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How To Optimize Your Landing Pages With Conversion-Centric Copywriting

Think about the last time that you met someone new. Maybe it was someone you hired on your team. Maybe it was a barista at the local coffee shop.

What was your first impression of that person?

Did the way they style their hair make any sort of impact? Was their makeup, jewelry, or clothing unique?

Chances are if they looked put together, they made a good impression. If they looked like they rolled out of bed five minutes ago, then the impression might not have been so good.

Landing pages are similar. First impressions matter so much that they've been proven to increase conversion rates and profits, assuming they’re properly created.

That means:

  • It can't just be a simple design with a CTA
  • You want it to be convincing, eye-catching, and interesting
  • Everything on the landing page should tell readers they need your offer

That's a lot of pressure for one landing page, but much like the way people deal with judgment every day, this isn’t impossible. A guide like this one can make it even easier.

Keep reading for an in-depth discussion on how to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting. That kind of optimization can yield valuable tactics for your business.

 

Why Should You Optimize Landing Pages?

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

Before we begin, you should note that a landing page isn’t your homepage. This is a common misconception because both pages require plenty of effort and do similar things (create first impressions, focus on CTAs, represent your brand, etc.).

One big difference is that a landing page gets its traffic from anywhere except your website. It's linked to things like pay-per-click ads, which is why keywords are so important.

Avoiding general terms like "business," and opting for more detailed terms, like "B2B growth marketing business", is critical to success.

In fact, ad-specific landing pages can outperform the generic ones by more than 115% in leads, which means you can't afford to passively target interest. You have to know your audience and which keywords will convert the way you want them to.

Again, that's a lot of pressure. So, why are landing pages worth it? Do you even need one in the first place?

Well, consider your homepage. It's connected to all of your other pages, and although it has CTAs, it's a bit more general. Visitors can click around your website as they please.

On the other hand, a landing page is hyper-focused on one CTA and doesn't connect to other pages like your blog. There's nothing to distract the visitors' attention. They know where to go and they're led to the goal, no guessing involved.

This means you have greater control over what the target audience does with the information and options they see. At some point, this will start to affect your search engine rankings.

Remember: the more visibility, the higher the conversion rate, the better the ROI.

Still, the landing page needs to be up to par, or it won't deliver. It should be both short and relevant if you want it to rank well.

 

Search Terms Iceberg Effect

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

Target longer keywords tailored to more specific searches. 

These “long-tail keywords” rank higher for more granular searches than the generic, short ones. If you aim for the keyword “banana”, you’re going to get a lot of irrelevant searches.

A quick Google search leads to generic articles about bananas, and several links about the store “Banana Republic.” That’s not what you want to do. When you target longer, more specific keyword strings, you get better results.

If you’re going for “gluten-free banana bread” you’ll rank higher for bread recipes. You won’t waste effort paying to rank for “banana memes” or “banana-shaped dog toys.”

This is called the iceberg effect. It’s not only about the keywords you use, but it’s also about what search terms people are using. When you use a keyword, you’re paying for more than just the word itself. You’re paying for many different queries.

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

Keyword Matching - Google-Style

An exact keyword match generates the smallest iceberg. A one-to-one match gets you the most bang for your buck and wastes little advertising efforts.

Sometimes an exact match is too narrow, and you could miss out on potential clicks. That doesn’t have to be a problem — Google changed the rules to allow paraphrased matches or matches with a similar intent.

Broad matches allow a more vague association in search results. This results in a big iceberg: a lot of money spent on worthless results. Less efficient matches mean less ROI for advertising dollars.

You want the keywords to be as close to one-to-one in relevancy as possible. Otherwise, you’re paying for random clicks.

Phrase matches are like broad matches, but they show up only when the user’s search includes the keywords in the exact order of your PPC ad. 

It’ll generate a result whether someone has words before or after the phrase. Imagine that you chose “freshest banana bread” as a phrase match. If someone searches for “How to make the freshest banana bread,” you’ll pop up. 

If someone looks for “Which banana bread is the freshest?” your ad won’t be in the results. If someone searches “fresh banana bread” it’ll show because “fresh” and “freshest” are similar in intent.

Sound complicated? We can help you get started.

 

SEO

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

You’ve looked into keyword matching to decide how to get the best ROAS (Return On Ad Spend), but have you overlooked your content? Don’t count out SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

SEO may sound big and scary, but it’s all about delivering the content people want in the most efficient way possible. If you do your homework, the people who need your content will be able to find it and access it.

First, be sure to take care of the technical aspects. Make sure your page loads quickly and that you’ve coded everything correctly.

Some things to consider:

  • Robot.txt files are the instructions you give to web crawlers (like Google) as to what to look at and index, and what to ignore. All your SEO efforts are for nothing if you don’t get this part right.
  • An SSL (Secure Socket Layer) gives your site an https:// instead of an http://. Google penalizes you for not having a secure site.
  • Don’t take speed for granted. No matter how high you rank on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page), if your page takes too long to load, readers are going to leave. Try a tool like PageSpeed or Pingdom to see how quickly your page loads (for both mobile and desktop). These tools also provide several metrics you can investigate if you want to dive into the details.
  • Make sure your site map is easy and intuitive to use. If visitors have to use the search function, your site map might not be good enough.
  • Broken JavaScript code is the bane of a web user’s existence. Make sure your website’s code is in working order at all times.
  • Your URL structure matters. If possible, have a keyword in the title of the web page itself. If it’s right there in the address, it’ll be counted in the web crawler.

 

Content And User Experience

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

The number one consideration with a landing page is the content itself. You want the right mix of informative, entertaining, and interactive media that will propel the reader down the marketing funnel and toward a conversion.

You or your developer should code the “meta descriptions” to include an accurate summary of the content of your page. This information shows up under the name of the site when you’re looking at a page full of search engine results.

Think of it as being a parent trying to sneak vegetables into their child’s dinner. Put the words everywhere you can fit them in without being obvious.

Now on to alt text. What’s that? It’s the text that shows up in a graphic when it fails to load. Thanks to high-speed internet, this hardly happens anymore, but you can still code for that alt text. It contributes to SEO, so it’s worth your time.

Next, build a network of links within your site. Are your pages linking to your other related pages? 

The landing page itself should only have one link and one purpose: funneling that user to the conversion. However, a more interconnected site also counts toward search engine rankings. Look at the big picture.

 

Offpage SEO

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

It takes more than optimizing your landing page to get clicks. You also need to improve your brand’s reputation outside of the site.

One of the more important aspects Google measures is something called “domain authority.” This is how seriously other places are taking your site.

Domain authority is determined by traffic, backlinks, and social media presence. You can build backlinks by creating great content that other sites want to link to one of their own pages. 

Or, you can trade links with a company you know well so you both win. Don’t fall for companies that “sell” you backlinks in hopes of gaming the system. Google measures the quality of backlinks, too. It penalizes you for cheap tricks like buying links on bogus websites.

Guest blogging is a good way to build backlinks, as well. Offer to write a post for a related website author — they get content, and you get exposure.

If you know any influencers, you can also get a mention for providing products or services, or just for impressing them with your content. Influencers typically have high domain authority, so these mentions will give you exposure and improve your SEO rankings.

Commenting on other blogs and posting on Reddit increases exposure, but be careful. Other people are in control of your comment once you’ve posted it. Be sure to follow the rules of the forum. If endorsements aren’t allowed, a moderator will delete your post, and your effort will be for nothing.

 

Social Media

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

It’s big, it’s scary, it’s social media. Depending on how old your company is, you could have grown up online (and become part of the internet organically), or you could be an older brand trying to pivot into a global presence.

People love to share content on their social media feeds. A simple like, upvote, or smiley face from a user improves your stats and draws attention to your landing page. They’re doing the work for you.

Despite the positives, you should beware of hashtags gone wrong and other gaffes. Companies go viral for all the wrong reasons every day, but you can’t afford to stay off social media. It builds backlinks and the domain authority you need to rank higher in search engine results

Before you create your social media strategy, outline and determine your goals. Are you creating brand awareness or gathering an audience? Are you writing for the top, middle, or bottom of the conversion funnel?

Are you generating leads and sales? Are you nurturing existing customer relationships, or creating new ones?

Choose social media platforms based on audience demographics. Want to engage younger readers? Try Instagram. Looking for people with a high income? Focus on Youtube and Facebook. Selling education or business-related products and services? LinkedIn is your best bet.

When you have your social media strategy figured out, create a landing page specific to that account. That lets you monitor click-throughs and record them correctly. If you’re not getting a lot of traffic, you know you’ll need to tweak it.

 

Optimize Landing Pages By Knowing What Your Audience Wants

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

Notice the wording there: landing pages need to be relevant. How can they be relevant to more than just your business, though? You want visitors to complete an action, but what about what they want?

That's where insider knowledge comes in. For a business to thrive, you have to know what your audience wants the most, and give it to them, enticing them through a landing page that they want to take the time to read.

Cue buyer personas.

Buyer personas are digital profiles of your ideal customers. These people are the most lucrative for your business based on demographics, like gender, age, education, monthly disposable income, and more.

Demographics tell you who your customers are, but psychographics tells you why they convert. Their psychological makeup predicts their behavior.

There are five segmentations in psychographics that you want to look out for:

  • Personality dictates behavior. Are they guarded or optimistic? Defiant or compliant? A leader or a follower? Do they lead carefree lives, or do they worry a lot? 
  • Lifestyle plays a big part. Are we talking about a vegan yoga instructor? A libertarian “World of Warcraft” player? Depending on the way your audience lives, there’s a dramatic difference in which approaches will fit different audiences.
  • Social status is more than education and income. It’s people’s standing in the world. Class and family background dictate certain tastes and particular standards. Commercial air flights are an obvious example of social status segmentation. 
  • Activities, interests, and opinions (AIO) are the personal qualities measured in a survey and other research methods. 
    • Do they ride a bike to work, or drive a car? Do they work from home part-time, or do they do a twelve-hour swing shift at a factory? 
    • Are they interested in stamp collection? Psychic hotlines? White water rafting? Depending on their interests, their shopping needs can be radically different.
    • How do they feel about the state of the nation? What do they want for their families? What are they hoping for in the future?
  • Attitudes are the mindsets of your customers. More than a bit of psychological insight goes into the crafting of these buyer personas.

 

Let’s Think Of Another Example

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

Maybe you're selling home decor, furniture, and everything that makes a home feel like home. Your prices could be high, but your materials are exquisite.

That means you're likely selling your items to older, more established men and women who went to college and have large monthly disposable incomes. A 24-year-old fresh out of college won't be your ideal customer.

In general, that’s true, but the thing about buyer personas is that they're not foolproof. There are always exceptions to every rule. It's what makes the world go around.

Who's to say a 24-year-old doesn't have an extravagant amount of money lying around? Maybe they’re successful in their line of work.

You can tailor your buyer personas all you want, but you're never going to cover all the ground with 100% accuracy. The net is somehow wider and narrower than you think it is.

That's why many entrepreneurs choose a simpler method of figuring out what their audience wants: segmentation.

  • Attitude - How they feel about specific things.
  • Aspiration - What they hope to accomplish.
  • Opinions - Their point of view on something controversial.
  • Lifestyle - Health, wealth, family, and work.

If it doesn't seem like it relates to you, consider altering the narrative as necessary. For example, if you're selling clothing, then it may seem like your audience won't have an aspiration about it.

That might not be the case. What if they're aspiring to portray wealth and influence so they can land the job that gives them those things?

 

Empathy Maps v. Buyer Personas

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

Now that you’ve got your buyer personas, it’s time to go in deeper. A buyer persona is, at most, a page or more. An empathy map takes it to another level of detail.

Ask yourself:

  • What does your customer think and feel? What are they concerned about? We covered this in AIO (attitudes, interests, and opinions), but it doesn’t hurt to go over it again.
  • What do they hear and see? What are the people around them saying? Their superiors, their peers? The people that work below them? What else in your buyer’s environment could influence their decisions?
  • What do they say and do? How do they present themselves? How do they treat others? Use real customer testimonials to flesh it out.
  • What are their pains and goals? What are they afraid of? What obstacles have they encountered? What do they need? What obstacles have they already overcome?

You can learn more about how to do proper audience research here.

 

UX (User Experience)

Don’t overlook user experience (UX) when optimizing your landing pages. Consider the customer journey, from the moment they become aware of their problem to the moment they choose your solution.

75% of users access the internet primarily through smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. Don’t design your site for desktop and include a mobile layout as an afterthought. Focus on mobile first and find a design that looks great on all platforms.

Responsive web design allows the page to adjust its appearance based on the proportions of the screen used to view the page. A good web developer will know how to use this method.

If you don’t feel like going that far, at least make sure that your reader gets routed to the mobile version when on a mobile device.

What works on a desktop isn’t going to look good on a smartphone. Consider the size of the screen and the way people hold them.

How many times have you had to pinch and zoom to get a better look at a small form or button? It’s so frustrating that most of the time, users give up instead of putting forth any effort.

This is where a heatmap helps. A heatmap shows where readers are paying the most attention. Usually, the position of the cursor indicates how long someone looks at that part of the page.

Hotjar is one option for creating a heatmap. There’s also eye-tracking software for surveys and sites like Usertesting where people will narrate their user experience for a small fee.

It’s never been easier to test the UX design of your site or mobile page before now. Take advantage of that fact and do A/B testing both before and after you go live.

 

Color Theory

Your call to action is more effective when it looks like a button that you can reach through the screen and press. A careful combination of colors and shading will accomplish this feat.

You know about the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue. What you might not know is that primary colors are different for computer screens? RGB or red, green, and blue is the standard scheme. 

Complementary colors are opposite of one another on the color wheel. Purple and green are complementary in an RGB color wheel. The purple is made of red and blue, and it lacks green, which is what makes it contrast.

Contrasting colors create the illusion of depth. If you want more variety with a lot of contrast, consider a triadic set of colors.

Triadic colors are an equal amount of distance between each other on the color wheel and form, you guessed it, a triangle. Orange, green, and purple are some common examples. These bold, vibrant colors keep your CTA button from fading into the background.

Warm colors bring to mind coziness and energy. These can include red, yellow, orange, pink, and purple. Use them for high-energy copy.

Cool colors such as blue and green elicit serenity. Use these colors for low-energy copy about soothing things such as nature.

 

Getting Into Form

Forms are a great way of capturing leads, but how many form fields should you use? How should you format them?

Try to stick with only 3 to 5 form fields, but use more if the extra questions are vital to the lead. Too many will overwhelm the reader and make them want to abandon and click away. Too few might make it look like you’re farming for e-mail addresses and nothing else.

Use drop-down menus and radio buttons to make it easier for viewers to select options. Don’t include unnecessary questions, but do try to “prime” them into answering yes. Start with something small, like an e-mail address, and build up to something more substantial. 

When they’ve realized that you have useful information, they’ll be willing to take that next step down the conversion funnel.

Work on your “submit” button at the bottom of the form. If it only says “Submit,” that’s a little boring. Try something a little more specific like “Learn More” or “Get Free Info.”

These lead capture forms will allow you to qualify leads based on the information they gave you. Are they B2B or B2C? What do they need? Are they buying, selling, or providing a service? Is it a government entity or subcontractor?

What are they interested in? Are they at the top, middle, or bottom of the conversion funnel? This is where a list (instead of an open field) helps process and categorize your audience.

 

What Leads To Conversions?

Now that you've taken the time to analyze your audience to see what they want from you, it's time to look into how ads can benefit your landing page.

For starters, we touched on PPC earlier. Pay-per-click ads are great in that they’re budget-friendly, efficient, and flexible.

They make it possible for businesses to generate interest and even hyper-target the specific type of customers they're going after. This results in effective traffic.

That’s a huge positive, but you should consider a few things before implementing the use of PPC. Certain tactics don't work, others should be altered based on industry, and plenty have proven themselves to be undisputed staples.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

  • Keywords are key to PPC, traffic, and therefore, conversions. Avoid generic phrases like "coats."
    • Even 2-word phrases like "women's coats" are better, but not ideal. Strive for more descriptive phrases, such as "red Patagonia women's raincoats." You'll get fewer clicks, but each one will be targeted, which means you only pay for valuable clicks.
  • Speaking of payment: set a daily budget, not a total one.
  • Ad size is important. Including a variety of banner sizes to use across AdWords is a smart idea.
    • Mobile leaderboard - 320 x 50
    • Leaderboard - 728 x 90
    • Square - 250 x 250
    • Banner - 468 x 60
    • Small Square - 200 x 200
    • Large rectangle - 336 x 280
    • Skyscraper - 120 x 600 or 160 x 600
  • Use ad groups to target each theme or keyword group, and eliminate the ones that underperform.
  • If you have a physical storefront, add the Call and the Map extensions to your ads. This will make them much more interactive and show your location to curious onlookers. You never know, maybe online visitors swing by your physical location.
  • Select the best times for your ads to be shown. This may require some extra testing effort and research, but if you know your target audience, this may become a little simpler.
    • For instance, if you're targeting college students, you may choose to target in the afternoon and evening. This could get you more clicks since most of them opt for morning classes.
  • It may also be helpful to create a Facebook account and incorporate that button into your PPC ad.

As you can see, there's a lot that goes into improving your conversion rate. This isn't even the beginning, but it's a solid start. The important thing is to always experiment and alter as necessary. Don't make the mistake of setting up a big, misplaced budget from the start.

 

Conversion Rate Optimization

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

Conversion rate optimization, or CRO, is the practice of measuring, analyzing, and coming up with new ways to optimize your landing pages to maximize conversions. 

CRO is based on data, which can be converted into information and knowledge. If you have bad data, the rest of your research is worthless.

  • Data - Discrete, unprocessed facts with no meaning ascribed to them yet.
  • Information - Data that’s been processed in a meaningful way to become relevant.
  • Knowledge - Insight gathered from multiple sources of information over time.
  • Wisdom - When good judgment becomes second nature due to knowledge and experience.

Try running along the conversion funnel and looking for any missing steps. Make the data cleaner, neater, and easier to understand before converting your data to information.

Before we get lost in the numbers, pull out a sheet of paper (or open a new document) and remind ourselves why we’re looking at our data and experimenting at all.

Why does this landing page exist? What is it supposed to accomplish?

Are you gathering new leads, or qualifying old ones into more targeted, more reliable leads that provide useful progress towards a sale? Are we at the top of the funnel, the middle, or the bottom?

Answer these questions and determine your KPIs (key performance indicators). Now you’re ready for A/B testing, which we’ll cover later.

 

Optimize Landing Pages By Conducting Tests

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

Remember in science class when you had to test your hypothesis?

You had to come up with a solid statement of what you expected would happen at the end of your experiment. If it wasn't accurate, you tried again, forming another hypothesis. That new hypothesis was based on new data gathered from the failed experiment.

You got better and closer to success every time you failed. Like a brand new puzzle piece, everything made more sense with every guess.

Well, the scientific method applies to everything — not just those science labs from so long ago. You use it for daily issues, interactions with other people, and business.

Each time you test your call-to-action, your headline, or the contents of a form, you're using the scientific method.

So, in certain circumstances, conversions don't matter as much. You're going to make mistakes at first, and that's what you want. Just make sure those mistakes aren’t drastic.

By being smart about controlling your experiment (time, funds, clarity), you can fail and still gather valuable data to implement in your final result.

Of course, there's a time and a place for everything. If your website is still under construction, or you're not even hitting 10 conversion goals per day, then it's too soon to begin testing.

At that point, you'd be wasting valuable resources on something inaccurate. So, finish the site and get some traffic. Make sure the foundation is solid before moving on to the testing.

Now that we've cleared that up, let's look at the testing process, step-by-step.

 

Setting The Stage

Before you test, you have to know what to test, so start by selecting the page with the highest bounce rate, or lowest conversion rate. Note, however, that a high bounce rate isn't always terrible.

Sometimes you have short pages with a CTA to download something. When visitors download it, they leave, hence the bounce rate.

Ideally, you want to select pages that aren't converting. Pages where people aren't getting past a click before they leave the page, if not the entire website altogether.

If you’ve set up your site correctly, you should have separate landing pages for PPC ads, backlinks, and social media. It helps when you know where your traffic is coming from. Don’t compare apples to oranges. Compare apples to apples.

If you're having issues finding this information, go to Content > Site Content > Landing Pages, and then select Comparison View.

 

Highest Paid Person's Opinion

This is the person that runs things, like the VP or marketing manager. If you have a marketing department, you already know how the highest-paid person always voices their opinion, making the most difficult choices at times.

A lot of the time, they have a point. They're the highest-paid person for a reason, after all. They don't want anyone taking on more than they can handle and using up resources. Still, sometimes you need to test things out to learn and alter.

So, to compromise, try limiting the sample size of landing page optimization tests. A lot of software allows you to limit to a specific number of visitors, so try selecting one that your opinionated coworker is comfortable doing.

As always, office politics can interfere with efficient work Remember, every member of your team has the same goal: improving landing page conversions. 

 

Area Of The Page

Even though you're greenlit, you’re still not ready to begin testing. Now you have to select the right area of a page. It's not enough to choose a page, you have to get specific, much like with keywords.

For instance, maybe there's a short landing page with a form on it. You'd want to test the form because that's your CTA.

Over time, you'll test the rest of the page, but it has to be bit by bit. This allows you to make changes in each section that you test as you gain more insight. Make too many changes to an entire landing page at once, and you'll have too many variables to test.

Things become unclear, and it's not as accurate. Talk about squandering resources.

Here are some of the things you should test at some point:

  • Headline - It needs to capture attention from the start.
  • Body Copy - Short, direct, offers a specific solution to a problem.
  • CTA - Convincing, strong, solid.
  • Offer - It should be something people actually want. If testing shows they don't want your offer, try changing it. Note, that videos and courses have a higher conversion rate than bland ebooks. If you opt for an ebook, make sure it's interesting and helpful.
  • Form - Gathers data, fulfills conversions, and allows you to contact visitors later. When testing this, you want to do more than just change its look or color. Change the fields, the designs, and even the phrasing a little bit at a time while testing.
  • Trust Logos - Try testing a different mixture of logos, like PayPal Verified or Bill Me Later. These convey trust, but some logos work better than others. Experiment as you go.
  • Video - Professionally shot and edited video adds a whole new element to your landing page. It can become more than just another wall of text. Try testing some video content out if you have the skills and tools required to make it high quality.
  • Live Chats - Unless you always have someone ready to chat, this is a negative for your business. Here's why: whenever your live chat shows "unavailable," it gives the impression that you don't care about visitor questions or concerns.
  • Directional Cues - These incorporate a face, an arrow, or another object that draws people's attention to the CTA, the copy, the headline, or all of those things. Are they working? Find out with heat maps.

 

Testing Methods

Ask yourself:

  • Who’s the audience?
  • What’s being tested?
  • When will the test run? Weekends, holidays, workweek…
  • Where on the site and what circumstances?
  • Why are you running the test? What’s your hypothesis?

Determine your metrics and spell out the hypothesis you want to examine. If (the change) then (expected impact) because of (the rationale).

For example:

  • If I change the font from Comic Sans to Ariel in the heading, conversions will improve because the page will look more professional.

Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? Well, you won’t know until you try it. Don’t take anything for granted. That’s why you should test when we optimize.

Determine how to improve landing page conversions with simple, methodical testing. Think in terms of science. There’s a common notion that science isn’t intuitive. It is. It’s intuition backed by empirical data.

Now that you know what to test, and the pace at which you'll do it, it's time to select how you're going to test everything.

There are two common ways to test: A/B and multivariate. Let's learn more about each.

 

A/B

This is the most common testing method, the one you read about in all the guides and blog posts. There's a reason for that: it's efficient at letting you compare two different versions of a page. This method works even better when a single thing has been changed.

You want to limit the number of variables, so try not to change several things at once.

To A/B test, use free tools like Google Optimize. These tools might require you to fill out some fields of information, such as minimum time for the experiment to run, or confidence threshold. Once you're done, you'll be able to add variations.

That means you can change elements on your landing pages and test for the best possible outcome.

In a controlled environment like this, where you have the option to test more than one element, it's smart to do so. It's free and efficient.

It does work with code, so you can also do it yourself. Otherwise, send an email to the site administrator. Google validates the code, so if it isn't working, you’ll get an error message. Don't ignore that message, as it could skew your testing.

 

Multivariate

This is the more complicated testing method, hence why A/B is so much more common. However, it's worth it: multivariate testing gives you faster results and allows you to test several elements on one page at a time.

In other words, you don't need to adhere to the golden rule of testing in increments here. Multivariate testing is designed for more, which explains the name.

If you want to implement multivariate testing, you can do so with Google Optimize as well, following the same steps as with A/B. However, it isn't as efficient this way.

It's difficult to recommend a way to do this type of testing because it requires large amounts of traffic. This allows you to see increases, or losses, in a short amount of time.

So, if you're up for it and have the traffic to do it, give multivariate testing a try with tools like Visual Website Optimizer.

 

What Not To Do

Avoid common mistakes such as calling the test early. Testing until you have a 95% significance, within the confines of your budget.

Try not to impose your own assumptions on the results. This isn’t an election or a baseball game. You’re not here to “call” the winner and get a prize. 

Be sure you have:

  • A sufficient sample size — enough data to make a call.
  • Multiple cycles at varying times of day, days of the week, and even weather where applicable. You want a representative sample of website traffic, not just whatever’s most convenient.

Check for any confounding variables that could skew the data. Did you run the data during a major world event? Did you run the test for a couple of days and give up, or did you run it for the specified number of weeks?

Was your test programmed correctly? Watch out for artifacts. An artifact is the result of human or technical error, not representative of true data. 

 

Value Proposition

Believe it or not, optimization isn’t all about testing, laying things out, designing forms, and forming hypotheses. It's also about providing value.

Without that value, there's no reason to test. People won't convert unless they feel that your offer is worth the clicks and time.

So, how do you go about designing your value proposition? By selecting one of these three types:

  1. Delivering specific benefits (increasing your ROI in six months, or it's free).
  2. Sharing how your product/service solves a problem in a way that's relevant to the reader.
  3. Giving visitors reasons to buy from you instead of going to your competition. You can do this by showing them how you stand out from the crowd.

Once you decide which approach you want to use, it's time to answer three questions in a jargon-free way. Be as natural and honest as you can when answering:

  • What are you selling?
  • To whom?
  • Why should they care?

As a bonus, don't forget to make the answer to the third question quantifiable. Use things like time frames or money saved by selecting your service/product. These parameters can make your offer that much more valuable.

Feel free to add things like testimonials, reviews, or specific guarantees. With the use of hashtags on social media, it becomes that much easier for your established customers to rave about you online.

 

Social Proof

When it comes to landing pages, nothing persuades your audience like social proof.  Human beings are wired to look to their peers to determine correct behavior. Think “monkey see, monkey do.” 

Social proof is so powerful that a user-generated review can be over 12 times more effective than a manufacturer’s description. 

No matter how much detail you provide, it’s not effective unless you provide testimonials and reviews from real customers. The ideal candidate is someone who benefitted from following your CTA and reaping its rewards.

Try to create urgency by highlighting how many units have sold recently, or how many you have left. Think about how many times you’ve seen a product on Amazon and read the words “Only 1 left in stock.” You might have thought that you’d better hurry up and order it. That warning creates urgency.

A line that shows a running total (updated in real-time) also highlights just how many people are buying your product, subscribing to your service, or adding themselves to your email list. There’s no limit to what you can do.

If you see posts that make your offer shine that much brighter, showcase them. Just make sure to thank the customer who originally posted it.

Once you're done, take a step back. This is the copy that’ll wind up on your landing page. It may be altered for clarity and tone, but it's your first draft, so congratulations. You're on your way to an optimized landing page.

 

Flesch-Kincaid Test

You don’t want to talk down to your audience, but you still need to speak their language. That’s where reading scales come into use.

The first scale is a score from 1 to 100, where the higher the score is, the easier it is to read. You can find this on sites like Grammarly, and the scoring is straightforward.

The other scale is a little trickier. It decides which reading level your writing is at based on sentence length and how many syllables are in each word. In addition, this scale might examine sentence structure and highlight complex phrases.

Grammarly also does this for free. 

In general, you want a score between 8th and 10th grade for most marketing materials. However, conventional wisdom states that something closer to a 6th-grade reading level works better.

That’s not because your audience is uneducated or ill-informed. It’s a matter of how much effort it takes to process the information in your copy. 

If a person has to think about the meaning of your copy too much, they might give up and leave your site.

Just remember that it takes more than copy. Value is conveyed in many ways, including images, videos, trust logos, and more. If you need a refresher, scroll back up to earlier sections of this guide.

You can also learn how to clarify your unique selling proposition in your copy here.

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

In The Face Of Failure

Once you're ready to evaluate test results, it's time to analyze and react.

There will be four major categories that you're going to want to pay some extra attention to. These categories will make the results easier to figure out.

 

#1 Bounce Rate

A bounce rate above 75% means your visitors aren't finding anything of interest on your page. There's a disconnect somewhere. Maybe the visitors landed on your page because they were promised a solution to a problem, but they got something else instead.

Maybe your copy doesn't read well or doesn’t state how your offer is relevant.

 

#2 Traffic

People coming from Twitter want short, simple copy. Those coming from Facebook want something more informative. Those from LinkedIn want as much value and actionable information as possible.

In other words, the platform users come from will determine what those users want from your landing page. Just remember that you can't please everyone.

 

#3 Conversion

Compare different versions side by side. Which element was changed for the better? Which one failed to perform? Conversion rates can drop as a result of changes, so be sure you know what's causing them to plummet. Change it back, or try another method as you see fit.

 

#4 Behavior

People don't measure or focus on behavior often. It's not just about conversion rates and traffic, it's about what visitors are doing on your landing page.

The best way to find out what they're doing is by using heat maps. Crazy Egg is famous for providing some of the most useful heat maps, which show you the actions taken by visitors.

The best part about heat maps is that they show you the mouse movements. You can find out where cursors linger, what they skip, and where they get stuck.

That's important. If your visitors find something that's obstructing them from converting, you need to address it.

Most of the time, these bottlenecks are caused by unclear content and a lackluster value proposition. If your landing page feels like a mismatch of content that doesn't all work together toward a common CTA, that's the issue.

Learn the copywriting secrets that experts use to boost on-page conversions here.

 

Optimize Landing Pages By Knowing Which Tools To Use

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

You might have already created a landing page or two. If so, you're probably reading this guide ‌to improve what you already created. If not, you might even be in a better position.

Whatever your story is, you'll benefit from a list of helpful tools that can make landing page creation that much easier.

Let's take a look at some page builders to start:

  • Instapage - This resource features templates for different uses, such as click-through and lead generation. It also learns based on your visitors, making testing that much easier.
  • Unbounce - This is a popular resource because it allows people to build and test landing pages without the need for an IT department. It's a paid tool, but it's not the priciest, so don't eliminate it from your list of possibilities if you can help it.
  • Wordstream - This tool features landing page elements, a form builder for leads, and even themes to split test. Its drag-and-drop editor makes it even more user-friendly.
  • Launchrock - A social and list-building placeholder, this page builder has some pretty useful tools if you want to try the "get X sign-ups, get Y" approach. It's also free to use.

Since building a landing page isn't enough, take a look at these testers:

  • Optimizely - Great for beginners, with low monthly prices and a trial period. Still, it won't give you the most advanced tools unless you're looking to shell out a few hundred dollars each month.
  • HubSpot - HubSpot is well-loved for a reason. They're super knowledgeable. Their tracking and testing service lets you handle different testing segments based on each of your buyer personas. This lets you better gauge the effectiveness of your page changes. However, it isn't cheap.
  • CrazyEgg - This heat map tool is useful because it allows you to see everything your visitors do and don't do. If they don't care for your new banner, you'll know. If they love your offer, you'll know. If they think your video is terrible, you'll also know.
  • Ion Interactive - A very expensive solution to testing, so don't you might not want to use it unless it's well within your budget. The reason it costs thousands of dollars per month is because it's very intricate, featuring just about everything you'd need for testing.
    • If you want to give it a shot and see your page score based on a 13-point checklist, try out their free trial.
  • The Five-Second Test - Visitors decide if your page is worth their time within seconds. This resource will give you that insight in just five short seconds.
    • See what visitors see and what they think. This is invaluable if you're trying to make a good first impression.
  • Usabilla - Captures user feedback on any device so you're well-aware of bugs, faulty features, and more. This is something that sets Usabilla apart from most other testing resources available, and it proves super useful.
  • Pingdom Site Speed Test - This is an essential tool for testing website speed. You want your landing page to load up quickly. Especially since the drop-off rate rises by 1% for every 100 milliseconds people wait.

If any of this seems a little too complicated or time-consuming, you can always hire outside help, such as consultants.

 

Mobile Compatibility

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

Three out of four users are on a mobile device the first time they access a site. They might be on their break, on a morning commute, or researching a product while they’re in the store looking at it.

People are twice as likely to buy something from a store if they look it up on their phones. They like having that confirmation that they’ve made a good choice. 

Consider the size of your website buttons and form fields. People waste a lot of time fumbling to select the right field to fill in their name and address. They might even hit the wrong button and be sent to the wrong part of the site.

The size of your buttons should be around 10-22 millimeters (or 40 px) if you want to avoid these kinds of mistakes.

Mobile compatibility is essential to landing page optimization in our smartphone-saturated environment. That split-second judgment when they see the top of your site “above the fold” will make or break you.

 

The Benefits Of Optimized Landing Pages

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

Landing pages make it easier to determine where your web traffic is coming from. You can find out which ads, targeted keywords, and affiliate sites are bringing in the most volume.

First impressions are essential. In pre-civilized times, a split-second decision could make the difference between life and death. Society is a lot more complicated now, but our brains are still wired for quick judgments.

Landing pages need to be intuitive and easy to navigate. Short paragraphs and lots of bullet points guide the reader along and prevent their eyes from getting tired.

A variety of media such as photographs, videos, and interactive graphics also prevent brain fatigue. Always test content on multiple devices (especially mobile) to make sure you’re not slowing download times.

A landing page is a lot like an elevator pitch. The average time spent on a page for a desktop user is 150 seconds. When they’re using a mobile device, it gets even shorter. Try 72 seconds. What can you do in a minute or two?

Use headlines and sub-headlines to draw attention to the most important information, such as the CTA. 

Depending on what you’re offering, you might want to put the CTA above the fold. People will see it in the first few of those precious seconds before they decide to leave the page.

For more complex solutions, people need to learn more about you first. Putting the CTA closer to the bottom will help you achieve this goal. This is where the A/B testing comes into play.

If you want to know how to improve landing page conversions, take this advice to heart and get started. Whether it’s tweaking the colors of a CTA button (if it makes any difference at all) or shortening a headline, even the smallest changes can create a big boost in conversions.

 

Invest In Your Landing Page

How to optimize your landing pages with conversion-centric copywriting

Like it or not, first impressions matter, especially in business. What you do to get your potential customers' attention sets the stage, and they know it.

That's why a well-designed landing page can increase your numbers so quickly. When used properly, it's an incredible tool.

 

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