12 Weeks Of Conversion Optimization

I got accepted to the CXL Institute’s conversion optimisation mini-degree scholarship program. It’s one of the most thorough conversion rate optimisation training programs in the world. The program run online and covers 78 hours and 59 minutes of content over 12 weeks. As part of the scholarship, I have to write an essay (🎓) about what I learn each week. Here is everything I have written so far…

1. Improving Conversion Is A Diagnostic Process
2. What is Conversion Rate Optimisation?
3. Landing Page Fundamentals for Product People
4. A Landing Page Conversion Teardown In 20 Questions
5. Conversion Optimisation Is About Much More Than Design 🎓
6. Improving Conversion For Small Businesses That Don’t Have Enough Traffic For AB Testing 🎓
7. Use Google Analytics To See Where Your Best Traffic Is Coming From 🎓
8. Conversion Rate Optimisation Only Makes Sense If You Have 1000 Transactions A Month 🎓
9. Building A Micro Funnel: Leads From Your Website In 2 Steps 🎓
10. How Long Do I Need To Run An A/B Test For? 🎓
11. Improving Your Conversion Rate (Part 1) 🎓
12. A Repeatable Metric for Usability 🎓
13. Listening To What People Say 🎓
14. Improving Your Conversion Rate (Part 2) 🎓
15. Everything I Know About Conversion Rate Optimisation🎓
16. Optimizing Retention🎓

The CXL program was a collection of stand-alone courses around the topic of conversion rate optimisation. They were organised into easy to follow program with a clear trajectory. I must emphasise that the program is a curated collection of posts and courses by different authors and teachers. It is not a single coherent course. I was a bit disappointed about this initially but then I realised that most of the content was excellent.

The course was theoretical, not practical. For example, not a single course shows you the practical steps to setting up and running an A/B test. I recommend that you start applying the work to project immediately so that you complement the program with practical knowledge while you are learning the theory. I also thought that there were some pretty big theoretical gaps, for example, not a single module converted the privacy implications of running A/B tests to optimise conversion.

The most valuable part of the program was having to write and share an essay every week. No question about it. I wish I could have continued this aspect of the program with a new topic/course.

The biggest take away for me was that conversion rate optimisation is about marketing and sales. Over the course of the program, it became clear that my interest is in making things useful, not selling them. There are lots of overlapping principles here, and I learned a whole bunch of stuff, but my biggest takeaway was that conversion rate optimization was not for me.

I could have taken years to figure that out on my own. I am grateful that CXL helped me fast track that insight so I could all of my energy on helping digital products improve their user retention rate instead.

If you want to learn about conversion rate optimisation I strongly recommend the program. It will be hard to find such a well-curated collection of excellent resources on the topic anywhere else.