How to Design, Roll Out, and Scale an Optimization Program; Evangelizing for Optimization in Enterprise Review
This article is part 11 of 12 reviewing the CRO Minidegree at the CXL Institute.
More CXL Institute reviews. Take a look! 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12
The two courses reviewed in this article are the beginning of the last learning module Conversion Optimization Program Management taught by Merritt Aho.
How to Design, Roll Out, and Scale an Optimization Program
This course shares the hiring models for Conversion Rate Optimizers, how to monitor success, and scaling experimentation programs both locally and globally. This is a very brief course, below are a few of the key takeaways that I learned from taking it.
Aho kicked off the course by explaining the two commonly used CRO team models centralized and distributed:
Two team models
Centralized
- The more common team model
- Central CRO team which supports different stakeholders
- Revolves around one engagement manager (This person is supported by pooled resources)
Distributed
- More typical for highly technical organizations
- Saas companies, companies with large development teams
Tips for Hiring the CRO Dream Team
When putting together the perfect CRO team there are two common models to follow insourced or outsourced:
Insourced Model
- Strong long-term is objectives
- Aims to develop CRO capabilities within your current team
- Hire: developers, designers, analysts, project managers
Outsource model
- Hire a CRO agency
- Hire an internal engagement manager (he or she will be the point of contact for the CRO agency)
It is vital that your CRO generalist have the following skills:
- High technical abilities
- Understanding of web mechanics
- Marketing skills
The exact skill set needed for a CRO will vary from industry to industry but they will generally need to have a strong grasp of the following:
- Designer
- Analytics
- Statistics
- Testing methodologies
Tips for Achieving Early Success
There are no guarantees in CRO but there are a number of ways to see desirable results. Aho shares some strategies that work well in the industry.
Tips for starting out with a CRO program
Focus on achieving quick wins
Don’t start with too much process
Starting out speed to execution is really, really important you need to be producing within a month or two of starting
Spend enough time educating others within the organization about CRO
Resist the temptation to start over! You’ll get a lot more mileage from your CRO program if use focus on iterating rather than overhauling
Evangelizing for Optimization in Enterprise
This is another brief course taught by Merritt Aho. Here he shares some advice for getting your entire organization onboard with CRO.
Aho hopped straight into clearing up several CRO misconceptions that are commonly discussed.
Misconception #1
CRO is all about testing button colors on landing pages
Reality
- Meets business objectives
- Creates a good user experience for the customer
Optimization and testing are the modern-day approaches to doing business.
Misconception #2
CRO means:
- Strictly a technical resource
- Not traditional marketers
Correction
- Invite others to join the creative process
Misconception #3
The goal is to test everything
Correction
- Prioritize test with a confidence score
- Biased towards action/results
P = Potential Impact
I = Importance (to organization or customer)
E = Ease of Execution
How to build energy and interest
It is important to use both communication and education to get everyone in the company both interested and involved with your CRO program.
Aho advises the use of workshops that teach the following topics:
- Psychological principles
- Mechanics of testing
- How to think about data
Another strategy that Aho rallied behind (with proof via a case study) is the idea of having a test-athon to see which team members could come up with the best testing ideas and strategies to see bottom-line wins!
Benefits of hosting a test-athon (or similar company-wide CRO activity)
- Learn how to optimization
- Create company interest
- Draws publicity for your program
- Find great ideas
Note: The more original and diverse ideas equals a higher win-rate!
When campaigning for a CRO budget Merritt suggests creating a strong proposal that is well researched and detailed with the approach to take to avoid heavy resistance.
We also learn about the vital importance of being able to accurately communicate the results we achieve after implementing our CRO programs.
When communicating test results:
- Make technical concepts relatable
- Add footnotes to explain analytical concepts
- Avoid getting bogged down in detail
My thoughts
The course How to Design, Roll Out, and Scale an Optimization Program is a very brief course (20 minutes) with several very short clips of Merritt Aho sharing how to roll out a CRO program. I personally am not a fan of the 2–3 minute video chunks. I find it a little annoying to have to click on a new video lesson every few minutes. I would prefer that his 20-minute course be digested in 1 or 2 (10-minute videos). I also found most of the content to be things that I already knew or could Google very easily. I hate to be the bad guy (well gal!) here but I have to be completely honest. Merritt does seem extremely knowledgeable in this field.
My review for the course Evangelizing for Optimization in Enterprise is pretty much identical to the previous one. This brief course is also taught by Merritt and I have similar remarks. The video in my opinion should be one or two videos only for quick frictionless consumption. I also did not personally find content here that I feel I could not have gotten easier with a quick Google search.
I am two classes away from the finish line! And I am so excited to almost be officially in the top 1%!
Would you like to join me by learning from the top 1% of digital marketers in the whole entire world?
Check out more of my in-depth reviews of CXL Institute’s CRO Minidegree courses:
- Intro to CRO and Best Practices Review
- Intro to Conversion Copywriting, Product Messaging, Psychology, and Social Proof Review
- Neuromarketing, Emotional Content Strategy, Influence, and Interactive Design Review
- Google Analytics for Beginners Review
- Landing Page Optimization, Conversion Research and Using Analytics to Find Conversions Review
- Google Tag Manager for Beginners, User Research, Fast and Rigorous User Personas Review
- Heuristics Analysis Frameworks for CO Audits, Google Analytics Audits, How to Run Tests
- Testing Strategies, Statistics for A/B Testing and A/B Testing Mastery Review
- Optimizing for B2B, Customer Value Optimization, Digital Psychology, and Behavioral Design Training Review
- Advanced Experimentation Analysis and Applied Neuromarketing Review
- How to Design, Roll Out, and Scale an Optimization Program; Evangelizing for Optimization in Enterprise Review
- Building Your Optimization Technology Stack and CRO Agency Masterclass Review
