Karl Blanks - Making Websites Win: Apply the Customer-Centric Methodology That Has Doubled the Sales of Many Leading Websites

Copyright 2018 Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

The clients of Conversion Rate Experts (CRE) all bring unique circumstances, aims, market positioning, web presence, expertise, and opportunities to the table. The client stories and testimonials presented in this book therefore cannot be viewed as typical results because each client came to CRE with a unique situation and each was provided with unique solutions or recommendations. Each should be viewed and interpreted as a unique case studysome with more detail than others, but each presenting insight into that companys specialized experience with CRE.

Making Websites Win

Apply the customer-centric methodology that has doubled the sales of many leading websites

ISBN
978-1-5445-0053-9 Hardcover
978-1-5445-0051-5 Paperback
978-1-5445-0052-2 Ebook

To our brilliant colleagues in Conversion Rate Experts.

To our equally great clients.

To all our companys friends and followers, who have helped us in innumerable ways over the past ten years.

And to the friends and families of everyone who works so hard at Conversion Rate Experts. Thank you for helping to make it all happen.

Dr. Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson help websites win. They are the founders of Conversion Rate Experts (CRE), the worlds leading agency for conversion rate optimization (CRO)a term coined by the company in 2007.

Over the past ten years, CRE has worked in over 80 different verticals, in thirty-four countries, and in eleven languages, helping to optimize the profits of some of the webs most sophisticated companies, including

• Many Silicon Valley giantsthe worlds biggest, most successful websites.

• Websites of leading blue-chip enterprises.

• Award-winning, fast-growing startups.

CRE increases the profits of businesses scientifically by analyzing their websites visitors, creating optimized pages and then A/B testing them to measure the increase in sales. It has generated billions in revenue for its clients and double- and triple-digit improvements are the norm.

CRE is the recipient of a Queens Award for Enterprise for Outstanding Achievement in Innovation, the UKs top award for businesses. The award was given for CREs work codifying the methodology that the worlds leading companies now use to improve their websites.

The electronic version of this book contains links to many great resources for growing your business. The paper version doesnt contain any links, because links add clutter and tend to age quickly. Dont despair, though. For nearly everything weve mentioned, assume that weve chosen wording that will allow you to find it easily in a search. Alternatively, you can see all of the links at conversion-rate-experts.com/book-links .

One of the great services we provide is that of a filter, directing our followers to the best new tools, companies and sources of useful information. If youd like to be kept up to date with our new discoveries, get our free email newsletter from conversion-rate-experts.com/gifts . Youll be in good companyour subscribers include people from many of the worlds leading companies.

Plus, when you join, youll get some useful reports, including examples of winning pages weve designed that have more than doubled the sales of our clients.

The free guides accompanying this book help you get started quickly.

You can hear some of our most popular talks by subscribing to the Conversion Rate Experts podcast. You can find details at conversion-rate-experts.com/podcasts .

CRE pays for the ongoing feeding of 280 children in Liberia. The program is run by Marys Meals, a charity that sets up school feeding programs in some of the worlds poorest communities, where hunger and poverty prevent children from gaining an education.

All proceeds from this book will be donated to Marys Meals to help it continue its great work.

We love feedback!

We plan to update the book oftenparticularly the ebook version. So please let us know if you spot anything you think is inaccurate, wrong, or missing. Just email us at at the end of the book.

Also, if youd like to spread the word, the authors are available for interviews, opinion pieces, and odd jobs around the home. Just email .

Weve grown many companies using the techniques described in this book. As evidence of how powerful the techniques areand how they can be applied to any businessbelow are some quotes taken from our website from clients weve helped over the last ten years.

Really extraordinary off-the-chart results. Google, the leading internet technology company (CRE has worked with Google on several projects, including the launch of Google's Android phone.)

Conversion rate optimization was my secret weapon for growth at companies like Dropbox, Eventbrite and LogMeIn. After meeting the team at Conversion Rate Experts I learned that I was only scratching the surface of the potential gains from conversion rate optimization. They are by far the most advanced group in conversion rate optimization that Ive ever worked with. Their approach is truly the best Ive ever seen. Sean Ellis, Dropboxs first marketer and founder of GrowthHackers.com.

241% increase in sign-ups for MyFitnessPal. Weve seen more than 4X increases in conversion rate on some pages, which weve been thrilled about. I think there isnt a company in the world that couldnt benefit from working with these guys. MyFitnessPal, the worlds largest diet-and-fitness community, which went on to sell for half a billion dollars.

Its been really remarkable to see that process in actionand to realize that this is a process. They have helped Moz add more than $1 million to our bottom line this year. Our conversion rate is up 170% of what it was four months ago. Theyre the best in the business. Rand Fishkin, Moz, the search marketing industrys leading SEO software provider, with a community of hundreds of thousands members.

They increased our conversion rate by 300%. What can I say? Theyve taught us more about our customers in the last six months than I knew about our customers in the last four years. They were fantastic in telling us exactly what to test on the sites to get the best results. Vodafone