Early spring is the right time to begin optimizing your store. We’ve been saying so for 8 years now. So it’s probably not a surprise that spring is when we always do our big launches.
We have one thing left that we’d like to talk about today: Draft Revise.
Draft Revise is our flagship consulting service, operating continuously since August of 2012. Slowly but surely, Draft Revise has evolved into what you see now: a research-first, design-driven optimization practice, proven to get results.
The constraints
We could probably keep running things how we normally do for a few more years. But there are far better reasons to rework things:
- Traffic is diversifying significantly in the wake of iOS 14.5 & supply chain issues, such that conversion needs to adapt
- We now have a solid track record of getting outsize results, with worst-case conversion rate bumps of 44% in our first quarter together, and worst-case ARPU bumps of 188% in our first year together
- We’ve begun noticing some structural issues in what we offer, especially at our lower tiers
- This is our first open slot in 18 months
- The world is gestures grandly now
What are the issues that we have encountered over the past few years?
- Our balance between qualitative & quantitative research was off. For 8 years, we’ve been saying that businesses need a 50/50 blend of qualitative & quantitative research in order to make the best decisions. This worked out well for the few clients that we had at our highest plan, but our middle (and most popular!) plan was more like 70/30 quantitative/qualitative, and our lowest plan had no qualitative research.
- Relatedly, the clients who needed qualitative research the most were buying it the least. In short, we’d be hired at the lowest tier, do our initial analysis, and note significant issues in positioning & copy – things that qualitative research exists to fix. It’s easy to define issues, but we need research to fix them – research that wasn’t in scope for us. Clients are welcome to buy whatever tier works for them, but ultimately they’re less likely to renew if we’re not able to create impact for them.
- Post-Bad Times®, some clients were peacing out after one quarter – not because we were unable to get results, but out of either fear or greed. Optimization remains a long-term play, even – heck, especially – in a moment of global crisis. We would rather take less work if it allows us to exist in right relationship to the practice.
These are all pretty small issues in the grand scheme of things, but we wanted to fix them. And in order to fix them, we had to go back to basics.
Introducing a whole new Draft Revise
As a result, we’ve reworked the structure of Draft Revise from the ground up, so we can provide something that reflects the new moment. Here are the biggest changes:
- Qualitative research at every tier. Going forward, you literally cannot buy consulting work from us without it containing qualitative, interview-focused research. This is good for you, since it helps you make more informed decisions about your branding, customer objections, and overall motivations. It’s good for us, because it gives us more to work with from an experimentation standpoint. And it’s good for customers, because qualitative research helps us create solutions that truly meet their needs.
- Less experimentation, more optimization. Our experiments continue to yield a high ROI, but we have found ourselves running fewer of them, instead building more ambitious variants and deeper reworks. At the same time, we’ve found ourselves rolling out many more one-off changes in response to qualitative research. Testing is always going to be a big part of Draft Revise, but we’ve slimmed it down a bit in our lowest tiers in order to create a more holistic and sensible research plan. More wood behind fewer arrows.
- Discounts for teardown customers. It used to be that if you wanted a discount on Draft Revise, you had to buy a Revise Express report from us. This was great for our few Revise Express customers every year, and lousy for the several dozen people who bought teardowns. As we increase our volume of teardowns every year, we’re making it more worth it for them.
- No change in price. That’s right: we’ve kept our price calculations the same. Importantly, we’ve also kept our minimum price the same, which should thrill those who want to kick the tires and level up to a larger plan later. Instead of changing our prices, we’ve made some important changes to our minimum level of engagement within a new fee structure that keeps everyone accountable towards the fundamental need for long-term optimization work. This will provide clear economic incentives to clients who have the rational sense to soldier through rough patches and stick with us for a few quarters. As a result, long-term clients will pay less overall.
The result is a Draft Revise that costs just as much as before, yields better results, provides deeper insight, and makes you more money than ever before – while still retaining its overall structure.
We are very good at our jobs
We’re deeply grateful to have built up a decade-long track record of winning results for clients. If you don’t believe me, you can listen to the kind words of others.
Ezra Firestone of Smart Marketer:
Nick has been AMAZING to work with. So knowledgeable and easy going. Suggests changes, implements them, and helps us grow our business. All the while being super communicative and easy to deal with. Can’t ask for more than that.
Patrick Bissen of Planet of the Vapes:
If you are doing at least 7 figures online, working with Draft is a no-brainer. Nick and team will deliver results that pay back now and into the future. And even more valuable than the work that Draft delivered, they upskilled our entire organization by infusing design thinking and optimization into our culture, which will continue to pay dividends for years to come.
And Kenny Azama of the Wander Club:
It’s been on my ecom bucket list to work with Nick for years. Everything finally aligned 6 months ago and it’s been an incredible experience, to say the least! Everything this wizard does is so well thought out and detail oriented. It’s refreshing to see so much dedication to one’s craft. If you’re looking for a truly bespoke experience that is going to push the needle for your store’s conversion rate, I highly recommend hiring Nick and the Draft team!
And that’s all before we made these changes. They were a long time in coming. They came from so many conversations with trusted humans. We stand behind them and think they’re likely to make a huge difference for you.
We want to make 2022 your best year ever
Most of the time, we’re given new clients by referral. We do good work, they make intros, we do more good work.
As a result, we rarely publicize new slots. Why bother, when I can send a few emails and end up with enough phone calls to fill my week?
That makes the current moment a little unusual. Not only are we restructuring Draft Revise, but this is our first publicly available slot in over a year and a half. We’re telling you now, and we’re telling Twitter in a few days. Then we’re going to talk on a few podcasts about the rework, why we did it, and what results we hope to get from it going forward.
If you run a $2M+ direct-to-consumer store and you want to make the absolute most of your traffic, we’d be grateful & honored to begin a conversation. Throw your email address in the form on this page and let’s talk. Or heck, just hit reply to this email.
And if you know anyone who might benefit from our services, we’d be grateful, as always, for an intro. Word of mouth is all we have.
Thanks, as always, for reading, and for your ongoing support of our tiny business. It means the world to us.
For those in Chicago, we're speaking at Really Good Emails' Unspam conference this coming Thursday. Use code CHIVIP to get 20% off. This is our first major public talk since early 2020. Hope you can make it!
This week, for paid members
- Our weekly lesson is all about how to treat signup & login in navigation. We see so many divergent approaches for this – and is it even necessary for most stores? Let’s explore!
- And our design of the week covers a fascinating add-to-cart button, combined with a quantity selector. What sorcery is this, truly?
Want in? Join us now – now named one of the best ecommerce communities going on the web.
Links & analysis
- A shortie but a goodie that made me laugh when I saw the headline: “it isn’t prioritization until it hurts.” This is very true: prioritization is a compromise, an exercise of boundaries, and it won’t make everyone happy.
- A nice, accessible color palette generator. I feel like most accessible color palettes are ugly, so it’s good to have a useful counterpoint here.
- If you want to waste six months designing a barely-performing carousel, instead of creating a single, optimized, personalized masthead, here is your guide for doing so.
- For those who care about urban design – which should be all of us – this lovely guide to participatory city design should be relevant & useful for you. I’m probably going to try a few of these tactics in my own neighborhood!
- Replace “academia” with “tech.”
- Building off last week’s amazing consumables subscription study, Baymard’s back with a lovely lesson on CTA text reflecting expectations.
This week’s paid lesson: What’s the right way to treat login & signup in primary navigation?
This week’s lesson is for paid members. Sign into our community to read it, or join us today to get access.