How Experimentation helps Employsure to better understand customers

Employsure is Australia’s leading workplace relations specialists, working directly with business owners and employers to build solid foundations for business success. In 2016, Employsure invested in experimentation to maximise their ROI. They found that by introducing CRO to their business, they could better understand their customer groups and the psychology of those customers. This not only helped them investigate new paid search categories on which to probe and bid, it also gave visibility into the search terms that were actually driving the core volumes based on where customers were engaging on their site.

So, by understanding the bottom of the funnel, they were better able to customise and grow the capacity at the top of the funnel.

“If you look at the company’s growth rate, it comes from having an attitude of ‘when you fail, you learn.’ Unless you’re willing to learn, there’s no point trying this because experimentation is not about increasing sales. It’s about understanding your customer better.” Nima Yassini, CEO, New Republique.

Why Experimentation?

In the past, it was anyone’s guess whether a landing page design, for example, would actually lead to conversions. There was very little data to support decision making. Today, using CRO, Employsure finds it easy to use data to understand whether a design is working or not working, based on the user behaviour and the psychology behind it. Understanding the emotional benefits that users are seeking when they engage with Employsure has opened up rich new ways to speak with potential clients online.

“We can test every new idea and strategy. The ability to challenge what we’re doing by creating new experimentations and new tests, always pushes us to be better every time, every day.” Ben Scemama, Digital Marketing Manager, Employsure.

Experimentation can help organizations like Employsure increase their customer knowledge and increase sales. Through experimentation, Employsure revamped their messaging to grow rapport with a specific customer group (business owners and HR representative of employers), which helped them understand their customers better, which led to an increase in sales.

When New Republique conducted a deep dive into conversion factors and user groups with Optimizely tools, they found a subset of Employsure’s target market are small business owners in critical circumstances such as facing an unfair dismissal application or underpayment claim. This subset target market therefore has a sense of urgency for Employsure support and services. However, while share of voice was solid, conversions lagged.

Employsure and New Republique initially focused on a test page promoting the Advice line, highlighting simple Employsure offers and generic messaging. After applying behavioural models, however, the team realised that these users were in crisis and were actually viewing the Advice line as an emergency hotline.

This data led to a pivot. Instead of promoting the Advice line, they highlighted individual senior advisors and the expert services they could provide. With language that shifted towards empathy and a focus on the advisors’ track records, Employsure was able to convey that they understood their customers’ fears and that they could confidently alleviate them.

The results speak for themselves: with a pivot from a generic promotion of the Advice line to empathetic Advisors delivering timely, critical service, Employsure saw an 109% uptake in conversions in this key subset of its target market.

“Employsure hs a real appetite for experimentation. For us, it’s such an important relationship because not only does it allow us to push ourselves, but also because with this team, when you fail, you learn.” Nima Yassini, CEO, New Republique.

Employsure remains committed to CRO and experimentation. By working with New Republique and Optimizely to understand behavioural factors at the bottom of the funnel, they have gained a clearer grasp of the psychology behind the user journey, which has fuelled growth at the top of the funnel.

With world-class conversion rate optimisation, Employsure is taking the next step: making sure all their messages are personalised to ensure that their customers receive the right information, at the right time, during their buying journey.

“CRO is a great mix of data and UX design. With the tools and know-how of the teams at Optimizely and New Republique, a new dimension has been added: Behavioural Economics.” Ben Scemama, Digital Marketing Manager, Employsure.

Key Learnings for B2B organizations

1. Embrace experimentation. Test, and if something fails, pivot quickly.

2. Don’t be afraid of what you don’t know about your customers. Testing will give you insight into your customers’ key drivers and how they make decisions.

3. Rather than thinking about experimentation as a way to make more money, think of it as a path to better understanding your customers and delivering better experiences, which will ultimately result in more revenue for your organization.