Conversion Optimization Maturity Model [Infograph]

Maturity Models were all the rage at Conversion Conference Chicago 2013, but they can make you feel like you’re living with your marketing parents — immature.
Don’t feel bad. We didn’t get a perfect score and we do this for a living (see below for how we score).
Maturity models aren’t a way to judge you and your inadequacies. Maturity models are ways to identify your strengths and plan to build on them.
Both Tim Ash of Sitetuners and Michael Parizek of avast! put forward maturity models for us, and I was on hand to capture Michael’s presentation using my innovative Instagraph (instant infograph) technique.

The Content Maturity Model presented by Michael Parizek of avast!

So, how does Conversion Sciences score on the model? Parizek identified seven criteria in his maturity model.

People

This is an area that we feel strongly about at Conversion Sciences. We have an experienced Conversion Scientist doing the work for every business that hires us. We like to say, “You’ll be working with ‘The Guys’.” We would benefit from some more formal methods as we grow our lab staff, both in number and in capabilities.
Score: 4 out of 5

Tools

It is a golden age of conversion tools. There are lots of ways to measure sites, complete tests, and even spy on your competitors. We score highly on this because these tools exist for us to build on.
Score: 4 out of 5

Knowledge

How you manage what you learn from your testing is perhaps the biggest challenge. For most of us, means it stays in the heads of our optimization team. But what happens when there is turnover? Maintaining personas as a living representative of what you know about your customers is a great way to preserve knowledge.
Score: 3 out of 5

Activities

What do you do first? We generate a list of hypotheses based on your analytics, chat transcripts, reviews and interviews with customer-facing employees. Then we rank them in a similar way to Parizek’s model, but with more endices. You may like his simple graph of Impact vs. Feasibility for prioritizing ideas.
Score: 5 out of 5

Processes

Our Conversion Catalyst process that works for businesses in almost any industry. It is a thorough front-end evaluation followed by a fast-test process. Our goal is to find winners on your site within 120 days.
However, this process isn’t effective in slower-moving environments and in situations where wins on the website aren’t closely tied to bottom-line revenue.
Score: 4 out of 5

Testing

We use a test cycle approach. If one of our test hypotheses is a winner, we do another set of tests to see if we can get it even better. If a test is a loser, we can test something else.
This cycle gives us the freedom to find promising rabbit holes and follow them all the way to Wonderland.
Score: 4 out of 5

Sponsors

The key to success is always having a strong internal sponsor at our clients with the authority to get things done. We know how to make this individual a hero. We don’t move forward without this commitment from our clients.
Score: It depends
How do you score on each of these?
Which ones are you working on next?
Let us know in the comments.
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Brian Massey

Conversion Scientist™ at Conversion Sciences

Brian Massey is the Founder and Conversion Scientist™ at Conversion Sciences, a sought-after international speaker, and author of Your Customer Creation Equation. He is passionate about transforming websites through a steady diet of visitor profiling, purposeful content, analytics, and AB testing.

Expertise: conversion rate optimization, AB testing, marketing strategy, digital marketing, analytics, landing page design, computer programming, entrepreneurship

Speaking: IBM, Inbound, LeadsCon, Content Marketing World, Affiliate Summit, and more

Books and Training: Your Conversion Creation Equation, Video CRO, Marketing Videos that Convert, CRO Best Practices

As Seen On: ClickZ, Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, Conversion Sciences Blog, Intended Consequences podcast

Education: Texas A&M University, BS Computer Science and Management

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