The most overlooked area of marketing optimization is the landing page. Landing pages are a little more difficult in e-commerce environments because of the OMS and shopping cart, but you’d be surprised at how offers, ratings, and trust badges can increase shopping cart conversions.
However, multi-step e-commerce, as in the case of high-ticket exercise products, can start the sales process with landing pages. This is where you can really goose up your response rates and sales.
Consider testing hero images, different form field sizes, and even coming up with variations of words on the submit button. The color scheme of the page can be tested, but the headlines are a BIG area for optimization. Your page headline is the big promise that catches the customer’s attention. It is front and center as soon as they click on the page, and it persuades them to continue learning more about you and your products.
Be sure to craft your landing pages in terms of ‘benefits to the reader’.
There are some great tools out there like Optimizely and Unbounce who use applications to make changing out creative elements super easy.
Just make sure you’re judging things on a statistically 90% confidence interval. If you don’t have enough data, you may kill an image or form that would have made more sales for you over time.
Here’s our basic scorecard for the best practices in landing page testing (and a whole section just for e-commerce):
☐ We know our conversion rates on the landing pages
☐ We test multiple times during the year with a goal to beat the control
☐ We conduct tests as A/B split tests against known traffic sources
☐ I have a testing calendar that tracks scheduled, calculated test runs on an on-going basis
☐ Over time we know which hero image and headlines get better responses
☐ We test form field, videos, and other elements within the page
☐ We measure sales changes based upon improved landing page results
E-commerce
☐ I measure bounce rates, by channel for all my incoming traffic/visitors
☐ My car abandonment rates have changed over time
☐ I know at what point in the checkout process cart abandonment usually typically occurs
☐ I have a persistent shopping cart for return visits to promote conversion
☐ I test cart components like promotions, completion timers, and page length for conversion optimization
☐ I use a reputation management solution for product ratings, accuracy in product/service reviews
In marketing, testing and optimization are kings! If you know what is working and what is not, you can better create and position your campaigns to drive sales. And, in today’s e-commerce-driven world, keeping a pulse on what exactly is resonating with your audience and compelling them to click is key. The only way to master your health brand’s message is by being intentional and critical of your landing pages. Even if something is working, it is still a valuable exercise to test other elements to see if you can increase conversion rates. The more data you can collect over time, the more you inherently learn about your target audience and how to move them to buy. With this actionable insight, you will be better positioned to drive improvements in other areas of how you market and how you convey your brand’s core message.
