Event Wrap-up: CONVERT – Conversion Optimisation Meetup (Bristol & Bath)

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July saw the first event of CONVERT – a Conversion Optimisation Meetup in the South West of England. 

Attended by 20 people, the evening was packed with interesting discussions around user behaviour tools and success stories.  As with most events, a lot of valuable discussions came from networking and this was the perfect evening for that. Whether it was reconnecting with ex-colleagues or meeting someone with a similar role,   it was brilliant to see. I for one had gotten too comfortable behind the screen!

A big thanks to all attendees for their openness and engagement. (Plus extra kudos if you made it to the pub after!)

The evening kicked off with some refreshments followed by a welcome talk from Ryan Webb, Conversion Consultant and organiser of the event. After outlining the agenda and his vision for future meetups he introduced the keynote speaker,  Jonathan Morell, Lead Solutions Expert at Content Square.

Jonathan gave a brilliant talk,  outlining the benefits of a User Experience Analytics Platform (such as Content Square) and shared some interesting success stories.

Jonathan began by setting the scene, rightly stating that digital experience is still very much a black box. Users engage and use websites in ways you wouldn’t expect and why it’s vital to spend resources and time on understanding your user’s behaviour on your website/app. Web analytics is simply not enough. We need to go beyond and get to the why.

What was clear from the presentation was the powerhouse that Content Square is. Used on nearly 1 million websites in 180 countries, working with household names and a staff count of  1,400 employees. They are a force to be reckoned with.

After his opening slides, Jonathan went into a deep dive into some of the core features of the platform.  Covering the journey analysis, zonal analysis and session replay capability of Content Square.

The interactive element of his talk gave the audience a live demo of the very useful ‘Zoning web browser extension’. The ability to see tangible metrics and zone-based engagement directly on top of your website via a browser plugin.

Clients can visually understand what elements are getting interaction and each element’s impact on metrics. Vital for running A/B tests and creating a story on how variants are helping or hindering user goals.

Jonathan then went on to talk through some interesting use cases to explain how these insights can be beneficial in your experiments. Speaking specifically on a homepage carousel test for Harvey Nichols, something that on the first view was a marginal uplift later turned into a bigger uplift, due to the additional insights from Content Square.

Within the tool, the team were able to diagnose that users who saw the test variant of a static image weren’t scrolling or as engaged. This meant they were jumping from the homepage and missing other important content on the page.  The team acted on this insight and was able to iterate the test design which gave an even bigger uplift.

Another example shared was that of Auto Trader. Testing the display and copy of its much-used search function. Test results appeared to be a flat result however by seeing the additional insights in the ‘Journey Analysis feature, ’ the team were able to grasp how users behaved in the experiment and the core user paths they took. Combined with user testing, what seemed to be a flat result actually turned out to be a huge improvement in user experience with users reaching their goals quicker and easier. 

The last success story was that of Beerwulf. They offered free delivery if you ordered a full box of craft beer. However, when analysing the journey sunburst chart and session replays,  it was apparent that users were repeatedly clicking on the add to cart button on product pages –  to understand what qualified as a ‘full box’ and get the free delivery.  Armed with this insight the Beerwulf team put together an A/B test adding an additional call-to-action of ‘Add Full Box’. This later resulted in a massive uplift in conversion rate and average order value. 

After Jonathan’s insightful talk, it was time for a panel discussion and Q&A. Topics covered:

• The ability to utilise web analytics segments in Content Square 
• The acquisition of HotJar and what that meant for HotJars core product
• Exciting enhancements on Content Squares roadmap
• The ability to analyse single-page applications
• Alternative survey tools from HotJar

And with that, time was up and we were grudgingly being kicked out of the building and off to the pub where talks continued into the night.

Once again thanks to everyone who made it a great evening. We’re looking forward to seeing you again at the next meetup!

Interested in coming to the next event? Join the Meetup group here: https://www.meetup.com/convert-conversion-optimisation-meetup-bristol-bath/

Finally, a special thanks to the partners who made the event possible.

• ? Sponsored by Content Square ?
• ?In association with Experimentation Elite
• ??Kindly hosted by Atomic Smash?

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