In the Optimizing Your Visitor’s Journey post I explained the importance of conversion optimization through all the marketing funnel. In other posts, I am describing different examples for maximize conversions on the different steps of the funnel: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue and Referral.
Independently of the step of the funnel the users, visitors or customers are, the landing page is where people “land” when they click on an ad banner, search engine results or email link, or when they visit a special promotional URL that they heard about on TV, radio, or other offline media.
In fact, almost any page on a website can be a Landing Page, and a perfectly optimized site should test and improve all its (relevant, landing) pages. That’s why the first feature included in Nelio A/B Testing was Split Tests of Pages.
However, on the other hand, some studies (such as Kim Larry article) show that 80% of traffic goes to the 10% of Landing Pages and on average, each small business account has just three landing pages, with one taking 85% or more of their impressions and clicks.
Taking into account this data, we considered to develop a new type of test with Nelio A/B Testing: Split Testing Your Landing Page (note that the proper name in WordPress should be Split Testing for Front Pages, but for convenience we have decided to use the former name, which is most used).
This feature is equivalent to Split Testing Pages, but the page to be tested will be automatically set to your Front Page (as defined in Dashboard » Settings » Reading » Front Page).
In the following we’ll first review which are the most critical elements that you should test on your Landing Page. Then, we’ll see how easy it is to create any A/B test of a Landing page with Nelio A/B Testing.
Critical Elements of Landing Pages
1. Headline
The headline is the first thing visitors will likely see when they ‘land’ on a landing page. Adam T. Sutton explains in his post, Copywriting: How to improve headlines on landing pages and blog posts, that keep in mind that the goal of a headline is to seize readers’ attention and convince them to continue. Adam evaluates the power of a value proposition through for attributes that you can use to create and evaluate headlines:
- Appeal. How attractive is the headline to your ideal customer?
You emphasize the appeal of what you have to offer by showing the benefit it provides, not by listing a product name of summarizing the article. - Credibility. How believable is the headline?
I’ve already insisted in other posts that lack of trust is one of the main blockage point to leave the sales funnel. - Exclusivity. Can anyone else claim to have what is offered in the headline?
Your headline should show people that you want to give them something that only you can provide. - Clarity. How easily can the reader understand the headline?
The topic and the value should jump off the screen. Therefore, in order to test you headlines, you start identifying the concerns of your visitors, try to solve their needs and write down a few headlines. Then, try to evaluate them according to attributes mentioned before.Remember that this has been your personal evaluation. The only way to be sure which headline is more valuable to your visitors is after testing them. So, create several A/B tests with different headlines and see the results.
2. Copy – List of benefits
The text on a landing page should explain the value proposition of the offer clearly, simply, and in a compelling way. As described in the B2B Marketing: Value proposition discussion with Dr. Flint, the force that pushes your visitors up through that funnel and overcomes all the forces that can easily stop that sales is a powerful value proposition.
A good description of how you should describe said value proposition is described by Neil Stoneham in The Importance of Good Copy:
- Make your text lively and persuasive.
Remember that you are selling and clients are only really interested in how your product or service can be benefit to them. Moreover, if you are not sure what tone to use, whether very formal or very friendly, the best policy is keep it neutral. - Accuracy is key.
Bad grammar looks sloppy and unprofessional. How can anyone expect a quality product or service from a website with content that looks like a mess? A simple way to improve your website’s image is to keep it clean grammar-wise. - Keep text concise.
When presenting the details of your product or service, tell us what we need to know and no more. So, do not present too many technical details or too many information about. - Avoid jargon and cliched “marketing speak”.
Most smart people can see through “marketing speak” these days. Treat people with respect and avoid phrases like this:
“When you succeed, we succeed with you. When you dazzle your Clients, we dazzle ours”. - Always Test and Track.
It’s a good idea to always have two different version of sales copy for each product or service. After tracking for a month, you can keep the version of copy that converts better and construct a new one to test against it. By doing this, your conversion will continuously improve, and you will become continuously better at writing copy.
After saying all that, since English is not my native language, I am certainly sure that I cannot accomplish all the previous suggestions mentioned above… 🙁 My apologies!
Nelio A/B Testing
I was very impressed by the quality of this plugin, how easy it was to set up, and the outstanding support Nelio provides. I highly recommend Nelio A/B Testing.
Josette Millar
3. Image
A Landing page that include a relevant image give visitors a tangible idea of what they’ll receive and make such landing page much more visually appealing.
Since first impressions are formed within seconds and since most of the information we consume and interpret is visual, quality design can make your site and your brand stick in the viewer’s mind as professional and credible.
Therefore, the more professional, compelling and enticing your site’s photography is, the more business you’ll conduct over time. It’s not a matter about pretty pictures, it’s a about a way to visualize information in a simple way that makes sense to the clients.
Note also that your image can be a powerful tool to attract the attention of your readers to where you want. A great known example is the study of Roger Dooley on his article Child Labor: Put That Baby to Work where he describes the heatmap experiment they created with the image of a baby on a website selling diapers.
The takeaway, in this case, is quite simple: a face in your ad will attract attention, but be sure the face is looking at what you want the viewer to see!
4. Call To Action (CTA)
Your CTA is the action you want your website visitor to take. Regardless if your landing page objective is for increasing sales, generating email leads or developing customer relationships, we all want more conversions!
A thousand articles have been written about making your CTA stand out. This means to pay attention to these different variables that can impact on your conversion:
- The placement.
We all know the golden rule that you call-to-action should always be positioned above the fold. Well, Michael Aagaard in his 10-Call-toAction Case Studies w/ Takeaways & Examples from Real Button Tests article shows that this is not always true. See the results on an A/B test below:
So, Michael conclusion is: You should place your CTA where it best complements the decision-making process of your prospects.This is, A/B test and make conclusions. - Button Design.
Regarding the design, there are several rules to button designs that may help increase the changes of them standing out for your visitors and being clicked more often:- Contrast
Contrasting colors are the best way to make your button stand out from the rest of the page. Choose the color that makes it stand out the best, rather than the color you like the best. - Clickability
Make it look like a button! If it looks flat and unclickable it could be just another design element on the page. - Size
Size matters. If your button is buried on the page it’s less likely to be clear that it’s the target element for a conversion. Go big or (your visitors will) go home. - Directional cues
Pointing to your call-to-action is a great way to make it stand out, and guide your prospects attention to where you want them to click. - Call-to-action copy
The text on your button is of paramount importance. As a general rule it should describe exactly what will happen when it’s clicked. For instance: “Download my free ebook” or “Request a consultation callback”. You’re telling people what to do, not what they get, so never use something like “Submit” or “Click here” – they don’t describe what will happen. - Supporting information
A short statement that supports and clarifies the purpose of the button can allow you to keep the CTA copy short and to the point, while adding extra detail. This text is typically smaller in size than the main button text and sits either inside or below the button. - Urgency
If there is a time or quantity limitation on your offer, be sure to re-state it beside your button to encourage the click. For the text on your button, try including words like “Now” or “Today”. - White space
Where is the button? If that’s the response of your visitors you aren’t making it obvious enough. Give it some breathing room so it’s very easy to spot.
- Contrast
Summarizing, let me copy a paragrahp of Jeff Scherer from Wishpond:
Landing pages are a dance, and your CTA is leading. If that CTA is too aggressive or demanding, they’ll step on your page visitor’s toes and they’ll find a new partner. Sell your CTA and you’ll sell the action within it.
Now, let’s see how you can easily test, your headline, copy, image and CTA of your Landing Page with Nelio A/B Testing.
Split Testing Landing Pages
With Nelio A/B Testing, once you’ve selected the option of adding a new A/B Test Your Landing Page (see image at the begining of this post), you can fill out the Basic Information of your experiment: the Name, Description, the Original Page, this is, your Front Page, and the Finalization Mode of the experiment (whether the experiment stops manually, after certain number of page views or after certain results).
Once the basic information is settled, you can easily create a new alternative landing page for split testing from your current existing landing page.
You can edit the new alternative created by using with the WordPress editor and perform all changes you need.
Then, you must define and configure which actions should be counted as conversions. This is to set up your goals:
Then, your experiment is completely defined, and you only have to start it and see the results of it.
Read WordPress Split Testing Landing Pages for more details about all this process. Remember, that without testing, you’ll never be able to be sure of all your hypothesis. And I am sure that you still have a long way to go and improve the conversion of your website.
Go ahead!!
Featured Image by Don McCullough
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