But how does it apply to you and your design? Take a look at the circle to the right. All users are in some portion or slice of the circle.

1. Discovery – This is where the user is starting to realize the need or want something. A lot of times it comes down to find a solution for a problem they currently have. Example: My legs hurt when I run, but why? Turns out I need to get new shoes.

2. Research – Now the user spends time researching solutions to the problem. Example: What kind of shoes do I need? Running, cross training, basketball, do widths matter? I’m sure you’re getting the idea.

3. Options Weighed – At this point the user knows what they need. Now the problem comes in with which offering best suits them. Do i want the $130 Nikes, $110 Addidas, $95 pumas and so on again.

4. Decision – Finally the decision is made and all is good in the world. At least till the vicious cycle starts again.

The point I’m trying to make is this: Make sure your marketing efforts and page are going after the user in the same slice of the circle. This could provide a better ROI on your campains and well if you use the drawing of my diagram in a meeting you’ll look that much cooler.

As in example I got an email from John. The first sentence in this email says, “We need to get something like this going in our office.  Real-time, at a glance, accountability”… “Imagine is at any time we could glance over the wall and see how we’re performing…”

Now I may be playing devil advocate here but when I read that, I assume he found some type of monitoring system to look at how each one of us spend out day. When some one uses the word accountability, I think about how I hold my self accountable for my tasks. Now John wants to introduce something that’s going to do it do it for me… I’m not liking this idea and followed his email with a reply calling him “Big Brother” and what not.

Keep in mind, I haven’t even clicked on the link he had at the end of his email. Turns out that I really like this tool. And that it’s nothing like the impression I got from Johns email. What his email should have said was; I found this tool that we should use in the office. It’ll allow us to monitor the performance of our media campaigns and websites on a big LCD screen that we can all see from our desks.

Bottom line:  Web communication is a game of Semantics. We can’t assume that people know what were talking about. Especially when it comes to the content on a website, microsite or landing page. You need to be clear about why they are there, what it is, how it benefits them and what they need to do.

You are the Pitcher, the prospect is the batter and your website is the ball. Your goal is to pitch the perfect 90 mph fastball right down the middle of the plate so the batter can hit it out of the park.

Sounds easy right? But it’s not. There are two issues you’re going to run into. The first being the Batter having no idea what they are going to get when they visit your site. The second is you can’t yell out “Hey Batter, I’m throwing you one right down the middle, so hit it out of the park”.

It’s been mentioned in many industry blogs that you have about 5 seconds to show the batter what you’re throwing. So how do you make sure you are making the best out of your initial 5 seconds?

Doing the things below will greatly help:
1. Make sure your Value Prop coincides with the Ad they came from. Make it easy for the batter to connect the dots
2. Use a clean design with minimal distractions. Allow them to focus quickly.
3. Make the content easy to Scan and Read.
4. Finally make sure you take advantage of the design to draw the users eyes where they need to go.

Start with these things and you’ll be on your way to hitting your conversion rate out of the park.

For landing pages we have to remember that it is all about the user. We are not building the site for our use and interaction, but for that of the user. So before we build out the form and function of the page we need to step back and take the users prospective. Remember it’s not about us. The user doesn’t have to be on our site, and that at all times they are just one click away from leaving.

Focus on the User

We need to know who they are, what they want, what drives them to the site, and how educated they are. This is relative to EDU and these questions will change based on the vertical that the page is being built for.

What is the core message that we want to convey to the user? Once this is decided on, everything we decide to do must be weighed against it. The goal is to make sure everything we do helps enhance the communication with the user.

Storyboard the Page

Using a storyboard is a great way to map out start to end the function and purpose of the site, and provide a good view of what the user will have to do to reach the point of conversion. We should always ask our selves if there are too many steps, are there unnecessary steps, and are there too many distractions.

Things to Consider

Before creating a new landing page Answer these questions 4

1. What will the ads say that will lead people to the page
2. What keywords or search terms are being targeted
3. What needs will the Prospect have
4. What does/will the ad Promise

Before launching the site Answer these questions 5

1. What is the offer on the page?
2. Does it deliver on the offer made in the ads?
3. Is there a clear and simple way to get started
4. Is the page easily scan able and professional
5. Has a separate google analytics account been created for it

Things to look at in all our pages:

1. Make sure all links on the site work, and all images load properly
2. Make sure we are upfront on the purpose of the site and what visitors can expect from the site.
3. The value proposition must be clear.
4. There needs to be message match between the site and the ads
5. Make sure the page is organized based on why the user is here
6. Can anything be improved on the copy of the page
7. Do we need all the questions on the form? Can they be answered based on the ad campaign?
8. Should we have Video, Social Networks or Widgets on the page?

The Down Fall of Landing Pages: INACTION

Below are the top 4 reasons that landing pages lead to InAction:

1. No visual cue for action (missing a call to action)
2. Long winded pages and forms
3. No continuity between ad and copy on the page
4. Info overload

This was just the basics but a good place to start. I always find that when I work on pages that have already been built, if some of these basics were thought out, some sites wouldn’t be in the shape their in.

At the start of the month I had the privilege of attending the conversion conference and I have to say I like where it’s going. For me CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) was a few years ago. Companies are starting to realize that this is something they might need, yet don’t really know or understand why.

Because of this it’s important for a conference like the Conversion Conference to start to take shape. There will now be an event each year (hopefully) that allows for the gathering of the minds. Similar to SEO, CRO will thrive because of our ability to gain and share knowledge.

Below are a few of the many keys that the conference hit on:

1. Trust: This was part of the Keynote delivered by Tim Ash and I think he hit the nail on the head with this. As it stands right now, trust is a big issue on the web. And it’s something that every company can focus on improving, especially from a conversion point of view. With out trust, the user has no reason to interact with out sites.
2. Design: We all have good sites right? That’s why we paid designers thousands of dollars to make the site. Well if it’s not properly managing the users expectations then it might not be as effective as you thought. If it’s too much of a distraction it might not be as effective as you thought. This list could go on but you get the point.
3. Test: Test, test, test… There could be many things that cause a site not to convert well. Use tools too look at what those things maybe, and test changes. And I don’t mean just changing the colors of a button.

These are some of the things that were hit on in almost every session. All valuable and usable, and expect to see many more posts from me soon.

With that, I would say that the Conversion Conference was a huge success, and I look forward to next year.

When you focus on optimizing a certain campaign and page/site you need to look at the end results. There is no need to generate more leads if they quality and interest isn’t there and you close less deals.

Simple math:

Before: 2500 visits –> 75 leads (3% Conversion Rate) –> 5 closed deals

After: 2500 visits –> 125 leads (5% Conversion Rate) –> 4 closed deals

Now this is an example but something to be aware of. We have to pay more attention to just the click to lead conversion rate.

How do I carry this social reaction over to my websites and landing pages? It will be worth testing but it seems that there could be some success in utilizing Twitter and Facebook on landing pages and micro sites. Imagine how comforting is it to see images of people or friends that have just crossed the street that you are thinking about crossing.

In theory it sounds like a great idea. But like all things involved with conversion rate optimization, we need to test it.