Channels & Conversions in Growth Marketing: Review

When I first started learning about growth marketing two weeks ago, I expected this entire concept to be quite foreign to me, I was of course wrong. As a marketer in any field of marketing, you will be able to understand the basic principles of growth marketing and will inevitably also have some knowledge to build on one of its 3 foundational pillars: Having channel expertise.

In the earlier blogs I mentioned that growth marketers need 3 main characteristics:

• Channel Expertise in one or many channels
• Analytical capabilities and
• Strategic management and project management.

While I discussed some amount of these topics in the introduction, I thought it best to have separate blogs explaining each of these points in detail.

So what is Channel Expertise?

When we talk about channel expertise, we refer to main marketing channels that build the foundation of a marketing team and naturally, the channels that drive growth and revenue. Among these we can include:

• Social Media
• PPC
• SEO
• Email Marketing

It is important to note that these channels are the most popular and widely used right now, however it is important to constantly look out for emerging channels just as much as it is important to leverage your existing channels.

Each of these channels on its own requires specialised training and industry knowledge. For example, it takes a good amount of experimentation and trials to crack PPC campaigns, where conversions or awareness and requires training and skill to master the art of SEO.

But if you are a content marketer, you will inevitably have some knowledge of all or any one of these channels, so being able to focus your attention on perfecting a single channel should be easy.

Where do we start in measuring the effectiveness of Channels?

As I mentioned above, a good growth marketer needs channel knowledge and analytical capabilities. Good analysis skills come into play while measuring the effectiveness of your channels. We carry this out by conversion research and testing.

Research and testing may seem like an intuitive way to start experiments, but it often overlooked and not conducted properly.

So before we discuss the methods and research into conversion, we first need to know the different levels of conversion and what we are working towards.

Levels of Conversion

So, now that we know what the process is of getting a conversion, we can discuss the research and testing required at every stage.

In CXL Institute’s Mini-Degree on Growth Marketing, founder Peep Laja had the most insightful take on the types of testing required. In this Mini-Degree, Peep Laja outlines his tried and true ResearchXL model which has helped thousands of optimizers grow their businesses. The model consists of a six-step framework:

1. Technical Analysis
2. Heuristic Analysis
3. Qualitative Surveys
4. Mouse Tracking Analysis
5. Web Analytics Analysis
6. User Testing

Technical Analysis: This refers to the literal tech behind your website/app interface. It is very straightforward and would require testing of browsers, devices, speed, links etc.

Heuristic Analysis: Peep Laja says that in conducting heuristic analysis, it is important to note whether your UI and copy account for relevance, motivation and friction while having the clarity to communicate it all. The heuristic analysis involves checking for “areas of interest” on your pages and experimenting with different solutions to increase the overall conversions.

Qualitative Surveys: Surveys are an area we are all familiar with, but yet again, is something we often do wrong. From scoring to order bias or reading the room, most organisations construct surveys for internal and external purposes with utter disregard for the user experience and prior knowledge. For an in-depth understanding of Surveys and how to conduct them, check out the course on CXL Institute where they explain how information can be leveraged from chat logs, web surveys and even interviews for qualitative analysis.

Mouse Tracking Analysis: Knowing where your users are accumulating on your pages is very useful in driving conversions. Using tools to construct heat maps, click maps, scroll maps and user replays is very important for testing purposes. Check out Hotjar, a great tool for this.

Web Analytics and Analysis: This is digital analytics that helps you understand: Where are the leaks? Which segments to target, What are users doing? and Which actions correlate with higher conversions?. This means having a health check for your website to make sure it still aligns with your KPIs.

Health checks are a series of analytics and instrumentation checks that answer the following questions:

• “Does it collect what we need?”
• “Can we trust this data?”
• “Where are the holes?”
• “Is there anything that can be fixed?”
• “Is anything broken?”
• “What reports should be avoided?”

User Testing: User testing is about insight into the user’s mind and usability. This means how easy UI is to use. If a website or a page is complicated to use, people won’t buy from it. If they can’t find a product they want, they can’t buy it. If they can’t figure out what the site is about, they will leave. So it is very important.

When Google Analytics tells you which pages have issues, user testing is hugely helpful when it comes to figuring out “why”. This means that it is most helpful in finally identifying the bottlenecks.

And the final step: Measuring Conversions

The analysis of testing comes in the form of reports. This is where analytical capabilities are hugely relied on. If you’re new to data interpretation and visualisation though, I’ve got you covered!

Using tools that are intuitive for your reporting is hugely helpful for the interpretation, I use either Hubspot or Hotjar to create reports and analyse them easily. Additionally conducting a copy test is also something to try out when you want to analyse the response to your web or app copy. Here’s a great resource for Copytesting.

Key things to remember:

• The report should be a tool. Start with it to build off of and structure it accordingly.
• There is no universal best structure for a report. As I mentioned, I use pre-built reports, but you can always add to them based on the metrics most valuable to your organisation
• When you present it to the client, make sure it’s a live presentation (in person or webinar). — As mentioned by Peep Laja.

If you’d like to learn more about research and testing to drive conversions, check out CXL Institute’s Mini-Degree on Growth Marketing. My key take-aways from this especially insightful course on testing and research included:

• How to conduct Heuristic Analysis to assess user experience
• Leveraging Digital Analysis to identify problem areas
• Methods of Technical Analysis to identify functional problems
• Qualitative Survey Construction to draw insights from end-users
• Building Reports and conducting A/B Tests.