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Landing Page Optimization: Sell more by spending less

admin — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:07:25 +0000

I had great fun talking about Landing Page Optimisation at Bizcamp Newry. It was a great event and well done to the crew for organising it. Below, is part one of my presentation. Part two can be found here.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is the webpage you direct traffic to from a specific email, ad or piece of marketing. Its goal is to convert that traffic into sales or sign ups.

On the right is a landing page:

If I asked you right now to hand over your credit card would you do it?
Feeling nervous? Why? What do you mean you need more information?

Some information you are looking may include:

Who are you?
What am I buying from you?
Is the service/product good?
Do I want it?
Do I want it now?
Can I trust you?
Who else thinks this is a good deal?

The tricky bit is to get the balance right; giving just enough information to get the conversion. Include too little or too much information, or add unclear messaging and you start loosing sales.

Typical components of a landing page are:
The typical components of a Landing Page are:

The Primary offer

The primary offer
The total solution being offered
Headline
Sales copy
Image(s)
Pricing
Call-to-action
And anything to indicate a limit (number, time) to the offer.

Here is an example of a landing page for the site Rudder.com. It comes from a case study by WiderFunnel.

In this case study Rudder redesigned their landing page to try and increase conversion.
The resulting page managed an amazing 45% increase in conversion.
So how did they manage it?

Here is the new landing page. Can you spot a few differences?

An article over on I am a landing page designer offers a good explanation why this new page converts so well.

The redesigned page swapped the main header copy and image positions – copy on the right, image on the left.
The value statements are in bullets along with check marks. An image of a lock is placed next to the security statement.
Lots of white space is used above the button to draw in the eye.
Button size is increased and the call-to-action text is much more descriptive.
A testimonial is placed directly underneath the button, as it gives that extra push.
2009 Webby Awards nominee icon is included along with an iPhone App notice and iPhone image.
As Featured in the Press, icons of CNBC, TechCrunch and Cnet, logos added to the bottom of the page.
The Truste icon was removed.
McAffee and Verisign logos are also added.

In summary, adding these visual references and clarifying the layout of the page gives the user confidence in signing-up for this service. Benefits are clearly outlined and, most importantly, we know that Rudder is free and secure; a vital element, not to be ignored when dealing with issues of personal finance. Rudder has since redesigned again.

Redesigning order pages for maximum conversion

Here is an example of an order page for a free Audiobooks Catalogue featured over on Which Test Won. The old version is on the right, new redesign is below.

As you can see, in the redesign, an image of what you are signing up for is added. The most interesting thing about this new page is what’s been taken away. Sometimes simplifying things is the best course of action. In this case, the new Landing Page is much better off for this decision, as users know exactly what this form is for. You must be absolutely sure that every item, piece of text or image you add to the order page, adds to a visitor’s knowledge about why they’re signing-up.

In the first page version, the left and right column had no relevance to the purpose of the page. At the very least, they distracted a visitor or at worst, led a visitor to click away from the order page without taking any action. The result? The new order page resulted in 42% more visitors registering for a free catalogue, a dramatic increase.

Clarity Trumps Persuasion

The answer then, lies in not making a form ask for fewer details but just enough to secure the sign-up. Shorter pages are not the goal either. They need to be long enough to make a sale. See how SEOMoz added $1million to their revenue with a longer sign-up page. What converts best, on any landing page, is clarity above all else.

Part two can be found here.

Give us a shout on info@toddle.com if you would like to discuss improvements to your landing pages.

Use Twitter to tell you when to send your Email Newsletter

Alan — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:53:24 +0000

You can get vastly different results from your email newsletter depending on what day and time you send it.
Guesswork, testing different times/days and carefully monitoring your email stats is normally the best way to find out but i have a great shortcut for you…Twitter!

This is how you do it.

First, go to http://search.twitter.com and type in a few keywords related to your industry. In this example the marketing manager of a hotel wants to target people looking for ‘hotels in Dublin’. This search shows all the people on Twitter talking about and looking for Hotels in Dublin.

Twitter very nicely gives you an RSS feed of these results in the top right hand corner. Copy the URL of this link.

If you have not already, sign up for a Google reader account.
Click the ADD A SUBSCRIPTION button in Google reader. Then paste in the URL of the Twitter RSS feed.

Click SHOW DETAILS in the top right corner and you will see a blank graph. After a few days this will show some fantastic data on what day of the week, month and time that people where talking about “Hotels in Dublin”.
This is a great time to send out an email offer about Hotels in Dublin.

Happy emailing.
Tell us how you normally find the best time to send your email?

Thanks to Chris S Penn for this great tip.

Bizcamp Presentation – Email to Sales, Conversion in Email Marketing

Alan — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:38:49 +0000

Bizcamp Dublin was an amazing day. Over 300 people came to the Guinness Store House to meet, share and inspire each other and it worked.
There was a wide cross section of people, from someone who sold their business for €135m to others who lost their job and are thinking about starting out.
I gave a talk on the day on what numbers to expect when doing sales via email marketing. Of course all business are different and achieve different results but this is something to be used as a guide against your own business and marketing efforts. If you are much lower then these numbers then you need to seriously look at what you need to change.
Keep reading the blog as I will discuss how you can improve and test conversion at each stage with a few tweaks.

The presentation was lo-fi on the day with just a flip chart and a marker. I prettied up the flipchart diagram for you here :)

Thanks to all who attended Bizcamp. You can find the other presentations on the bizcamp.ie site.

Email Marketing & SEO

Alan — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:55:08 +0000

I just came across this great video over on the great SEO site SEOmoz.org. Scott Willoughby discusses how you should approach your email marketing in the context of your overall marketing push. He also highlights what type of content and communication works best in email.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Email Marketing and SEO from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

Engaging with your Customers

Alan — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:43:00 +0000

Below is my presentation from the Netimperative Digital Roadshow – in the GUINNESS STOREHOUSE Dublin.
The talk was on
How to engage a two-way conversation
How to ensure the ultimate user experience

The talk is on websites in general but is as relevant if not more so to how you use email marketing and write your message.

Usability Presentation Netimperative Dublin

View more presentations from toddle. (tags: usabiliy user)

Christmas at Toddle

admin — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 05:06:28 +0000

If like us you have been busy getting client work out in time for Christmas, you have probably forgot about the deadline to post a Christmas card. I would love to say that this year is unique but every year we plan on something a little special and each year get caught out. Well this year we have a secret weapon. We have just launched Christmas Wrapping, a new Christmas email newsletter ready to send just before everyone finishes for the holidays. This year all our clients will go home warm and happy knowing how much we love and appreciate them.

To use the the Christmas designs simply log in to Toddle, click on Change design at the top of the screen and select the Christmas Wrapping Newsletter.

If you are looking for great Christmas imagery IstockPhoto have a great range from as little as $1. In fact I think your first image is free. Choose your image and upload to Toddle.

A good start to email newsletters

admin — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 23:15:49 +0000

Its hard to hide it. Here at Toddle we love our food. Bartek loves to cook and we love to eat it. Even if you are not a foodie it is hard to be attracted to the designer curves of some of the tools over at Quirky Kitchen. While I know personally I will never use them it doesn’t stop the urge to want to use them. Especially on their lovely sounding recipes. We will let you know if we persuade Bartek to try them.Michelle asked today on a forum how to improve responses she gets from the Quirky Kitchen email newsletter. Starting out she is doing all the right things.

Quote:

I’ve sent out four so far and used good graphics and competitions for pull – I’m tracking the click throughs using www.verticalresponse.com – which is good but I’m interested to know what’s the consensus – is short and sweet really less annoying – I think I convert about 10% into sales – how could I improve on that?

This seems like a good way to start the Toddle blog! Starting an email newsletter is simple. Keeping momentum however is where it gets hard. Why not set yourself small goals on improving your newsletter, who reads, who clicks and most importantly how many readers turn into paying customers. Challenge yourself in small ways and watch your newsletter turn into one of the most successful marketing tools you have.The most important thing Michelle has done is tracking. Without this you have no way to know how you are doing or how to make it better. There are a few tools for this. Vertical Response as Michelle suggests, Campaign Monitor have a fantastic one built in to their system. Most of the major email newsletter managers have tracking of some degree. Check out a few and go with the one that feels suits you best.Once you are happy create your first newsletter campaign and watch the statistics come back. Look at how many people read the newsletter compared to how many you sent it to. Who clicked the links for more information and who opened and read the newsletter a few times. Next post we will look at how to improve those numbers and help you point your audience where you would like them to go.