New digital technologies come out every day, offering the holy grail of accountability and return on expenditure. In truth, many of them are either too advanced for the marketer or require a team of staff to analyse the data.

At Bourne we tend to view technology with pragmatism and only suggest ideas that work. That’s why we have been working with McAfee to deliver their Multivariate Testing (MVT) program for their Smart Alerts.

What does all of that mean? What we do is optimise their landing pages with creative and content that converts, when a subscriber to a software trial has had their licence expire. Still sound like double Dutch? Essentially it's easy, a MacAfee user will see an alert on their screen reminding them that their license has expired, they will click the link and a landing page will appear. The Landing page will have content and creative elements that when put together in a combination, is a combination that has been proven to convert.

How is it proven, over a period of time visitors to the landing page will be served different concoctions of creative and content, the system in the back end works out which combination converts best and then only renders the Landing Page concoction that is proven to convert. The concoction can be a combination of price points, images, partners or copy – all designed to encourage the visitor to repurchase.

Trials in the US have shown a 50% increase in the numbers of visitors to the pages converting. Here in EMEA we are rolling this program out. In coming months I’ll report back on the success of the trails and how Bourne is helping McAfee deliver an increase in paid subscribers.