Summary: With endless products being presented in front of people every single day, it is becoming more and more difficult for them to choose which one to buy. This is why many online businesses rely on various types of research to determine whether people want to buy their products or not. On top of that, extensive research is also important to formulate the best landing page and marketing materials that can give the highest conversion rate for their products. MECLABS is one of the established institutes in this field. It has been helping businesses determine why and how people choose to buy their products for more than 15 years.
Nowadays, behavioral research technology is becoming more and more in demand because it can help businesses and other institutions determine how people make various decisions. For online businesses, it is important for them to know how their audience decides to purchase their products, or perhaps how they decide to choose other products. This is essential information that any business needs to uncover if they want to win in the competition.
With various different products being presented endlessly to the audience, it will be very important for businesses to make their products stand out from the crowd. This is the first step to allow customers to notice their products in the middle of countless other products being presented to them on a daily basis. And you can’t just do this based on guesswork. You need the proper research that will give you real insights about how these people react to your marketing messages and how it can influence them to make a purchasing decision.
MECLABS has been working for more than 15 years in this field, helping various businesses and other organizations determine what makes people make a certain decision. For online businesses, it is getting more important nowadays, as there are countless of competing products and websites people can find online in just a single click. With the leading technology in behavioral research, MECLABS has all the necessary tools ready for online businesses to help gain more insights about their audience.
We have interviewed MECLABS Institute’s CEO, Flint McGlaughlin, to explain to us more about MECLABS and how it can help businesses achieve their goals.
The Background History of MECLABS Institute
MECLABS Institute was started around 30 years ago as a behavior research laboratory that aimed to use the internet as a platform to conduct certain behavioral experiments. This was before the formation of MECLABS as an established online research laboratory in 2000. At the time, Flint McGlaughlin was trying to find the reason why people would say yes to a product.
Firstly, the method for getting the answer to this question was to ask many people which option they would say yes to from several options presented to them. Flint McGlaughlin explained,
“Almost 30 years ago, we developed the first behavior research laboratory to leverage the internet as an experimental platform. I’ve been researching one single question for all of these years: why do people say yes?
Given a set of options, why and how do people select one option over the other? We have thus far tested approximately 20,000+ treatments and built the largest library in the world of such experiments.”
At this time, more than 20,000 treatments have been done, and it has made McGlaughlin’s behavioral research laboratory to have the largest library in the world for this type of treatment. However, the team at the laboratory was mostly amazed at the results of the treatments, and despite still needing to learn many things, it became clearer to them that there was a cognitive connection that makes people say yes to certain things, even though it might only be on the subconscious level.
Furthering this research and understanding the key behind this cognitive connection would then become very important for businesses, since it would help them to increase conversion rates for their products, and thus increase more revenue. Flint McGlaughlin further explained,
“It’s embarrassing how much we still have to learn. But, it grows clearer and clearer that there’s a cognitive calculation – even if at a subconscious level – that yields a “yes” or a “no.” Understanding how to influence the positive and negative factors that weigh in that calculation is the key to driving a higher “yes” rate, which is to say a higher conversion, which is to say a higher revenue.”
Some Common Mistakes Online Businesses Make When It Comes to Conversion Rate Optimization
Conversion rate optimization is very important for any business, because when you do it right, you will get a profit increase from your products. But, optimizing your conversion rate is no easy feat. Most businesses are making mistakes in this field, and therefore they are spending too much money on something that doesn’t give them good results for their marketing promotion.
One mistake that most businesses make when it comes to conversion rate optimization is testing good ideas. This is generally something that you will do as the first step in conversion rate optimization, but oftentimes, it won’t give you any good results at all. This is because it doesn’t produce the right learning for your business. What you should aim, instead, is to build a right learning by testing various hypotheses that give you better insight about your customers.
Trying to learn about your customers might at first lift or lower your conversion rate, but it is necessary in order for you to be able to understand their minds. Once you understand them, it will be easier for you to give what they want, and you will naturally increase your conversion rate. Flint McGlaughlin explained more about conversion rate optimization:
“The number one mistake in conversion optimization is testing good ideas. Let me clarify: a few good ideas cobbled together in a test may produce a lift, or not, but it never produces the right learning.
We should be testing holistic variable clusters; we should be testing hypotheses that yield a learning, whether the conversion rate goes up or down.
We’re trying to get a lift instead of getting a learning, but the only way to maximize conversion is to get a learning so insightful that you’re able to model your customer’s mind.”
The Online and In-Person Training Programs from MECLABS
To cater to the needs of businesses studying their customers and optimizing their conversion rate, MECLABS Institute offers two types of training programs they can take. These are online and in-person training programs. These training programs are designed to provide relevant help for various types of organizations, including small and medium businesses, enterprises, and funded ventures.
The MECLABS Institute also offers something called a Quick Win Intensive, which is a program that can help businesses get the conversion rate increase they need in the most efficient way. Flint McGlaughlin explained about the online and in-person training programs offered by MECLABS Institute,
“We have a community of people on our list in social media and visiting our sites of around 1.2-1.5 million. Some of these are SMBs, some of these are funded ventures, and some of these are major enterprises. We create a research portfolio designed to provide relevant help for each of these types of organizations.
The most popular thing we do is called a Quick Win Intensive. It’s the fastest way to get a significant conversion lift.”
The Trends of Using Videos for Better User Experience and Conversion Rate
Nowadays, video content is becoming more popular than ever. People love to watch videos and share their own video content with others. Of course, companies are also using video content to market their products in platforms like YouTube and others. Can video truly help businesses increase their conversion rate? The answer is that video should be used in synergy with your web content. It should never replace your web content, as videos can’t replace the proper narrative of your marketing message. As Flint McGlaughlin explained,
“I don’t pay as much attention to the trend as I do to the results. Beware of using video in place of content. Video should support the content, but not replace the proper narrative. Beware of using too much declaration, and not enough explanation.”
While video is a powerful way to help you increase the conversion rate of your products, it doesn’t mean that you can solely use it for the benefit of your product promotion. Again, what makes people say yes to your product includes the way you engage with them in a dynamic conversation. So, while videos are great to support you in creating such a dynamic conversation with your audience, you can’t use it solely to make people buy from you. Further, Flint McGlaughlin explained about why this is so,
“Video is a powerful way to increase your conversion rate, but you need to understand how to engage people in a dynamic conversation, and you cannot let video do that for you by itself.”
However, there is something important that needs to be pointed out when it comes to how you can determine people’s choices and increase the conversion rate for your products by using videos. This has to do with the results of the more than 20,000 treatment tests that have been conducted by MECLABS Institute. Of course, there would be some exceptions there, but in general, this is the way you can increase the conversion rate by using videos for your marketing messages. Lastly, Flint McGlaughlin explained to us about this, concluding our interview,
“One more point: There are exceptions to everything I’ve said in this interview, but I’m speaking about high probability based on our 20,000+ treatment tests.”