Conversion Rate Optimization Experts Every Online Retailer Should Follow
There are so many CRO experts out there but which one should you follow to learn more about conversion optimization for eCommerce? That's what I'm about to share with you in this post.When I decided to pursue my training in conversion optimization, I had to first understand what is cro?I did a couple of searches online and stumbled across multiple CRO blogs that talk about this subject. But who's behind those blogs? Are they known CRO experts? How many years of experience do they have in this field? Those are some of the questions I needed to get answers for.I was curious to know who are the top CRO experts and that's when I started searching for the ones I, as an online retailer, should be following.
What Makes A Conversion Rate Expert?
Deep Knowledge. Would you want to learn from someone who does not display any knowledge of the subject? I'm certain you won't and so won't I. For me, an expert must have deep knowledge of CRO and is able to teach others about the topic with ease.
Extensive Experience. It's not enough to have 1 or 2 year of experience in CRO. It's continuously changing as technology and customer expectations are evolving.
Great Communicator. How can you improve someone's online store without being able to communicate the problem and proposed recommendations? An expert needs to be able to communicate with all sorts of business owners, team members and anyone involved within their surroundings including media outlets.
Well Connected. Usually, experts within an industry are well connected with other experts. They talk to each other, promote each other and even consult each other when needed. A CRO expert must demonstrate his value by the network he or she has developed over the years.
Criteria For Choosing Which CRO Expert to Follow
Year of experience. In my opinion, this matters the most in terms of expertise. The more experience they have, the more valuable their knowledge is.
Has a blog? I love following generous experts who are not worried about sharing too much information about the industry and their tactics. Most experts I follow are the ones that blog regularly.
Written a book? The first thing I did when I decided to learn more about CRO was to buy the top 3 books. Being an author adds credibility in my opinion.
Provides services? It's one thing to know your stuff and to teach people but providing CRO services on a continuous basis is truly important. You need to always be sharpening the sword and helping businesses. This allows you to stay on top of the latest challenges in the CRO world.
Speaker? I like following experts who speak at events because not only does that add more credibility but also allows me to anticipate meeting him or her. I love building a relationship with anyone that has made a difference in my life such as Seth Godin.
Developed a process, software or training course? I use many software solutions developed by CRO experts. I signed up to lots of training courses and use some of their processes when helping out my own clients. Their contributions to the industry matters to me especially if it brings value to my services.
My 5 Favorite Conversion Optimization Experts
There's a handful of experts within this industry but after getting familiar with most of them, only 5 were considered as my favorite.
Peep Laja
Peep operates a CRO agency called Marketit.com, speaks regularly at many conferences, has written blog to book called "How to Build Websites That Sell: The Scientific Approach to Websites" and is known for his detailed and data rich blog posts at ConversionXL. Recently, he's developed a process called ResearchXL™. I also got a lot of my CRO training through his courses.
Chris Goward
The first CRO book I bought was the one written by Chris Goward called "You Should Test That". Chris is the founder of CRO agency WiderFunnel & a speaker at numerous conferences. He has developed the Kaizen Plan & Lift Model™ and he blogs here.
Neil Patel
I discovered Neil Patel before even starting my CRO journey. I was looking for ways of optimizing my online marketing and stumbled on his amazing blog called QuickSprout. He co-founded software solution companies CrazyEgg and KISSmetrics. I'm also part of his online marketing university. He speaks at many conferences and considered one of the top SEO experts as well.
Tim Ash
I heard of Tim Ash through my good friend John Lawson at ICERetailer.com. He owns a CRO agency called SiteTuners and has written a book called "Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions". He speaks at numerous conferences and has his own CRO Podcast which I enjoy listening while driving or working out (but too many commercials in my opinion).
Rich Page
I must admit that I just recently discovered Rich Page. I was over-consumed by the other experts that I had forgotten to learn more about him. I truly enjoy his simple approach of teaching conversion optimization. He wrote a book called "Website Optimization - An Hour A Day" and also provides CRO Services through his website. He recently launched his new CRO course.
List of All Conversion Rate Optimization Experts
To make things easier, I decided to create a Twitter list of all CRO experts I've discovered so far. I can't follow all of them regularly but I do have most of their blogs on my Feedly.
Oli Gardner @oligardner 
Ian Rhodes 
Tim Ash CEO of SiteTuners, Author of the bestselling book Landing Page Optimization. Chairperson of Conversion Conference.
Peep Laja I make websites sell. Conversion optimizer. Founder of Markitekt. I write ConversionXL.
Rich Page Get my free conversion optimization toolbox here: http://bit.ly/1bVHduh Proud author of 'Website Optimization: An Hour a Day'
Chris Goward Founder of WiderFunnel, the Conversion Optimization company, author of You Should Test That!, keynote speaker.
Ian Lurie CEO of Portent. Speaker. Marketer. I blog at http://www.portent.com/blog . I tweet marketing & news 5-8 times/day. Randomness, more often.
Bryan EisenbergI have helped thousands of companies improve their marketing & customer experiences since 1998. Keynote speaker & New York Times best selling author.
Neil Patel I'm an entrepreneur, investor, advisor and blogger. I have started two SaaS analytics companies,@CrazyEgg and @KISSmetrics with @hnshah.
Brian Massey Author, speaker, Conversion Scientist at Conversion Sciences. Get a free chapter of my book. http://conversci.com/FreeChapter
Perry Marshall World's #1 Expert on Sales Growth through 80/20 Leverage. Bestselling Author on Google & Facebook ads.
Marketing strategist and chief differentiator. Sharing ideas and stories to help you own your niche and build your brand less ordinary.
Joe Putnam I use whiteboards like Russell Crowe used walls in A Beautiful Mind. Also love all things internet marketing.
Justin Rondeau I'm a renegade philosopher turned digital analytics & testing speaker, and researcher of marketing trends.
Michael Aagaard Optimizer of Websites and Decision-Making Processes, International Speaker, Senior Conversion Optimization Consultant
Final Thoughts
My goal is to become an expert in this field and that's why I'm focusing a lot on gaining experience, blogging about CRO, providing CRO Services for eCommerce through my agency, speaking about this topic at eCommerce events and hopefully will develop CRO training for online retailers through my academy and eventually end up writing a book. Lots of goals that's for sure but all possible since I have passion for this stuff.I am sure there are many experts out there and hope to become one of them in the near future but if you feel I need to add anyone else to this list, please comment below.