Q&A with Olivia (Ross) Taylor, Director of CRO at Directive Consulting

Olivia Taylor, Director of CRO at Directive Consulting has 10 years of working experience in graphic designing and has expert knowledge in CRO/UX in landing pages and websites designing.

Olivia was recently nominated for the Orange County Business Journal's Top 25 Women in Business Awards.

MEDIA 7: What’s your superpower?
OLIVIA TAYLOR: I would like to think my superpower is empathy. That’s part of what CRO is: figuring out and understanding what’s going on through people’s minds and finding out what people need and want.

M7: Does it point to user intent, a term generally used in Account Based Marketing?
OT: 
Yes, exactly that. Because I’m able to basically understand where the consumer and the buyer is coming from, I can better optimize my clients’ websites, change that language in the headline and the subhead to relate to the customers’ pain points and better describe the benefits of what my client can provide to them.

M7: Your career spans an impressive 8 years from a Graphic Designer to being a Director of CRO at Directive Consulting. What attracted you to this industry, and how does Directive Consulting fit into your story?
OT:
I became a designer because all other subjects in school were boring. 2+2 will always be 4, but with design, there are so many possibilities - so many different solutions to a problem. Plus, I always loved drawing and creating.
While going to school, I worked as a designer at a few different places. Then upon graduating, I worked at a tech company in-house but it just wasn’t for me. I moved on to an agency that was full-service, but that also was not the right fit. After that job, I ended up at a PPC agency where I learned about CRO. I started there as just a designer and left there as the Director of CRO.

Using the skills I learned there, I was able to join the upstanding company that is Directive where I’m learning so much more, and doing so many more awesome things than I did at any other job and it has been amazing. It’s so wonderful to work at a place that is professional and that takes the work so seriously, only striving to be the best at being different. 


"The best way we can convince the customers is that we need to address what our client does, that no other competitor can do."

M7: Could you tell us about your best practices for creating an ideal customer experience?
OT: 
A functioning website that loads quickly
Easy navigation and user experience
Clear offerings and clear unique value propositions (what is it that you do that no competitor does?)
Great social proof (testimonials and case studies from current clients, awards, etc)

Great customer service: prompt support, regular email check-ins to see how your customer is doing, offer deals and promotions - all of these things keep a customer coming back for more.

M7: While creating a unique value proposition, how do you drive in the utility? In other words, how do you convince the customer about the uniqueness of your service?
OT: 
We definitely have to utilize this through the headline and anywhere in the hero section of the landing page or the homepage because that’s where people are landing first and you need to be able to grab their attention in the first five seconds. So, the best way we can convince the customers, is that we need to address what our client does, that no other competitor can do.

If you can say we’re the only platform that does x, y, and z, that is a great unique selling point. Another thing to consider is backing up your clients with data. If you are offering some sort of platform that will save me time on the implementation of a process, then tell me how much time I’m going to save. If you say, “Cut down your execution time by 90% with our platform” that’s a unique value proposition. That shows the benefit to the user there, and that will entice users to click through and complete the form. So, gaining conversions is usually based around giving real data that explains exactly what value the visitors are going to see or how much money is going to be made or saved, and how much time is going to be saved to solve a problem with this solution. The other side of the coin is “we are the only ones that do x y z” and that will basically set a business apart from their competitors.

M7: How does collaboration and communication come into play in your role?
OT: 
It’s the entire job. I oversee a design team and I need to make sure my team is not only communicating with me but communicating with other departments. PPC, SEO, and CRO must all work together to get the job done and we’re stronger together than apart. I have daily follow-ups on different accounts, weekly meetings, client sync ups - whatever it takes to make sure that I and the rest of the team have complete transparency into what is happening with these accounts so that we can assist in whatever way we can. We want our specialists and account managers to own their strategy, but the directors are responsible for approving the strategy and improving it if needed.


"As designers, we need to remember that form follows function, so we must be sure that this information is easily accessible, that the message is clear."

M7: What are the biggest mistakes you see businesses making when attempting to optimize their site to increase conversions?
OT:
These companies spend tens of thousands of dollars on a rebrand which will be done by a branding agency that has no knowledge of designing a site for increased conversions. Too many times we’ve had clients come in that just had a rebrand done and their conversions plummeted. So we will go in and audit the site to find out what is causing the problem. Too often, design takes over function but we must always remember that form follows function. As an example, the white space in the new site may be beautiful, but none of your visitors can even see what you’re offering until they get halfway down the page. Things like this are the biggest issues we see.

Also, with too many changes implemented at once, it makes it harder to pinpoint what caused the drop in conversions. It’s often times all of the things combined together that caused the problem. If a company is going to focus on increasing conversions, the changes need to be based on data and not on whims or best practices. Data doesn’t lie.

M7: What is the most challenging part of doing a conversion optimization project? What type of resource commitment do you require from your team?
OT:
The most challenging part is that the results cannot be guaranteed. Our tests are based on data but they’re just that: a test, a hypothesis. Nothing is written in stone. 9 out of 10 times I will be right in my hypothesis, but there will always be a test that fails. We still celebrate the failure because we still learn from it. We can find out why the test didn’t work and use it to narrow down on what will work.

As far as resources are concerned, we want to make sure that we’re testing at least a few things each week per client. We use Hotjar for qualitative research as well as Google Optimize for on-page testing, and Instapage/Unbounce for landing page testing. Reporting is a big part of our deliverable so a good amount of our time is spent gathering the data and providing insights to the client.

M7: According to you, what prompts a visitor to scroll down to the bottom of a webpage?
OT: 
Usually you would have to have a message that entices them in the hero section of the landing page. Just like we discussed about the UVPs, we need to show the customer right when they land on the page, that this is the solution for your problem. That will entice them to scroll down. You can sometimes kind of coax people to scroll down: I like to use false CTAs to get more information and if they click that CTA, it will scroll down to the benefit section on the page and that will get people to start scrolling. And from that benefit section you could have a CTA linking to the case studies on the landing page and get them to scroll down even further on the page.

The main issue is people think of redesigning their page to look better and they see horrible conversions because it may be beautiful but it’s not functional. The messaging is vague and does not relate to what it is they do as a company that’s better than anybody else. They don’t adjust the benefits, and they’re too stuck on this flowery and technical language that a lot of SaaS companies like to use. So, the biggest thing is being very upfront with what you do in layman’s terms, making it as clear as possible to the lowest common denominator, so that you have a potentially larger pool of leads versus only having that technical jargon that only a few may understand. This usually relates a lot to B2B and SaaS clients. They get really hung up on their own language that’s very technical but the common man that needs their service doesn’t understand that...just tell them what the benefit is.

So, to summarize that long rant: basically, make sure that the messaging is clear about the benefits right away, then use CTAs on your page to entice people to keep scrolling so they continue to learn more. Keep people engaged and reading, section by section.


"Gaining conversions is based around giving real data that explains what value the visitors are going to see or how much money is going to be made or saved, and how much time is going to be saved."

M7: In a world where anyone can start a web-based business, generating trust is more important than ever before. Considering this, what impact does design have on revenue?
OT: 
It has a huge impact. If you land on a site that is poorly designed - it’s ugly, it’s confusing, you have no idea what they sell - do you think you would stay on that site for long? No, you’d go to a site that has a clear hero image showing the product and how it works, and a headline that explains what sets it apart from any other competitor product. The way information is presented is just as important as what information is being said.




One-size-doesn’t-fit-all and I’ve seen pages that - funny enough - looked horrible but converted better than the redesign we did, just because the form was more readily available. All the information was above the fold and it looked really scrunched. However, the customers got whatever they needed right away and that was what was important. So even when you’re seeing this image of bad vs good, we could argue that maybe the option on the right still won’t convert because it’s not quite explaining any unique value composition. It has a lot of beautiful imagery but it’s not getting to the point. Although these full-width websites with huge images is the trend, I think it needs to be taken with a grain of salt and used sparingly; and it needs to be dialed back a bit when it comes to conversions. You have these big beautiful images and people have to scroll very far just to get down to the first paragraph which is not good for conversions even though it’s trendy. As designers, we need to remember that form follows function, so we must be sure that this information is easily accessible, that the message is clear and if it is, then great! The beauty comes after that, but messaging has to be clear, concise, and easily understood.

M7: Directive Consulting ranks #1 on Google for “SEO Agency”. What SEO strategies and tools does the company leverage to channelize its sales campaigns?
OT: 
On page SEO and targeted guest posting with keyword driven anchor text. Then we continually write content around SEO and internally link back to our core SEO page.

M7: As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
OT:
I wanted to be a speleologist (a cave scientist) for years. I was obsessed with caves, stalactites, and stalagmites. I’ve always been interested in maths and sciences, but there are dangers tied to being a cave scientist so I gave up on that. I still sometimes wonder what would have been if I had gone into the sciences instead of design. Maybe I’ll try it out in a few years!

M7: That sounds interesting! Have you visited caves in your earlier days?
OT: Yes, I did visit just a few caves, nothing big like the Man of the cave or Carlsbad cavern but as a child I was very interested in science – Biology, Zoology, Geology just the world around me and caves are interesting because they’re the dark places that not many people go to. I love history, I love biology so I think caves are kind of that interesting combination of both cause they’re ancient and they have these creatures that are so bizarre you know, like these blind salamanders which is like a different world there. I got very fixated on that for a few years as a child, reading all the books I could about it. I had my mind set, this is what I was going to do and I didn’t take into account the dangers of being a cave scientist. You’ll have to get into tight little spaces and there could be cavemen, you could get lost and stuck. Me being a homebody and kind of a bookworm, I decided, you know, maybe this is not the path for me, but I was also an artistic child. I was drawing all the time and that’s how I ended up in design school instead. So a very different path, but I still love science and history so I might dabble in it later in my life but for now it’s been design.

ABOUT DIRECTIVE CONSULTING

Directive does beautiful search marketing for B2B and enterprise companies that share our values. We redefine the global standard for how marketers work, live, and grow. We are a group of SEO, PPC, and content experts who are passionate about working with the best B2B brands in the world. When we are not executing ROI driven campaigns, you can find us drinking cold brew, volunteering in our community, or playing an intense game of ping-pong.

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From Connection to Collaboration: MyTradeZone.com Revolutionizes Business Networking with AI-Driven B2B Social Platform

MyTradeZone | January 10, 2024

Innovative platform bridges current gaps, combining robust business tools for enhanced B2B engagement and collaboration Las Vegas, Nev., Jan. 10, 2024– Shattering barriers in B2B communication, MyTradeZone.com recently revealed its unique social networking platform dedicated solely for businesses. MyTradeZone serves as a central hub for businesses to find, connect with, and engage potential clients, partners, and vendors worldwide – allowing companies to post products and services, request quotes, create and join networking groups, and much more. MyTradeZone was founded by CEO, Bachir Kassir, a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years’ experience in the software and B2B industry who has recently successfully sold his B2B Ecommerce platform venture, WebJaguar, to QAD – a Thoma Bravo portfolio company. “MyTradeZone offers a specialized platform designed to innovate B2B interactions,” said Kassir. “We know that 40% of B2B marketing budgets are spent on trade shows and that over 95% of marketers use social media content in their campaigns. So why is there no social network specifically dedicated to B2B trade? Well, now there is one.” MyTradeZone: Platform Highlights On MyTradeZone, each business can both market its products/services and source what it needs, all within the same platform. MyTradeZone facilitates the entire process, presenting a thriving ecosystem for businesses, professionals, organizations, groups, and creators who can now spend time networking, while also fostering the connections that increase their reach, influence, and overall profits. MyTradeZone is a perfect lead generation and highly targeted advertising venue since advertisers can pinpoint exact audiences, making highly specific advertisements that are cost efficient. Major platform features include: Tailored B2B Search Capabilities: Facilitates a seamless discovery of businesses, products, RFQs, groups, and more. Advanced Networking Tools: From permanent company profiles to real-time video chat, the platform caters to a variety of business needs. Peer-to-Peer Payment Options: Ensuring smooth transactions with payments powered by Stripe. Innovative Ad Space: Sponsored and displayed ads provide businesses with a medium to amplify their brand presence. Tradeshow and Networking Events: Organizers can amplify the benefits for attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors – providing a secure networking group to connect beyond the actual event. Expanding Horizons: MyTradeZone Powers Community and Monetization Beyond businesses, MyTradeZone extends its utility to trade associations, networking groups, and event organizers by allowing them to build, manage, and monetize their online communities. Professionals and creators can actively grow their networks and monetize their skills through peer-to-peer payments. “Our platform is more than just a supplementary tool. It revolutionizes the traditional event experience by enhancing networking, engagement, and business growth opportunities in both a broad and narrow sense. Instead of merely relying on physical connections, MyTradeZone transforms singular events into sustained, ever-evolving networking connections.” To celebrate the official launch, MyTradeZone seeks to partner with trade shows, event and networking groups organizers, and trade associations – offering their members exclusive offers to premium membership via the platform. MyTradeZone’s basic edition is always free and signing up is quick, taking only few minutes to join. Inquire further at: contact@mytradezone.com And for news on future platform updates and promotions, follow MyTradeZone on LinkedIn or on the B2B social network: https://mytradezone.com/profile/mytradezone About MyTradeZone.com MyTradeZone is led by a highly skilled and talented team of employees and advisors who are working on the next thing to disrupt business networking. MyTradeZone is a forward-thinking B2B technology company reshaping how businesses connect and engage online through its advanced social networking platform in an industry-specific ecosystem for business collaboration, knowledge sharing, and growth. Learn more at: www.MyTradeZone.com. Media Contact: Bachir Kassir, Founder 1-949-813-7791 contact@mytradezone.com

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Programmatic Advertising

TripleLift and Reset Digital Forge Partnership to Help Advertisers Meet Diverse Spending Goals All The Way Through The Programmatic Ecosystem

PR Newswire | January 05, 2024

TripleLift, the ad tech platform elevating digital advertising across every screen, and Reset Digital, a first-of-its-kind platform that gives brands and publishers broader and deeper audience reach across all communities, today announced a partnership to significantly expand diverse spend and representation across the programmatic ecosystem. Together, the companies are offering advertisers multiple pathways to ensure a greater portion of their digital budgets can be directed toward diverse-owned media companies. The partnership allows advertisers to buy quality inventory from minority-owned businesses throughout the programmatic ecosystem: TripleLift (a SSP) and Reset Digital (a DSP), and TripleLift's UNREP (Underrepresented Voices) deal package of impressions directing dollars straight to minority-owned media publishers. This way of buying media is available immediately across display, online video, and CTV and will be launched with Native this year. In 2023, an ANA survey of certified diverse suppliers found that while a majority say that interest from the media and advertising community in supporting diverse suppliers has increased in the past year, there is still a gap between intent to spend and actual spend. TripleLift and Reset Digital are helping all stakeholders bridge the gap quickly by making it easy for them to access diverse-owned media at scale. "This partnership allows advertisers to achieve their diverse spend goals with an end-to-end solution that is more aligned with their corporate supplier diversity reporting requirements," said Thomas Brandon, VP of Agency Strategy and Economic Inclusion at TripleLift. "Importantly, it allows them to use their media spend to impact the economic growth of the diverse communities they serve." Over the last 12 years, TripleLift has cultivated a vast inventory of publishers that includes access to 220 billion monthly impression avails across diverse-owned sites as part of its UNREP curated packages. These packages include inventory among publishers owned by Women, LGBTQ+, Blacks, Latinx, and Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) and can be accessed as a whole or individually depending on client goals. "TripleLift has been on our radar for a partnership for some time," said Charles Cantu, founder and CEO of Reset Digital. "Specifically, our marketplace combined with their offerings like UNREP now provides a single pathway to diverse spending across the programmatic ecosystem – a solution we are excited to finally have in the market together." Reset Digital, the industry's only verified, black-owned and operated DSP, has been long recognized for its neuroprogrammatic capabilities, which allow advertisers to engage audiences based on what they desire versus what they look like, its ability to help connect brands and multicultural audiences around the world and its partnerships with brands like P&G, GM and Verizon, as well as the leading global media and creative agencies. In 2023, Reset Digital launched a new programmatic marketplace for the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a trade organization that represents more than 200 Black-owned newspapers in the U.S. along with the NABOB (National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters); these entities created a path to connect large advertisers with publications that previously did not have the capabilities to run national programmatic advertising campaigns. This partnership stands to benefit any of the buy-side clients working with these companies. "TripleLift and Reset Digital have both been great partners to Horizon Media for many years," said Karina Dobarro, EVP, Multicultural at Horizon Media. "We've long worked with DSPs and SSPs to better direct investment to diverse-owned media, but partnerships like this one make it a much more seamless endeavor." TripleLift works with 80%+ of comScore 200 ad-supported publishers and delivers over 2 trillion monthly global impressions across North America, EMEA, LATAM, APAC, and MENA. To learn more about this partnership, please visit www.triplelift.com. About TripleLift We're TripleLift, an advertising platform on a mission to elevate digital advertising through beautiful creative, quality publishers, actionable data, and smart targeting. Through over 1 trillion monthly ad transactions, we help publishers and platforms monetize their businesses. Our technology is where the world's leading brands find audiences across online video, connected television, display, and native ads. Brand and enterprise customers choose us because of our innovative solutions, premium formats, and supportive experts dedicated to maximizing their performance. We are part of the Vista Equity Partners portfolio. As an NMSDC certified minority-owned business, we qualify for diverse spending goals and are committed to economic inclusion. Find out how TripleLift raises up the programmatic ecosystem at triplelift.com. About Reset Digital Reset Digital's Neuroprogrammatic™ advertising platform is a first-of-its-kind programmatic platform that allows brands to engage omnichannel audiences based on what motivates them as people versus targets and gives brands and publishers much broader and deeper audience reach across all communities, including underrepresented audiences they could not reach in the past. The results are radically better outcomes. Reset Digital's partners include the world's top brands, agencies, and publishers, including P&G, GM, Verizon, Dentsu, IPG, Publicis, GroupM, NABOB, Newsweek, NNPA, and others.

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Ad Networks

Force Management Expands its Ascender Sales Acceleration Platform with Content and Curriculum for Revenue Teams

Business Wire | January 25, 2024

Force Management, provider of elite sales solutions, announced today the launch of Ascender® Plus, a significant expansion of the Ascender sales acceleration platform and community. The Ascender sales acceleration platform reinforces Force Management’s consulting and training services with content and curriculum that drive desired sales practices and improve execution for revenue teams. Teams using Force Management’s core methodologies can now leverage Ascender Plus to support team engagement, accelerate adoption, and drive long-term consistency and results. “Ascender provides our clients with a powerful tool to improve revenue team execution and foster a culture of continuous, consistent professional growth,” says Grant Wilson, CEO of Force Management. “Ascender now accelerates adoption of our Command Series offerings by providing customer-facing revenue teams, managers, and executives with 24-7 access to content, tools, and resources that support their engagement with Force Management and successful execution of sales methodologies.” Ascender subscribers can access content and curriculum on-demand in a variety of learning formats that are easily consumable by busy revenue teams. New content is published daily and designed to keep sales best practices top-of-mind. Ascender users also benefit from an active digital community of their peers, with live events and online learning opportunities led by Force Management SMEs and other industry professionals. “The way people learn and retain information is enhanced through modern delivery techniques such as digital learning, personalized curricula, and regular assessment and coaching,” says Paul Giaconia, Force Management Chief Product Officer. “Today’s revenue teams are looking for learning experiences that engage them in the ways they learn best. The Ascender platform includes on-demand access to video, podcast, and eLearning formats as well as a community of like-minded experts that help revenue teams advance their professional development and boost revenue performance.” The platform provides customized content to support Force Management’s methodology-based engagements such as Command of the Message® and the MEDDICC sales qualification approach. Learn more about Ascender Plus and Force Management methodologies at forcemanagement.com. Small teams and individual sellers can access content and curriculum offerings at ascender.co. About Force Management Force Management develops elite sales teams and tomorrow’s sales leaders. For 20 years, our team of veteran sales leaders has delivered cross-functional alignment and customized programs that enable companies to increase deal sizes, drive market recapitalizations, cut time-to-productivity in half, navigate challenging markets, and achieve higher valuations. Our proven methodologies are backed by our sales acceleration platform, Ascender, that enables sales performance for organizational revenue teams, as well as small teams and individuals. We stake our strong reputation on measurable results and return on investment and are poised for growth alongside our customers across B2B markets like Cybersecurity, FinTech, Business Intelligence and Analytics, and DevOps. Learn more at forcemanagement.com.

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Directive Consulting

Directive does beautiful search marketing for B2B and enterprise companies that share our values. We redefine the global standard for how marketers work, live, and grow. We are a group of SEO, PPC and content experts who are passionate about working with the best B2B brands in the world. When we are...

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