Does this scenario sound familiar? Your growth team is running a series of experiments to drive more leads and conversions on your website. At the same time, your brand team is worried about whether this series of experiments could hurt the brand experience and, in turn, “Frankenstein” the prospect experience. This fear regularly creates friction between the two teams and can result in the brand team trying to insert itself into website testing, inadvertently slowing things down.
It can turn into a rather frustrating experience for everyone involved. Well, there’s a better way for these teams to work together and meet each of their goals. In this article, I have teamed with Speero to share the ways these two teams can marry branding and experimentation to optimize the visitor experience and alleviate fears of ‘Frankensteining the user experience.
Brand and Growth Team Goals
The brand team’s goal, first and foremost, is typically to uphold a consistent brand in all marketing efforts. Consistent branding is the key to building brand awareness and improving the customer experience. For example, if a customer clicks on an ad and lands on your website, they’ll know they’re in the right place when the same key branding elements (e.g. logo, messaging, overall look and feel) are consistent and present in both places.
Typically the growth team’s goal is to drive more revenue and conversions for the business. The growth team often uses website testing to see which variations resonate more with visitors in order to drive more conversions and better understand the target audience.
While the primary goals for each of these teams differ, they all lead back to acquiring more new customers through great brand experiences. The brand and growth teams have more in common than they might think. Let’s look at ways they can better collaborate to drive these marketing goals.
2 Ways That Brand and Growth Teams Can Effectively Work Together
1. Set brand guidelines for experiments
Let’s face it: having the brand team oversee every test is a less-than-ideal scenario for both teams. This is a time-consuming, low-level priority for the brand team and, in turn, it slows down the growth team’s testing velocity. Since velocity and good hypotheses are the key to driving more conversions and revenue, this slowdown has a real business impact.
Our suggestion is for the brand team to capture what’s important to them about how the brand is represented and share that as guard rails for the growth team. The growth team can then commit to staying within these guard rails and asking the brand team for a review for any experiments outside of these guard rails. The idea is to define a sandbox and let the growth team run in a way that the brand team feels great about.
If your brand team already has a brand style guide, this is a great starting point for a discussion between the brand and growth teams. We suggest talking through the style guide and then through typical experiments since the style guide might not have considered the experimentation program when it was created.
If you do not have a brand style guide, see what other high-level guidelines the brand team can lay out. The brand team can think about what they would ask a third party to do with the brand and share that with the growth team.
For example, are elements such as headlines and CTA fair game? Should images and/or colors use a certain color palette? Should copy adhere to a messaging architecture? Having these practical guidelines documented and shared across the brand and growth teams can help both teams run more quickly, drive more conversions, and alleviate fears of Frankensteining the prospect experience.
2. Brainstorm test ideas together
After the brand and growth teams work together to create guard rails for experiments, consider keeping the conversation going by brainstorming a large batch of test ideas together on a regular basis, perhaps monthly or quarterly.
If the teams brainstorm together, keep your shared marketing goals in mind: acquiring more new customers through great brand experiences. How can you optimize your site to turn prospects into revenue? Brand and growth teams might even start a brainstorming session by looking at visitor behavioral data or talking about your prospects’ needs and interests.
Once the brand and growth teams have come up with a new batch of test ideas, take things a step further and agree on which ideas you’ll be moving forward with in the coming weeks and months. Then reconnect in a month or a quarter and share learnings and, in doing so, build trust that the growth team’s efforts are both delivering results and staying on brand.
Key Takeaway: Create Synergy Between Brand and Growth Teams
Whether you’re struggling with fears of Frankensteining UX or simply want to test faster, I encourage you to remember that brand and growth teams are both aiming for the same thing: acquiring more new customers through great brand experiences. While brand and growth team goals often differ, both teams are optimizing the experience for the same prospects. Take the time to break down any (real or perceived) roadblocks between brand and growth teams and build an open line of communication to deliver better results for your business.
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