In an interesting and timely post entitled Experiment or Die. Five Reasons And Awesome Testing Ideas, Avinash Kaushik declares that “there is a tendency to think experimentation and testing is optional” while he correctly believes that, in reality, that view is fundamentally wrong. Instead, Avinash believes companies’ motto should be “Experiment or die, there is no try.”

As is common on all great blogs, Avinash’s post elicited a lively discussion where the theme of many comments was around the reasons why organizations aren’t wildly embracing testing and optimization as a strategy.

We are lucky to work with an amazing group of clients that are completely committed to Conversion Rate Optimization. However, from time to time, especially as we present to public audiences, we do get what we consider to be odd insights from companies that are *considering* testing and need more ammo.

But the basic question remains: why aren’t MORE companies embracing this proven strategy?

Here are some of the reason why I believe testing is a tougher “sell” than it should be:

1. Many marketers (i.e., those making the decision to test-or-not-to-test) don’t want to be measured, pure and simple. And they don’t want to be measure because their compensation and rewards system is not tied to their company’s ROI metrics. So they prefer “hope-driven leaps of faith” to making make data-driven decisions – this way, they cannot “fail”

2. Site owners/marketing directors (where one would assume the compensation/reward system is properly aligned) who don’t embrace this strategy do so likely because the skill sets required to pull Conversion Rate Optimization off as a strategy (and not as a one-off party trick you can brag once) are very varied.

Skills range from experience developing a testing strategy to web wire-framing and design, copy, coding, etc. People with ALL these skills don’t usually (if ever) reside within one company’s marketing department, sitting idle just waiting for a new set of tasks to come their way.

(One reason we think we are in demand is that we provide turnkey experiment services. We address the billable hours problem Avinash talks about in his post through flat rates. This way, no one gets nickel-and-dimed.)

3. Not knowing what to test is a HUGE reason why companies don’t test, or stop after the first test (usually a test of a red button – ok, yes, that one is a no-brainer).

Plus, not knowing what to test, coupled with a powerful tool like GWO, often translates into poorly designed experiments that take months and months to complete. Now, that is off-putting to any marketer with revenue responsibilities.

4. Another reason for lack of adoption has to do with the expected lift in conversions vs. the cost of experimentation. Clearly, in some cases, there isn’t enough traffic and/or margin to support investing in experiments beyond some basic do-it-yourself stuff (i.e., the “six and a half minute experiment” Avinash mentions in his blog).

If you would like to determine whether or not Conversion Rate Optimization is worth it, simply download the calculator here and decide for yourself if this strategy makes sense.