Tuesday
Nov182008
5 Best Practices of Great Post-Click Marketing
by 
Jessica Collier on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 10:45AM
Jessica Collier on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 10:45AM
As you all know, post-click marketing is about what people experience after we win their click. It may be as simple as a landing page or as complex as a 15 question assessment with scoring.
Whatever the type of landing experience, our end goal is a high conversion rate. We want as many of our clicks as possible to convert into qualified leads, online transactions, new registrations—whatever metric by which we measure real online marketing success.
The higher the conversion rate, the higher the ROl. If we can acquire more conversions from our online marketing spend, we win at two levels: we deliver more net business and we lower our cost-per-acquisition, making the spend more efficient.
1. Message Match
Landing pages, conversion paths and microsites are like your virtual field offices—they speak directly to the people in a specific niche and should be more focused and approachable than home pages and deep links. These independent landing experiences are ideal for campaign-specific marketing, as their messaging can be tightly matched with the different vehicles that generate clicks.
It’s critical that our ads and our landing experiences match—and we’re not necessary talking about imagery and graphics—rather messages and promises. In order to get the user to click, the ad implies a promise. The landing experience needs to immediately, directly and simply pay off that promise. When we do this, we build trust with our respondent and when we build trust, we will automatically build desire.
Key takeaway: Greater relevance + fewer distractions = more conversions
Message match is the easy and quickest way to improve your lead quality and quantity. Just click your ad. Where does it go? Have you fulfilled your promise? Put yourself in the eyes of the respondent.
2. Credible Branding
Brand is many things, but at it’s core it is an emotional connection between a user and a product or service. Good landing pages are crafted and deliberate, sending cues of excellence and trustworthiness, signaling to respondents that value their experience. This is achieved with a blend of good design, good content and zero tolerance for breaks in the experience: bad links, browser incompatibilities, inconsistent brand standards, expired information, sluggish response time. Our conversions need to be branded with credibility and authenticity so that the trust is built and maintained throughout the entire landing experience.
Although can exist at any point in your conversion funnel, the three most important are landing, asking & delivering.
Key takeaway: Take a look at your experience for the “first time.” Ask yourself if your brand maintains its authenticity throughout the experience. Are you building and maintaining at your critical trust moments?
3. Meaningful Segmentation
So, we’ve matched our landing message with the message that got the click and we’ve ensured that our brand is credible and consistent. Now what?
The next best practice to try is pre-conversion segmentation. Why? Two really good reasons. First, to create a better experience for our users. Not all clicks are equal, so we need to find out who they are by offering them a choice, then pay that choice off with copy, calls-to-action and fulfillment that speaks to their needs. Second, to get better insight into who is landing. Along the way segmentation data can help us qualify the online respondent so don’t just get quantity, but quality too.
Conversion paths with meaningful segmentation are friendlier and more conversational than traditional “one size fits all” landing pages. Respondents are gently guided along a short two or three-step path that lets them identify what is most relevant to the them. They become more engaged because each step is a 5-second click, which pays off with more relevant details. The second and third pages finally deliver on that promise, providing a deeper and more targeted offer.
Key takeaway: Consider meaningful segmentation if you have not already. Find out who is clicking by offering them a choice, then pay that choice off with targeted copy, calls-to-action and fulfillment.
4. Strategic Testing
The 4th best practice is strategic testing—rather than testing messaging, calls-to-action and form length—try big picture experiments that can maximize conversion success. At ion, we like to call this “apples to oranges” testing. It starts with a hard look at our post-click marketing objectives and develops into creative and innovative solutions. Looking for some ideas for apples-to-oranges testing? Try…
5. Think “Outside of the website…landing page”
Since your the majority of your web marketing paths are independent of your primary website, it’s safer to try bold, innovative ideas with them. Paths don’t have to match side-by-side or preserve the paradigms of your main website–each one is a clean slate. LiveBall makes it easy to test anything—and it’s easy to swap new tests in and out to continually get new learning and find winners. This creative freedom can be inspiring, revitalizing the energy of your online marketing.
Key takeaway: Put your thinking caps on. Brainstorm ideas for pushing the envelope creatively—or think of ways to leverage LiveBall for all of your marketing channels.
Whatever the type of landing experience, our end goal is a high conversion rate. We want as many of our clicks as possible to convert into qualified leads, online transactions, new registrations—whatever metric by which we measure real online marketing success.
The higher the conversion rate, the higher the ROl. If we can acquire more conversions from our online marketing spend, we win at two levels: we deliver more net business and we lower our cost-per-acquisition, making the spend more efficient.
1. Message Match
Landing pages, conversion paths and microsites are like your virtual field offices—they speak directly to the people in a specific niche and should be more focused and approachable than home pages and deep links. These independent landing experiences are ideal for campaign-specific marketing, as their messaging can be tightly matched with the different vehicles that generate clicks.
It’s critical that our ads and our landing experiences match—and we’re not necessary talking about imagery and graphics—rather messages and promises. In order to get the user to click, the ad implies a promise. The landing experience needs to immediately, directly and simply pay off that promise. When we do this, we build trust with our respondent and when we build trust, we will automatically build desire.
Key takeaway: Greater relevance + fewer distractions = more conversions
Message match is the easy and quickest way to improve your lead quality and quantity. Just click your ad. Where does it go? Have you fulfilled your promise? Put yourself in the eyes of the respondent.
2. Credible Branding
Brand is many things, but at it’s core it is an emotional connection between a user and a product or service. Good landing pages are crafted and deliberate, sending cues of excellence and trustworthiness, signaling to respondents that value their experience. This is achieved with a blend of good design, good content and zero tolerance for breaks in the experience: bad links, browser incompatibilities, inconsistent brand standards, expired information, sluggish response time. Our conversions need to be branded with credibility and authenticity so that the trust is built and maintained throughout the entire landing experience.
Although can exist at any point in your conversion funnel, the three most important are landing, asking & delivering.
Key takeaway: Take a look at your experience for the “first time.” Ask yourself if your brand maintains its authenticity throughout the experience. Are you building and maintaining at your critical trust moments?
3. Meaningful Segmentation
So, we’ve matched our landing message with the message that got the click and we’ve ensured that our brand is credible and consistent. Now what?
The next best practice to try is pre-conversion segmentation. Why? Two really good reasons. First, to create a better experience for our users. Not all clicks are equal, so we need to find out who they are by offering them a choice, then pay that choice off with copy, calls-to-action and fulfillment that speaks to their needs. Second, to get better insight into who is landing. Along the way segmentation data can help us qualify the online respondent so don’t just get quantity, but quality too.
Conversion paths with meaningful segmentation are friendlier and more conversational than traditional “one size fits all” landing pages. Respondents are gently guided along a short two or three-step path that lets them identify what is most relevant to the them. They become more engaged because each step is a 5-second click, which pays off with more relevant details. The second and third pages finally deliver on that promise, providing a deeper and more targeted offer.
Key takeaway: Consider meaningful segmentation if you have not already. Find out who is clicking by offering them a choice, then pay that choice off with targeted copy, calls-to-action and fulfillment.
4. Strategic Testing
The 4th best practice is strategic testing—rather than testing messaging, calls-to-action and form length—try big picture experiments that can maximize conversion success. At ion, we like to call this “apples to oranges” testing. It starts with a hard look at our post-click marketing objectives and develops into creative and innovative solutions. Looking for some ideas for apples-to-oranges testing? Try…
- Testing against your control
- Audience vs Product segmentation
- Flash vs static
- Fulfillment offers
- Conversion type (lead generation, social, etc.)
5. Think “Outside of the website…landing page”
Since your the majority of your web marketing paths are independent of your primary website, it’s safer to try bold, innovative ideas with them. Paths don’t have to match side-by-side or preserve the paradigms of your main website–each one is a clean slate. LiveBall makes it easy to test anything—and it’s easy to swap new tests in and out to continually get new learning and find winners. This creative freedom can be inspiring, revitalizing the energy of your online marketing.
Key takeaway: Put your thinking caps on. Brainstorm ideas for pushing the envelope creatively—or think of ways to leverage LiveBall for all of your marketing channels.
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