Week 2: Owned Media & Rapid Prototyping

Welcome to Week 2. This week, we transition from planning to building. You will create the foundational asset of your digital marketing strategy: your Owned Media hub (the Sandbox).

View lecture slides: Week 2 Slides

1. Pre-Work: Fundamentals of UX and CRO

Before you build your site, you must understand how users interact with websites. The goal is not just to make a site look good, but to make it convert.

User Experience (UX) Basics: A Manager’s Guide

Good UX means minimizing friction. A user should understand exactly what you offer and what they should do next within the first 3 seconds of landing on your page. As a manager, you do not need to code or design, but you must know how to critique a layout objectively rather than subjectively (e.g., “Make the button red because I like red” vs “Make the button red to increase contrast and adhere to Fitts’s Law”).

  • Clarity over cleverness: Use simple, direct language. Don’t use industry jargon unless your audience consists solely of experts.
  • Visual Hierarchy: Use size, color, and placement to guide the user’s eye to the most important elements. The CTA should be the most visually dominant element.
  • Psychology of Persuasion: Leverage principles like scarcity, urgency, and authority (industry certifications) to nudge behavior.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

CRO is the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action.

A high-converting landing page typically includes:

  1. A compelling Headline: States the primary value proposition.
  2. A clear Call to Action (CTA): What do you want them to do? (e.g., “Get a Quote”, “Download Now”).
  3. Social Proof: Testimonials, reviews, or trust badges.
  4. Low-Friction Forms: Only ask for the information you absolutely need.

Landing page structure focused on conversion elements

2. Lab Session: Building The Sandbox

In today’s lab, we favor speed and function over perfection. We will use agile builders to deploy a live asset.

Agile Website Deployment

Select one of the following free tools to build your sandbox:

  • Google Sites: Best for absolute beginners; integrates seamlessly with Google Workspace.
  • Carrd: Excellent for simple, single-page landing pages.
  • Webflow (Free Tier): Best for those who want more design control and are willing to learn a slightly steeper interface.

Structuring for Lead Generation

Your sandbox must be structured to capture leads.

mindmap
  root((Landing Page Structure))
    Hero Section
      Value Proposition Headline
      Subheadline
      Primary CTA Button
    Benefits
      Feature 1
      Feature 2
      Feature 3
    Social Proof
      Testimonials
      Trust Logos
    Lead Capture
      Simple Form Name/Email
      Secondary CTA

Mobile Responsiveness and Speed

Over 60% of web traffic is mobile.

  • Use the preview tools in your builder to ensure your site looks good on a smartphone screen.
  • Keep image sizes small to ensure fast loading. A slow site kills conversions before they happen.

A/B testing concept for improving landing page conversion performance

AI + CRO (manager rule)

You may use AI to draft headlines and CTA variants. Ship only what a human would say to a Nepali customer: clear benefit, credible proof, no exaggerated claims.

A/B vs Multivariate Testing As a manager, you must dictate testing parameters.

  • A/B Testing: Changing one variable at a time (e.g., just the headline, or just the CTA color) to isolate exactly what caused the change in conversion rate. Best for lower traffic sites.
  • Multivariate Testing (MVT): Changing multiple elements simultaneously to see which combination works best. This requires massive amounts of traffic (often >100,000 monthly visitors) to reach statistical significance and should be avoided for new sandbox projects.

Measurement readiness

Even on Google Sites/Carrd, plan for Week 7: note which button is the primary conversion and how you will capture leads (form → sheet/Mailchimp). Optional: Microsoft Clarity for heatmaps once you have traffic.

Real-world proof (CRO)

Anonymized Kathmandu bookstore checkout work (published): cart abandonment −22%, completed purchases +15%, online revenue +10% in ~3 months — by shortening checkout, guest checkout, and local wallets (eSewa/Khalti).

Teaching brief: Bookstore CRO

For service sandboxes, the analogue is often a 2-field form or WhatsApp CTA, not a 5-step checkout — same principle: remove friction and add trust.

Pause and decide

Your service landing page has traffic but few WhatsApp inquiries. What should you test first: button color, or form length + trust proof above the form?

3. Deliverable

Use the MBA DM Deliverable Toolkit (Templates + Samples) before submitting.

Live URL of your sandbox website.

  • The site must be published and publicly accessible.
  • It must clearly articulate the value proposition of your chosen business concept.
  • It must include a visible Call to Action (CTA) designed to capture a lead.

Submit the live URL to the instructor before the start of Week 3.