CX Demo

Author: Franz Malten Buemann

  • 3 Tests Our Content Team Ran in 2021 & How They Impacted 2022 Planning

    2021 was a big year for the HubSpot content team.
    Our team grew, we faced challenges, and we had some fun with experiments.
    Experiments can teach you a lot about your audience and help you unlock growth opportunities. Here are some experiments we ran in 2021 and what we learned from them.

    Conversion Rate Optimization
    In January 2021, the web strategy team decided to run a form optimization experiment to understand how altering our forms would affect our users, ahead of a blog redesign.
    When evaluating the current form, the team found that it was breaking several best practices relating to user experience (UX). For instance, the form used asterisks when all fields were required and users were unable to tab through the fields, taking longer to go through the form.
    This issue with the UX was further validated with high dropoff rates on offer pages. This meant that a secondary goal was clear: Improve the user experience of the forms on our content offer pages, which would then improve our conversion rate.
    With every experiment comes a hypothesis and this one had two, one for each goal:

    By redesigning the forms, we will learn the best approach to form design ahead of the blog redesign.
    By optimizing content offer forms’ design and functionality, we will improve the user experience and increase user clarity, which will lead to an increase in content leads’ CVR.

    When it came to designing the experiment, the team chose an A/B/C/D/E test, leading 20% of traffic to each of the five treatments:

    20% would see A, the control – a modal form.
    20% would see B – a redesigned, standard version of the form.
    20% would see C – the split-screen with a two-column form.
    20% would see D – the multi-step form.
    20% would see E – the split-screen with single-column form.

    Wondering how they came up with these variants? User testing. Earlier in the year, the team had already gathered valuable insights from a user test, in which they learned about users’ preferences and expectations when using forms.
    They used this data to design their experiment, something that Principal Marketing Manager at HubSpot Rebecca Hinton says highly contributed to their success.
    The test ran on the top 20 converting offer pages and had to run for two weeks to get a reliable sample size for each variant and launched only 33% of traffic to mitigate risk to content lead goals. It ramped up to 60% of traffic during the experiment.
    The primary metric used in this experiment was the conversion rate on the content offer form submission and the second was engagement.
    “What we found is that displaying a multi-step form vastly outperformed the other treatments we tested, showing a 20% improvement over the control,” said Hinton.
    It’s worth noting that the winning variant, D, had a much higher conversion on mobile than it did on desktop. However, the multi-step form performed well on both device types.
    “The multi-step form was so successful that we’ve decided to implement it ahead of the pages being redesigned, so we can capitalize on its strong performance,” said Hinton.
    A key takeaway here is that one test can (and should) inform another. If you collect user data for a particular feature or project, make sure you keep good documentation as that can serve a purpose later on.
    Channel Promotions
    Back in June 2021, HubSpot community manager Jenni Kim, then marketing manager on the Channel Promotions team, ran an experiment to explore opportunities for cross-promotion between the YouTube team and the blog team.
    Kim described both channels as having an on-and-off relationship, crossing paths from time to time covering the same content and even collaborating at times. However, there was no consistency. This experiment would assess the value of embedding YouTube videos from HubSpot’s channel into relevant blog posts.
    The hypothesis was that adding videos to blog posts would enhance the blog reader’s experience and drive meaningful growth for both channels.
    Setting up this experiment required cross-collaboration between YouTube, Blog, and SEO teams to design a process while keeping in mind content lead goals, user reading experience, and SEO implications.
    Now, let’s dive into the specifics.
    One consideration they had to make was which YouTube videos would go and where. Here’s the breakdown they settled on:

    Existing Blog Post + Existing YouTube Video (9 blog posts, 9 videos)
    Existing Blog Post + New YouTube Video (6 blog posts, 3 videos)
    New Blog Post + Existing YouTube Video (4 blog posts, 4 videos)
    New Blog Post + New YouTube Video (5 blog posts, 3 videos)

    They found that using existing blog posts and videos would offer the most clear results, as you could compare pre- and post-experiment metrics.
    Key metrics:

    Total organic clicks (TOC) – The blog traffic coming in from the web results tab on Google

    Total organic clicks from the video tab – The blog traffic coming in specifically from the video tab on the SERP.

    Content leads/CVR – The number of viewers who converted through a blog post by signing up for an offer and the view-to-lead conversion rate on the blog on a post-level.

    Organic video views – Videos that came directly from the blog post embed.

    The experiment ran for roughly three months, as that would be enough time to measure the SEO impact.
    The results found that embedding YouTube videos into relevant blog posts had a positive impact on both YouTube views, contributing 15% of total views. Leads and CVR stayed consistent, which is considered a win, as the experiment didn’t negatively impact conversion.
    As for TOC from the video tab, an average of 8% of clicks came from this section – making it a solid SEO opportunity for both channels.
    The most challenging part for Kim was the adaptability they needed to exercise to start this experiment.
    “A lot of the teams were all working pretty independently,” said Kim, “So, we had to understand everyone’s processes and then try to find that middle point to bring everyone together.”
    As a result of this experiment, both teams developed a sustainable collaborative process to help both teams generate more traffic.
    Audience Growth
    When it comes to blogging, one of the most important metrics is organic traffic. This refers to the non-paid traffic that comes from search engines.
    On the HubSpot Blog, the team also leverages non-organic content coming from sources like email, social media, and other websites.
    Pamela Bump, senior marketing manager responsible for audience growth on the blog team, shares that the HubSpot Blogs already had incredible success from our non-organic content, creating clickable, shareable blog posts with original research, quotes from experts, and insights on industry trends.
    “Not only did our non-organic program help to increase our non-search traffic, but we also were able to write posts that eventually began to rank on search because we were ahead of trends,” said Bump.
    To capitalize on this success, Bump led an experiment to create hybrid posts, combining the shareability of non-organic content with the SEO of organic content.
    “The goal of this experiment was to see if our blog posts could pull in the sudden bursts in traffic from non-search channels that non-organic blog posts achieve soon after publishing,” Bump said, “while also gaining more evergreen traffic over time search as these posts begin to rank on search result pages.”
    She called this the “Hybrid Effect.”
    “These assignments were laid out by both myself and our SEO strategist and combined SEO elements, like keyword optimizations and search-driven formatting,” said Bump, “while still including non-organic elements like quotes from experts, original data, news mentions, and trend coverage.”
    The result? In the first year of testing hybrid content, Bump says it has led to huge benefits for the blog, pulling in strong numbers comparable to organic traffic.
    “The average views we get from hybrids in their first month is about 10% lower than that of non-organic piece,” said Bump. “However, it can be more than 30% higher than the first month’s traffic of a completely organic piece of content.”
    In the long term, Bump says that the average hybrids and non-organic piece published in 2021 only had about a 1,000 to 2,000 view difference while gaining more keywords on average than a non-organic piece and gaining faster traffic than an organic piece in its first year.
    Because of this success, the team has made the hybrid model a permanent strategy on the blog team.
    “In 2022, we plan to increase our investment in hybrid content by 10% while also training writers on how to optimize organic pieces with non-organic elements for hybrid growth,” said Bump.
    In every experiment mentioned above, there’s something to learn – whether it’s the importance of collaboration or the value of historical data. If there’s an experiment you’ve been thinking of running, take this as your sign and use these insights to guide you.

  • Personal velocity

    Why do bikes stay stable when you ride them (and fall down when you stop)?

    A tiny reason is the gyroscopic stability of the wheels, but the real reason is the forward momentum of the rider. And we learn the first day we’re on the bike that forward motion is essential or we’re in trouble.

    In our fast-moving world, it’s easy to get hooked on personal velocity. What’s in your inbox? Did someone follow you in the last ten seconds? Where’s the beep and the beep and the beep from your last post?

    Perhaps we talk faster, interrupt, talk over, invent, dissect, criticize and then move on to the next thing. Boom, boom, boom.

    Don’t want to fall off the bike.

    But life isn’t a bike. It works fine if we take a moment and leave space for the person next to us to speak.

    Are you going fast without getting anywhere?

    We can get hooked on systems that want us to get hooked, on platforms that use our effort as their product, our emotions as fodder for their next milestone.

    Doing something new simply because we’re worried that the old thing we were doing a minute ago isn’t fast enough is a waste. The crowd might enjoy it, but in the long run, it diminishes our contributions and our joy.

    I could just as easily write about the person who is stuck, sitting in the back of the room, the corner of the Zoom, looking for deniability and a place to hide. That person with no velocity has ceased to contribute and might be in as much pain as the person who’s doing nothing but maintaining high personal velocity.

    Somewhere in between the two, as in most things, is the place we’d like to be.

  • Forrester’s guide: journey maps to kickstart CX transformation 

    Forrester has recently released a guide entitled: “Journey Maps and CX Transformation”, which goes through how to use existing journey maps as methods to create investments, interest in CX, and boost performances. The guide will cover such topics as:   How journey maps can act like springboards.  Working on CX projects that will have a greater…
    The post Forrester’s guide: journey maps to kickstart CX transformation  appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

  • Is there room in this sector for associate degree grads? How can someone without a BA break into marketing automation?

    So I am at an advanced age. I’ve been working for websites the past 2 years and I keep feeling like I belong in the marketing departments but I’m stuck in customer service. I’m VERY interested in content writing, graphic design, content design and management, community management and maybe even template design and all of the above for Email. Is a bootcamp or an associate’s degree enough to break into this field or am I entirely dreaming? Is it super competitive in most states and I should have a bachelor’s degree to even think about getting into marketing and marketing automation? Would you say this sector is easier to get into than something like web design or web development without a 4 year degree? (I am US based)
    submitted by /u/iwillshampooyouitsok [link] [comments]

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  • The control/responsibility matrix

    Alert readers of my last two posts have probably guessed what this one is about.

    The control/responsibility matrix (click to enlarge)

    People make choices about their preferences for control and for taking responsibility. When we combine those choices, we end up with a simple matrix.

    In the top right is an ideal combination. Someone with control and authority who also takes responsibility when things go wrong. This creates a useful feedback loop, because they can actually do something about the problems they caused.

    In the bottom right is a disaster waiting to happen. This is brittle megalomaniac, Robert Moses, the builder, who spent nearly a century paving New York while neglecting housing and other social justice issues, but never took responsibility for any of the effects of his work. People who grab control and avoid responsibility are often easily identified because they spend a lot of time whining.

    In the top left corner is someone who truly cares. They bring huge empathy to the situation, and they help people feel seen. Alas, because they don’t have power (either because it’s been denied to them or because they avoid it), their willingness to take responsibility is sort of hollow. This is one reason that frontline workers that are required to exert emotional labor and empathy on the job so often burn out.

    And finally, in most situations, most people are in the bottom left. The system pushes us to be cogs, to accept what’s given in exchange for being let off the hook and not being held responsible for what happens next.

    In many situations, we have the freedom to choose. We can choose a quadrant or we can choose not to participate. And if we’re lucky or care enough, we can choose who to vote for, who to work for and where we’re headed.

  • Multiple Walmart.com accounts closed after shipping damage discovered with TV: In need of some guidance

    Hi there, I’m usually very successful in communicating with customer service when there is a problem and getting it resolved fairly. I’d like to think that I know when I am in the wrong or when the business is, I could find many friends who’d back me up on this statement. So I’m a bit baffled at how Walmart not only closed my business walmart.com account, but also my personal account with an attempt to get a replacement TV due to delivery damage, not once, but two times. This is how the story goes.. (TV #1) In November I was making use of the Black Friday sales I had ordered my first TV with my business account as I needed to replace a TV at my business. It arrived with a small hole (see below), but I accepted it to inspect it hoping it was a just a box issue. Not only did this box look like it went thru some rough times it had dirt on it every where. I even needed to clean my carpet where I placed it inside. Unfortunately, after opening it, I had discovered the screen was cracked and damaged (see below). I received a return label and sent it back for a refund as I was told I could not exchange it. I would have preferred just doing an exchange, but it was not an option I was told. ​ TV #1 Hole in box. TV #1 :Verified cracked screen ​ (TV #2) After waiting a couple of weeks for the return process to complete and after receiving my money back, I had ordered another TV in December as directed by Walmart to resolve the issue. I waited a few more weeks for delivery, which was January 5th. And low and behold the box is in even worse condition. It was still dirty, but part of the bottom was literally missing on the corner of the box (see below). This time I simply rejected the delivery because it was time consuming to get a label and have someone wait for the pickup truck the last time. ​ TV #2 : Damaged on shipping truck. Package was rejected. Here is where the story get’s interesting and weird, and where they cancelled both of my accounts (business and personal). The TV was returned, and I called Walmart.com explaining my extreme frustration of waiting a few months for a TV. I also explained that the delivery company had managed to damage two TV’s in a row. I had asked if there was anything that could be done to speed up the replacement this time. I had explained that I rejected the package and it was on the way back. After waiting on the phone for a considerable amount of time I was disconnected while listening to hold music. I then ran out of time and decided to try another day. The time time that I could call them back I tried to login to my business account to get the order information and it said it was closed. I called Walmart back and asked what had happened, they couldn’t explain and said I would get a call in 48 hours. I did not get that call they promised. So I called back. They said that my return violated their terms and use and they closed my account. I asked for a supervisor, they said they would open it in 48 hours. They did not. Through all of this I’m guessing I have made over 20-25 calls into Walmart. While speaking to either representatives or supervisors, they stated that my account was closed and will remained closed. Other times I spoke with them they said that it will be opened up in 48 hours. Except it has never been opened up after waiting that time they stated. I did also verify it was not business hours, but actually 48 hours from the time of the phone conversation. Many times these calls just got disconnected while being on hold. I have been firm on my calls, but not yelling/arguing, I assured the representative that it wasn’t their fault but I disappointed with the situation, not them specifically. Right now I’m stuck in a loop. They have TV #2 back that I rejected on January 5th, but I still haven’t even been refunded the thousands of dollars this TV costs. Some Walmart reps said I will be refunded I just need to wait a number of weeks others say I will not be refunded, but the track record has not always been truthful so I don’t know what to expect. I started a dispute with my credit card company but it takes months to process. So my business account is closed. I can’t use that. That is very frustrating. But now now I’m even more shocked at what happened next. Last night I went on to my personal account to order some home supplies and goods, but Walmart.com immediately cancelled order and stated the following… (Personal Order) Order date: Fri, Jan 21, 2022 Cancellation due to returns violation Hi ######, After a careful review of your account, we’ve noticed a series of returns violations, described in our Terms of Use. For this reason, we had to cancel your order ######. Please know you weren’t charged for this order. Any temporary holds will be removed within 10 business days, in accordance with your bank’s policy. While future online orders from this account will also be canceled, you’re always welcome to shop in store. Sincerely, Team Walmart Terms of Use URL : Link Keep in mind this is an entirely different account, my personal account. I’m guessing they cross refenced some information like my phone number and closed my personal account too. As of this moment…. I can’t even order my prescriptions because of ordering a TV that arrived damaged where I attempted to get a working replacement. I’m being treated like a thief and all I wanted was a TV to arrive not damaged in shipping. How can a Walmart rep have this much power to close both of my accounts and cause the service team not to be able to open it? Right now I’m stuck. I’m looking for the process of getting my accounts opened and usable again. I have tried the main number, asked for managers and supervisor with nothing but a promise in 48 hours I’ll get call back saying it will be resolved, but nothing happens. Then I call back and find out it must remain closed. So different people, different results. I have not tried in store as I am guessing they will say they do not handle online orders, but it’s my next thought. Any advice, thoughts or comments? What does a person need to do here to get this resolved?
    submitted by /u/biohazard2k [link] [comments]

  • Your responsibility preference

    When things go wrong, is your instinct to hide in a corner and hope you won’t get noticed–or to lean into the situation and make it clear that this one is on you?

    “I’ve got this,” is a phrase that some people will go out of their way to avoid saying. At work, where it’s incredibly valuable, or in personal relationships, where it creates deep connection.

    The movies are filled with heroes who take responsibility. Organizations are miserly when it comes to handing out authority, but most of them are eager to pay attention (and give respect) to anyone who is willing to take responsibility.

    Like our control preference, responsibility is a learned skill. You might be born with an instinct for it, but mostly it’s something we’re taught or choose to learn.

    Sadly, this is a line that’s missing from every resume I’ve ever seen. It seems to be that a bias toward taking responsibility is one of the most important things to look for when hiring an employee, finding a doctor or building a team.

    [Part 2 of 3]

  • THE COIN OF THE YEAR

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  • Using API to Integrate Sprout Social within Monday.com?

    I am currently trying to integrate Sprout Social Analytics from FB & IG into A Monday.com dashboard. I want the dashboard to keep track of follower growth & engagement & automatically update it every 1 hour or so. The problem is that Monday.com currently doesn’t already have an easy integration method for Sprout Social, so I’d have to use their Analytics API. What’s the best way to do this? I’m currently attempting to do it via integromat.com, but is there an easier way? Help would be greatly appreciated — thanks:
    submitted by /u/parrisnour [link] [comments]