Mike Loveridge, Head of Digital Conversion Optimization, Humana
It almost goes without saying in today's marketing world, but it is absolutely vital to test at every possible step of the way.
In this spirit, Mike Loveridge, Head of Digital Conversion Optimization, Humana, and his team leveraged iterative testing and captured big gains.
"[Testing radical redesign] is impractical," he said. "Testing complete new versus complete old was a nightmare."
Instead, Humana starting testing iteratively, with an end goal of testing the former old funnel versus the complete new funnel, optimized step-by-step, to see if sum of the parts equals the whole. Loveridge referred to this as Humana's "Super Test" strategy.
During his full presentation at MarketingSherpa Summit 2016, Loveridge walked us through several of these iterative tests — the first of which was a banner redesign.
Test: Banner redesign
For this banner test — which Mike jokingly referred to as "Winter grandma" versus "Summer Clint Eastwood lookalike" — the team at Humana wanted to test whether the messaging used on the rotating banner of its homepage was too complex for customers.
"You really have to simplify when you only have six seconds," Loveridge said.
In addition to the change in imagery, the headline was better tailored to users' position in the customer journey (upper funnel), the copy was simplified, and the CTA was given more visual punch.
The result?
A 433% increase in clickthrough into Humana's marketing funnel. By serving customers with what they want, when they need it, in an accessible way, banner performance skyrocketed.
Related Resources
Learn how to Use the Web to Experiment your way into a more profound understanding of your customer
See speakers like Loveridge on the stage at MarketingSherpa Summit 2017 in Las Vegas
Get Better Business Results With a Skillfully Applied Customer-first Marketing Strategy
The customer-first approach of MarketingSherpa’s agency services can help you build the most effective strategy to serve customers and improve results, and then implement it across every customer touchpoint.
Get More Info >MECLABS AI
Get headlines, value prop, competitive analysis, and more.
Use the AI for FREE (for now) >Marketer Vs Machine
Marketer Vs Machine: We need to train the marketer to train the machine.
Watch Now >Free Marketing Course
Become a Marketer-Philosopher: Create and optimize high-converting webpages (with this free online marketing course)
See Course >Project and Ideas Pitch Template
A free template to help you win approval for your proposed projects and campaigns
Get the Template >Six Quick CTA checklists
These CTA checklists are specifically designed for your team — something practical to hold up against your CTAs to help the time-pressed marketer quickly consider the customer psychology of your “asks” and how you can improve them.
Get the Checklists >Infographic: How to Create a Model of Your Customer’s Mind
You need a repeatable methodology focused on building your organization’s customer wisdom throughout your campaigns and websites. This infographic can get you started.
Get the Infographic >Infographic: 21 Psychological Elements that Power Effective Web Design
To build an effective page from scratch, you need to begin with the psychology of your customer. This infographic can get you started.
Get the Infographic >Receive the latest case studies and data on email, lead gen, and social media along with MarketingSherpa updates and promotions.
