A Conversion Conversation with Raze’s Siobhan Solberg
I recently had the pleasure to chat with Siobhan about her career journey as a musician to starting her own agency, the importance of being transparent with clients, and what she’d do if she couldn’t work in Experimentation.
Rommil: Hey Siobhan?—?how are you today?
Siobhan: I’m doing well. Getting back into the swing of things as life returns to normal.
First thing’s first. How should I pronounce your name? I’d hate to get it wrong.
Like this: Sha-vonne. Or to make it easier:
Cool. So Siobhan, Could you share with us what you do and a bit of how you got to where you are today?
I was actually a professional musician back in New York. Then I opened a music school which taught me a lot about how to open and run a business which led to helping others doing the same. Once I moved to Israel I didn’t want to pursue music professionally anymore so I started working as a content writer for a media company where I moved through various positions from BI, Data and then eventually to CMO. At the same time, I started learning a lot about optimization and marketing psychology which eventually led to me leaving, moving to Greece and, freelancing for quite a while before starting Raze.
That’s quite the journey! Could you tell us more about Raze and what motivated you to found it?
It started out of the need to expand a bit for my client base and eventually grew into a digital marketing agency whose main focus is CRO. Raze is very customer-centric, which I think is missing from a lot of optimization programs, and my clients were requesting more so I evolved to Raze. It was a natural transition, really.
![](http://experimentnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/1_ivtttnzniz_c1k8tvn6kpw.png?w=1024)
Considering current events, how has business been?
It’s been surprisingly good. I’ve even onboarded some new clients over the past few months. But it’s been a lot of work with my current clients, especially eCommerce, to adjust according to what users need now compared to before.
That’s so great to hear. Speaking of clients, they always want a positive ROI?—?how do you demonstrate that investing in CRO is worth it?
I’m really transparent in the way I work and track KPIs for the CRO programs of each client. My clients also receive quarterly reports that summarize our work, uplifts, fails, learnings, etc. For new clients I usually over a free consultation that helps them understand the potential of adding in a CRO program and for some I recommend that they start with an audit and let them decide what to do with the results (i.e. implement themselves…) this allows me to show them potential and gain their trust.
For the companies that want to take advantage of your expertise but who may not have a lot of traffic?—?what do you suggest they do?
It’s all about best practices, a lot of user testing/surveys/interviews, and making sure all the tracking is bulletproof and ready to scale.
You’ve been in this industry for many years thus far. In your opinion, where do you think we’ll be in five years?
I think that optimization will become more mainstream and will be a common feature of most companies. In addition, I think we will move towards AI and automatic optimization a lot more.
Before we wrap up, however?—?it’s time for the Lightning Round!
Bayesian or Frequentist?
Bayesian
How many languages can you speak and how do you say Conversion Optimization in all of them?
4.5 (German, English, French, Hebrew?—?some, Greek?—?Learning)
That’s a good question, I always just say Conversion Optimization since most people don’t even know what that means in English when English is their first language.
If you couldn’t be working in Experimentation?—?what would you be doing?
Be a professional triathlete.
![](http://experimentnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/1_upwl5uds39nrfiuxabqmrw.jpeg?w=1024)
Wow?—?that’s interesting. I get tired just thinking about that. LOL
Describe Siobhan in 5 or fewer words.
Passionate, driven, ambitious, dependable, too loyal.
With that, Siobhan, thank you for joining the conversation!
Connect with Experimenters from around the world
We’ll highlight our latest members throughout our site, shout them out on LinkedIn, and for those who are interested, include them in an upcoming profile feature on our site.
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- Optimizing organizational processes with Ruben de Boer - August 30, 2024
- Watch our Product Experimentation Event - August 24, 2024