Blog Conversion Elements

Device mockups designed by d3images on Freepik

Tools & Platforms Used

• Bootstrap 3
• WordPress Shortcodes
• HTML5, Vanilla JS, CSS
• Adobe Photoshop
• Figma
• Sublime Text
• Quicken Pricing API
• Optimizely Testing

Project date

📆  This project completed in February 2023.

Project Summary

The Quicken blog had been experimenting with different types of promotional elements to try and:

• 1.  Retain user attention
• 2.  Build trust in the brand
• 3.  Ultimately, increase conversion

🏁  My goal was to create a new kind of embeddable blog element that encouraged user conversion (i.e. user purchases) and/or upsells.

❌  However, it couldn't look like a banner, otherwise it might cause the banner blindness effect.

🎉  And bonus points if it entertained visitors a little!

My responsibilities

I designed and developed 5 responsive Wordpress shortcode blog elements.

🗂️  I fetched data from an already available Quicken web product pricing API.

💬  I gathered feedback on the designs and user experience from multiple teams, and iterated improvements into the final versions.

🧪  I also conducted some very basic testing on their effectiveness through the Optimizely A/B testing system.

The challenge

We needed to:

🧑‍💻  Encourage visitor retention on the blog and/or website.

📈  Increase the sales of Quicken products.

❌  All while avoiding the standard banner ad design.

☑️  Conclusion

I was most drawn to the idea of low-frame count animations visually showing the user how some of our core financial software features might look and function.

Additionally, if we can tie in an introductory copy line from the content the element is embedded in, that will keep the element feeling like it's part of the content.

The slowly animating element will be a nice break from a text-heavy page while not being interruptive or obnoxious.

Results

🔄  After many rounds of feedback, and iterating design + development tasks, these elements were ready to test within our real blog content.

📋  The Quicken SEO Manager provided a list of our top performing blog posts. The Content Director and I chose 3 posts to test the separate elements on.

🧪  We did an A/B test with 50% / 50% traffic to the same blog - one version with the blog conversion element embedded in its content, and one without.

📈  The first round went well, with a 175% conversion rate increase for visitors that were exposed to the conversion element in that specific blog article.

⛔  However, before we moved onto additional testing rounds, the company decided to move forward on a corporate rebrand. All unrelated projects were put on hold to prioritize the Quicken rebrand.

🌟  That said, with such a clear, positive impact on visitor conversions, I think testing and integration of these elements should have continued. They'd eventually have been updated to match the rebrand. I’m still proud of this project and the potential revenue it would have generated for the company.