Episode Details

#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
• (01:00) - – Who is Haley Carpenter
• (02:00) - – What CRO really means
• (05:00) - – Research vs. testing explained
• (09:00) - – Where to start CRO on a website
• (12:00) - – Testing with limited traffic
• (16:00) - – Using data for smarter decisions
• (19:00) - – Building a culture of testing
• (23:00) - – How to report CRO results
• (28:00) - – Scrappy tools: Clarity & Hotjar
• (32:00) - – What B2B can learn from DTC
• (36:00) - – Why messaging matters more than features
• (40:00) - – The power of social proof
• (46:00) - – Common blockers to CRO success
• (48:00) - – A surprising test result (+7% sales)
• (50:00) - – Vanity metrics vs. real business outcomes
• (54:00) - – Closing thoughts

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter

Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Join the next cohort of Opal U, a live 5-day course designed for senior marketing leaders who are ready to ship more with AI, at optimizely.com/exitfive. 

Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. 

Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.

Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.

***

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, an