This month on #TheBigLift podcast we are joined by Shamir Duverseau, Co-Founder of Smart Panda Labs. Shamir has extensive experience with some huge brands which has taught him lot's of valuable lessons. He explores the importance of constantly learning and adapting from every opportunity, as you can't bank on things turning out the way they have before. Failing, learning and iterating are essential steps for any business, not just when it comes to AB Testing, but as part of a culture too. This is particularly important as the world of digital marketing continues to evolve and grow, especially when we talk about experimentation and testing.

This month I am joined by Mark Palfreeman, Senior Business Intelligence Manager at Flutter UKI. Mark, Co-Founder of Experimentation North, explores the importance of experimentation meet-ups to share ideas, best practice and knowledge with the CRO community. Whilst testing has become the norm for many businesses, there are still companies who can improve their experimentation culture, and changing the mindset of leadership teams is key to this. Mark's belief in this is the reason he co-founded the monthly event Experimentation North, an educational and social vehicle to continue growing the experimentation community.

'We aren't in Kansas anymore' says Chris Hood, Global Sales Manager at Webtrends Optimize, when it comes to the advancement of CRO. In this episode, Chris discusses the growth of Website Optimisation and the huge arsenal of features now available. However, you should not fall into the trap of trying to use all of these, and the key is to utilise the right features for your industry, which good research will provide valuable insights into. Using a CRO tool like Webtrends Optimize will mean you have access to an extensive tool kit, with the ability to AB Test and iterate at each stage, which Chris says is essential throughout your testing journey.

This month's podcast is Jon Crowder, Head of Digital Experience at Journey Further. Despite the growth of testing and experimentation, there are still organisations who doubt it's value. In this episode, Jon explores how CRO can not only stop harmful changes from going live on your site, but it also provides an important point of reflection for businesses who start to consider the changes they are making to their website and why. Jon explains that it more than just converting customers through your testing, but also retaining them.

On this month's podcast, we are joined by Eduardo Marconi, Co-Founder and Managing Director of AIM Conversion Experts.
Eduardo explores whether it is possible for a brand and it's retailers to use CRO to work together for mutual benefit. He explains the ultimate goal is to understand the whole cycle of a shoppers behaviour, and then utilise testing to improve their experience and monitor the results to identify if they are working.

On this episode of #thebiglift we are joined by Stacey Cooper, Analytics Freelancer at Sharper Digital. Stacey discusses the power of gaining experience in business and the opportunities it can bring. Whilst qualifications are still important, there is also a lot to be learnt from great mentors and hands-on experience. Something that is particularly useful in an ever-evolving Digital Marketing industry.

This month we are joined by Bhav Patel, Product Analytics and Experimentation Director at Lean Convert. Bhav has been in the CRO space for more than 10 years, and is known in the industry for his popular CRAP (Conversion Rate, Analytics, Product) talks. On the podcast, Bhav discusses how measurement frameworks provide a common language that allows everyone to communicate in a way that is easily understood. Frameworks can be particularly useful for CRO specialists to define their processes and become more measurable and reputable.

This month we are joined by Jake Lambert, Head of Conversion Services at Fresh Egg. Jake describes the growth and maturity of CRO, which he says has come as a result of more businesses experiencing the value of it. Something which Fresh Egg are so passionate about, they offer a Performance Guarantee. This involves Fresh Egg co-investing in the clients CRO programme and running it at a reduced cost, setting performance targets based on forecast, and offering CRO training so the client can learn skills to bring optimisation in-house. They have proven success in this approach and are continuing to support businesses reach all of their goals.

On this month's podcast, we are joined by Kit Heighway, Director of Optimisation at Daydot. Kit has recently undertaken extensive research for his white paper on Subscriptions, and this episode focuses on acquisition when Cracking the Code to Digital Media Subscription Success. Kit explores the different type of subscriptions there are, why people subscribe in the first place and the value it can add for someone. Kit suggests that 'personalisation is always appropriate' as this shows you know what the user is looking for and are utilising this to provide a better user experience.

We are in an era of heightened awareness around social and environmental responsibility, says Bud Johnston, this month's guest on #thebiglift podcast. Bud is the Founder and Strategic Consultant of Boxless, an organisation dedicated to helping businesses make positive changes and achieve success around their social and environmental responsibilities. 

Bud explores why organisations are changing their habits, how the impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic has influenced this, and how the pillars of ESG and DEI can provide a clear framework for businesses to follow. By businesses demonstrating their social and environmental efforts, you are not only having a positive contribution to society, you are also continuing to attract the current workforce.

On this month's podcast, we are joined by Simon Gardiner, Head of Digital at the Goodwood Group. Simon takes us on an interesting journey around the migration of their website and the different tools and methods they are utilising to make this as seamless as possible. Website migration is a challenge for any business, but particularly when you have a multifaceted website like The Goodwood Group do. Simon describes how his team, even though quite small, have a combination of skills that help combat any complications that come with a big project like website migration and ensure they are successful in all projects they do.

This week we are joined by Richard Chapman, Head of Experimentation at 26 Agency. In this episode, we explore how to build and maintain a CRO culture for quicker growth to ensure you nurture your more engaged customers. But building this culture can be difficult, particularly if your organisation is new to CRO and experimentation. As someone who had worked in CRO for a long time, Richard outlines his best practice tips for a quick and smooth process when introducing it into your digital strategy.

On this month's podcast, we are joined by Steven Shyne, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of CXperts. CXperts are a digital consultancy that work with a number of different organisations to help them empathise and connect with their users. On this episode, he explores how to plan beyond the quick wins to develop sustainable ongoing test concepts. Steven argues that whilst quick wins are useful, they have a limited life span, so you need multiple inputs to keep your customers interested and engaged, This requires regular communication with them to determine what they do and don't want to see. Implementing this ensures you are getting the most out of your digital assets.

On this month's podcast, we are joined by Gavin Willis, Founder and CEO of specialist SEO and Search marketing agency, Search7. Named as such due to their expertise in Search Marketing, and 7 as they give 7% of their profits to charity. They have an admirable approach to their way of working, encompassing their belief that 'we can all play a part in making people's lives better', as well as continuing to give their employees the tools to thrive and providing results for their clients. Gavin explores how you can balance a successful business whilst still giving to communities and charities, and inspiring other businesses to do the same.

On this month's #thebiglift we are joined by Gerry McNicol, Founder and CEO at Distil. Ai, who are experts at using data to improve commerce performance. Gerry explores how you can avoid 'analysis paralysis' so that your data is actually telling you useful things, and to avoid being overwhelmed with too much information. He also delves into the importance of nailing down your definitions in relation to your data, so everyone is clear and concise on what you want to achieve. This is key when there is such a vast amount of data to choose from, and to ensure you get the best results

On this month's podcast we are joined by CEO of AWA Digital, Johann Van Tonder. Johann is passionate about determining what people want to get done and how he can help them. He delves into his belief that an important part of the experimentation and growth mindset is not only learning from your own mistakes, but also the mistakes other people have made. He argues there is no excuse to make ill-informed decisions and sometimes there are more important things at hand than just increasing ROI. In fact, Johann divulges that he often advises teams to try and prove themselves wrong once they think they have 'won', to avoid confirmation bias.

Sussex Cricket Foundation is an important charity in the sporting community due to the work they do to bring joy and fulfillment to children who are often marginalised. We are incredibly proud that we are able to support them in a lot of the fantastic work they do.
On this month's #thebiglift podcast, we are joined by Gary Wallis-Tayler, Aroop Tanna and Tom Belcher from Sussex Cricket Foundation. They discuss the amazing opportunities they bring to children in the local area and how dedicated each and every one of their team is to making a difference in the community. They also delve into the different ways they do this and the variety of initiatives they put on to provide the most amount of support.

This month on #thebiglift podcast we have Edmund Beggs from Conversion.com! At Conversion.com, they have developed The Levers Framework which is a comprehensive map of the user experience features that influence conversion. Essentially, the framework helps you to understand and catalog different features of a user experience. There are different stages to this theory, and Edmund delves into why conversion.com began to develop it, and importantly, how it can help to drive huge value for your experimentation programs. This tool can be used by companies at all levels and in all industries, so the possibilities to be successful are endless!

This month's #thebiglift podcast guest is Oliver Walker, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Hookflash Analytics, who are a dedicated digital analytics consultancy. Oliver's educational background in consumer psychology means he has an in-depth understanding of how to get into the minds of customers to deliver the products they want. He explores the importance of building strong relationships with your customers so they keep returning, which is also rewarded by search engines. But, the key to all of this is the quality of your data. You can then utilise different area's of a digital marketing strategy, such as SEO and experimentation, to create a strong and effective brand which also ensures the most impactful experience for your customer.

Simon Eaton, Managing Director at Fifty, is this month's #theBigLift podcast guest. Fifty’s advanced technology makes sense of complex audience datasets and groups them into tribes as a way to provide detailed audience insights. Simon describes their technology as setting them apart from other agencies; getting meaningful results from understanding audiences is ‘the value that we’re trying to bring to the market.’ He also explores their commitment to more sustainable solutions to benefit the environment and what effect this has on winning clients.

This month on #thebiglift podcast we are joined by Sarah Cridland, Lead Optimisation Strategist for REO and Webtrends Optimize Product Director, Sandeep Shah. They discuss how getting to know each individual customer and why they are shopping on your site is paramount for effective personalisation. Moreover, it’s ‘tapping into the experience the user wants to have’, and identifying what is driving them to buy the product. They discuss the importance of putting yourself into the shoes of your website users to identify what they are actually in need of, and then addressing those problems fundamentally.

This month's podcast guest is Dinah Alam, Head of UX and CRO at Rocketmill. Dinah has a wealth of experience delivering growth to online channels and is passionate about the customer experience. In this episode, she delves into the importance of being bold and making deeper changes into your UX Design, but this can only be done with innovation and creativity to really impact user behaviour. She describes 'the critical overlap where you learn from experimentation to progress the UX and you need to use innovative ideas to progress your experimentation'. Dinah also delves into the psychological thought-process of reviews, and how investing in good user experience makes you more reputable and is an important long-term investment.

This month's podcast guest is Justin Hobbs, Vice President of Partnership and Demand at Webtrends Optimize. He discusses his role and why he is passionate about partnerships, and how they help businesses to grow. He says, 'They lend themselves brilliantly to the partner model, there is so much value added to take to a client.' As well as expanding your offerings, partnerships can also take you into different markets, territories and geographical regions, introduce you to new clients, provide marketing opportunities, and more! So the benefits for both sides are endless. But, as Justin points out, this is particularly key at a time when so many businesses and agencies are looking for a new experimentation partner to replace Google Optimize.

This week's podcast guest is Shiva Manjunath, Experimentation Manager at Solo Brands. Shiva is passionate about CRO, and is one of the most enthusiastic CRO experts we've had. He says part of his love for it is down to the mystery of experimentation; when you test with live people, you never quite know what the result will be. Shiva also describes the appeal of CRO to most people in the industry, saying 'I think all of us are generally just curious people who all want to continue to learn. I just find it incredibly fascinating.' The idea of testing to learn and not just testing to win is also explored, focusing on the importance of the process to ultimately get the most effective results