Improve Your Conversion Rate The Six Landing Page Success Factors August 5, 2009

Transcription

1 Improve Your Conversion Rate The Six Landing Page Success Factors August 5, 2009 Raquel Hirsch E. T:

2 Presenter: Raquel Hirsch President and co-founder of WiderFunnel Marketing Optimization 20+ years Demand Generation, CRM, direct and interactive marketing experience Senior executive positions at Proximity (BBDO Worldwide), Pivotal Corp, Intrawest, Rogers Obsessed with making marketing more accountable

3 Today s Agenda Introductions Quick Lead-Gen Case Studies Why Tips Don t Work The Six Landing Page Success Factors Lead-Gen Case Study Example Audience Landing Page Example Q&A

4 Leadership: Chris Goward, BComm Direct marketing, web development and Analytical Chemistry background Voted Marketing Magazine's Ones to Watch CMA Gold Award Winner Raquel Hirsch, MBA 20+ years Demand Generation, CRM, direct and interactive marketing experience Senior executive positions at Proximity (BBDO Worldwide), Pivotal Corp, Intrawest, Rogers Video Full Bios at

5 The latest addition Anne Holland Member of the WiderFunnel Board of Advisors to support Best Practices in A/B and Multivariate Testing Founder: MarketingSherpa Founder and former President President at Anne Holland Ventures Inc. and Publisher, The Testing Times. Test your skills at

6 About WiderFunnel Marketing Optimization Conversion Optimization is the safe strategy in this economy You get more web action for the same (or smaller) marketing and advertising budget At WiderFunnel, improving Conversion Rates is all we do Our expertise delivers better results to our clients Faster that going alone All our retainer clients have seen lift from 10% to 290% Clients outsource their Testing to us We do all the work, soup-to-nuts: Conversion-oriented Web analytics A/B/n & Multivariate testing Test planning, copywriting, design & development

7 About WiderFunnel Marketing Optimization Google Authorized Consultant status Our clients benefit first from Google product innovation Software-agnostic (also work with Omniture; WebTrends, etc) We align ourselves with our clients: the WiderFunnel Guarantee We will deliver conversion rate lift - or we keep trying until we double the term of the engagement

8 Select ecommerce and Lead Generation clients:

9 A FEW CONVERSION TIPS & BEST PRACTICES

10 A few Tested & True tips to lift your conversion rates: Placing the Call-to-Action above the fold Enlarging your Action buttons Including your Value Prop in a high-contrast, leftjustified headline of two-lines or less Cutting your copy in half Reducing the number of Form fields Minimizing the number of layout columns Tested and True it s worth you trying these!

11 FOUR QUICK CASE STUDIES

12 Quick Case Study #1 A B Vs.

13 Quick Case Study #1 B 290% Conversion Rate Lift

14 #1. Real-Life Results Highlights: 290% Conversion Rate Lift A/B test Google Website Optimizer testing tool Surprise? The impressive lift in conversion rate

15 Quick Case Study #2 A Vs. B

16 Quick Case Study #2 49% Conversion Rate Lift

17 #2. Real-Life Results Highlights: 49% Conversion Rate Lift A/B test Google Website Optimizer testing tool Less than 3 weeks to complete Surprise? Lots of choices, busy page beat the clean page

18 Quick Case Study #3 A B Vs.

19 Quick Case Study #3 B 20% Conversion Rate Lift

20 #3. Real-Life Results Highlights: 20% Conversion Rate Lift A/B test Google Website Optimizer testing tool Surprise? The long page beat the best practices short page

21 Quick Case Study #4 A B Vs. Poll

22 Quick Case Study #4 A 13.4% Conversion Rate Lift

23 Quick Case Study #4 B -8.07% Conversion Rate RISK!

24 #4. Real-Life Results Highlights: 13.4% Conversion Rate Lift A/B test Google Website Optimizer testing tool Less than 3 weeks to complete Surprise? The simple page beat the best practices page; The best practices page could have hurt the business!

25 Take-away: 1. Don t think of a Landing Page as just a Landing Page Think of it as a post-click marketing experience 2. Small changes can have huge impact 3. Best Practices are only the starting point Only statistically valid testing can reveal what your customers truly prefer 4. Tips don t work

26 WHY TIPS DON T WORK

27 Methodology is more valuable than Tips or Best Practices because it scales Tips provide some value But their usefulness is limited outside of the appropriate context Now thinking about the Tested & True tips shown earlier: Placing the Call-to-Action above the fold Enlarging your Action buttons Including your VP in a high-contrast, left-justified headline of two-lines or less Cutting your copy in half Reducing the number of Form fields Minimizing the number of layout columns Once you have done that. Now what? What do you do when you ve made those changes and still need conversion rate lift?

28 Now, you ask the right questions

29 THE SIX LANDING PAGE SUCCESS FACTORS

30 The Six Landing Page Success Factors: LIFT Relevance Clarity Urgency Anxiety Distraction

31 Lead Gen Case Study Example: SAP BUSINESS OBJECTS

32 LIFT Analysis Example Business Objects SAP PPC Landing Page Isolated to Crystal Reports keywords Goal: Free Trial Download Two-step funnel

33 LIFT Analysis Example Value Proposition - Headline neglects the most powerful word FREE Clarity - Large dark head overpowers page Relevance - Headline does not mirror source media Distraction - Pricing content raises unresolved questions Clarity - CTA link fails 6-foot legibility test Distraction - Peripheral content at key CTA area Value Proposition - No third party endorsements

34 LIFT Analysis Example Distraction - Buy CTA in most prominent action spot Clarity - Box shot mid-page disrupts eye flow Clarity - Missing Action Caption below hero shot Distraction - Too much white space looks like images that haven t loaded Clarity - No CTA at bottom of content

35 Experiment Strategy: Start with A/B/n Test Variation A SwapBox Variation B Control

36 Conversion Rate Lift Hypotheses VARIATION A: Creating a natural eyeflow with larger product image on the left Adding image caption Re-enforcing offer from source ad in headline Consolidating value proposition copy into one area before CTA Adding a third party endorsement and/or testimonial Consolidating more information links into one area Using a more prominent download button (still two-step funnel) VARIATION B: Same as Var A but Including download form on the landing page (one-step funnel)

37 Variation A Original form

38 Variation B

39 Which One Delivered Best Conversion Rate Lift? A B Poll

40 Which One Delivered Best Conversion Rate Lift? A = 32.5% Lift! B

41 AUDIENCE LANDING PAGE ANALYSIS

42 Audience Landing Page Analysis: Congratulations! But, please note we have not spoken to the management team so the analysis we are about to present is purely speculative

43 The fold range (800 pixel screen)

44 LIFT Analysis 1. Anxiety: Submit CTA copy generally performs quite poorly compared to other copy 2. Anxiety: Form mentions no time frame for a response client expectations are not being managed 3. Anxiety: Phone number in center of page appears in Skype and is cut off (potentially, 300 million Skype users see this) 4. Clarity: No clear CTA hierarchy which is the primary CTA? 5. Clarity: What is the benefit of choosing one CTA (i.e. opt-in) over another (i.e. phone call) 6. Clarity: Phone number at top right of page doesn t list hours of operation or time zone 7. Clarity: No benefit/payoff tied to phone number CTA 8. Anxiety: More Testimonials section headline in left column testimonials are hidden below the fold

45 LIFT Analysis 9. Distraction: Chevron beside section headlines makes them look like links 10. Distraction: Text in first fold is center-aligned, making it difficult to read, then switches to left-aligned 11. Distraction: Page appears cluttered with information, skewing eye flow it appears to be optimized for spiders but not human readers 12. Distraction: Three-column layout generally underperforms two column layout 13. Value Proposition: Headline doesn t communicate anything of value to visitor (i.e. features and benefits) -- and looks sloppy 14. Value Proposition: VP is here but in tiny text at top of page and lacks prominence ( New, Used or ) 15. Value Proposition: Expansion of value proposition is hidden in the second paragraph and lacks prominence

46 NEXT: CREATE TEST HYPOTHESES TURN YOUR WEAKNESSES INTO STRENGTHS

47 Developing Test Hypotheses WEAKNESS STRENGTH Anxiety: Submit CTA copy generally performs quite poorly compared to other copy Hypothesis: Clarity: What is the benefit of choosing one CTA (i.e. opt-in) over another (i.e. phone call) Hypothesis: Distraction: Three column layout generally underperforms two column layout Hypothesis:

48 WEBINAR TAKE-AWAYS

49 Recap: The Six Landing Page Success Factors 1. Value Proposition The vehicle that provides the potential for the Conversion Rate - the sum total of what your customer gets for his money 2. Relevance Does the page relate to what the visitor thought she was going to see? 3. Clarity Does the landing page clearly articulate the VP and, especially, the call-to-action? 4. Anxiety What are potential misgivings the visitor could have about undertaking the conversion action? 5. Distraction Are there items on the page diverting the visitor away the from the main goal? 6. Urgency Is there indication that the action needs to be taken now?

50 Recap: The Importance of Testing Test results are always to some extent surprising. Designing pages using your gut and/or best practices alone will never give you the highest possible conversion rate. Continued testing always leads to continually better conversions. Testing ROI is fairly easy to prove, which pleases management. Testing for conversion rate improvements is the safe strategy during a down economy More conversions for the same (or smaller) ad budget

51 Questions?

52 Would you like a copy of this presentation? Just us at iwant@widerfunnel.com

53 THANK YOU! Raquel Hirsch Why just advertising isn t enough. M E. Raquel.Hirsch@WiderFunnel.com T: Learn more at Conversion Optimization WiderFunnel Marketing blog at Inc.