Come learn more about B2B landing page testing with us!

For best results with your B2B landing page testing and conversion optimization, plan for an on-going testing program. This long-term approach is essential for creating, measuring and implementing the best landing pages to ensure continual improvement in your conversion rates. 

Are you interested in learning more about how to prepare and launch a B2B landing page testing and conversion optimization program?  If so, be sure to register for my presentation at the Landing Page Success Summit.  I’ll be discussing:

• What B2B landing pages and Rock Stars have in common
• High-converting B2B landing page success stories
• How advanced landing pages can help you increase conversions

Don’t miss out on a jam-packed hour of actionable conversion optimization advice just for B2B marketers. Register for the Landing Page Success Summit today, and feel free to post questions or specifics you would like to get out of the presentation below.

Do your higher ed lead generation efforts deserve an A+?

The higher education industry is an interesting position regarding landing page optimization—it was one of the first industries to have adopted landing pages.

Traditionally, many schools had purchased student leads from cost per lead (CPL) vendors; however, the lack of exclusivity through vendors warranted the need for schools to start their own in-house lead generation efforts.  Because of this need, many in the education space started using campaign-landing pages when other industries were only just beginning to explore this aspect of online marketing.

Because higher education institutions have now been using landing pages for lead generation for a while, they’re seeing the benefits that come along with online marketing maturity. This marketing maturity means there are some great landing pages out there that have already been through multiple testing cycles, and are driving really high conversions. However, when anyone spends a lot of time heads-down in advanced landing page strategy, it can be easy to forget about the basic stuff that is still necessary for driving conversions.

From the ad to the landing page

One of the most important, basic elements you want to be able to check off on your landing page list is message match. Message match means making sure your landing page copy correlates directly with the ad that the visitor clicked on.  Message match is one of the essential foundations of highly successful landing pages. 

Here are some higher ed landing page examples that demonstrate message match (and message mismatch).

 

The example here does not show a strong correlation between the landing page and ad.  The ad reads “Further Your Career with a Computer Networking diploma” but landing page content is all about the school in general. Remember, you make a promise to offer certain information in an ad, and your landing page must deliver on that promise in order to build trust and credibility, and also to hold the visitor’s interest.

Here the correlation between the ad and landing page is stronger than in the first example. However, the ad promises information on “computer networking classes” so the landing page should mirror phrase that instead of discussing an “Information Systems” degree. 

Here, we see another opportunity for lifting conversions with tighter message match.  The ad promises information on a “future in Computer and IT,” and the landing page delivers information on different “Computer Studies” programs.

While you could make the case that a visitor would understand that starting a degree program in computer studies would lead to a “future in Computer and IT,” you should not expect visitor’s to make that kind of correlation on their own. In fact, most visitor’s simply won’t take the time to make that connection. You have mere seconds to attract and retain a visitor’s interest. Do whatever it takes to help them quickly draw a direct line from the ad that caught their interest to the information on your landing page.

From the landing page to the phone call

While none of these landing pages are particularly bad on their own, improved message match between the ad and landing page would likely increase conversions. That being said, getting the conversion and generating leads through landing pages only brings a return on investment if the leads are responded to in a timely fashion.

A recent survey published in Revenue Performance magazine and conducted by LeadQual, shows that only about 61% of landing page visitors who submitted a form on a higher ed landing page received a follow up phone call.  And for those that received a call, it came an average of seven hours after the form was submitted!  This is bad news for the higher ed industry since further research from LeadQual backed up a study by MIT, shows that:

• Prospective buyers fill out 3-5 lead forms
• The first to contact a lead increases conversion 238%
• Calling a lead more than 5 minutes after a lead submits a form has a 46% lower qualification rate than calling in less than 5 minutes
• Speed of response is the best predictor of a closed transaction

So remember: while using effective message match between ads and landing pages is crucial (as are the other 7 points on our landing page checklist), once that lead is generated, it must be followed up immediately.  After all, attracting the quality lead was the hard part.  The easy part should be contacting them to follow up.

The (conversion) magic of a winning combination

When two (or more) things are being pitted against each other, what makes one win over another? Sometimes it’s obvious, but often it isn’t. 

I was thinking about this last weekend as I was watching my son’t basketball team play a game. Thus far in the season they had lost. every. single. game. It was looking like it was going to be a long, painful season. And then suddenly last weekend, at some point in the 2nd quarter the team started to land some shots. And then some more shots. And suddenly it was the 4th quarter and we were ahead! In between all my screaming and cheering (you don’t want to sit next to be at a sporting event, I assure you), I started watching the game objectively. Why were we finally winning? Did we have better offense than the other team? Maybe—it was hard to say, both teams looked good. Was our defense better? Maybe, maybe not. Were our uniforms a better color? Matter of opinion. No, what I saw when I looked objectively is that sometimes things come together in a magical combination that just win. That’s what happened to the team last weekend. For a few quarters of a game they were a magical combination of ‘win’. It just fell together. I can’t say we played any better than the other team, and I can’t give you an objective list of why were superior. 

Sometimes you just can’t pick apart the magic combination. It just is. 

We, and our customers, spend a good bit of time looking at test results in order to determine why one version won over another version. We, and our customers, also spend a good bit of time drawing on a wide range of experience, results and stats to come up with hypothesis for why one version will win over another version. This is valuable time. It helps improve conversions. But sometimes, you just can’t know why. And you need to be OK with that. You need to take the win, and the momentum that comes with it, and build on it. Because analyzing the plays from last weekend’s game reel will only get you so far. Sometimes you need to embrace the magic of a winning combination and move on. 

Why you don't need more 'eyeballs' or traffic

You shouldn’t spend money on advertising to new people if your current visitors aren’t converting.

Let me repeat that: You shouldn’t spend money on advertising to new people if your current visitors aren’t converting.

Let is sink in.

In a recent post Seth Godin wrote:

The mistake we often make: thinking that the problem is that there’s not enough people starting the process, not enough people being exposed to your offer. In fact, it’s almost always a problem with how efficient the funnel is…

If you want more business, more leads, more sales, then get more people to convert. 

Fix your conversion funnel first. Then, you have an efficient machine and if you want to crank up the traffic you can do so. 

Empower & convert landing page traffic through limited choice

We just completed the first round of the ion book club, and are moving on to our second book. My group is now reading The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar. 

I’ve only read the first chapter so far, but to summarize it would go something like this: we’ve been conditioned to believe that our choices affect our lives. When we choose something we become invested in its outcome because we feel it will directly affect us.

How does this relate to landing pages?

Well, it’s first important to consider that landing pages do not have to be one-page experiences (although they certainly can be).  Microsites and conversion paths are also landing experiences, and they serve important purposes. 

Microsites are great to use when your offer requires a detailed explanation to win the conversion. They give you the room and flexibility to provide additional details while keeping the call to action front and center (see our Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield example).

Conversion paths are great for segmentation, and give users a feeling of empowerment. You provide visitors with a series of quick choices that lead them to really relevant information (see our Wyndam-Howard Johnson example, see our Overland Storage example).

In our own experiences we’ve found that many times simply providing a choice but having the same content behind each door converts higher than no choice at all.  Of course, it’s better to serve up really targeted information behind each choice, but just the idea of making choice makes the visitor feel like she or he has invested something already. Remember, when we feel invested we feel compelled to see something all the way through. 

Empower your users to make the right choices that lead them down your conversion path.