4 Surprising Insights from Business Experiments that Drove Growth
Diving into the heart of growth strategies, this article unveils surprising insights from seasoned experts who have pushed the boundaries of success through innovative business experiments. From testing landing page designs to pivoting content strategies, each topic is a piece of the puzzle in driving substantial growth. Discover transformative approaches that have proven their worth in the competitive business landscape.
- Test Different Landing Page Designs
- Pivot to Bottom-of-Funnel Content
- Shift Focus to Rural Properties
- Focus on Customer Experience
Test Different Landing Page Designs
I conducted involved testing different landing page designs for our e-commerce site. I was surprised to find that a minimalistic design with a single clear call-to-action (CTA) outperformed a more complex page, even though we had initially believed the extra information would improve conversions. I approached this by running A/B tests, ensuring each version was shown to a similar audience. The key takeaway was to focus on clarity and simplicity. My advice for others is to test small, iterative changes, measure results, and avoid assumptions. Iteration is crucial-what you think will work may not, and testing allows you to pivot quickly based on real data.
Pivot to Bottom-of-Funnel Content
One experiment that fundamentally transformed our approach was our radical pivot to bottom-of-funnel (BoFu) content strategy. I used to be this traffic-chasing maniac, thinking "bigger number, better person" - classic rookie mistake. We were generating tons of top-of-funnel (ToFu) content, getting eyes on the page, but zero meaningful conversions. So we ran this aggressive experiment: instead of chasing vanity metrics, we laser-focused on sales pages, product comparisons, and "best of" list posts. The results? Money started flowing in. We essentially reversed our traditional marketing funnel - BoFu first, then working our way up to MoFu and ToFu content. This wasn't just a small tweak; it was a complete strategic overhaul driven by a simple but powerful realization: traffic means nothing if it doesn't convert. The key lesson here is brutal honesty with yourself. Most marketers get trapped in the "more traffic" echo chamber. But the bank doesn't give a you-know-what about page views. Because we deeply understood our conversion process and were willing to completely restructure our content strategy, we turned what could have been a failure into a significant growth lever. Start with the money. Understand exactly how your content connects to revenue, test aggressively, and never fall in love with metrics that don't directly impact your bottom line.
Shift Focus to Rural Properties
One experiment we conducted was shifting our marketing focus from metropolitan areas to rural properties. Initially, we relied heavily on urban markets for leads, but we hypothesized that targeting rural areas could yield higher returns due to less competition and lower acquisition costs. To test this, we allocated a portion of our marketing budget to rural campaigns while carefully tracking lead quality, cost per acquisition, and deal profitability.
The results were surprising—rural leads not only cost less, but also delivered higher margins per deal, significantly boosting our profitability. This experiment taught us the value of challenging assumptions and starting small to validate new strategies before fully committing.
My advice to others: test ideas on a manageable scale, measure results closely, and be open to pivoting based on the data. Sometimes the biggest growth opportunities come from questioning what you've always done.
Focus on Customer Experience
In the SEO industry there are an incredible amount of unskilled people that know "just enough" and plenty of experts who exist to tell people that they have the answers ... even though these answers are overly simplistic based on complex foundations. Over the past year I've noticed that many of the old SEO practices I had built my businesses on weren't working so I switched to a more fundamental strategy based on what built my success decades ago, "Why Should I Care". I've now built that into everything I do - a focus on customer experience at every step possible. Turning content from chasing metrics and keyword density numbers to focusing on answering customer needs for instance. Adjusting website copy and design from what I thought search engines wanted to what my customers needed. This has led to a dramatic recovery in website traffic especially among those markets that I needed to reach for conversions that would fuel future business growth through increased revenue.
