The latest Find the Edge podcast sees Kenny talking to Dr Karl Blanks – a former rocket scientist and the co-founder of www.conversion-rate-experts.com – who describes how you can hone your website to boost conversion rates and meet the needs of your customers more acutely.
In an enlightening interview, Karl goes into detail about his own company's history, and shares the techniques they've used to scientifically boost the conversion rates of online behemoths like Apple, Facebook, Google, Sony and Vodafone.
Download: MP3 file (32.3MB)
Podcast highlights
01:30 – Karl explains his background
04:00 – Purpose of web design
05:45 – What's stopping website visitors taking action?
06:40 – Using split testing for conversion rate optimisation
07:30 – Improving sites scientifically
08:31 – Importance of diagnosing problems
11:00 – What's the one key bottleneck?
11:40 – Most dramatic case study – SEOMoz
13:00 – Website should model face-to-face salesperson
16:20 – Original company goal – “to be the best in the world at conversion”
18:12 – Where should you start?
18:38 – Advantages for small businesses
18:55 – First steps to take
19:45 – Experience over theory
20:20 – Tools of the trade
21:25 – Understand problems then change them – don't be stubborn
21:50 – Usability tests
23:30 – Resources for user testing
25:20 – Articles mentioned: Understanding Your Visitors – Split-Testing 101
26:40 – Any successful company is worth studying
28:40 – Hard to criticise companies without knowing their goals
29:20 – Are you growing or shrinking the business?
31:30 – Conversion is all about human nature
