Analysis of web traffic reveals a great deal about
the online behaviour of users. The data however does not explain why they do what they do,
which is crucially important if marketers wish to act on the information.
Understanding “why people do what they do” typically involves a two-stage
process — constructing hypotheses or scenarios and testing those hypotheses. To construct
hypotheses, and explore issues and scenarios, marketers often conduct qualitative research,
or use techniques akin to qualitative research. To test hypotheses and alternatives, they
rely on quantitative research methods, and their website is often the ideal platform for
data collection.
A/B testing and multivariate testing allow marketers to test
elements (headlines, paragraph text, images, call-to-action buttons, testimonials etc.) on
a webpage. A/B Testing is used when marketers want to choose between one of two or more
versions of a webpage. And multivariate testing is used when they are seeking to optimize
the elements on the page.
