![\"Ian](\"https:\/\/static.wingify.com\/gcp\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/11\/Feature-image-CRO-Perspectives-Ian-Fong.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nLeader:<\/strong> Ian Fong<\/p>\n\n\n\n Role:<\/strong> Managing Director, Experior<\/p>\n\n\n\n Location: <\/strong>Australia<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaks about:<\/strong> Digital Strategy \u2022 Conversion rate optimization \u2022 User Experience \u2022 Experimentation \u2022 User Research<\/p>\n\n\n Ian brings over 15 years of invaluable experience in Conversion Optimization, helping businesses excel in the digital space. As the Managing Director of Experior, Ian leads a team that consistently drives impressive results in increasing leads, conversions, revenue, and average order value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ian started his career as a digital marketer in an agency before moving in-house. In 2014, he co-founded Yoghurt Digital, a digital marketing agency where he successfully led and grew the company from a team of 3 to 35. Given his vast expertise, his insights will be incredibly helpful to anyone looking to improve their CRO strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n My very first experiment was as an eCommerce manager. I fell for all those shiny case studies you see online about \u201cchanging button colors\u201d and you\u2019ll see big results. Of course, the first test was inconclusive, and it led me down the path of finding out how to do optimization properly. Beyond just increasing conversion rates, I believe the true power of experiments lies in helping businesses make lower-risk decisions.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n We often associate a \u201ctest\u201d with Randomized Controlled Trials or A\/B tests. RCTs are the best form of evidence, for sure, but there are other ways to \u201ctest\u201d if you don\u2019t have enough resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Businesses that don\u2019t have resources for RCTs can do a few things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also think \u201cresourcing\u201d isn\u2019t as much of an issue as businesses can also run low \u201ceffort\u201d tests like copy tests. Copy changes don’t require a fully fleshed-out design to get developed, so they are less resource-intensive. The next step involves designs and developments that require proper planning. This includes tests that change the layout and tests that introduce or change existing functionality.<\/p>\n\n\n Start small and prioritize low-effort (low-resource) experiments to prove your case. Once you\u2019ve got a few runs on the board, it\u2019s easier to get buy-in for the bigger stuff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Get stakeholders involved in ideation. There are an infinite number of ways to solve a problem, and getting their buy-in early will help your entire program. It\u2019s always fun when their assumptions are challenged.<\/p>\n\n\n Customer research needs to be performed on an ongoing basis to keep up with trends and shifts in buyer behavior. It\u2019s not enough to just do research and then run tests; research must be run in parallel. At Experior, we suggest 90-day sprints that prioritize research and then rapid testing. We adjust our roadmap based on new insights frequently, not just from tests, but from research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We start every engagement with thorough customer research. We prioritize rapid research techniques that will allow us to get a test up and running within two weeks. Whilst the tests are running, we also focus on deep qualitative research and run the two tracks side by side. <\/p>\n\n\n New insights from either testing or research inform and dictate an overall insights roadmap. This roadmap allows us to know the top priority for research and testing. We run this for one sprint length (in our case 90-days) and we end with a retro with the client to review what worked and what didn’t. This allows us to plan for the next 90-day sprint and we continue this system going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within our sprints, we always have our clients involved (if they want to be) in the ideation session. There are so many ways to design a treatment for a hypothesis, and getting clients involved earlier means they have more buy-in and ownership of the treatment and outcomes. When there\u2019s a difference of ideas, we suggest an A\/B\/C test where both the client\u2019s preference and our preferences are tested with traffic<\/p>\n\n\n\n The more mature an organization is, the more it thinks in terms of risk mitigation and overall product strategy. Less mature organizations will fixate on immediate wins. This isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing but there\u2019s obvious room for growth.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n Yes, VWO is my first point of contact for companies that are new to testing. The platform has helped introduce a lot of organizations to the power of experimentation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhy should you read this interview?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
Ian\u2019s journey with testing and key lessons learned<\/h2>\n\n\n
The perception of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is mostly grounded around growing revenue, but we often overlook the fact that it also helps save costs, reduce waste, and guide business strategy. Experiments are a true measure of whether a business is \u201cdata-driven\u201d or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Testing alternatives for businesses\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nSecuring stakeholder buy-in for experiments<\/h2>\n\n\n
Adapting to changing customer behavior<\/h2>\n\n\n
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VWO enhances CRO efficiency with examples<\/h2>\n\n\n
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