Disposable landing pages are key to conversion optimization

When putting together your landing pages, think disposability. Really.

Online testing requires that marketers are able to create a lot of pages quickly, and have no anxiety over tossing out pages if they’re not converting well. 

In order to reduce this anxiety, pages can’t be resource intensive. Think about it—if your team spends a ton of time on one single page (layout, copy, images, coding, proofing, tweaking, etc), you won’t be too happy when it doesn’t win a test and you have to dump it. Better to think of pages as disposable. 

That means quick. We’re talking minutes if you’re just making small tweaks to an existing page, and hours at the most if you’re creating a new page. The best way to manage this process is by working off of custom-branded templates. This way you can grab a template, pop in widgets, images, and copy, and launch a new page …fast.

Here’s an example of how to use templates within LiveBall to launch new tests fast…

You can see in this screenshot of one of ion’s templates, there are lots of places to quickly drop in new copy, widgets, forms, etc. You just have to click on the placeholder and an editor pops up allowing you to add in whatever you want.

With a few more clicks you can swap out the image, headline, form fields, or copy to create a challenger.

All of this can be done in just a few minutes, and you have yourself an A/B test.

When your test produces a winner, toss out the losing page. It’s no sweat off your back since you created the page in a few minutes. 

Then click-click-click and create a new challenger to test against your champion.

Using templates to create disposable landing pages should be on every marketer’s to-do list. It’s the fastest and arguably the best way to run an on-going testing program. 

A/B test different ways to circulate your content

In our most recent slideshare on conversion-oriented content marketing, tip #1 is: conversion is optional.

The case for optional conversion

Content marketing often works best when visitors get value without having to give anything in return. Instead of asking for the conversion up front, you can offer it as a natural extension of the content. If your visitor likes your content, they have a logical next step to take.

For instance, instead of hiding a white paper behind a lead gen form, you might offer a straight link to it. Then on the last page of the white paper, you could say, “want more info like this? click here” and then send them to a lead gen form. 

This helps your content spread faster, and also ensures the people who do fill out the form already like what you have to offer. 

This sounds great right? It’s a win-win on both sides. Visitors get free information, and you get quality leads. However, fortunately or unfortunately, we’ve been conditioned to believe we should give up something (usually contact information) in exchange for valuable content. 

The case for testing optional conversion

A while back ion created a content-rich microsite in which we gave away our Top 10 Mobile Marketing tips for free. On the microsite we had a form that said, if you want MORE content like this, we’ll be happy to send it to you.

We tested a conversion path against the microsite, where we did not offer the content for free. Visitors first segmented themselves on the landing page. They chose whether they wanted to schedule a mobile landing page demo, or receive our Top 10 Mobile Marketing Tips.

The people who choose to receive the tips quickly clicked-through to a landing page with a few bullet points on what to expect in the tips document, and were presented with the form. 

The conversion path, where no content was offered for free, beat the microsite in under 2 days (tested to 80% confidence)! 

This isn’t to say a conversion path will always win, or that it will even still be the winner if we reran the test 6 months from now. The point is: you should test a variety of different ways to circulate your content. 

And that is principle #3 in our conversion content marketing slideshare: “publish and deliver your content in the format that maximizes value.” 

You won’t know which format maximizes value unless you’re testing it! 

How are you testing delivery of your content? 

It's time to step up your marketing optimization game

I came across this research brief today: Tech Marketers Want to See ROI From Their Media Spend, the content of which I’m sure is not breaking news to frequent readers here.

Old news is new news:

Some highlights from the brief:

• The majority of digital spending is concentrated on branded content sites (41%)
• Spending on ad networks is on the rise and fast approaching spending on paid search
• Marketers are interested in ROI, audience composition, targeting, and reach
• Lead gen, custom content and targeting rank as three most important opportunities
• Marketers are investing in a variety of custom programs including collateral, webinars, videos and the creation of new websites

Time to step up your game:

Like I said, I’m sure none of this is breaking news for frequent readers here; however, it is a reminder to step up your game in 2011. For some time now many online marketers enjoyed a competitive advantage by running lackluster post-click marketing programs because no one else was doing it, or really understood how to do it. Therefore by just showing up with a few tested & optimized landing pages you won half the battle.  But that’s not going to be enough any more.

Last week I was at the Online Marketing Summit and I can tell you: there was a huge focus on marketing measurement and optimization. Everyone was talking about testing, conversion optimization, and landing pages. So how should you keep the competitive advantage now?

Do more.

Do more, more, more for less:

Create more content, more landing pages, more microsites, more lead gen forms, run more tests, generate more traffic.

And do it all with less spend by converting that traffic like crazy.

If your team hasn’t expanded or been given more budget this year, make sure you have a systematic process in place and a good tool set so you can get more done with the same resources. This year should be all about scaling your post-click marketing program up.

My suggestions for helping you do this:

• Work with templates to reduce the amount you spend on creative pieces and your time to launch new pages/microsites
• Use a codefree testing tool to reduce the time you spend waiting for IT to run your tests
• Measure only what matters to reduce the time you spend wading through useless data

Doing the above three things will ensure you’re managing your time well.

Instead of worry about getting pieces ready to launch and test, you should focus on creating quality content and providing value to visitors. Have a process and a tool in place to take care of the rest.

Create good stuff, get it in front of the right people, and convert those people with optimized pages.

Do it well, do it often and do a lot of it to keep your competitive advantage this year. 

Podbusting ads really need landing pages

I stopped watching TV when Breaking Bad decided to go on a yearlong break seven months ago, so I hadn’t heard of these new podbuster commercials until NPR ran a story on them this morning. 

Call it smart advertising — or bad boundaries. You may have noticed a spike in the number of TV commercials designed to look and feel like whatever show you’re watching. They’re called podbusters, DVR busters or interstitial ads, and they’re designed to remove viewers’ fingers from the fast-forward button during blocks — or “pods” — of ads.

 Basically, companies are creating ads that look like the TV show they are being aired during, in an effort to stop people from fast-forwarding through them thanks to DVR. Sometimes they’ll include actor look-a-likes and sometimes the real actors will be in the commercials. Check out a Vaseline podbuster ad created to fit in with Mad Men here.

Mike Rosen, an executive with the media agency Starcom USA, says effective podbusters don’t just make you stop to watch a commercial you might have skipped. They drive you online to interact with the shows you’re watching and the companies that are sponsoring them.

Clever.

And where should this online traffic be directed to? A landing page or microsite created specifically for the campaign of course!

If you’re already spending the money to create such personalized commercials, why not go the extra step and create a matching web experience.

As I said in my post, Why Traditional Media Needs Landing Pages Too, while airtime and character space are often limited in traditional advertisements, it seems like a huge missed opportunity to leave the (landing page) URL out. By carefully selecting a URL to send viewers to, you can begin measuring (at least partially) the effectiveness of your traditional media spend.

Sending viewers to your home page or a product page will make it hard to track if the viewers came from your traditional media or not, but by using a landing page you’re one step closer to demonstrating the ROI for your formerly faith-based advertisement.

Make it easy for viewers to seamlessly go from the commercial to the conversion point. You have mere seconds to capture their attention online before the show starts again and your ad is forgotten. Get them from point A to point B as fast as possible!

I’m looking forward to seeing the Breaking Bad podbusters this summer. Wonder what they’re going to have Mr. White selling.

Know the difference between landing pages, conversion paths and microsites

Behind Door #1 is a single landing page, door #2 is a conversion path, and door #3 is a microsite. But you don’t know that. You just see three closed doors.

So, do you choose a closed door at random, or demand to see what is behind each door first? If you’re a marketer, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you want to know what is behind each door first. 

In the world of online marketing, guessing counts for very little. 

So, let’s talk about what exactly is behind each door. 

A single landing page is the page a user ends up on after clicking an ad or link. Ideally, it is a highly targeted page that is very relevant to what the user clicked on.

A conversion path is a sequence of pages that users go through from click through conversion. Like a conversion funnel. Ideally, it is a conversion path you (as the marketer) have designed very carefully and purposefully to drive more visitors through your conversion funnel. 

A microsite is a very small Website that is topic- or purpose-specific. Ideally, it is a very conversion oriented experience, keeping the call to action front and center.

What should they all have in common?

All three types of landing experiences should provide:

• Simplicity
• Laser-like focus on the call to action
• Specific/relevant information

Your needs at the time will determine which door you select.

If your product is complex, and your viewers will need in-depth education, you may want to try a microsite. If your product is expensive and/or for a specific type of user, you may go with a conversion path to weed out unqualified prospects or to help people drill down to what’s relevant for them. If your product is a low-consideration purchase, a single landing page may be right for you. 

You never really know what’s best until you test them. So, I think a great test is to try a microsite against a landing page. Or a conversion path against a microsite. These types of tests help you answer the fundamental question: what type of experience will convert more visitors? It may be different for different sources of traffic, so don’t expect to walk away with one single type of experience. Look for what experiences convert based on context and type of traffic.

Either way, keep your design and content simple, focused and relevant. These are three keys to high conversion rates.