The Pitfalls of Conversion Optimization

On Thursday, March 16, Online Dialogue is hosting its 23rd (!) Dialogue Thursday (invite only). This event - for clients, existing and new relations - focuses on knowledge sharing and thought leadership. From 14:00 - 18:30 you will be taken through the Pitfalls of Conversion Optimization, with fascinating cases provided by Travix and bol.com; voted the biggest players in travel and retail by Twinkle. Afterwards, everyone is invited to a delicious dinner in the heart of Utrecht.

Read at the bottom of this post how you can attend!

There is no such thing as success without pitfalls....

The theme of the day is "The Pitfalls of Conversion Optimization. There are many great business cases and presentations that demonstrate what good methodology, strong analytics, the right knowledge, a broad-based testing culture and the right tools and designs can all bring. "Another A/B test with 23% uplift". Or, "We went from 10 to 200 A/B tests in 1 year and the whole company is now going data-driven." These are wonderful success stories, but we sometimes forget that the road to them is just as important.

What do you encounter on the way to all these successes? Without friction no shine, is a common cry at Online Dialogue. And precisely in that friction are the most beautiful learnings. We would like to take you along with us.

...But we can warn you about it

Some examples of the pitfalls that we at Online Dialogue regularly encounter you will probably recognize:

• Insufficient capacity to implement winners;
• Great investment in tools versus the right brains to operate the tool;
• CRO is seen as a "person" rather than a method;
• Fear of results from other departments;
• There is a lack of proper direction from management, for example, purely on business value and little on learnings). Or more on delivery (quantity) instead of value (effect);
• Urge within organizations to plan far ahead on roadmaps instead of accepting / embracing the iterative process of CRO.

The ultimate goal of this day is to inspire each other with solutions, new ideas and best practices.

Who will come to speak?

We are delighted with the arrival of Benjamin Groenewoud from Travix and Denise Visser from bol.com, who share with us their experiences in this area. What did they encounter and what did they learn from it? Which struggles are preventable, and which are a necessary shortcoming? Both speakers will share their stories in about 30 minutes, after which there will be an opportunity for questions and your own input/discussion.

Benjamin Groenewoud | CRO to the next level: a case study on the growth of CRO within Travix

Benjamin is CRO Manager at Travix, the online travel company that in 2016 overtook KLM in terms of online revenue and from its #1 listing in Twinkle bumped. Benjamin is responsible for optimizing such well-known websites as CheapTickets, Fly Shop and BudgetAir. Since his early years as a web analyst and conversion optimization at, among others. SNS Bank and Mirabeau he preaches the data-driven and evidence-based way of working. Always from the idea that conversion optimization is not a person, but a way of working. His specialization is in conversion optimization, A/B testing, web analytics, tag management, usability testing and agile product development.

During Dialogue Thursday, Benjamin will talk about his experiences setting up the first multidisciplinary CRO team within Travix. What did he encounter during this growth process and what does the future of CRO look like based on these learnings?

Denise Visser | Evangelizing a test culture within bol.com's 55+ scrum teams

Denise Visser, with her 15 years of experience, including nearly 10 years at bol.com, is a senior digital strategist who knows how to bring different disciplines together. She has witnessed bol.com's growth over the past 10 years and bol.com is in the Twinkle 100 at the top of the list with retailers like Wehkamp, Zalando, Coolblue and Amazon.

From her current role as UX Business Architect, Denise's wonderful challenge includes getting (and keeping) over 55 scrum teams intrinsically involved in conversion optimization. Initiating new test ideas and functionalities goes well, but optimizing what is already online can certainly be done better. She goes into detail about this during Dialogue Thursday. She likes to share her challenges and learn from your feedback.

Program Dialogue Thursday, March 16

2:00 - 2:30 p.m. Reception / hall open

14.30 – 15.00 hours Intro Bart Schutz

15.00 – 15:45 hours Benjamin Groenewoud of Travix + Q&A

15:45 – 16:15 hours Break

16:15 – 17:00 hours Denise Visser of bol.com + Q&A

17:00 – 18.30 hours Drink

18.30 – 21.00 hours Dinner (optional and at your own expense)

I want to be there!

For Dialogue Thursdays, we like to keep a close eye on the guest list. The event is intended only for people working in digital marketing and sales functions on the client side (advertisers, government, non-profit and publishers). Therefore, we do not allow "agency people" and (software) vendors to attend. We admit a maximum of two people from one company.

Extra! At 18:30 there will be a dinner with speakers and some Online Dialogue colleagues in Utrecht. If you want to be there ("going Dutch") let us know, and we'll make sure to reserve a spot for you too! The cost is 25 euros (2 course dinner + 3 drinks).

Invite only. The invitations for the DiDo have already been sent out, but if you also want to attend (and you meet the requirements) you can reserve a spot on the waiting list.

On the waiting list? If so, please fill out the form below. If there is still space, we will contact you.

In less than a week the number of registrations has far exceeded 50 so we are completely full. Anyone who registers from now on will automatically be put on the waiting list and will receive an email as soon as a spot becomes available. 

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