The Financial Times has seen a 350% increase in the click through rate (CTR) of its website FT.com after subtle changes to its page layout, wording and presentation based on the results of user habit and reactions tests.
The increase in CTR has been combined with a 50% rise in conversion rates which has seen an immediate upturn in revenues.
Visitors to FT.com are granted access to two articles anonymously, up to ten articles in exchange for providing some personal details and unlimited access to the site with paid subscription. FT.com had identified that in order to increase their paid subscriptions they needed to optimise their subscriptions barrier page.
The multivariable tests on solely one web page were carried out by infrastructure software company Autonomy Optimost. FT.com had previously invested heavily in driving SEO, PPC and partnerships but said decisions had been primarily based on guess work.
Due to the results FT.com plans to carry out further tests on additional pages in order to optimise every step of the sign up process, even looking to incorporate persona targeting by type of visitor.
“In just a few months having Autonomy Optimost functionality on our site has revolutionized marketing decision-making by introducing certainty to our assumptions,” said FT.com marketing manager Sandra White.
