SITUATION
After launching a new website and URL in August 2015, the Pocono Mountains Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) wanted to increase their e-newsletter database. With a new change in direction, they wanted to have a "clean" database and sought strategic ways to increase their subscription base. To begin, they established a re-engagement campaign and started using Distribion to ignite their email program. However, they were aware that they still needed to do more, so they increased budgets for all aspects of digital (such as PPC, Facebook and Twitter) to further push e-newsletter sign-ups.
As many destination marketing organizations (DMOs) know, there are growing pains and things to learn when you change a site, add a new strategy, new vendors and new goals. The Pocono Mountains CVB staff also knew they needed to measure success properly and have the ability to know what was working and what wasn't both on and off the site for healthy growth.
SOLUTION
The Simpleview team understood the importance of not only driving the right audience to Pocono's website, but also ensuring the traffic went to pages that aligned with the CVB's goals and user's behavior.
The e-newsletter funnel was evaluated through a seven-step process, which identified areas where visitors were experiencing a distraction, and eventually, dropping off the site. Through this analysis, Simpleview identified two areas that needed immediate attention and testing.
After performing a mouse tracking analysis using heatmaps and click maps, it became apparent the top-level navigation could be distracting and affecting conversions. Ultimately, the decision was made to remove the top-level navigation on that page and run a test.
The second item to address was the Things to Do page, as it was one of the most visited on the site, yet had a below average conversion rate for e-newsletter sign-ups. By making the e-newsletter widget more prominent, they would increase conversions and achieve their goal for this page.
RESULTS
The Simpleview team worked hand-in-hand with the Pocono Mountains CVB on tests that helped deliver on their goal of increasing database leads, and the results were amazing
After removing the distraction on the e-newsletter sign-up page, page clarity increased and there was a 21.4% increase in e-newsletter form completions. In addition, by placing the e-newsletter sign-up in a more prominent location on the Things to Do page, sign-ups increased by 480% on that page alone. The test was conducted across more than 5,000 site visitors and results met a 95% statistical significance.
The Pocono Mountains CVB staff understands the importance of a verified testing process, and has shared these findings with other key stakeholders in their organization. To better assist future goals, they are also strategizing how they can take the results from these tests and incorporate them across other areas of the site.
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