Conversion Optimization MiniDegree at CXL — Review 11/12
This week I will cover the below courses and they are the last ones in the Conversion Optimization minidegree at CXL. I am finished going through the content and next week I will have the final exam.
- Applied Neuromarketing by Andre Morys
- Evangelizing for Optimization in Enterprise by Merritt Aho
- Building your Optimization Technology Stack by Merrit Aho
- CRO Agency Masterclass by Peep Laja
Applied Neuromarketing
This was a fantastic 4 hours course by Andre Morys. Both of his courses at the Conversion Optimization Minidegree are part of my favorites list. The course before this one was about Heuristic Analysis Frameworks and in recommended readings list there was also an event video with him.
So back to Applied Neuromarketing. The introduction says you will become more effective by understanding how the signal processing in the brain works so that the message really gets into the mind of your audience. You will learn about perception controlling and about raising buying motivation.
The first lesson about brain fundamentals was very interesting. It mentions Amazon and Facebook as examples to explain how the brain works when using them. Andre says that part of Amazon’s success is the fact that people are feeling secure when shopping on there, which I couldn’t agree more with. And using Facebook illustrates the fear of missing out and instant gratification. Some more really interesting examples he used were Thatcher illusion and BMW advertisement.
The second lesson was about attention control. Here he talks about the fact that people don’t control their attention rationally and the website is perceived as a whole, not by elements like header or button. It’s either relevant to the person or not. Andre analyses Hugo Boss’ home page. I don’t know if you can find content like this anywhere else, but that was incredibly good. He mentioned things like background color and even the importance of the unfriendly face of the model. It’s one of the things you notice, but never really think too much about and so I went on many more high fashion websites and they all have very unhappy models on their pages :)
In the third lesson about emotional resonance, Andre talks about the importance of finding the little point that resonates with the website visitor. He talks more about user personas and that usually it is not included in their description, but when you do find their trigger make sure it is aligned with your product or service.
Fourth lesson is about the fact that you only have 50ms before a customer’s brain has made the decision. This happens before the rational part of the brain decides and knowing this we can try and make the website look trustworthy and convenient. He presents this all in much detail and I find it incredibly valuable.
And the last lesson was about implementing core principles in the process. Andre presents three KPIs that define optimizers' success, then he talks about what can be done if the information from this course was applied. And finally, he condenses it even more to 5 steps. Thank you, Andre :)
Evangelizing for Optimization in Enterprise
This was a 20 mins course by Merritt Aho. 7 short lessons full of knowledge and valuable information. He talks about encouraging change to make CRO program grow, about the importance of educational activities and outreach programs to build interest for CRO, how to campaign for budget, correct misconceptions and clearly communicate test results to executives.
Building your Optimization Technology Stack
One more short 20 mins course by the same instructor Merritt Aho. Again 7 short lessons, but very valuable. It is noticeable that he talks from experience about things you couldn’t possibly know about if you weren’t in this business. So he explains how to choose tools, about campaigning for a budget together with other departments, and how to spend the budget. He also explains three phases of what a CRO program should look like: the crawl stage, the walk stage, and the run stage.
CRO agency masterclass
This was a two-hour masterclass by Peep Laja. A nice way to end this Minidegree with :)
There are 12 lessons full of valuable insights. In the first lesson he talks about what makes a customer a good fit and this is what he says when summarizing:
Poor fit customers just waste their time and if you end up taking on a customer that’s actually too small for you, they’re going to be unhappy and that’s going to hurt your reputation. So go for the bigger leads.
Being so clear and direct seems to be Peep’s teaching style and I find it perfect for my mentality :) Besides some things that are specific for Conversion Optimization, he talks a lot about business and marketing in general.
With this, I mean things like to productize service and not sell hours. This is so true, good example from real life is that every time I get in touch with a developer they say how much they charge per hour or day and all I can think about is that I have no clue how long a task might take and there’s simply no understanding how much I will end up paying, so same goes with CRO of course.
There’s also some great sales advice. If you’re familiar with Grand Cardone you will notice they both have similar attitudes about following up. And that is to follow up like your life depends on it. Great minds think alike :)
I don't want to repeat myself but this masterclass is packed with solid advice. Peep encourages optimizing for retainers instead of one-offs. He keeps reminding that you’re in the margin business and not the volume business. Building an inbound marketing engine is a must and also a few times he touches on personal branding, which I think could be a great additional lesson to this masterclass.
Social media is another important thing to stand out from the crowd. First of all, remember, you’re in the business of expertise, and people only know that you’re an expert, if you demonstrate your expertise
I have enjoyed this week’s courses. I feel like I say it often, but well I usually do :) throughout the program, there were a couple of lessons that I didn’t feel too enthusiastic about like Statistics and I did mention it in reviews, so when I say I’m loving it I’m being genuine.
Next week I have the final exam and final review on the agenda.
