Conversion Fanatics

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Conversion Rate Optimization Manager for a functional food/supplement company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Conversion Fanatics?

We hired Conversion Fanatics to help get our CRO program off the ground, improve key company KPIs, test major elements of our upcoming site redesign and validate UX research among our different audience segments.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

The Conversion Fanatics team we work with is very familiar with our current testing platform (Convert), is extremely credible in the space and headquartered near our company.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We work on several projects every week as they are our longstanding CRO partners, but the project I'd like to highlight was Black Friday and Cyber Monday testing. We added a dynamic Deals button to the main navigation during both sales, that would change text at the correct timing of the sales on mobile and desktop.

I worked with the account manager (Xandor) and developer (Vince) to coordinate the button text, linking strategies and thorough QA for desktop and mobile. Our site navigation isn't simple between desktop and mobile, so thorough QA was needed to work out bugs before the big sale.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I worked directly with the Account Manager and their Lead Developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The test variant had a revenue lift of $30,000! They helped us discover a $60,000 button to use next year for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. What started as a simple button test turned out to be extremely meaningful for our business thanks to their timely execution and development skill.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective! I'm also not the kind of client who waits until the day before to get a holiday test in. We had a couple weeks to really work through the development and QA to make sure the test was solid - communication, execution and collaboration is always excellent! I genuinely enjoy working with them every week.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Conversion Fanatics are more organized, transparent, and dependable than any other agencies I've worked with. The fact that they have Senior Developers to work with is really valuable as well.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Nothing really specific - It would be cool if Conversion Fanatics also offered a dedicated QA person to check tests once they go live. QA is one of those areas that could always use improvement from any team on any test (even client side)

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of the largest saltwater fishing club in America. We have over 25,000 paid members who receive everything from tackle discounts to regional fishing tips to shortcuts from us every week.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Conversion Fanatics?

We had two main funnels that we run almost all of our traffic to (paid and SEO) and we had a feeling that we were missing out on conversions because we weren't split testing the landing pages strategically.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We knew that we needed some experts to come in and split test every possible scenario to optimize the landing pages even more. Two different business owners that I highly respect said that Conversion Fanatics was the best, so we gave them a shot.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

They first did an audit of our two main landing pages. The team there at Conversion Fanatics did a new split test every 7-10 days and they uncovered some split test optimizations that shocked us. Once it was all said and done, both funnels are making a whole lot more money per 1,000 visits and we're incredibly happy with our investment in hiring them.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had a main manager and multiple conversion experts and a design team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Every single split test (with the exception of one) had an improvement that beat the control. So after almost 4 months of split testing every 10 days, our landing pages were converting at a much higher rate than ever before (making every visitor more profitable).

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They used ClickUp for communications which was super easy and had great workflow. We had never used it before so they walked us through the steps and we all found it very intuitive.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The founder (Justin Christianson) probably has more split testing experience than anyone on the planet and he has trained his team incredibly well. They were doing split testing that I never even imagined doing, especially with excellent results.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

We were very happy with them and have referred others to use them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

ECO. Modern Essentials is an Australian based wellness brand specialising in 100% pure essential oils and blends to support overall health and wellbeing. My position is Finance & E-Commerce manager and manage our investment and return monitoring for E-Comm

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Conversion Fanatics?

Our E-Commerce site was growing rapidly and we were making changes on our site daily based on limited expertise and data. Deicision making was becoming harder due to limited data and small mistakes can end up costing thousands of dollars if we got it wrong for our customers and website flow.

What were your goals for this project?

To increase our visibility on customer behaviour on our website and to gather data to make calculated changes and gain improvements in our conversion rate as our traffic grew.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed a lot of different conversion optimisation software and teams and CF was one that stood out due to the nature of their full-service delivery from concept through testing and final execution and implementation on site. Our internal team was at capacity so having a full-service agency was important to us.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

The team at CF handled all of the onboarding and software setup and kept our team in the loop constantly. They had initial hypothesis they ran straight away while our team was able to present our biggest pain points for our site and the customer journey which were then put into testing.

We are running constant testing, tweaking and improvements on site which have shown a big improvement in conversion and revenue.

What was the team composition?

CF have managed all testing, monitoring and implementation and are so easy to work with.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Incredible increase in both conversion rate and revenue with the added benefits of having more revenue generating capability on our site from the promo deals we were able to test and implement with CFs team. Since launching with CF we have seen 84% increase in Revenue and 38% increase in conversion rate.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective, they have a comms platform where all of our projects & testing are managed and jump on a bi-weekly call to explain very technical processes to our marketing team to keep them in the loop. All project tests have been delivered on time and the team has gone above and beyond for us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their willingness to understand our company & brand and take this into account with our on site testing. They have an incredibly talented team and the improvements in our site are a testament to that.

Are there any areas for improvement?

n/a

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Co-Founder of a software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Conversion Fanatics?

We turned to Conversion Fanatics to dial-in our website's ecommerce conversions.

What were your goals for this project?

We had spent years doing conversion testing and tweaks internally. Eventually, we ran out of ideas - and time. Our goals with Conversion Fanatics were to increase purchases through or ecommerce website. More specifically, improve our conversion rate by suggesting, designing, and testing website changes.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A business associate previously had worked with them and had a very positive experience.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Initially we had many initial chats around our goals and expectations. The first week was getting to know the team, learning how they work, as well as getting everything setup on our end (conversion tracking).

Ultimately, the scope of the work stayed inconstant: Improve our conversion rate (online purchases) - by suggesting, designing, and testing website changes. We wanted to be involved in the whole process, but had Conversion Fanatics take the lead.

What was the team composition?

I consistently worked close with 2-3 members of their team - including account manager, designer, and CEO. This make it easy to check in and get updates quickly, but kept it to a close knit group.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

There were numerous conversion tests that had a noticeable and measurable effect to online sales. Specifically, Conversion Fanatics was able to dial-in and identify many various improvements to our Pricing and Checkout pages (among others, but those were the most impactful).

All tests are connected to Google Analytics, so when you monitor the progress of tests, you can see how it's performing and have full confidence in the numbers it's showing you, which was really nice.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I was impressed by the level of organization. The workflows they have in place did a great job keeping things on track, communication flowing, while being efficient. Most communication around tests was inside ClickUp. Previously I was not familiar with ClickUp as we use Asana internally, but it proved to be very similar and was pleasant to work with.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Once we agreed on a concept, their team would generally moved fast. After sign off, a test was designed, coded, and launched quickly. Communication was always proactive and productive, which was very much appreciated.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None come to mind. We had a very positive experience working with the Conversion Fanatics team. Before things kicked off, they were good about making sure expectations were aligned, on both sides.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and co founder

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Conversion Fanatics?

We hired Conversion Fanatics to help make site adustments.

What were your goals for this project?

To increase conversions and provide a good user experience

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Was recommended by another vendor

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Conversion Fanatics was hired to make changes to our website on a 4-month retainer

What was the team composition?

The project had about 5 people involved

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

During our time working with Conversion Fanatics. We did not see any increase in Conversions. I feel they are using old ideology in 2019 and what worked in 2015 does not work in 2019

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our project manager unfortunately quit at the end of our time working with them. She was pretty receptive during our time working with her. Ownership and management can be pretty aggressive and not pleasant to work with. Almost rude like behavior.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have good ideas, but speed of implementation and lacking results

Are there any areas for improvement?

They could improve by providing respectful communication and results.

Company Responses

The vendor responded on March 10, 2020.

We are not claiming we were perfect here, but here's our assessment and response to this review.

The client kept changing their site after we launched experiments. We always warn clients in advance never to do this. It breaks the split-tests they have just paid us to build out. This caused repeat delays, errors and issues on experiments we deployed for them.

The two partners also often disagreed with each other. One would approve an experiment, then, after launching it, the other partner would tell us to take it down. They ultimately took weeks to agree on things. This also caused repeat delays, errors and issues on experiments we deployed for them.

We confronted the client about breaking experiments and changing their minds over and over and over again. Then the client got mad at us. Perhaps we were too blunt. If we hurt any feelings, we apologize, that's not our intent when optimizing a client's site.

Our singular focus is to make their site easier to use and their business better and more profitable. But we will always tell clients the cold, hard data and truth. That's why they hire us!

We can’t do our job if the client repeatedly changes their mind about which split-tests they want to run. And if they break the tests we create by changing the site mid-experiment, the data and results will, of course, be impaired, guaranteed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

goPure is a direct-to-consumer skin care brand. We offer high-quality ingredients at low prices.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Conversion Fanatics?

We needed to run tests on our landing pages and website to make sure we had an optimal customer journey. This can be challenging for our industry. We are careful to stay within all FDA and FTC regulations and guidelines while a lot of our competitors are not.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to improve our conversion rates, overall revenue per visitor, and overall customer journey.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended by a social media ads agency we used briefly.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Conversion Fanatics did an initial audit of our Google Analytics to identify weak points. They then provided a roadmap for testing and set up the priority tests fairly quickly. We could access all reports and see why a test succeeded or failed.  I felt their CEO was involved directly in reviewing our data.

What was the team composition?

We worked with an account manager, a lead developer, and their CEO.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The Conversion Fanatics team was great. They came up with great ideas to test and implemented them. They set realistic expectations and were flexible about the things we wanted to do as well. We ran many tests and found some key winners that have improved our conversion rates. Overall, we were satisfied with their work.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They had pretty good management. We used ClickUp for communication, which took a bit of getting used to, but that wasn't a big issue. They were quick to respond and answer any questions.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed that their CEO was personally involved and gave a lot of attention to our account and tests. It was obvious that he cares about his clients’ success. They have a well-developed and systematic approach to getting results.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, not really. They set expectations well, so we knew that smaller tests over time provided valuable insights and conversion rate growth.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of TouchUpDirect, a direct-to-consumer touch-up paint company. We solely operate through e-commerce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Conversion Fanatics?

We have a unique sales funnel, and we were hoping to improve our website’s conversion rate through testing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Conversion Fanatics tested and examined elements of the sales funnel. We used their services as validation that we were approaching the sales funnel the right way. Thus far, we’ve done 18 experiments.

What is the team composition?

I know we interacted with three team members. Our interaction with Will (Account Manager, Conversion Fanatics) was great. There were other people working on the creative side.

How did you come to work with Conversion Fanatics?

I found them on Google. I searched for conversion rate optimization (CRO) vendors and they came up. I liked the interactions we had with the people at Conversion Fanatics we talked to before we started the project, so we went with it.

How much have you invested with them?

It will end up being around a $50,000 investment.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in April 2019. The project is ongoing and will conclude in October 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They understand the scope of the project very well and tested everything we needed. The biggest gains are in positioning upsells in a different light. We see other gains with the alterations that they’re doing, and it works out. However, an equally important result is that these tests validated the success of our current sales funnel.

Will, our account manager, really comprehends what we’re doing. They also work on things that are outside the scope that were easy to test.

How did Conversion Fanatics perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team was excellent. Their team is in the top two of all vendors we’ve found. Pleasant and communicative, they have timely responses and a thorough understanding of the project. They give us additional ideas of what to test and are very nice to work with.

Will was the main point of contact and the project manager.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Conversion Fanatics were competitively priced. They did a great job of establishing expectations compared to other marketing vendors. It can be hard to do that for vendors, but their team did a nice job there.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The toughest part we had was that their creative process didn’t exactly align with ours. However, it wasn’t a big issue because they were happy to do revisions. We didn’t have a guideline for creative assets in the beginning, so it wasn’t really their fault. As they learned about our brand, they got better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understanding your own expectations before going into an agreement is critical. On the creative side, if you have a strong brand, make sure you give those assets to them so it makes everybody’s work easier.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of LiveBearded.com. We sell men’s grooming products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Conversion Fanatics?

We wanted to improve our customer experience and on-page optimization. Our overall goal was to improve our visitor-to-customer conversion rate.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, they created a hypothesis of test, in which they outlined 5-10 tests that they wanted to run based on their experience. I worked with their team closely to design the tests while they implemented them for us. After they developed a good understanding of what was important to our website visitors, they improved the tests to better fit our customer base.

What is the team composition?

I worked with several members of their team, from design to development. Justin (President, Conversion Fanatics) is my core liaison.

How did you come to work with Conversion Fanatics?

I’ve known Justin for years and reached out to him when I realized we needed help with our site. His team performed a free analysis and from there we determined they had the competency and expertise needed to complete the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We invest $4,500 on a monthly basis.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in March 2019 and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’ve had four or five tests in which the annualized revenue increase was significant. We’ve seen an annualized potential increase greater than $250,000 in just three months.

How did Conversion Fanatics perform from a project management standpoint?

They were extremely responsive. Their communication is probably the greatest strength I’ve seen with them. I typically get a response within minutes, if not hours, which is much better than a lot of other vendors I’ve worked with. The team uses ClickUp, a project management software platform, to manage our project end-to-end.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve found them to be competent, communicative, and a great value for our money.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve met our expectations and there’s nothing I can think of that would drastically improve their processes.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise potential customers to trust the team’s advice.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Lowbrow Customs, a motorcycle parts and accessories brand. We’ve been in business for almost 15 years. Most of our business is direct retail through our e-commerce website and the rest is through online sales channels. We sell to customers all over the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Conversion Fanatics?

We wanted to ensure that our website works properly, gives customers a great user experience, makes our products easy to find, and provides an understandable checkout process. We wanted to do testing and make the customer experience as efficient as possible.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They manage and implement AB testing for our website so we have real-time variation testing. Conversion Fanatics helps to come up with ideas, creates the experiments, and reviews the data. Customers get different variations, and when we have a winning combination of a variation that performs better than our normal website, we implement that.

They have a lot of experience across many e-commerce industries. They bring us ideas, then we discuss and agree on a plan for which experiments to proceed with. Then, they handle everything. They create graphics or do any programming needed. They take the idea and develop the live test. They monitor it as it is running and give us updates so we know how it is performing and if there are any big changes, positive or negative.

They are exceptionally productive. We run 3–5 experiments per month, and we always have more ready to go so that when an experiment is finished, we can launch another.

What is the team composition?

I am in contact with Justin (Co-founder, Conversion Fanatics). I trust Justin and his 20 years of experience. We also work with a project manager. Additionally, they have graphic designers, programmers, copywriters, and UI people on staff.

How did you come to work with Conversion Fanatics?

Justin spoke at a small business conference about e-commerce and conversion tactics to increase online sales. After he was finished his presentation, I talked to him about my company. Later, he gave me a free initial consultation and sent me many great ideas, which we went over on the phone. Their ideas and information gave me such confidence that we started working with them a week or two later and committed to working with them for a three-month minimum.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent $24,000–$26,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in June 2018 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The reason I continue to work with them is because everything they do is data-driven and transparent. With AB testing, we get real-time feedback telling us which version has the most sales and conversions. I like this concrete data.

I see the results in dollars. They completed one experiment that made a big enough difference that, in a month or two, it will bring in enough additional sales by increasing our conversion rate that it will pay for my entire year of working with Conversion Fanatics. It’s an extremely safe bet that the money I’m spending will pay itself back multifold.

How did Conversion Fanatics perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is the best I’ve ever worked with. Conversion Fanatics not only do what they say but over deliver. They’ve helped me out in other ways that are not compensated. They truly go above and beyond. They are enthusiastic and passionate about their work, hardworking, and trustworthy. I like spending money with people I trust who work for my best interest. It has been a mutually beneficial relationship.

We communicate with our project manager 24/7 via Basecamp. Their communication is fantastic; they get right back to us if there are any issues and inspect and address any areas immediately where I think there could be an issue. They have been great to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their commitment to their work is most impressive. They focus on tiny changes that can bring big results. They have an extremely successful company because they don’t spread themselves thin. Because they delve deep into what they do, their service and results are excellent. They complete their work at the highest level.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been times when we hadn’t had any wins or positive outcomes. We discuss them and revise the game plan. There is nothing I can complain about and nothing I would like to see them do differently. Our working relationship and how we handle everything is ideal. If there was something I didn’t like, I know they would accommodate my desires.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate and share your ideas. You and your team know your own business the best, so provide them with as many ideas as you can. That may lead to an avenue they maybe aren’t familiar with in your industry. Make it a collaborative effort, which makes the experience more enjoyable and results even better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Magic Beans is a baby gear and toy retailer, both in-store and online. I’m the CEO and I’m also in charge of e-commerce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Conversion Fanatics?

We thought that raising our conversion rate was really important in order to be more successful online.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They run all of the A/B testing on our website. We hypothesize about different types of tests that we want to run, and they execute on what we come up with. They also give us the results of the tests.

What is the team composition?

I've had two project managers.

How did you come to work with Conversion Fanatics?

They were referred by word of mouth.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend close to $4,000 dollars a month, so around $50,000 total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2017 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They told me that I could cancel if they didn't raise my conversion rate by 15% in the first three months. Unfortunately, they didn't hit that goal. The lack of success isn’t due to their lack of trying. They've run scores of tests over the past year and only two were successful. Sales are down on the website this year. I stayed with them because we have strong hypotheses and they’ve worked quickly to execute on them. The tests just didn't work. I can't actually blame them for that. What I'm learning is that conversion optimization may not be a strong strategy for my particular website.

How did Conversion Fanatics perform from a project management standpoint?

It started out excellent, and now it is quite lackluster. Six months in their head of optimization left and they experienced lots of transitions on their global teams. Our second PM tried to keep projects moving but it proved to be a real struggle. 

They have a team of people all over the world working on testing. They were extremely efficient at first in churning out tests. We communicate multiple times a week via Basecamp, and we have a standing call every other Wednesday morning.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing is what they can do with convert.com, which is the mechanism that use to run tests. They do a great job of manipulating content and images on our website that have historically been extremely hard to do. They do a good job of executing on the vision of the tests.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Obviously, it would be better if they produced good results.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They did a user test quite late in the process. I don't know how valuable that data was, but I would recommend doing actual market research earlier rather than later. It’s better than relying on our gut for what we should be testing.

Company Responses

The vendor responded on March 10, 2020.

Nothing is more important to us than delivering strong results for clients. After this review was published, we contacted the client for clarification because it didn't match our experience of working together. He agreed the review listed here was taken out of context and that it wasn’t as bad as described. We ran over 50 tests for the client with far more than just two winners. This information about only two winners is just flat wrong and inaccurate.

He has since come back to us for help with a platform change and to get our insights on a new site overhaul he is working on. We continue to have a positive relationship with this client to this day.