Archive for May, 2009

A/B Testing Download Form – 50% conversion increase

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

We at Two Tribes are big believers in analytics –  ’show me the numbers’ – since the numbers don’t lie. A case in point was a redesign of a download form leading to a 50% increase in downloads.

The client had setup a form to be filled in prior to download with fields including: name, company, phone number and email address. The first step was to analyze the current forms effectiveness. We used clicktale – a really impressive analytics tool, which goes way beyond google analytics, including recording users behavior. Definitely give it a spin.

Click Tale Conversion Report

Using click tale’s form analytics we were able to identify that most users were getting stuck on the phone number field so after some discussion we decided to remove the field all together.

Next we setup A/B testing to compare a form with only email vs a form with name and email. Again real data led the way, with the email only form having a clear advantage of 12% increase in downloads.

All in all the download form went from 64% conversions to download to a whopping 95% conversions – a 50% increase!

We would love to hear about your forms conversion rates – let us know in the comments.

Cross Platform Browser Compatibility

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
Two Tribes - Browsershots - Collage

Two Tribes - Browsershots - Collage

Dave Collins at SharewarePromotions has a recent blog post on Expression Web SuperPreview for Internet Explorer – “that allows you to see the URL of your choosing in IE6, 7 and 8.”

It reminded me of another tool we use for checking browser compatibility across multiple platforms and browsers called browsershots. The blurb from their site:

What is Browsershots?

Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to the central server here.

They support Linux, Windows, Mac OS, BSD OSes with a very impressive list of 64 browsers (and versions of browsers) for a grand total of 90+ options.

We use browershots in our review process before launching a new site, and it has found some issue we would not have caught otherwise.

We are now available on Amazon’s Kindle!

Monday, May 25th, 2009

amazon-kindle-two-tribes-blog1
Mostly as an experiment, we are now available on Amazon’s Kindle. I am not looking for this to bring in the big bucks, but I am curious if this will help with getting listed on Google searches and drive traffic. The Amazon brand name is very strong (and anyway, I always wanted something of mine listed in their store).

Check out the preview screen shot of what the blog looks like on the Kindle, below.

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Welcome and jumping right in

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Welcome. This is a place for the two tribes team to share our experience over the last three years on what works and what doesn’t for people hawking their software on the web.

Off the cuff topics to discuss: download conversion rates, dispelling the myths of web software promotion, analyzing tools and products for web sales channel management, product messaging do’s and don’ts, micro ISV’s and the web channel, engaging customers, PR tips and tricks and more. We hope these will get some discussion going.

Jumping right in, we’ve been running some A/B testing on download forms we will be sharing shortly. The question asked – how many fields is too many?

Any opinions? let us know what you’ve found.