A/B Testing has evolved from a supplementary strategy into a must have for successful digital businesses. Considering the time, effort and budget spent generating traffic, it is clear that improving conversions should be at the core of any effective digital strategy. A successful A/B testing program requires a group of experts to fill a range of roles, from creating testing experiments to designing graphics, writing copy, and coding pages. The problem is if you are a small business or just starting to A/B test, you may not have part or even any of the team you need to run your program. Established A/B testing
programs face other problems and can eventually plateau – requiring new ideas, fresh designs and copy to continue steady incremental growth. The growth and access to skilled freelance workers presents new opportunities for marketers focused on AB testing and CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) to increase performance.
Do Your Graphics Convert?
Testing and discovering the graphical elements that best support conversions is essential. Pictures and graphics sell! Limitations in your ability to modify graphics or develop new ideas into visual assets often result in lost time and opportunities. For example, EyeViewDigital reports that having the ability to create unique video content improved website conversion rates up to 80%.
Missing opportunities like adding unique videos or not being able to change and test different CTA’s within your video are costly and unnecessary. The lack of specialized design resources and/or the high demands of your existing designers can drastically slow the progress of your ab testing program.
The availability of highly skilled freelance design and video production talent opens up a world of new options for your A/B, split or multivariate testing efforts.Using freelancers and building remote teams of freelance designers allows you to get more specialized, create a wider variety of graphical content and generate more options for experiments. Using different freelance designers for layout, icon and video animation frees up your core team and allows you to run more tests and projects in parallel for faster results. Here are examples of the different designers we use for our AB testing experiments:
Different freelance designers to use for A/B testing:
- Graphic Designer –Editing Images, Custom Graphics
- Icon Designer – Experienced in Icon design and Web 3.0 “Simplified” Design
- UX/UI Designer – For User Experience and Page Layout
- Videographers & Animators – Sales Videos, Short Animations, Product Videos
- Infographic Artist – Create Complex Visual Aids, Use On Page or to Support Acquisition/ Conversion
In addition to the types of designers we use, here are a few ideas for testing experiments
Use freelance designers for these A/B testing ideas:
- Test different graphic styles you have created by different designers (ex. Realistic vs. Illustrated)
- Test radically different layouts by crowdsourcing layout options, challenge best performers for bigger wins
- Test multiple button styles
- Use designers to create seasonal looks and test vs. non-seasonal
Is Your Text Clear and Compelling?
Copy that is clear and direct is crucial to communicate effectively with your audience. According to a Visual website optimizer case study, having a clear headline can increase conversions by almost 90%. Improve your odds for lifting conversion by using multiple freelance writers to craft clear headlines and copy. You may then choose the best ones and create better baseline experiments with improved results.
Go beyond copy and leverage freelance writers to create e-books, whitepapers, guides, etc. that support conversion.
Some key ways to use freelance writers in AB testing:
- Copy – Headlines, benefit copy, product descriptions, long form and short form copy
- Content – Create content and test conversions with and without content offer (ex. E-books, guides, whitepapers, etc.)
- Context – Try different voices and tones, use local freelancers to test using native dialects and phrases in geo-targeting traffic.
Does Your Code Cut It?
For every graphic change and text edit your ab testing team needs a quality developer to implement changes and set up tests. Having access to someone with html coding skills is a necessity. Much of today’s AB testing programs can be implemented and run by non-technical people considering the highly developed WYSISYG editors in programs like Unbounce and Optimizely. However, these will only take you so far. Many programs allow you to modify and swap specific elements of page designs etc., but changes beyond that require custom coding.
For marketers and companies that want to AB test without having a technical member of the team using freelancers for program set up, coding page layouts and making page changes is a no brainer. Even for teams that do have developers on staff, if they are heavily involved in other development projects, using them may cause delays or negatively impact your testing schedule.
Freelance html developers are easily available and some specialize in coding for conversion rate optimization and are familiar working with platforms like Optimizely.
Some key areas to use freelance developers in ab testing:
- Set Up – Set up of platform, integration with databases and email, triggered marketing programs, analytics
- Testing Changes – Modification of pages and elements for your tests
- Page Coding – Coding and set up of different landing pages and email designs
Is Your A/B Testing Strategy Solid?
A good A/B testing program needs a solid strategy. Not surprisingly, Ion Interactive reports 20% of companies run A/B testing programs that alter and change page elements without any strategy. To achieve consistent success you need to pull together a team that is not only proficient in understanding the mechanics of the testing process, but also your audience. Understanding goals, creating experiments, building and running tests and analysis are all fundamental to improve conversions and generate results.
If you are just starting out or need to put more structure to your AB testing program, leveraging freelance marketing and landing page optimization consultants at key phases, or to play the role of strategy head, can be the difference between a successful program and wasted effort.
Having a single individual oversee and execute all of the parts of a successful program is limiting. Even exceptional individuals that can do it all run into clear disadvantages around how to scale, limits to knowledge base, creativity and problem solving. Integrating a diverse team of freelancers to fill strategic roles like project management, strategy, analytics or CRO can give you and small teams the expertise needed to grow your metrics!
Some key strategic roles to consider freelancers for are:
- Strategy – Help to design or challenge existing tests, review and design program structure
- Project Management– Help to run and coordinate
- Analytics – Use an expert to review data, discover insights, and better track user data
Do You Have the Tool to Connect?
Being able to effectively and efficiently power your A/B testing program with freelancers requires the correct tools and talent. There are many established options to hire freelancers at sites like Odesk, Elance and Freelancer which have millions of skilled workers. New innovative platforms like MyCrowd, which aggregate workers from Odesk and Elance, are specifically built to make hiring and working with freelancers more efficient.
For marketers that want to use freelancers more effectively for A/B testing, the solutions have been limited. However, MyCrowd recently launched integration with A/B testing software Optimizely. You can access MyCrowd from within the Optimizely menu to quickly select and send elements to freelancers directly from Optimizely. The good news is that MyCrowd also launches over most other testing platforms, such as Visual Website Optimizer, with similar time saving functionality. It will be interesting to see what other tools and workflows will be developed to further integrate the use of freelancers into the testing process.
The smart use of freelancers increases the resources you have at your disposal, giving you the ability to do more and use the power of the crowd to your advantage. The engine that powers successful A/B testing programs are the people you have behind them, enrich your testing programs intelligently and cost effectively with on-demand workers.
