December 8, 2010
Should You Blame Your Designer for Poor Conversion Rates?
Recently, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the conversation rate optimization (CRO) community—blaming low conversion rates on web designers. Designers are being caricatured as either “clueless” or unable to restrain their conversion-killing creative impulses. How valid is this view? In my experience, there’s plenty of blame to go around for poor CRO performance. Let’s name some names.
Blame Expectations
Admit it: nobody really knows what a “web designer” does. Does she code? Set up e-mail accounts? Create logos? Write copy? Personally I know web designers who do all of the above and more, as well as those who specialize in a single, thin disciplinary slice.
The point is that web designers come with a wide variety of skills and training, and yet, somehow, there is a general expectation that all web designers should know how to design for conversion. It’s simply not realistic, and here’s why:
[ ... See the full article posted on SearchEngineLand, HERE > ]
In a design studio, most of the times, the designer doesn’t always take the decision of what to design. A graphic designer for example is told what to draw and he tries to do it the best he can. A designer needs to know what’s on the market, what are people looking for, what niches to reach to. But those things are usually the job of someone else on the team, someone who has time to spend and research what’s the request on the market, what’s not yet on the market and so on. So, I think it’s safe to say that it’s not entirely his fault for the bad conversion rates.
I have had experience on both sides of this fence, and must say, everyone is to blame. The success of a campaign is dependant on ALL contributers. When multiple people and multiple services are involved, the cohesiveness of thier work is the deciding factor as to how successful the result can be. Of course the knowledge and experience of each is important, but the percentage of the possible result that can be reached is based on the teamwork and communication of all involved. As bass ackwards as it may sound, its the clients fault. Why? Well, it’s not really thier fault, but they are the only one that has control. Thier attention to the actions of those they hire, thier attention to the result of thier work, and the clients communication level between all involved are the key needs for success. Would results overall be different if the client, the designer, and the sem rep all lived in the same appartment and worked in the same office? The same set of knowledge and skill would produce a far greater result.
Communication, communication, communication.