Landing Page Optimization and Growth Marketing

This week which is my halfway through finishing Growth Marketing Mini Degree from CXL, I started with Landing page optimization by Michael Aagaard. I have been always interested in Landing page optimization. I love the idea of how you can change a simple thing that could eventually lead to a higher rates. It is all about testing, researching, and thinking.

What is Landing Page?

A landing page does not mean your main page, product page, or contact page. A landing page is simply any page your user would land on. Could be your product or even a form to be filled, depends on your objective. Landing page optimization is all about converting your leads and moving them down the funnel.

Usually, you search for something using a search engine, PPC ad appears and you click on the result to reach the landing page of the website. Now it depends on the objective of the landing page whether to sell a product or ask you to fill a form.

There are six steps to optimizing a landing page. First, conducting a research which could be Qualitative or Quantitative followed by the second step which is Form hypothesis. Third is creating treatment and then conducting experiment moving to analyzing the experiment and finally conducting a follow up.

What is fast and slow thinking and how it relates to landing page optimization?

Imagine you see an equation like 2+2=?, how long does it usually take to answer this equation? Not long enough, right? But, what if we see an equation like 37*48+? Wouldn’t be easy like the first equation.

So, what is the difference between the two systems? System two just happens to us, 2+2=4. You didn’t think about it or analyze the equation, while system two requires analysis and can get you frustrated in the end. This leads us to the law of least effort which means requiring the least amount of effort to reach the objective.

Landing Page Wireframes

Wireframes is an important element when designing a website as it keeps the website in a hierarchy. There is many flows that you wouldn’t know about normally if you didn’t start with a wireframe. There are three important questions to ask when you are designing a website. Who are you communicating with? What do you want them to do? Where is the traffic coming from?

There are four levels of awareness, problem aware, solution aware, product aware, and most aware. What does these levels mean? Problem aware is when they are aware they have a problem but don’t know that there is an available solution. Solution aware is when they are aware that there is a solution to their problem but don’t know about yours. Product aware is when they are aware of your product but don’t know if it is right for them and finally Most aware they are aware of your product and they actually want it.

Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

There are two types of Research, Quantitative and Qualitative Research that can be helpful is designing your landing page and optimizing based on the research. Quantitative Research simply answer the question of what and where while Qualitative answer the question of why.

Copywriting and Landing Page Optimization

Building on the awareness levels which are Problem Aware, Solution Aware, Product Aware, and Most Aware. How can you use these levels and type a message that convert your target audience? First, Problem Aware. Start by elaborating on the problem, intro the solution and intro to your brand. Solution Aware, Walkthrough of your solution, benefits of your solution and intro to your brand. Product Aware, short summary of your solution and benefits compared to other ones. Most Aware, good offer and offer details.

There are parts of landing pages that leads to more conversion and that is usually more important than other. Focusing on these elements while not neglecting the other elements will lead to higher key performance indicators. So, what are the five top elements of landing page? Headline, Benefits and Features, Credibility, Expectation Manager, and Call To Action.

Starting with the most visible element which is the headline, it is important to message match your headline which means that there is a logical connection between the source and the headline. It captures attention, trigger dopamine and make users stay. Finally it communicate the value of your offer.

The final element and the most responsible for your conversion is your Call to Action. There are few rules that should be available in your Call to Action. Making sure that your call to action motivates the user to click, gives a clear idea of what happens when you click on the call to action, relevant to your conversion goal, starts with a verb, focus on what you get not what you part with, and finally set a realistic expectations.

Based on Research, it is well known that changing an element in your website can lead to an increase/decrease in your numbers even if the change is low. This change could be a text, place, or even a color of a button. Here comes the part of User Experience and User Design. It is important to optimize your landing page for your users. Know which color to user, how to write, and when to ask for information.

Users usually get frustrated when entering a website and with the availability of options for the users closing the tab of your website is the easiest thing to do and searching for a competitor. Make sure to conduct a research and not to base your elements on your assumption. Eliminate all of your assumptions, users are already out there telling you what they like and what they don’t. You can start with the hypothesis that has been proven to be right and start optimizing from there. Be aware of the differences between each industry and business.

This was my week 6 of CXL Growth Marketing Mini Degree, next week I will start the Channel Specific Growth Skills which includes most of the social platforms.