Author: Martin P.
Title: Content Marketer
The Experimental Revolution aims to inform, educate and elevate the industry by sharing the latest in Experimentation learnings, and how these translate to better, faster businesses decision-making.
EP 2: One Framework to Rule Them All
Yo. Martin P. here. Again.
What’s the weather like at your place? It’s… chaotic on my side. Like it's barely summer. A couple of cold days. Then a couple of hot ones. Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold. Like you don’t know where it will go. Like no one is at the steering wheel.
The situation is the same in CXO/CRO industry. People don’t know how to identify site issues and opportunities. Even if they do, what should be prioritized? They jump from methodology to methodology. Heatmaps, analytics, polls, copy testing, and surveys, they’re all over the place.
We had the same problem, you know?
That’s why we came up with ResearchXL. This framework is one of the first steps we’re making in the Experimental Revolution. Instead of gut feelings, mystic intuitions, and Highest Paid Person Opinions, it lets you build and follow a data-driven strategy.
And that’s what our Experimental Revolution is all about. We plan to take over the bunkers of old—HIPPOs, experience-driven and intuition-driven decisions—and place systems, frameworks, and scientific methodologies in their place.
That’s the only way to democratize and localize decision-making in business and produce results after the initial quick wins. #systemsftw. Consider yourself the rebel. One of many experimental rebels that will turn the CRO industry upside-down.
Frameworks—ResearchXL Playbook
ResearchXL is a comprehensive framework that includes several research methodologies. The overall goal of ResearchXL is to identify website issues and opportunities which can be addressed in order to improve key metrics like conversion rate.
ResearchXL framework allows you to do this because it combines data from multiple methods:
- UX Heuristic Review
- Remote Usability Studies
- Customer Surveys
- Website Polls
- Analytics Analysis
- Analytics health checks
- Chat logs
- Session recordings
- Heatmaps
- CS/Sales Interviews
- Design Analysis
All of these research activities let you glean into user motivations, FUDs (fears, uncertainties, and doubts), and on-site friction. From here, you can form data-informed recommendations and insights which you can then use and reference throughout the experimentation program. It even provides info for a wider experimentation strategy and its direction.
ResearchXL addresses the current roadblocks of the customer experience so you can recommend improvements and validate them with A/B tests. This qualitative and quantitative information provides a balanced and data-driven approach to optimization.
Here’s our ResearchXL playbook template, free of charge.
What to Read
Quick read bullet point:
Unchecked A/B Testing Can Destroy Everything It Touches.
What We’re Getting Wrong About Customer Journeys
Derek Zumsteg shares why Unchecked A/B Testing Can Destroy Everything It Touches.
Look, every website feature that grinds your nerves like a blunt chainsaw was once a successful A/B experiment. Someone tested email-signup popups with 10% discounts and increased signup rates. Someone else tested the first urgency/scarcity messaging, and it worked.
But along the way, we ended up with spammy, bloated sites where you have to click X on 5 pop-ups before you can read what you came for. Yea, all these small changes improve your conversion rate or purchases, but is that what you’re looking for in the long run?
Harvard Business Review talks about What We’re Getting Wrong About Customer Journeys.
The holy grail of customer experience is making everything as predictable and effortless as possible. But HBR is here to show why this grail is likely to corrupt. Such an oversimplified approach doesn’t account for every customer journey. When we watch Netflix, we want it to be easy and familiar. But when we drive a Peloton bike or play a video game? Definitely not.
This article outlines four kinds of journeys: Routines are effortless and predictable and are suited to utilitarian products. Joyrides are effortless and unpredictable and work with products that deliver an on-demand thrill. Treks are effortful and predictable and are associated with products that help people achieve challenging long-term goals. Odysseys are effortful and unpredictable and are perfect for products that facilitate customers’ passion projects.
Here’s a loom video of Paul Randal, Speero’s senior experimental strategist, summarizing the article for those who’re TLDR.
VirginPulse prepared a webinar on 8 Types of Motivation Waves.
In this webinar you will:
- Learn what a “Motivation Wave” is and how it differs from other approaches to motivation
- Gain insight into the eight types of Motivation Waves
- See why some Motivation Waves are predictable, while others are not
- Practice matching Motivation Waves to hard behaviors you need employees to do
- See how to map out Motivation Waves that are relevant to your work.
Noteworthy Events
CX Network is organizing a free webinar on Delighting prospects and customers through strategic CX automation.
The first wave of enterprise automation primarily focused on efficiency gains in the back-office, away from the view of the customer. Now, as businesses look for ways to deliver services that are fast, personalized, and effective, automation has become a key investment priority for customer experience leaders.
With that in mind, CXN Live: CX Automation 2022 will focus on:
- Chatbots: integrating chatbots into your contact channels to reduce wait times and handle common queries and requests
- Robotic Process Automation: leveraging RPA to handle low value, high volume tasks within service teams and contact centers
- Marketing Automation: Capturing data insights and delivering personalized messages to your customers at scale
- Channel integration: ensuring interoperability between systems and channels to offer a seamless experience and transfer of information at every touchpoint
- Personalization: unlocking the potential of customer data to deliver the right information at the right time
- Real-time updates: ensuring that both agents and customers can get real-time information on orders, deliveries, and services
- Self-service: leveraging apps and portals to give customers the ability to resolve their own queries
Speero has partnered with Mutiny for an unusual event happening today—The Second Lever.
Emma Travis, Speero's director of research, will talk this evening about how to research your ICP so you can build a predictable growth engine. Get ready to learn:
- Your ICP motivations, triggers, and FUDs (fears, uncertainties, and doubts)
- How to use this to design customer experiences that reverb and resonate
- ICP research process
- Its examples in practice
- Data point Framework so you can start your own ICP research
Of course, that’s not all. You can also expect:
- A Leadership Perspective: SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin interviews the CMOs of Salesforce, Box, Attentive, and more. They will share how they’re navigating the challenging times ahead.
- ABM and PLG Playbooks: Companies like Snowflake, Attentive, and Ramp reveal their detailed conversion playbooks.
The name Second Lever is a nod to the often forgotten second marketing lever: Conversion.
Martin out! Know that I’m here for you, so feel free to reach out and reply to this email. With a question. A burning topic. An invite. Anything!
FEEDBACK & COLLABORATION
Hope you have enjoyed this month's The Experimental Revolution. If you have any feedback on the newsletter or would like to collaborate with Speero on thought-leadership content, please contact Martin P. See you next month.
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