Nelson Jordan, Co-Founder of Agency Match, takes a look at ConversionXL’s (CXL) Institute CRO training courses. If you’re interested in Conversion Rate Optimisation, then it’s a must-read! 

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ConversionXL (CXL) CRO Training Courses

If you’re not totally familiar with CRO, or you’re at the beginning of your CRO journey, then let me tell you – it’s one of the most exciting areas of digital marketing at the moment.

It combines creativity with scientific process, and statistical thinking, and is a rapidly-growing industry.

However, the skillset required is vast, and to be honest, despite having experience in other areas, I found it a little daunting when I first started out. To be a competent CRO, you need a decent knowledge of a variety of disciplines, including:

• Analytics
• A/B testing
• Copywriting
• Design
• Psychology
• Statistical thinking
• User experience

But with so many different skills needed, how can you possibly learn them all?

Despite being an avid learner, the thought of trawling the internet to hunt for a decent resource in each of these areas made my stomach turn.

I consider myself very lucky that I stumbled on CXL. I definitely think they had a large part to play in how my career has turned out so far.

ConversionXL offers the most comprehensive CRO resource anywhere on the internet. Bar none.

I’ve taken three of their intensive courses so far, the Conversion optimization minidegree, the Growth marketing minidegree, and the Ecommerce growth masterclass.

My employer kindly paid for the first two courses. But when it came time to do the Ecommerce growth masterclass, unfortunately our training budget had run out. I was so desperate to do it, that I paid for it myself. I can tell you now that it was worth every penny. (After all, it was run by Drew Sanocki, who I consider a Rockstar of ecommerce. He started his own company, scaled it rapidly and sold it for a large figure. Perhaps more impressive, he took over marketing at Karmaloop, and took them from bankruptcy to profitability in less than 10 months! It’s safe to say that he just really knows his stuff…)

So what is CXL?

CXL describe themselves as ‘the leading source for optimization, growth and digital analytics expertise’. They offer courses for those at every stage of their conversion rate optimisation career.

Some courses, like Google Analytics for beginners, focus on a particular subset of marketing, whereas other courses, like the now famous Conversion optimization minidegree tackle a wider subject matter. And they don’t skimp on any of the detail either; last time I checked, that course had 167 hours of video content!

CXL was founded by Peep Laja, who is incredibly well-known in the CRO industry. At one point he was voted the ‘#1 most influential conversion rate optimization expert in the world’, so safe to say he has decent credentials.

If you’ve seen him speak at all, then you’ll know that he doesn’t suffer fools lightly, but also that he really does know his stuff. Without fail, everything I’ve encountered on CXL, from blog posts and quick guides to intensive courses, has been top quality.

The Courses

Here are some of the courses that are currently available:

• Conversion optimization minidegree
• Digital analytics minidegree
• Growth marketing minidegree
• Digital psychology and persuasion minidegree
• Google Analytics for beginners
• Google Tag Manager for beginners
• Advanced Google Tag Manager
• A/B testing mastery
• Authentic storytelling
• Applied neuromarketing
• Fundamentals of persuasive websites
• UX for marketers
• Landing page optimization
• Ecommerce growth
• Data-driven UX masterclass
• Product messaging

I won’t describe all of them, but if there’s one that takes your fancy, then just click on the links above to read more.

Each course also offers a Facebook group, where members can post questions and get support from other students and the trainer. Even a year or two after taking the Conversion Optimisation minidegree, I still end up asking a question every few weeks or so.

Practitioners in the CRO industry tend to be very generous with their time, and I’ve never had a question go unanswered. Nice to see that even Peep takes the time to reply!

The Instructors

The instructor is obviously a massive part of any course. Even if the information they’re giving you sounds good, how do you know whether it actually works? Credibility is key here. Why should you listen to someone who hasn’t been in the trenches and done it themselves? You shouldn’t.

That’s one of the main reasons I rave about CXL. Their instructor list is basically a ‘who’s who’ of the CRO and digital marketing industry. Here are just 10 of the expert trainers they use:

André Morys – Co-founder of Global Optimization Group. 20 years’ experience in optimisation. Keynote speaker, blogger and author. Owns konversionsKRAFT, one of the largest CRO consultancies

Anna Dahlström – UX designer, speaker and coach. Founder of UX FIKA and author of Storytelling in Design

Craig Sullivan – Over 15 years’ experience of CRO and improving growth, working with Google, LOVEFilm, Lego, John Lewis, eBay and The FT.

Guy Yalif – Co-founder and CEO of Intellimize. Ex-VP of Global Marketing at BrightRoll. Previously at Twitter, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Jessica Best – Worked with Dairy Queen, Spirit Airlines and many more. Public speaker and Director of Data-Driven marketing for Barkley.

 
Michael Aagaard – World-renowned CRO expert. Keynote speaker. Previously Senior Conversion Optimizer at Unbounce.

Momoko Price – Conversion copywriter. Worked with startups and large companies, such as Intuit, Scotiabank and AT&T.

 
Stefania Mereu – UX Data Scientist and Strategist. Director of User Experience at Pearson. Previously VP of Research at Vast.

Ton Wesseling – 20 years’ experience in digital optimisation. Writer, Public Speaker and founder of Online Dialogue

Yehoshua Coren – the Analytics Ninja! Enough said.

Take a look

If you’re looking to upskill yourself when in comes to CRO and digital marketing, or to break into CRO for your first role, then you need to check out CXL. I’ve learnt so much from them, and will be continuing to take courses as and when new ones take my fancy, or I need to expand a particular area of my skillset.

If you have any questions about the courses, then please let me know in the comments and I’ll be happy to help.