Landing page optimization is about people, not products. You need to explain how you will change people’s lives, not what you will sell them. To do that, you need to get into their heads until you know them better than their own mothers.
Mothers have an uncanny ability to buy birthday presents that are almost perfect. You enjoy saltwater fishing, and she buys freshwater lures. You enjoy red wine, and she buys white. Moms are amazing, but it’s a good thing they’re not marketers.
You, savvy marketer, need to know if your customer wants red or white, marlin or trout, or software or hardware. More importantly, you need to dig into their minds to know why they want these things.
Know who you’re talking to
How well do you know your customers?
Be honest – are you making assumptions about them? Parroting what others have told you? You have probably spent more time with the person who cuts your hair than you have with the people who send you money.
If that’s true, it’s OK. It’s true for most marketers. But we want you to be better than most marketers. We want you to optimize landing pages and beat most marketers.
Your landing pages need to talk to people’s motivations and emphasize the benefits they desire. To understand someone that deeply, you need to spend time with them.
Know why they want
First off, you don’t need to hire a big shot agency to launch a massive research project to understand your customers. Will the project help? Sure. Is it necessary for a killer landing page? Nope.
You just need to talk to customers, and I don’t mean through a computer. Get them on the phone. Meet them in person. Sit down and ask them questions. Here’s a good one:
Why do you buy from us?
Once they answer, ask: Why is that important to you?
The goal is to understand why, on an emotional level, someone buys from you. Will it advance their careers? Give them confidence? Eliminate the smell of tacos from their cars?
Here are other questions to ask:
- How do you use our product?
- What’s the best thing it’s done for you?
- What challenges does it solve?
- Why did you choose us over competitors X and Z?
- Was price a large issue? Why or why not?
If you’re lucky enough to have a good product team, then it has already asked these questions. Ask to see the research. If you’re at a smaller company, you’ll have to pick up the phone and interview 20 customers or so. You won’t believe how much value it will bring.
Put it on the page
Keep gathering information and talking to people until you see patterns. You’ll probably have two or three types of customers with different motivations – which is good. Now you can segment and talk to each group directly. Cha-ching!
Remember though: information doesn’t do anything – that’s your job. You have to use it like a tool and optimize your landing page. Emphasize the motivations you uncovered. Show the benefits. Tell people why they want to buy.
You won’t have to guess anymore. You’ll know, and your conversion rates will prove it.
Your landing pages need to talk to people’s motivations and emphasize the benefits they desire. To understand someone that deeply, you need to spend time with them.
It’s seems there is a broken link at “emphasize the benefits”.
Really good stuff.
Priceless ! Thank you!
Here are two simple questions we should ask before creating a landing page. The “elephant in the room” here is that one landing page probably isn’t going to work, as different people respond to different ads, and thus need a different landing page. What you know about them will make all the difference in your conversion rates.
Well said. Thanks for sharing.