Landing Page Optimization — Review

Let’s get this party started! Check out my previous blog posts on Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) here! My take-aways are coming directly from what I learn through CXL Institute’s digital courses. They have tons of instructors who are educating marketers on various ways to advertise successfully to their target audiences. I highly recommend you take a look at the courses they have to offer.

Piggy backing off last week’s blog, we’re going to continue our discussion on Landing Page Optimization. When the instructor started talking about something called “Qualitative LPO Research,” I’m not going to lie… I got a little wary. I also thought, “how is this going to apply to what I’m looking to do in marketing?” But I should’ve known that they were going to break it down for me just as they’ve done during this entire CRO journey. Not only did they make it digestible for me to walk away with some solid tips, but I found it interesting, as well. Remind me to bite my tongue the next time I judge a lesson by its title!

We started off by learning about some general research on landing page optimization.

Quantitative: Seeks to answer the what & where questions.

Qualitative: searches for the answer to the why questions. Qualitative is more of an effort, can take more time, and is intimidating to those who are unsure of how to go about it.

While qualitative is typically a turn-off because of the level of time and attention needed for it to thrive, the CXL instructor does a fantastic job of showing us the value of sticking with it. It doesn’t have to be some confusing, consuming mess — and that’s good news for us.

The instructor recommends understanding the first impression of a landing page, the emotional reaction you get from it, a bit of critique in the miz, and the necessary trust & credibility elements. What are the UX issues and bug fixes that need to be worked on? All of this helps us get a strong point to start from when we analyze our own landing pages.

It’s important to ask these questions under 2 different contexts… 1) If you were to look at the landing page within just 5 seconds, and 2) Answer the questions when you take all the time you need.

If the ad or landing page can’t get the main points across in 5 seconds, we’re not starting off on the right foot. I originally thought that it’s simply not enough time to base any thoughts off of accurately, but then I realized I often give these very mediums even less time before I decide to scroll on or exit. It’s not a lot of time, so we better be using it wisely.

For those few seconds, we have to ask ourselves what it makes you feel, what stands out, is the source clear, does it seem credible? Once we make the switch to taking as long as we need to analyze, we can tack on a few more questions — Is the information logically delivered? How logically is the content delivered? What might be confusing? Are there any unanswered questions that need to be addressed? Is it clear what needs to be done next? What needs to be added or removed? These were solid questions and are applicable to the copy portion of your landing page, too.

Knowing what the top 3 questions potential customers are going to have will save you higher rates of drop-off, due to confusion. If they’re calling or inquiring about the same few things, then you know it’s not clearly stated on your site. Are there any major deterrents or major drivers? Our main goal is getting to the roots of our target audience’s problems so that we can ultimately end it in a transaction of some sort.

I really liked the 3 common questions that the instructor found are helpful to consider in just about every business:

How much is your product/service?

How will I benefit from using it?

How does it work?

While you should obviously never consider these to be the only questions you ask, or even the most important, you still shouldn’t disregard the significance they hold for your viewers.

The 5 elements of breaking down copyright on your landing page are going to be essential for all businesses. This is the text that is going to hook your consumers. Or, at least it should hook them. You might have some issues in that department, whether your copy is too short and leaves people with questions, or too wordy and they simply zone out and move on. I’ve boiled down the instructor’s 5 points into some quick tips.

Headline is the established message match. A match between the message that was in the ad source, landing page, etc. It captures attention to trigger. People understand there’s a reward — it triggers the reward mechanism.

Benefits present information. They emphasize the value of your offer and can trigger dopamine when discussing benefits of the outcome, what individuals are looking for — what they get out of the process.

Features also present information. This is a strong factor in motivation. It is interchangeable with benefits in the sense that users look towards the end results via benefits and features.

Credibility is listed here because it defines peoples’ thoughts on whether or not it appears to be a credible site. This can look like results, reviews, and numbers of success stories listed.

Expectation Managers is when users uncover their expectations and whether or not they can trust your landing page.

Call-To-Action Copying is essentially to make users click the button. You can categorize different copy elements on our landing pages, separate them by sections. Headlines, forums, etc. are part of this process.

Something else I want to note is that they mention creating headlines that are call-to-actions, starting with a verb. This is to set your viewer’s thoughts in motion as soon as he starts reading. After that, the instructor mentions writing out exactly what they should do next. Don’t give them time to wonder. Start them out in motion on the track and keep sliding them forward.

For the design element aspect, we have 6 to go over. You’ll notice that they have similar names as the previous elements because they go hand-in-hand, but we’re going to apply them for an alternative purpose.

Headline is for visual hierarchy. We need to know what’s most important; what we should be looking at first. Don’t make the mistake of putting design elements too close together. Give them breathing space. The headline is SO crucial — it has to stand out. It has to get your message across. A lot rides on your headline, so make sure that the font and color is easy to read and a good contrast.

Images/Video should be a relevant image to the headline and your mission as a whole. It should support your value proposition, as we’ve discussed in previous blogs. With a video, keep it short. If it’s a testimonial, have them speak about something the majority of viewers will benefit from or want to know. A design should stand out and look real and not overtly fake (depending on what your marketing is representing). If you’re text-based, make it clean and readable.

Features/Benefits should pop out in both font and color choices. Entice your audience to read your offer. Don’t let it blend in.

Credibility in design context is your company logo. Show that you’re legitimate with easily identifiable branding.

Expectation Managers should be given to the viewers. Don’t let them make up the rest of the story to fill in any gaps. Be upfront with your information so that you control what they think of your product/service. Don’t let assumptions turn them away.

Call-To-Action Buttons is the whole point of our mission. We want them to click. This is very high on the visual hierarchy. It has to stand out from everything else, and you do this by color choice, the right wording, the right placement, etc.

I’d say we could keep this party train going, but our mental processing might disagree with that. Let’s take a pause, think about what we’ve learned, and how we can apply it to our career paths. Keep an eye for next week’s blog!