Meet the CRO Team
If you are serious about CRO and would like to make a significant impact to your marketing funnel through a lean testing approach, then meet the 'A-Team' of theCRO (conversion rate optimisation) world!
This CRO team may or may not be part of the same BU, however it is important that individuals with a testing mindset and a bit of creative flare are on this team. They shouldn't be afraid to fail but the key is to fail fast so that everyone learns fast.
This is a key individual in any marketing team and would be a key member of the CRO team too. This individual has deep product knowledge/customer empathy and can provide great product as well as customer insights that can be transformed into a multiple set of situations and then be tested through the CRO programme. They will also know a great deal about competitor products as well as your own product's USPs, that can be beneficial when creating message tests and also when you extend CRO, A/B testing to the bottom of the funnel.
The Digital Marketer: This individual's job description should have the letters CRO written everywhere! Gone are the days when a Digital Marketer only looked at a bit of SEM, SEO and Social Media. They should also be equipped with a basic knowledge in a testing tool (Google Analytics, Site Catalyst, Optimizely etc...) plus have a great eye for testing variations and come up with ideas to improve. Usually Digital Marketers take the lead role of a CRO team due to their knowledge of external forces (e.g. competitors) as well as internal marketing objectives and should also do a coordination role to get things done.
The Analyst: Analysing the data and deeming whether the test was a success or a failure is one of the most challenging areas of CRO, hence this is a key role in any CRO team. The analyst will look at the data that the CRO team dishes out, slice and dice it and will add great input to that ultimate pivot or persevere decision. They should be closer to an expert level in an analytics tool and have a natural knack for picking great nuggets from a spreadsheet full of numbers! They can also help out in setting up tests on the chosen testing platform and also help prioritise tests.
The Web Guy/Developer: This is the 'techie' of the group and will have hands on knowledge of the CMS (content management system) as well as a high degree of coding knowledge good enough to change a landing page layout. This person will not only add a lot of creative input to the team but will also be a great asset when it comes to 'speed of execution'. Usually the development of a new idea takes time due to bottlenecks in the web/dev team, hence it's a must that your web guy is totally on-board with your CRO initiatives and understands the value that it can generate.
CRO is a culmination of testing out new ideas plus improving existing product conversions in a very lean yet a statistically significant manner. The CRO team maybe small, but they can really change the way your organisation does things.
The CRO team should operate like a bunch of entrepreneurs who are starting out a new business venture and all team members should have a weekly cadence (minimum) and have a process where the rest of the marketing team has visibility into the tests they are carrying out and also have a mechanism to prioritise the various test requests.
But do remember, no individual is ever bigger than the team and as the great Michael Jordan once said, "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."
