right order.

The good news? Almost anything can be tested for optimization. The bad news? Almost anything can all be tested for optimization. Here are a few good places to start:

Headline
Your headline is the first thing visitors see when they land on your page. Therefore, it should be the first thing you test.

You only have seconds to grab a consumer’s attention; 80 percent of visitors won’t make it past your headline. Engage your audience with a clear headline that directs them to the information they need. If the content that follows the headline is informative and concise, the visitor can follow the flow of the page and respond to the call to action (CTA) to “schedule an appointment,” “subscribe now” or “register for the webinar.”

CTA Button Copy
Your CTA is the pot of gold at the end of the conversion rainbow. Spend some time testing which button text delivers. Try variations with specific, motivating text that communicates your unique value proposition and drives people to take action. Keep it short, however. Formstack’s 2015 Form Conversion Report found that the top 10 converting buttons all contained two words or less. Specific is better, too. Adding just one word after the word “submit” can boost conversion rates by as much as 320 percent.

Voice
There’s a lot of truth in the old expression, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it” – at least when it comes to conversions.

Unbounce found using first-person voice generated a 90 percent better conversion rate. For example, “Start my free trial” converts better than “Start your free trial.” Along these same lines, active verbs motivate users to take action. Therefore, try words like “Download,” “Get” or “Start.”

Image Size
We’re all hardwired to be visual. Ninety percent of information that comes to the brain arrives via our optic nerve, and that visual data is processed 60,000 times faster than information our brain receives in text form.

There are many ways to tweak the visuals on your page, and test the results. You can try different sizes of the same image or test the impact of two different pictures.

Color
Another visual variable to test is color. Subconscious judgments are made in a split second, and up to 90 percent of those judgments are based on color.

Want to increase energy and create a sense of urgency? Try red if you’re running a sale, or blue to build trust and security. Orange also encourages immediate action. It’s a good choice if you want people to sign up or buy something right now. Use yellow to get attention. It promotes positive feelings, but it also causes just enough anxiety to move people to action without stopping them in their tracks. And one of the best blanket choices for a CTA button color is green. We all know green means go, which is pretty handy when it comes to CTAs. It’s also easiest for the eyes to process.

Chris Lucas is the vice president of business development at Formstack, an online form builder that enables users to create any type of online form, including surveys, contact forms, event registrations and order forms.