Remember How It Felt the First Time…

Remember how it felt the first time you searched for a particular something online, clicked on an ad that promised it and landed on a page that delivered it? A little moment of triumph, a little dance of satisfaction. Ok, maybe that overstates the feeling a bit — or maybe not. I was searching for a particular pair of boots the other day, and felt exactly that way. I was so pleased to find precisely what I was looking for  — and it made me love the shoe vendor for giving me what I wanted and NOT making it hard for me to buy it.

When the process works from search, to ad to landing page, it’s incredibly satisfying for the respondent.

Now remember how it felt the first time — or perhaps the most recent time — you searched for a particular something online, click on an ad, and landed on a page that made you go, “Huh? Where’s the thing I was looking for? What’s all this other stuff? What do I do now? “

Did it make you feel good about the company? Did it make you more inclined to place an order, or sign up for the newsletter? I think not!

At that moment in time, if the company had asked you, I’m quite certain you would have been able to tell them exactly how to redesign their landing pages to deliver exactly what you were looking for.

How come so many marketers are unable to give their own landing pages that kind of critical review? Where is the disconnect?

I think it happens because our “consumer hats” and “marketer hats” are completely disconnected. When we’re shopping for ourselves, we wear our consumer hats and think like consumers – or to put it another way, we think like your customers are thinking.

But when we’re designing our online marketing, we wear our “marketer hats.” We’re thinking in terms of what WE want the respondents to know about us, NOT what THEY are looking for.

Ever wonder why over 95% of everyone who arrives on your landing page doesn’t convert?  Maybe it’s because you’re simply not delivering what they’re looking for.

That’s a bad thing!  After all, they’re really not YOUR landing pages…they’re your customers’. Stop thinking about what you want to tell respondents, and start thinking  about what they want to find. Put your consumer hat back on immediately.

Look at your search ads or display ads, and imagine what you’d want to see after the click if you were the customer. If you don’t see it on your own landing pages, change them!

Remember, your respondents are YOU when you’re searching. When you’re designing your landing pages, you need to remember how that feels.