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Geotargeting – EHarmony Finds The Right Match For Canadians And US

The dating site eHarmony illustrated perfectly the importance of why testing is valuable, and why testing specific types of users is critical. The results were stunning in their clarity.

The company took a simple test with a clear answer, then ran the same test to a different geography, and got the opposite answer.

In the online world, we've all heard that adding too much navigation to landing pages or to registration pages is a mistake -- we've heard, time after time, that it distracts from our goal of getting users to complete the specific task we have assigned to them, such as filling out a form or moving further into the sales funnel.

But is it really a distraction? Or could it be a valuable way of answering customer objections to eliminate dropping out of the funnel?

That was the theory we tested with eHarmony. We helped them run a direct marketing campaign in which the campaign landing page either included or did not include tabbed navigation.

And we discovered that, true to accepted best-practices, adding tabbed navigation on a registration page did, indeed, distract from the task at hand. That is, it reduced registration page completions.

Except when it increased them.

Bear with me. I'm not being a smart aleck. What we learned from the test was that, in the U.S., the tabbed navigation reduced conversions. It distracted people from the ultimate goal that we had set for them, that of completing sign-up to the eHarmony service.

But we also ran the same test to Canadian users. And guess what? For Canadian users, adding the tabbed navigation actually increased conversions by a significant margin.

Who'd have thunk it?

Now, nobody can tell for sure why that was the case. Perhaps it is because, in the U.S., eHarmony is such a well-known brand that users don't need any pesky, extra navigation that tells more about the service. For them, it was simply a distraction. In Canada, where eHarmony is a lesser known entity, perhaps the navigation gave users the extra information they needed in order to make an informed choice about whether or not to sign up.

It was a valuable bit of information. They learned that Canadian users are different than U.S. users, and can tailor their future marketing messages accordingly.

But they also confirmed that dividing visitors into different groups is a vital aspect of their campaigns. Imagine: if they had not run the test separately to Canadian and U.S. users, the results would have been nearly a wash. The reduction in conversions to the U.S. users and the increase in conversions to Canadian users would have cancelled each other out.

eHarmony would have assumed that the tabbed navigation was an element that really had no affect on conversions at all, and gone on to test other things in their landing pages, never knowing just how important an element it really was.

I consider this example nearly blinding in its clarity: targeting is crucial to us as marketers. Yet, even though I hear the topic discussed in detail at more conferences than I can count, it seems that many of us are still reluctant to begin doing it. We seem to think it's complicated.

It's not. Targeting is nothing more than defining different groups of people and exploiting their differences.

To do so, you must first identify groups of visitors that you believe will behave differently from each other (Canadian vs. U.S. visitors, for example). You identify elements that may "matter" (tabbed navigation, for example). Then, you run tests. (Of course, it helps if you already have the ability to test quickly and easily.)

That's all it takes to define the differences in your user groups. Once you've been able to discover those differences, you can begin to exploit them by showing different content to different groups of people on an ongoing basis. You can lay out guidelines that, in essence, say, "On this spot, on this page, show this content only under these circumstances…"

Targeting is not a tool for only the savviest of online marketers. It's one we can all come to embrace.

Here's how I like to think of it: I love to surf. Some of my biggest life decisions have been made while floating in the ocean, waiting for the next big wave. But I know that, to many people (perhaps to most people?), shivering in a wetsuit in the chilly waters off San Francisco would not be their idea of an inspirational afternoon.

People are different.

Forgive me if I sound like Gordon from Sesame Street. But the fact that people are different excites me as an online marketer. I get a kick out of the opportunities that present themselves just by the very nature of being human. We can discover our differences, and celebrate them, via targeting.

When I see a new surfboard that is perfect for my height and weight, for the type of surfing I most enjoy, in the colors I most love, and in a shape that calls to my designer's heart, my wallet is practically in my hand before I have consciously made a decision.

Targeting your customers is like showing them that perfect surfboard. They'll want what you have to offer, because you're offering exactly what they want.