“Anytime we’re evaluating a product or service, we think about it subconsciously as a consumer,” Long says. “As a marketer, we need to think about the human aspect of marketing.”

Dan recently wrapped up six years at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, one of the American South's most storied news organizations, where he served as Senior Manager of Conversions and Optimizations. In that time, AJC grew its digital subscriber base from 24,000 to over 101,000, a transformation driven by a mix of smart product strategy, rigorous testing, and a philosophy that puts the reader at the center of every decision.

We sat down with Dan for a conversation about how he thinks about the subscription funnel, what makes digital media conversion uniquely hard, and why the best optimization work always starts with the human on the other side of the screen.

A career at the intersection of journalism, technology, and revenue

Dan didn't start in conversion optimization. He started in marketing research, helping news organizations, regional papers, the Washington Post, and NPR understand what their readers actually wanted to read and how well they were delivering on it. That grounding in the reader experience never left him.

After moving to the publisher side, first at a regional paper in Dallas-Fort Worth, then at the larger competitor across town, he kept chasing the same question: how do you get people to pay for journalism? Not just tolerate a paywall, but actually recognize the value and subscribe.

"At one point, we thought the biggest challenge was time," he says. "People would say, 'I don't have time to read.' Then it became 'there are different news sources.' Now it's all of that plus: I can get my news from social media. I can use AI. There are a number of different reasons why people could say no."

That evolving challenge shaped how Dan thinks about conversion. It's not just a funnel problem; it's a relevance problem. And the solution isn't as simple as a better CTA button. It's understanding why someone might genuinely care about the product or content, in this moment, and meeting them there.

When he arrived at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2019, the organization had 24,000 paid digital subscribers. The only digital value proposition offered was an ePaper, essentially a digital replica of the print product. The paywall was still in its early days, and there was significant runway ahead.

Designing for the human, not the metric

The "What's in it for me?" question isn't just a gut check; Dan applies it as a lens that has helped shape his success. It reflects how he thinks about the entire reader relationship, from the first piece of content someone clicks on, to the paywall interaction that asks them to commit, to the checkout experience that either seals the deal or loses them.

In practice, designing for the human audience starts with the brief. Before any creative work happens, Dan works with his team to understand who the target audience is, what they already know about the brand, what they perceive about its value, and what would need to be true for them to hand over their credit card.

"What would be valuable to this person?" is the question that drives everything, and it doesn't stop being relevant once the work ships.

"As we're auditing the final conversion product, whether it’s a paywall or a subscription landing page, we think about it again with that perspective of: if I were an outsider looking at this page, if I were interacting with this site, does that answer the questions appropriately? What's in it for me, for all the consumers that we have?"

That last phrase matters. "All the consumers that we have." Dan is deliberate about not treating readers as a monolith.

Different people arrive at a subscription decision from completely different places. A loyal visitor who's been hitting the article limit for months needs a different conversation than someone who landed on an AJC story through a Google search and has never heard of the newspaper or news site. Segmenting those experiences and designing each one to answer that specific person's version of the WIIFM question is where the real gains live.

There's also a persistent tension Dan navigates that most conversion teams face but rarely talk about openly: the pull between designing for the human and designing for the machine. SEO scoring tools, algorithmic recommendations, and platform optimization all have their own logic, and it doesn't always line up with what actually feels right to a reader.

"There's always tension between designing for the human and designing for the machine that's giving you a score. By default, we think about the human aspect. Does this page have personality? Does it signal to the consumer: 'Hey, we get you. We understand you'? Does it support the brand in a way that really resonates?"

When the answer isn't obvious, his team treats it as a signal to test. Which is, in a way, the most human-centered move of all; instead of overriding the uncertainty with an opinion, you ask the reader.

Why "paywall" is the wrong word for most of what you're building

With a clear philosophy about who you're designing for, the next question becomes: what are you asking them to do? Here's where Dan says most teams are working with the wrong mental model from the start when discussing paywalls

People may not expect this, but “paywalls” don't always mean you have to pay for a recurring subscription.

"We use the term fairly generically," he explains. "People tend to throw it around, and you always assume it's a hard stop that causes you to subscribe to a recurring subscription. That's often the case. But a paywall could be a number of things."

In his framework, there are really three distinct conversion mechanisms, and treating paywalls universally like a single concept is one of the most common mistakes in digital media:

• Registration walls (regwalls) collect a reader's email address in exchange for access to a piece of content. It's a simple, low-friction value exchange. The reader gets the article. You get a first-party data point and the beginning of a relationship.
• Digital passes let a reader pay once for short-term access. For example, without the commitment of a recurring subscription, a digital pass may grant access for a day or two or during the course of a local event attracting out-of-town visitors seeking information. Dan sees these as underutilized tools, particularly useful for attracting readers who want access without a long-term relationship.
• Subscription paywalls are what most people picture when they hear the word. These convert high-intent readers into subscribers who generate recurring revenue and therefore unlock more consumer benefits. They require the most convincing and the most attention to friction.

"Using all three together helps you serve more types of readers, build relationships, and capture more value," Dan says. The goal isn't to push everyone to a subscription immediately. It's to match the mechanism to where the reader is in their journey and to answer that WIIFM question in a way that actually makes sense for that moment.

The three conversion surfaces require three different strategies

The paywall/regwall/digital pass distinction is one layer of complexity. There's another layer that Dan thinks about just as carefully: not just what kind of access point you're presenting, but where the reader is coming from when they are engaging with your subscription offer.

In his experience, there are three meaningfully different conversion surfaces, each with its own psychology and requirements:

• Paywall interactions happen in the middle of a reading experience. The reader is already engaged with specific content, which is a signal of relevance. But patience is low. They want access now. "Value must be obvious and friction minimal," as Dan puts it.
• Organic landing pages attract readers who clicked through from on-site CTAs (through a banner, a button in the navigation, or a prompt at the end of a free article). These visitors are in evaluation mode. They're asking that fundamental question: "What's in it for me?" And they need room to answer it. The page has to be more informative, more thorough, more value-forward than a paywall presentation.
• Paid campaign landing pages serve a visitor who saw a social post or ad, felt some connection, and clicked. That emotional connection is the asset, and the page needs to protect it. "We want to keep that emotional tie," Dan says. "We want to make it simple. We do want to make it informative, but that emotional connection is the thread you can't break."

At the AJC, this distinction had real tactical implications. Testing showed that different promotional offers resonated differently depending on where the reader encountered them. A 99¢-for-three-months introductory rate performed well on-site and on the paywall, while a $1-a-week rate performed better for paid social campaigns. Different audiences, different presentations, different context - each optimized for conversion efficiency.

Why cross-functional alignment is the real unlock

Successful subscriber growth initiatives at media companies require cross-functional alignment on shared goals. Conversion optimization at a media company isn't a product team problem or a marketing problem. It's an everything problem.

"Cross-functional work is absolutely important in our type of business," Dan says. "We have so many different small teams. We have to communicate well and work together to be effective."

While the News side and the business side operate independently by design, at the AJC, Dan would occasionally sit in on the newsroom's daily budget meetings, which were internal editorial planning sessions where reporters pitched stories and editors set priorities. He wasn't there to influence coverage. His presence meant he could spot content with subscription conversion potential early, so his team could prepare.

That might mean flagging a story about Georgia's swing-state status as something that could attract out-of-market readers, worth treating as a top-of-funnel engagement play rather than a conversion trigger. Or recognizing that a high-profile local investigation was exactly the kind of unique, irreplaceable content that could push a longtime reader over the edge into subscribing.

"Is it worth an organic social push, or is it something we can invest in with paid social to really amplify the message?" he explains. "And then we establish some business rules: if we're promoting it socially, should we allow people to access this without any barriers, or is this content so valuable that it's worth promoting and then attempting to get a registration or subscription out of it?"

Getting to that kind of coordination requires shared goals and shared metrics across teams. Without them, teams optimize for their own objectives, and the path-to-conversion or engagement journeys may end up being ineffective.

The case for bringing in an outside perspective

Even experienced teams get comfortable with their defaults. You know your product well, your mental models are well-worn, and sometimes that familiarity is the problem.

That's what drew Dan to bringing in The Good for a Digital Experience Optimization (DXO) Audit of AJC's subscription landing pages. The Good's CEO, Jon MacDonald, has a phrase that describes well the situation Dan was in: "You can't read the label from inside the jar."

"We all need an additional outside perspective from time to time," Dan says. "The value is that The Good works with a number of industries, not just media. So, having all of that experience and all of those additional perspectives, they may think of an enhancement we haven't thought of yet or use that expertise to reinforce the value of an approach we’re evaluating. It's like sharing some lessons and keeping us grounded, so that we are doing what we should be doing and we’re continuously improving upon things that we think we already know well."

For a DXO collaboration to work, Dan emphasizes the importance of building trust early, investing real time in scoping, and then getting out of the way. "Really sitting down and investing a lot of time and energy into setting the parameters, understanding the capabilities, understanding what's needed, and building that trust between the two so that both feel comfortable allowing the other to do what they do best."

The DXO Audit identified a pattern that showed up across user testing and analytics: the subscription landing page was creating cognitive overload rather than confidence. Too many competing offers. Pricing structures that required mental math. A mobile experience that buried the primary CTA below the fold.

When the work was done, he was pleased: "The team was super easy to work with — professional, organized, methodical, yet also very friendly and engaging. It was a worthwhile project with an enjoyable team." He was eager to implement recommendations and find out if they resonated with consumers and improved their subscription landing page conversion rates in a live environment.

AJC implemented the recommendations thoughtfully, adapting guidance to their technical constraints and layering in complementary changes, including a new annual subscription tier and channel-specific offer routing for paid campaigns. Collectively, Dan believed that these optimizations would better address “what’s in it for me” with a more intuitive design, a new offer with special savings for highly engaged readers, and a mobile-friendly design. In the end, the results demonstrated value with the DXO Audit.

Results: 56% overall lift, 157% mobile improvement

What 25 years at the intersection of journalism, data, and people actually teaches you

Ask Dan what makes conversion leadership in media different from conversion leadership anywhere else, and he doesn't hesitate.

"If I were to think of a company like Nike or Adidas, they're selling shoes — and they have so many different models to sell to different audiences. People think of the news as one thing. But the content changes every day. It's a new product every single day. And that product should have something to appeal to everyone. How do you communicate that to someone visiting the site?"

It's a genuinely hard problem. Unlike a shoe brand that can segment by style, price point, or sport, a news organization is selling one thing, access to journalism, to readers who want wildly different things from it. Sports fans. Business readers. Political junkies. Parents who want to know what's happening in their school district. The product and the access to journalism are the same. The job of the conversion experience is to make each of those people feel like it was made for them. Sports readers reacted favorably to “season pass” offers and the tone used with Varsity content; likewise, Atlanta foodies felt a connection with subscription presentations related to the AJC’s “Atlanta’s 50 Best Restaurants” content.

Compound that with the cultural challenge Dan has encountered in marketing research going back decades: the widespread belief that news and access to journalism should be free. It's a friction point baked into the category itself, and no amount of landing page optimization can eliminate it. What good conversion work does is reduce every other source of friction enough that the value becomes undeniable even for the skeptic.

The data rigor is one-half of how Dan gets there. The other half is something harder to systematize: staying genuinely curious about the humans on the other side.

"Maintain that balance between the human side and the rigor of analytics. Data is super important; we need it to understand things, to make decisions. But it's equally important to always understand the human side. Be observant. Watch people. Listen to people. See how they act, see how they react. Always stay curious."

That curiosity shows up in how he presents findings to leadership, too. When the data says something inconvenient, for example, a test fails, a beloved feature is hurting conversion, a long-held assumption is wrong, Dan's default isn't a slide deck of numbers. It's a story.

"Use the approach to really communicate what we learned, how we learned it, and what does it actually means. Do it in a way that really connects with a person. Make it personal. Make it feel accessible and like it's bringing value, new insights, or additional point of view into how you might want to proceed in future initiatives."

That instinct to translate data into something a person can feel is the same instinct that underlies the whole WIIFM framework. Numbers aren’t the only thing that persuade people. Relevance does. Whether you're trying to convert a first-time reader into a subscriber, or convince a skeptical executive that an inconvenient test result is worth acting on, the approach is the same: find the version of this information that makes it matter to the specific human in front of you.

It's also, Dan would say, what makes the work worth doing.

"Marketing should be fun. We think of it as really data-intensive, and it is, but it should always be fun. Think about the person on the other side. Think about how we can make a difference and connect with somebody. That comes through in your work. That comes through in how you communicate with your audience, and it makes it more relevant for them."

Twenty-five years in, after watching the industry transform from print delivery to ePaper to live paywalls to dynamic segmentation, that's the throughline. Not the technology. Not the platform. It’s the person on the other side and the relentless curiosity about what they actually need.

The post Dan Long Built a Subscription Machine at the AJC by Designing for the Human First appeared first on The Good.

And while we know that digital publishers likely have their hands full with optimizing everything—from landing pages to headlines all the way through to cancellation journeys—paywalls are still one of the most important touch points in a customer lifecycle and a key way that online publications monetize their content.

But in the age of unlimited free content, convincing users to pay for access can be challenging. In this article:

• We define paywall delivery methods
• We show you some best-in-class examples
• We then outline our formula to optimize your paywall design
• We also show you how we created big gains in The Economist’s paywall strategy

What is a Paywall?

A paywall is a system used by online publishers to monetize their digital content and generate revenue. They restrict access to content, such as articles or videos, unless the user pays a fee or subscribes to a service.

In other words, an online paywall is a barrier that prevents users from accessing content until they have paid for it or completed some other action, such as registering an account or signing up for a free trial.

How Paywall Strategy Fits Into a Great SaaS Product Experience

There are plenty of elements within our control when it comes to optimizing a SaaS product experience. As mentioned above, paywalls are just one component of your strategy.

Below you can see how paywalls fit in the ‘Registration’ phase of the user experience and get a better understanding of all the elements we could optimize to improve acquisition, conversion, and retention metrics in digital media.

Registration Walls vs Hard Paywalls (With Examples)

Now, let’s get into the specifics. Paywalls can be implemented in a variety of ways, but there are two main types of paywalls:

Hard Paywalls ask users to subscribe to access content and prevent the user from reading any further until they have subscribed. They may include incentives like free trials, discounts, or special promotions.

Registration Walls prevent the user from reading any further until they have registered. They ask users to give a few simple details like an email address in order to continue reading. Offers vary, but registration walls typically offer a few free articles per month or week to users who register.

Note: Registration walls are sometimes referred to as “soft paywalls” because the nature of the barrier isn’t quite as firm. We recognize that “paywall” is a bit of a misnomer, but it’s easier to say, so it stuck. While we like saving a few syllables here and there, for the sake of clarity, we’ll keep referring to these as Registration Walls throughout this article.

Registration Wall Examples

Registration walls keep it simple. They simply ask the user to exchange minimal information (sometimes only an email address) for article access. They occasionally grant other privileges like commenting and bookmarking, but their main offer tends to be the article itself, not the deeper features like bookmarking.

Let’s look at a few examples of Registration Walls.

Medium keeps its registration wall as simple as it gets: one line of text and two single sign-on (SSO) options. They don’t spend a lot of time convincing users here because they aren’t asking for a lot of effort from users to register.

The New Yorker doesn’t bother with SSO. The simple but directional headline clearly relays the benefit to the reader and asks for minimal effort to continue—a single email field.

Hard Paywall Examples

Hard paywalls are true paywalls. The ones that actually generate revenue. Users can’t close out of or circumvent them by submitting only their email address. A hard paywall asks users to subscribe. It typically offers details like pricing, benefits, incentives, and a call to action.

Hard paywalls are typically seen on article pages where user intent is highest to continue. In some cases, a dynamic paywall is used to gate some types of content but not others.

What’s important about a hard paywall is that it blocks the remainder of the page. A traditional popup that can be dismissed won’t do. A hard paywall, by nature, must obscure the bulk of an article. Let’s look at a few ways that can be done:

An inline paywall is embedded in the page and moves as the user scrolls. In this example from The Economist, they used an inline paywall to obscure the remainder of the article after the first paragraph.

A sticky banner at the bottom of the screen is another common paywall format. Here the New York Times includes key subscription details in their sticky banner.

An overlay, as seen in the Washington Post, obscures article content with a lightbox or popup.  Note that this one can’t be closed in any way but by subscribing.

Solving the Challenge of Negative Sentiment

While paywalls are often a publisher’s primary mechanism for acquiring subscribers, they can also be a source of frustration for users who are accustomed to free online content. This dance between maximizing conversion volume and minimizing damage to reader sentiment can feel tedious. But the SOLID framework is designed to help you turn cold readers into subscribers.

The best paywalls have five key elements, for which we use the mnemonic SOLID:

S — Salient

Paywalls typically get the most visibility and engagement where user intent is highest: on articles and news content pages (as opposed to the home page or category pages). The article is the valuable content the user came to the site for, so this is the first piece of the conversion puzzle; the content has to be so valuable, so important, and so relevant that users are willing to push through barriers to get it.

All this is to say, a well-optimized paywall can’t compensate for a low-value article. The article needs to be worth reading. Users need a compelling reason to push past the barrier you’re presenting, so testing headlines and having a great product is the first step to optimizing the paywall experience. In one word, make sure your content is salient.

O — Offer

Offers are typically given in the form of discounts (as with the 4 weeks for $1 example from the New York Times above), but they can be anything from a free tote bag to entries into a raffle.

Offers add urgency, appeal, and a reason to convert beyond the immediate value. They can get users who might normally abandon at the first sight of a paywall to consider subscribing.

L —  Low Friction

Most web designers know that the more fields, steps, and instructions you add to a form, the more you can expect users to abandon. But are you sure you know what “easy” really means to your users?

Minimizing form fields is sure to make your form easier to use, but it doesn’t address how effortful a user perceives the signup process to be.

Perceived effort is the user’s impression of how complicated the process will be, and a high perceived effort level can cause users to abandon when they feel they don’t want to invest the time or effort required. As a result, we not only need to concern ourselves with the signup process being easy, but we also want the experience to appear easy.

To minimize perceived effort and create a low friction experience, you may want to abate concerns by communicating that the whole process will be 1) simple and 2) quick:

• Use phrases like “sign up in minutes” to reassure users that you respect their time and will get them back to the article quickly
• Show a minimal number of steps and fields from the initial screen, so users can get quick, visual confirmation that the signup process will go quickly
• If you offer a free trial, you may want to let users know that you’ll remind them before their trial ends so they know they won’t forget to cancel (if that’s their intent)
• Use phrases like “cancel any time” and so users know they can back out if they aren’t happy

I —  Immediate Value

While we’re giving you the kindling to level-up your paywall game, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention one foundational element to a paywall: make sure you convey the immediate value users will receive by subscribing.

It’s great to have enticing offers, a low-friction form, and the best articles, but users are here for one reason: they want to learn something. Be sure to give them not just an offer, but the assurance that if they subscribe, they will gain access to the article.

Great paywalls will always contain some reference (either in the main header or in the subheading) to:

1. What users will receive immediately after subscribing and
2. How to get it

Consider these examples:

• Subscribe to continue reading (Washington Post)
• Read the rest of this story with a free account (Medium)
• Sign up to keep reading (The Economist)

If you’re unfamiliar, the Jobs to be Done framework is a great foundation for understanding how to talk to your visitors about what matters to them, rather than what matters to your company.

D — Distinctive Point of View

Especially if you’re dealing with trending headlines, you may worry that you’re losing potential subscribers due to the prevalence of competing articles on the subject. After all, a determined user could probably search for and find another article on the same subject that isn’t locked behind a paywall. It only takes a few seconds.

For those users, they may need some additional incentive to get the content from you. Assure visitors that you’re going to cover the topic, unlike any other publication. That way, they aren’t just paying for the toplines; they’re getting additional context and a distinctive point of view that makes headlines more meaningful.

Here are some examples of language that hint at the publication’s unique perspective:

• “Fiercely independent journalism.” - The Atlantic
• “Award-winning, British perspective.” - The Telegraph
• “Incisive analysis on issues that matter.” - The Economist

Paywall content hierarchy example

Here’s an example of a paywall offer that includes key elements. This is The Economist’s paywall before working with The Good.  (We’ll show you our improvements in just a minute.)

How to Optimize an Online Media Paywall Experience

Now that you understand how a paywall works and how they are structured, you are probably wondering how to optimize your paywall strategy.

We can apply a strategic, optimization-focused approach to paywalls just like any other element of your site. Define goals, craft hypotheses, and run experiments. Let’s walk through the process, using our work with The Economist as a case study in the process.

Step 1: Define goals & constraints

Before starting any website optimization initiative, it's important to set your goals and acknowledge your constraints. This will help you determine whether your changes push the needle in the right direction.

In the case of our work with The Economist, their goal was to improve their in-line paywall conversion rate by 3%.

The Economist also had two constraints that limited our testing. First, we couldn’t change the mechanism. We couldn’t switch to an overlay or sticky banner because they already had other elements in those places. We also couldn’t adjust the timing of the offer.

Second, we had to keep advertising revenues intact. Since The Economist earns revenue through ads, which require page views and dwell time, we couldn’t make any changes that increased the bounce rate or prevented users from exploring more pages (and seeing ads).

Step 2: Conduct the research & create a problem statement

Before designing tests, the next step is the research phase. At The Good, we make use of a number of data collection and analysis tools. We recommend having at least a few of these generative research methods in your tool kit:

• Data Analysis
• Heatmap Analysis
• Heuristic Analysis
• Moderated Usability Testing
• Over-the-shoulder observation
• Customer Service Interviews
• Competitive Analysis

Step 3: Define a problem statement

After exploring your data, the next step is to define the problem using a problem statement. A problem statement summarizes the problem we’re trying to solve. It usually takes one of these two forms:

• Users [are doing x], indicating [problem].
• The paywall [does what], causing [problem].

In the case of The Economist, we saw a clear pattern of user behavior that we turned into three problem statements. They are similar but slightly different.

• Users are not scrolling far enough on the page to see the value proposition, offer, or additional benefits, indicating the paywall is too tall.
• Users fail to scroll much past  “You’ve reached your article limit,” indicating they may not know how to proceed.
• The paywall text may fade too early, causing confusion and abandonment before users can see calls to action.

Step 4: Craft a hypothesis

The problem statement only describes what’s happening now. To guide experimentation, we need a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a testable, tentative explanation or prediction about a phenomenon, based on what we already know. We came up with two:

• Shortened vertical height and directive messaging on the paywall will increase conversions to subscriptions.
• Updates to the paywall including a shorter text fade, solution-oriented header, and layout changes will increase starts and decrease bounce rate.

Step 5: Design your experiment(s)

Once you have your hypothesis, the final step is to design experiments that meet the criteria in your hypothesis. One of the benefits of running tests on a major publication is that there is plenty of traffic to test multiple variations of the paywall. In the case of The Economist, we tested five variants.

Here is the desktop variant that performed the best:

And here’s the same variant on mobile:

Why was this variant more effective than the original paywall?

• It’s significantly shorter, so users are more likely to see it as they scroll.
• It’s more action-oriented. Instead of “You’ve reached your article limit,” it tells the user exactly what to do to bypass the limitation.
• It has the additional benefit of “unlimited access.”
• The secondary call to action increased registrations. More registrations lead to more subscription conversions down the road.

The Results of Optimizing the Paywall Experience

The results of our work with The Economist were significant. We achieved a 5% increase in subscription starts and a decrease in bounce rate with a neutral impact on advertising revenue.

Basically, we gave The Economist everything they wanted and more.

“Through (working with The Good), we were able to increase conversions to paid subscriptions by 5% without compromising our ad revenue, which was a significant return on investment and a huge win for our organization.”

David Humber, Marketing Director of The Economist

You can read more about the project in our case study of The Economist.

We saw similar results when we worked on The Telegraph’s paywall model, including a 30% reduction in same-day subscription cancellations, improved subscriber quality and acquisition rates, and increased paywall conversions. Read our case study of The Telegraph.

You can see similar results on your paywall strategy with the help of our Digital Experience Optimization Program. This end-to-end review of your buyer journey helps you uncover the best opportunities to improve your sales performance and grow your revenue.

Our program starts with an audit that goes beyond surface-level metrics to provide the most thorough review of your website possible and prepare a conversion rate improvement plan that is tailored to your business and paywall strategy.

We bring decades of collective optimization experience working with globally-recognized brands. Let our team put together a detailed report that outlines your strengths and opportunities to boost conversions and sales.

Hundreds of millions in revenue generated with our strategic optimization programs.

But don’t take our word for it. Hear about the amazing results from 15+ years in business, straight from the source.

SEE HOW

The post Optimizing Paywall Strategy for Digital Media (and How We Boosted The Economist’s Subscriptions by 5%) appeared first on The Good.

“Always looking for the wins doesn’t help you improve. That helps you feel good, but it doesn’t help you make more money. It doesn’t help you serve your customers better.”

That’s Justin Albano, Digital Marketing Manager at IDX. And after a decade of driving results in various marketing and creative roles, he knows it’s better to face an issue than sweep it under the rug. 

“As hard as it is to sit there and have someone say, ‘This is not working’…it’s always so much better to know that and be able to move on than have it not working and maintain the status quo.” 

After all, ‘maintaining status quo’ isn’t how the best companies pull ahead. 

Below, you’ll find out how to adopt experimentation like this company. Justin and IDX admitted room for improvement, signed on for our optimization services, and have seen results like: 

• Homepage tests and implementations that boosted enrollment in their product by 20.37%
• Focus and clarity around exactly what to improve and why 
• An understanding of fundamental conversion truths IDX still uses each week 

Identity theft cases more than doubled from 2019 to 2020

In 2020, combined fraud losses climbed to a staggering $56 billion. According to Javelin Strategy and Research, identity fraud scams account for $43 billion — over 76% — of that cost. 

In a world of “over-sharing,” individuals are an increasingly attractive and vulnerable target.  

IDX, a privacy protection service, is designed to help. They’re out to make the digital world a safer place for vulnerable consumers. 

To do so, their service crawls the dark web to find out if your information (credit, medical, or otherwise) is compromised. If so, they alert you and work on your behalf to restore what was stolen. They cover the costs of doing so, too. 

Simply put, IDX offers easy and robust protection from identity threats. 

But, when we first met them, consumers were struggling to understand that.

How does a historically B2B company resonate with B2C customers? 

Justin Albano, the Digital Marketing Manager at IDX, first came to us in August 2018. 

IDX had spun up a marketing site for their B2C product, MyIDCare — a big step into new territory for the historically B2B company. 

Justin knew success hinged on making a strong connection with customers. “Ultimately, we are trying to connect with our prospective customers out there,” he explained. “It really comes down to how effective are we at resonating with them? How effective are we at speaking to what their real needs, real pain points are?” 

So, Justin knew his end goal — resonating with B2C visitors and converting them into customers. What he didn’t know was how, exactly, to reach that goal. 

They had Google Analytics set up on the site and data coming out of ad platforms, but Justin knew this wasn’t the full picture. And he knew that piecemeal data wouldn’t tell him what, out of his big spreadsheet of ideas, to test — let alone which tests would make a difference in revenue. 

Was it button colors? What about lifestyle imagery? Something else altogether? (Spoiler: the last one.) 

To answer these questions, he needed better data. 

“We needed better data to help us make decisions”

Justin and his team at IDX had assumptions, ideas, and gut leanings. But they knew those inputs weren’t unbiased (or influenced by lunch) and not reliable enough to drive the outputs they wanted to see. 

“It’s easy to think you’re super smart, and you’ve got it all figured out,” Justin noted, “But until you actually test it, until you actually go out and learn how people are perceiving you…you don’t really know.” 

With big competitors in the space, IDX needed to know. But gathering and interpreting the data that’d require? It was an overwhelming thought. As Digital Marketing Manager, Justin had a hundred things on his plate and couldn’t spend all day in these tasks. 

He needed a partner who could both do the work and remove all the guesswork.

“I really needed someone who could come in, do the research, do the analysis, and put in front of me a clear path to success…And that’s exactly what The Good gave me.” — Justin Albano

The search for experts with a clear roadmap

Justin considered hiring a partner internally. But, as a small team, IDX couldn’t bring on an analyst or strategist that could spend all day, every day, on these problems. 

That meant turning to an agency instead. 

Justin had spent over a decade in the digital marketing and creative industry, and he knew plenty of talented optimization professionals. This didn’t make his decision easy. 

In the end, two factors made The Good a good fit for IDX: 

1. A clear roadmap and process 

“I knew upfront what I wanted,” Justin reminisced, “I wanted a clear path.” He wanted to know what low-hanging, high-impact fruit his team could address now and what great ideas his team could tackle later. And he wanted to know exactly how a partner would identify those things. 

While Justin is a huge fan of roadmaps in general, a clear path wasn’t just for him — it was also essential for getting buy-in from stakeholders. To bring in an agency, Justin would need to advocate for rigorous testing and the ROI of doing it. 

“It wasn’t nebulous…they helped me articulate why we needed this, what we’re going to do, and what we’re going to accomplish in a way that I was able to get buy-in.”  — Justin 

2. An emphasis on optimization so strong, it’s in the team’s DNA

IDX didn’t need a team that dabbled in optimization on the weekends. They needed a team that knew it inside and out. That was Justin’s impression of The Good. He recalled, “They talked it, they walked it, they breathed it…It’s in their DNA.” 

IDX needed a partner who’d make their lives easier, not harder. And that meant a partner they didn’t have to second-guess, check in on, or project manage.  “From the start, I knew I wasn’t going to have to manage them,” Justin said, “They were going to do their job and execute.”

“From the first conversations with Natalie and her team, it was really clear they were exceptionally competent and knew what they were doing.” — Justin 

With the decision made, it was time to head into the first project.

Identifying key opportunities through a Digital Experience Optimization Audit   

Note: It’s been three years since we first teamed up with IDX. Since then, we’ve audited their original site, done testing through our Digital Experience Optimization Program, and completed another audit of their latest site. You’ll find highlights from all of that below, starting with the original site audit. 

When we do a Digital Experience Optimization Audit, our process looks like gathering different types of data, identifying problems, and outlining improvements. 

Audits take, on average, 3-4 weeks from start to finish. The steps involve:

• Kickoff with stakeholders
• Research and analysis
• Findings presentation 

Here’s what that looked like for IDX. 

Kickoff with stakeholders: defining goals 

The initial kickoff meeting involved IDX, The Good, and a lot of note taking. We dug into what IDX wanted to accomplish, what questions they had, and other background information. 

Kickoff is also a chance for our clients to get to know their dedicated team. Each of our clients receives a lead optimization strategist and a specialized team. Teams frequently include specialists in consumer behavior, applied psychology, user experience design, and human-computer interaction. (These diverse backgrounds help us form a 360-degree strategy.) 

In terms of outcomes, goal-setting is a big part of these meetings. For IDX, the goals we established at kickoff and validated through research were: 

• Increase site enrollment volume
• Improve customer experience on-site
• Align navigation to user intent
• Decrease funnel abandonment
• Increase email subscriptions so IDX can nurture leads 

Research and analysis: marrying quantitative and qualitative

After the stakeholder discovery, we provided an external and unbiased audit to identify tweaks and improvements. To do so, we went beyond surface-level metrics and gathered both quantitative and qualitative data.

For example, in a typical audit, one specialist will dig through Google Analytics data to answer questions such as:

• Who are the top audiences?
• What pages are they visiting the most?
• What data indicates a problem area or opportunity for impact? 

This quantitative research helps inform what is happening on the site. But to build a full picture, our team also needs to look into why. 

“You have to have the data. You have to have someone who can run through the data for you and be able to analyze it correctly. You need those two working in tandem.” — Justin

So another specialist will then apply qualitative research methods, such as user research, to help answer questions such as:

• Why are people taking certain actions?
• What’s stopping conversions or contributing to abandoned goals?

Altogether, here’s what our team’s methodology included for IDX’s initial audit:

Findings presentation: where to go next 

Once our team gathers and organizes all our findings, we build out a detailed roadmap outlining strengths, weaknesses, and key opportunities for improvement. 

“When they came back and presented their findings to us, that’s when the real magic started to happen. Because now we had a clear roadmap.” — Justin

In the audit review meeting, our team walks through all of the findings, what they mean, and what the client can do next, with plenty of opportunity for Q&A. 

For IDX, this meant a clear path forward. They met us with a pile of assumptions and ideas; now, they knew exactly what to test to improve the experience for users, maximize investments in ad traffic, and generate ROI. 

“We saw an immediate revenue impact.”  — Justin

Experimentation and an improved enrollment experience through the Digital Experience Optimization Program 

Following the audit, IDX began a custom recurring Digital Experience Optimization Program. Their program consisted of research, strategy, and monthly A/B, multivariate, and split testing to reach their goals. 

For IDX, much of our testing revolved around improving enrollment for their platform.  

Here are some highlights of the testing we did: 

The power of asking, “what can we do better?”  

A reason IDX saw these improvements is their willingness to face shortcomings and lean into a proven CRO process. 

In a sense, it would’ve been easier for IDX to pretend as if their site was perfect. But Justin knew that’s not how they’d boost enrollment and revenue. To make meaningful improvements, IDX’s team had to face where things were broken or needed improvement and then make changes. 

So, they leaned into the kind of testing we did above. They knew it was better to address a weakness than bury their heads in the sand and pretend it didn’t exist. 

“The sooner we can identify what hurdles are in place for people…the sooner we can correct them, and the sooner we can improve.” — Justin

This was a mindset alignment between our team and IDX, speaking to one of The Good’s core values to make improvements, not excuses. 

Seeing those hurdles (especially when your team designed them!) can be difficult, but Justin says, “once you get to the end, the reward is pretty sweet.” 

A clear direction for new and future programs 

Since then, we’ve worked with IDX in several ways. Most recently, we partnered with them to audit their new site. 

As IDX had successfully grown their B2B and B2C branches of business, they’d started to fragment their messaging. Yet, both of these audiences wanted to see similar information — product details, pricing, trust signifiers, and so on. Justin said they realized they’d “benefit from a more holistic approach” and opted to roll the two websites they had into one. 

But creating a cohesive site for multiple audiences was no small feat, and they knew there were opportunities to improve messaging, information architecture, and navigation. 

So, they brought it to us for review.  

“You can’t just stick your head in the sand and say, ‘we did this new website.’” — Justin

How acknowledging mistakes can deliver ROI

“You launch a new site, a new campaign, or a new software product, and you’ve put your all into it,” Justin said, “And having someone objectively look at it and point out some pretty obvious things you might have missed…it’s hard to be that vulnerable as a professional.” 

It’d be easier for IDX to launch their new site, celebrate, and move on. 

Easier, not better for more customers or IDX’s bottom line. 

Similar to past projects, Justin knew where he wanted to end up but wasn’t 100% sure how to get there. And he knew it was better to face their blind spots than plow ahead in the dark. 

“Oftentimes, I learn so much more from being proven wrong than I ever would’ve by just assuming that I was right.” — Justin

Similar to our first audit with IDX, we combed through the site using several quantitative and qualitative methods. However, because this site had lower traffic than the initial site we audited, we leaned more heavily on qualitative methods this time around. 

For example, Maggie Paveza, a strategist with an extensive background in user research, used methods such as:

• Remote user research with highly qualified users, to understand the perspective and hurdles for someone new to the site. This revealed what prevented IDX’s target audience from reaching a conversion. 
• Tree testing, a technique for assessing how well users can locate the information they want within a navigation. This illuminated hurdles within the information architecture and opportunities for testing a more intuitive navigation. 

These and other qualitative methods, combined with several quantitative methods, helped us identify several key improvements for IDX, including: 

• Improving lead generation forms with better expectation-setting for time-to-contact, assuring users sensitive information will be handled securely and confidentially, 
• Providing easier access to resources for those at a top of funnel info-gathering stage

Baselines and focused testing efforts going forward   

In the findings presentation, we presented several short-term wins, as well as a roadmap for future improvements and testing. 

These recommendations were beneficial to IDX in three big-picture ways:

• “Best possible” starting point: IDX is building several new programs from scratch. Justin says the site audit is, “helping us build those programs, and build the website to be able to support those programs, in the best way possible to start.” 
• A baseline for impact: Now that IDX has a clear picture of the current state of the website, Justin says they can “start testing and seeing what kind of impact we can drive.” 
• Focused testing efforts: Because of the audit, Justin says “we’re not sitting there wondering what we should be doing.” Instead, IDX knows exactly what steps they need to take.

“It’s giving us a clear focus on what really matters.” — Justin

Immediate conversion improvements and long term mindset shifts 

In the three years we’ve partnered with IDX, they’ve seen many short-term and long-term wins. 

In the short term, their willingness to improve combined with our proven testing methods have resulted in homepage improvements that increased enrollment by 20.37% and “About Us” page improvements that increased enrollment twofold. 

Immediate returns for testing AND improved ROAS

These and similar results meant immediate ROI for IDX — both in terms of our services, as well as in terms of investments they were making in other services, such as return on ad spend (ROAS). How? An optimized website makes the most out of traffic coming to the site, meaning dollars spent in driving traffic are maximized as well.  

Three long-term benefits that aren’t disappearing anytime soon 

In addition to those short-term wins, IDX has experienced several longer-term wins, too.

These are: 

• An understanding of fundamental conversion truths
• Data-backed decision making
• Focus and clarity 

An understanding of fundamental conversion truths

From our very first project together, Justin started to collect fundamental conversion truths that continue to inform every site, landing page, and campaign his team develops. 

“There are some fundamental truths that came out of that first analysis I use on a weekly basis.” — Justin

Take trust-building. Our research indicated building trust with IDX’s audience is critical. Without it, potential customers default to a well-known competitor. This is true for many brands in many industries, but it’s especially important with security. “In order for them to trust us with something that is so scary,” Justin recalls, “they really need to know who we are and know they can trust us.” 

Consumers have to trust you to buy from you — that’s a fundamental conversion truth. And it’s one of many Justin and his team continue to reference in their day-to-day work. 

He emphasized every time they build something, whether it’s an email or a site, they ask questions like, “Do we have trust builders? Do we have member quotes?…can people feel confident they can work with us?” 

“…those truths continue to be guiding lights. Those continue to make an impact not just for me, but for multiple people on my team.” 

Data-backed decision making

“The main result of our work together is that their team makes data-backed decisions,” Natalie Thomas, Director of Strategy, explained. They’re “informed by real user research and behavioral data, rather than making gut-based decisions.” 

Justin and his team suspected they couldn’t rely on guts or biases when it comes to driving results; our work with them solidified this. 

For example, Justin thought optimizing lifestyle imagery was a priority. But through working with us, he discovered IDX’s audience doesn’t “necessarily care about the age and demographic makeup of the person you put in your picture.” In other words, Justin cared about this factor, but consumers didn’t. Turns out, for them, there were more important issues at stake. 

Extensive research, analysis, and testing have helped illuminate which tests matter and which tests don’t. This, in turn, enables Justin’s team to focus on improvements that directly impact revenue and conversions vs. improvements that are trendy or personally driven.  

Focus and clarity 

Knowing which tests matter — and what tests don’t — give Justin’s team clarity and focus. In each project with us, IDX received a clear list and roadmap of high-impact improvements they could implement now, later, and further down the road. 

To zoom out for a moment, this gives IDX a competitive edge in an increasingly dense security market. 

Justin pointed out, “anyone can guess” and trust their gut, and that’s what many teams out there do. But while some competitors are spinning their wheels on ideas that might make a difference, IDX is gaining velocity making high-impact changes they know will move the needle. 

“We are much more targeted and focused on what we can actually do. We’re not sitting there wondering what we should be doing or what’s going to make a difference. We know what we need to do now, and we’re getting after it.” — Justin

Now It’s Your Turn

We harness user insights and unlock digital improvements beyond your conversion rate.

Let’s talk about putting digital experience optimization to work for you.

The post How Experimentation Allowed IDX To Expand From B2B to B2C (& Improve The Enrollment Experience In The Process) appeared first on The Good.