In terms of web development that was 91 years ago and web design has come a long since. Because we can do almost anything in terms of what we put together it suddenly becomes important to understand exactly why we choose to do something specific on the web.
If you choose to not run this kind of analysis and you are not lucky enough to have a web design team working for you that understands that website design has to be subordinate to the function the site is set up for, then you will either end up with a lot of sleek code and the kind of web design that five year olds produce, or you will end up with a supped-up design that overwhelms visitors and makes them almost incapable of taking action and giving you those online sales you so much are counting on.
So, is there something you can do to make sure that this does not happen? Yes. Test. Test the design at design concept before it gets integrated in the code and then use multi-variate testing or a Taguchi Test analysis to make sure that the combination you are putting together is really worth its salt and will work exactly the way you want it to.
Although Taguchi Testing has its limitations the ability to test before you implement a complex eCommerce website allows you to make the best-informed choice regarding the design elements you will implement, the response those design elements will elicit in your online visitors and the results you will get will enable you to cut out the guesswork and actually get some concrete data to back up the hypothesis.
More Features of Test&Target using both Taguchi Test and A/B testing
- A/B and Multivariate Testing—test which experiences or elements drive lift
- Streamline Online Testing— With the ability to visually design campaigns, Test & Target lets marketers quickly create A/B tests or targeted campaigns right on the site. Simply pick the location, choose your content, and go!
- Automated Predictive Learning—targeted offers are served based on a visitor’s unique interests.
- Landing Page Optimization—find out which landing pages work best and which landing page elements matter.
- Segment Targeting—Target content to different groups of visitors based on marketer-defined segments.
- Easy Implementation—with little to no involvement from IT, you can be configured to use Test&Target in a couple of hours.
- A 360 Degree View—offline data can be passed to our real-time targeting engine for improved relevance.
Classification, Prediction and Exploration
If you are about to sink your life’s savings in a website you need to know that what you have is more than just a web designer’s impression of what might work. At Web Direct Studio we understand that, which is why, when it comes to employing landing pages that work and websites designed to leverage online traffic and convert it into paying customers we can take each design through a rigorous testing process that will, in relatively short time, give us the following:
Classification: classification techniques are used to segment markets. This is one of the central tasks of marketing. They are also used to make segmentation schemes useful, by allowing you to classify respondents into segments. Classification techniques include clustering, CHAID, CART, and discriminant analysis. They are vital in understanding just how your online visitors behave once they get to your site.
Prediction: the ability to accurately predict behavior not only makes you more confident about web design decisions, but it also implies an understanding of the processes at work. Regression in all its shapes and forms remains the central workhorse of our online website testing and research. It is central to techniques like conjoint and discrete-choice analysis.
Exploration and data reduction: sometimes we have more information than we know what to do with and need to summarize relationships in data and provide a clear perspective. For this, we use techniques like principal component analysis and discriminant analysis. What you get is a clearer picture that allows you to be confident in the use of the data you have at hand.
Cost and benefits
Does every website need to go through this cycle of analysis and testing? It depends. Every website design we create is informed by our understanding of the processes driving the online behaviour of your visitors. It also benefits of the experience of our designers with websites that have been designed after careful testing and analysis using the Taguchi Test method or A/B testing.
This means that the base our designers start off with is already pretty high. If, however, you are thinking of marketing a product that will bring in a few hundred thousand dollars it pays off to make sure that you get the design down to the most perfect combination of website design elements possible. That means testing not just the design itself but the wording of your website in different variations, your calls to action and even the price of what you are selling.
That’s when you need to run a Taguchi test, spend maybe up to a couple of thousand and make sure you get it right or, if the data points you the other way, stop before you waste valuable time and even more money.
It is in the last that the predictive ability of the tests we run comes into its own. When the data backs up the hypothesis you begin your online marketing confident that you have got it right. When the data doesn’t you know that you have just saved yourself maybe six months of hard work and heartache and more than a few thousand dollars plus your reputation, and that is priceless.
If you are ready for your website project to be handled by a team that is serious about making your online business a success get in touch with us and find out how we can help you.
