DiscoverThe Exit Five CMO Podcast (Hosted by Dave Gerhardt)Research-First CRO: How Data Leads to Better Marketing Decisions with Haley Carpenter
Research-First CRO: How Data Leads to Better Marketing Decisions with Haley Carpenter

Research-First CRO: How Data Leads to Better Marketing Decisions with Haley Carpenter

Update: 2025-09-15
Share

Description

#282 CRO | Matt is joined by Haley Carpenter, founder of Chirpy, a conversion rate optimization agency. Haley has nearly a decade of CRO experience across agency, SaaS, and eCommerce, and she’s known for helping brands use research and testing to make smarter marketing decisions.


Matt and Haley cover:

  • Why CRO isn’t just A/B testing, and how research should guide every optimization effort
  • How to approach CRO when you don’t have massive website traffic, including scrappy testing methods and tools
  • The role of messaging, value props, and social proof in driving higher conversions (and where B2B often lags behind DTC)

By the end, you’ll have a clearer picture of how to approach CRO as a system, not just a set of tests.


Timestamps

  • (00:00 ) - – Intro

  • (02:08 ) - – Who is Haley Carpenter

  • (03:08 ) - – What CRO really means

  • (06:08 ) - – Research vs. testing explained

  • (10:08 ) - – Where to start CRO on a website

  • (13:08 ) - – Testing with limited traffic

  • (17:08 ) - – Using data for smarter decisions

  • (20:08 ) - – Building a culture of testing

  • (24:08 ) - – How to report CRO results

  • (29:08 ) - – Scrappy tools: Clarity & Hotjar

  • (34:43 ) - – What B2B can learn from DTC

  • (38:43 ) - – Why messaging matters more than features

  • (42:43 ) - – The power of social proof

  • (48:43 ) - – Common blockers to CRO success

  • (50:43 ) - – A surprising test result (+7% sales)

  • (52:43 ) - – Vanity metrics vs. real business outcomes

  • (56:43 ) - – Closing thoughts



Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.com
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership

***

Today's episode is brought to you by Knak.

Email (in my humble opinion) is the still the greatest marketing channel of all-time.

It’s the only way you can truly “own” your audience.

But when it comes to building the emails - if you’ve ever tried building an email in an enterprise marketing automation platform, you know how painful it can be. Templates are too rigid, editing code can break things and the whole process just takes forever. 


That’s why we love Knak here at Exit Five. Knak a no-code email platform that makes it easy to create on-brand, high-performing emails - without the bottlenecks.

  • Frustrated by clunky email builders? You need Knak.
  • Tired of ‘hoping’ the email you sent looks good across all devices? Just test in Knak first.
  • Big team making it hard to collaborate and get approvals? Definitely Knak.

And the best part? Everything takes a fraction of the time.

See Knak in action at knak.com/exit-five. Or just let them know you heard about Knak on Exit Five.


***

Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.

  • They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
  • Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
  • Visit hatch.fm to learn more
Comments 
In Channel
loading
00:00
00:00
x

0.5x

0.8x

1.0x

1.25x

1.5x

2.0x

3.0x

Sleep Timer

Off

End of Episode

5 Minutes

10 Minutes

15 Minutes

30 Minutes

45 Minutes

60 Minutes

120 Minutes

Research-First CRO: How Data Leads to Better Marketing Decisions with Haley Carpenter

Research-First CRO: How Data Leads to Better Marketing Decisions with Haley Carpenter

Dave Gerhardt