UstarProductions
As the eyes are the window to the soul, the website is the window to the value proposition. The site doesn’t create the value prop, but it helps the world understand the value of your product.
Such was the case for entrepreneur Jody Ngo. Her passion for her product radiated through the phone when we talked. But her original website just wasn’t conveying it. The company is based in San Jose, California, and many of its customers are from all over the Bay area.
She love to organize new events, refresh existing occasions, & continue to create unique experiences with fresh ideas. They have been the primary organizer for many events for companies which include red carpet concepts and a multitude of private events. Their most notable event has been the chief festival organizer for both the New Year – Tet Festival & Moon Festival held in San Jose (recognized by the San Jose & Milpitas Mayor from 2015, 2016, and 2017).
Furthermore, they are leaders in marketing strategy for business promotion and maintain deep distribution relationships to enhance business visibility within a number of media channels such as Vietnamese TV, Radio, or Newspapers.
The Challenge
Although the site was working and converting, Jody Ngo knew she was leaving money on the table because the website wasn’t communicating her products’ unique value proposition well. She also knew the website wasn’t effectively sequencing communication to the customer, and that the customer order experience was poor.
Because she was making money from the site, she was concerned that if she did something wrong in the redesign, she could inadvertently decrease conversion. She wasn’t sure what changes to make, partly because she couldn’t make sense of the data. “Analysis is what I really needed. I wasn't able to really understand what was happening on the site through Google Analytics or through just looking at all the data. I wasn't able to understand it in a simple way.”
Jody Ngo was also facing rising costs from selling through other Event sites, so selling through her own website became even more important to her. “Cost of sales was excruciating,” she said.
What We Did
UStar Productions hired us to redesign her website and help her decipher all data.
STEP #1: Analyze the data
The BringCity team started the research to get a better understanding of what was happening on the site.
Jody Ngo didn’t have a good sense of where her traffic was coming from and how it was performing. The team discovered that, for example, 10% of traffic was coming from Facebook. It also discovered that traffic coming from Google Product Listing Ads (PLA) under-performed organic and direct traffic. This indicated an opportunity to improve the value exchange on the product pages to increase the conversion rate.
The team also sought to discover where in the funnel UStar-Production’s was leaking revenue. One example discovery was a tracking issue that caused the click-through rate (CTR) for the final steps to be over inflated, likely caused by PayPal users and/or return users who skip some steps.
The team used the Forensic Data Analysis in two ways — to build an ROI channel model and to inform the website redesign strategy.
STEP #2: Build an ROI channel model
To help Jody Ngo decide where to invest, the team used the Forensic Data Analysis to build an ROI channel model. Even though it didn’t work exactly as intended, it helped Jody Ngo reduce costs significantly.
The ROI channel model was based on a set of assumptions to build a hypothesis. By rolling out the model, Jody Ngo learned that those assumptions were in fact false. But by having the model to work with, she was able to pivot in another direction based on the new knowledge she gained.
“The hypothesis that we drew from the ROI model proved to be incorrect, but it didn't matter because it gave me some data to work with, it helped me look at the problem and kind of see, hmmm, something's not right there. The hypothesis isn't working as we thought it would, so what can I do to adjust it?” Jody Ngo said.
The model helped her conduct a bidding analysis of all the keywords he was buying for other ads. She discovered she was buying expensive keywords that were driving clicks but not sales, and ultimately changed her keyword mix.
She was able to cut her monthly Google ad spend 82% and yet achieve the same amount of sales.
“That's always how I run things — with experiments. Just because one hypothesis doesn't work out, it doesn't mean anything. It's just data. It's just learning,” he said. “So it’s very valuable. It gave me a good data set to understand so I could form my own hypothesis because I've been doing this for a while and understand some caveats that I could test and try. And I did, and my cost of sales from Google went from 70% to 17%.”
STEP #3: Discover and communicate a unique value proposition
The data analysis also informed a Conversion Index Analysis on the Ustar’s website, a process which identified many areas that presented an opportunity for optimization.
One of the biggest areas of opportunity was the expression of the value proposition — there was no differentiation messaging clearly explaining why this bar is superior to other bars.
For example, it was hard to understand the ingredients from a differentiation standpoint on the homepage. A dedicated ingredients page had some good information, but it was not being seen by most visitors and could be improved and leveraged on the homepage.
“What made the product special was a little bit buried,” Jody Ngo said.
Creative Sample #1:
Creative Sample #2:
STEP #5: Optimize the website for mobile as well
The Forensic Data Analysis uncovered that the majority of traffic (58%) was coming from mobile, but mobile accounted for less than a third of orders because the mobile site’s conversion rate was 3.5 times worse than desktop. This was due to the friction created by a poor mobile experience.
This wasn’t necessarily a surprise to Jody since the site was not optimized for mobile and difficult to navigate, but he wasn’t sure what value hierarchy, structure and sequencing to display on a mobile site if he did redesign it and optimize it for mobile.
“If I wasn't sure how to communicate that value in the 22- to 27-inch environment on a desktop, I was definitely going to have a challenge doing that on a four-inch device,” Jody said.
Creative Sample #8: Papa Steve’s original mobile website
The new mobile site reduces friction now that it is optimized for mobile devices. While it is similar to the desktop site, some of the sequencing is different. For example, to make ordering quick and easy for mobile visitors, the “Shop All Bars” button is above supporting value statements about being GMO free, containing only the highest quality organic ingredients, etc. On the desktop site, it is below those statements.
Creative Sample #9: New UStar’s mobile website — before-the-scroll on iPhone X
Creative Sample #10: Full, new Ustar’s mobile homepage
What We Achieved
“You can always find a new traffic source, but the sequencing of the story on your website is really critical. If you get that right, you can give people a better experience, and your sales are going to be better, and the business is going to benefit because the customer feels they're benefiting. And if you're truly providing value to customers and they feel that they're getting value, they’re going to keep doing business with you,” Jody said.
Since the redesign was launched just a few months ago, the overall conversion rate (total orders/total visitors) is up 18%, and overall revenue increased 18% as well.
“And that’s a lot because the conversion rate was pretty high before,” Jody said.
Asked what advice she would give to other entrepreneurs, Jody said, “If you don't have a good product, it doesn't matter what you do. But if you have a great product, then make sure people know it's a great product. Then I think you're doing a service for both the customer and the business because both are getting the benefit. The customer gets a great product, and the business is getting to make a sale — and neither loses.”
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