Conversion Heroes Part 7: Landing Page Optimization

In my interview with Tim Ash, we focus on touchdown web page optimization, the impacts of social media on conversion, and optimizing pages on a desert island.

1. Is 2010/11 the 12 months of conversion optimization?

Oli: Optimization has turn into a sizzling matter this 12 months, and the trade appears to be gaining a whole lot of momentum. Is it a fad, or an “about time” state of affairs?

Tim: Yearly must be the 12 months of optimization. This isn’t some form of essential mass factor like “the 12 months of cellular” or “the 12 months of video”. Conversion goes to the guts of on-line advertising and marketing profitability and by no means goes in or out of favor. Having mentioned that, there’s definitely much more consideration being paid to it this 12 months.

Oli: Are extra folks utilizing touchdown pages than a number of years in the past?

Tim: A touchdown web page shouldn’t be essentially a stand-alone web page. My definition of a touchdown web page is fairly broad: any web page the place site visitors lands on the way in which to a measurable conversion motion. This generally is a stand-alone web page, a micro-site, or a web page deep inside a bigger website.

The conversion motion can occur anyplace downstream of the touchdown web page. So the entire path between the touchdown web page and the conversion web page (or pages) must be optimized.

We’re seeing extra adoption of stand-alone touchdown pages, particularly for controllable site visitors sources like pay-per-click or social media campaigns. It’s all the time higher to create focused campaign-specific pages if potential.

Oli: Do you assume touchdown pages are evolving and getting higher? If that’s the case, what’s inflicting the shift?

Tim: I don’t assume that touchdown pages are evolving. There are undoubtedly fads, however these don’t represent an evolution.

Due to the rising availability of quicker Web connections, touchdown pages extra generally use wealthy media or video. However it’s typically being executed in a haphazard “simply because you’ll be able to” form of means, with no connection to the underlying conversion.

I’m afraid that there’s endemic ignorance on the market about what it takes to create high-converting pages. The lunatics are nonetheless operating the asylum.

Oli: The place do you see touchdown pages headed now that social media is vying for a a lot bigger section of the conversion expertise?

Tim: As persuasion skilled Dr. Robert Cialdini rightfully factors out, “social proof” or the consensus of like-minded friends generally is a very highly effective persuasion technique.

When a number of different folks just like us are taking a sure motion, it serves as a psychological shortcut for us as properly. We wouldn’t have to assume, we simply comply with together with the herd.

By personalizing the expertise and pulling in acceptable info from our prolonged social community, you’ll be able to skyrocket conversion charges. After all this must be executed with out being creepy in a big-brother form of means, with full disclosure and respect for private privateness.

Additionally, social info must be offered in an acceptable means that doesn’t dominate the touchdown web page. Sure you’ll be able to put an enormous block of Fb good friend’s photos in your web page, However does that imply it is best to? This would possibly take up a whole lot of helpful display screen actual property.

Equally, scrolling Twitter or Fb updates will draw consideration – generally inordinate quantities. Social proof is only one potential side of enhancing conversion. It mustn’t overshadow every thing.

2. Person Centered Design (UCD) vs. Conversion Centered Design (CCD)

Standalone touchdown pages see much less give attention to UCD on account of fewer interplay factors and navigational buildings, and whereas advertising and marketing conversion is an outdated matter, a brand new self-discipline of conversion centered design (or persuasion centric design) appears to be rising.

Oli: Do you see the relentless pursuit of conversion as being at odds with the need to offer a top quality consumer expertise, and the way do you strike a steadiness between the 2?

Tim: I don’t see them as diametrically opposed. Quite, usability and consumer centered design are a subset of on-line persuasion.

All touchdown pages ought to, by definition, be targeted on the consumer and serving to them accomplish their activity. However within the extra conventional sense, consumer centered design is extra targeted on activity evaluation, consumer interface controls, and knowledge structure. For conversion, you additionally want to know graphic design, copywriting, persuasion methods, testing and statistics, and quite a few different areas.

Oli: What sorts of persuasion units or techniques do you utilize when making an attempt to enhance the affect of your shoppers pages?

Tim: We give attention to ensuring that the design is skilled and has a clear and uncluttered look. All visible gildings must be minimized except they contribute on to the conversion motion. The visible priorities on the web page must be clear and the customer must be offered with a small variety of high-level selections.

We additionally appropriately current belief within the type of consumer logos, media mentions, testimonials, and awards.

3. Consideration Wizard

Consideration Wizard looks like an awesome device for verifying your designs, by illuminating areas more likely to get essentially the most consideration.

Oli: Are you able to give us an outline of Consideration Wizard, what it’s for, and the advantages it will probably convey to your touchdown pages?

Tim: One of many keys to designing an efficient touchdown web page is getting the visible design proper. However how have you learnt in case your design goes to be efficient?

A technique is to do eye-tracking research and see what persons are really . Nevertheless, it takes time and fairly a bit of cash to do that. One other means is to trace folks’s mouse actions in your web page and group many guests actions collectively right into a kind of “consideration heatmap”. That is efficient, but it surely requires time to gather this knowledge, and entails precise guests to the web page.

The third strategy is to simulate what folks will take note of on the web page. We all know fairly a bit about how visible consideration works within the mind, and through the use of a posh statistical mannequin we will create a prediction of what they may take note of. The output of that mannequin is an “consideration heatmap” overlay on the touchdown web page, exhibiting the areas the place visible consideration is more likely to be targeted.

That is clearly not as correct as eye monitoring or mouse monitoring, however it may be very efficient at diagnosing main consideration issues, and there are two large benefits to simulating visible consideration on this means. First, the outcomes are prompt, and might be utilized not solely to screenshots of actual pages, but additionally to design mockups earlier than the web page even goes dwell. Second, the price is minimal, particularly when in comparison with precise eye monitoring or usability research.

What AttentionWizard does is clearly illustrate the affect if the web ADD technology. By predicting areas which can be distracting folks we must always be capable of design extra targeted experiences.

Oli: How can AttentionWizard be used to extend conversions?

Tim: Consider it this manner – there’s good consideration, and there’s dangerous consideration.

Good consideration is specializing in the product picture or “hero shot”. It is usually any consideration on the headline or name to motion space. Unhealthy consideration is because of different distinguished visible parts on the web page that aren’t associated to the conversion. These sorts of pointless visible gildings typically compete for consideration and distract us from wanting on the desired parts on the web page.

AttentionWizard permits you to determine dangerous consideration, and decrease it by redesigning your web page. Equally, seeing an consideration heatmap could provide you with a warning that there’s not sufficient give attention to the essential elements of the web page. So you’ll be able to redesign and fine-tune your web page by repeatedly operating it by way of AttentionWizard till you get the main focus proper.

Oli: How a lot of the interpretation of the heatmaps is left as much as the consumer? In different phrases, do you see frequent or repeating patterns that may be mapped to recognized design issues?

Tim: There are frequent issues that we discover. Typically visible hotspots are fashioned merely by means of sturdy colours, and contrasting areas of the web page.

We additionally see an overuse of individuals pictures (skintones and faces), that are very wealthy sources of data in our surroundings, and can all the time get consideration hotspots the place footage of persons are on a web page).

We have now heatmap interpretation providers as a part of our interactive touchdown web page Specific Critiques, however in any other case the shoppers are on their very own to interpret and use the heatmaps.

Oli: What occurs subsequent? As soon as a consumer has a transparent show of what’s not engaged on their web page re: consideration, do you present a set of rules to assist re-stucture or repair the web page?

Tim: Every scenario is restricted. Visible consideration is just a part of the puzzle.

Touchdown web page optimization additionally entails your model, worth proposition, positioning and messaging, copywriting, psychology and persuasion strategies. So it’s not possible to offer common fixes for touchdown pages with out involving actual folks both by way of consulting best-practices, or by testing your concepts in your web site guests.

4. There aren’t sufficient folks utilizing touchdown pages

Oli: Do you’ve any recommendation for practitioners to persuade their bosses/shoppers to speculate extra in optimization?

Tim: Advertising investments ought to all the time be executed on an ROI foundation. It is best to fund these actions that drop essentially the most revenue {dollars} to the underside line. So long as the return is excessive, these kind of initiatives pay for themselves in a short time.

Communicate the language of economics (and never some form of techno-geek ghetto language), and it is best to be capable of get assist from managers and shoppers.

Oli: What’s worse, a poorly changing touchdown web page or no touchdown web page in any respect?

Tim: As I discussed earlier, my definition of a touchdown web page is fairly broad. However I consider you’re asking about stand-alone pages versus sending the site visitors to a web page on the company web site.

In that case, a stand-alone web page is often greatest. However there is no such thing as a motive it must be poorly changing.

A fast best-practices scrub and redesign of the web page can often repair lots of the issues.

5. The Desert Island Touchdown Web page Retreat

Oli: You’ve been despatched to a abandoned island to spend 1 month optimizing the world’s most essential touchdown web page. You could have a chance to convey 2 folks with you to help as you carry out your work.

• Chef
• Scientist
• Info Architect
• Designer
• Copywriter
• Marketer
• Physician
• Spouse/girlfriend

If you happen to may solely decide 2, who would they be, and why?

Tim: Spouse and girlfriend after all! That feels like essentially the most enjoyable so long as they’re getting alongside…

Severely, I might convey the 2 individuals who most intently matched the demographic of the meant target market. Their roles don’t matter.

I might ask them a whole lot of inquiries to uncover how they expertise the world, and what’s essential to them concerning the topic of the touchdown web page.

I might then mock up some crude wireframe designs and have them give their suggestions to uncover extra issues. What could be left after repeated refinements must be a reasonably strong web page.

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Due to Tim for being our newest Conversion Hero and sharing his skilled information with our weblog readers.

Extra Conversion Heroes

Half 1: Roberta Rosenberg on Copywriting for Landing Pages
Half 2: Dan Martell on Social Media Conversion
Half 3: Paras Chopra on Split Testing
Half 4: John Hossack on PPC
Half 5: Chris Goward on Conversion Rate Optimization
Half 6: Cindy Alvarez on Point-of-Conversion Feedback
Half 7: Tim Ash on Landing Page Optimization