Of Course … The Landing Page
Yesterday we talked about what to test in terms of making email campaigns more effective.
And I asked … What did we miss?
Reader Dawn Stoner could have said … DUH! Landing pages. But she was more polite, recommending as follows:
“Email landing pages!
Since goal completion (donation, action) takes place not in the email but on the landing page, if you focus only on optimizing email content and driving more traffic to a landing page that’s not been extensively tested, you’re missing a major opportunity to maximize conversions.
Similar to emails, there are numerous elements to test on an email landing page. Some of the most important are:
- Headline (how you frame the call to action)
- Main copy (how your value proposition is expressed)
- Photos
- Trust building content (ratings, security seals, etc.)
- Form length & layout
- Button design
- Ask string
- Single page or multi-step
- etc.
Dawn clearly knows what she’s doing, so I’m sure she’d agree with one additional point … if at all possible, drive your respondent to a dedicated landing page, where the ‘close’ message, imagery and gift purpose follows through on the triggering email message.
Understandably, not all organizations have the time/resources to create dedicated landing pages for every campaign. But you should find some occasion to make the effort and test a dedicated landing page against a generic conversion page. You might find it’s well worth the additional investment of energy.
Can anybody share your experience with testing landing pages?
Tom
2 responses to “Of Course … The Landing Page”
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Hey Tom- I haven’t done tests on landing pages myself but found this great series from 37 Signals on the tests they ran on their landing page: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2991-behind-the-scenes-ab-testing-part-3-final
I’ve never thought to test landing pages, but I suppose with test emails and PURLs, you would easily direct donors to different pages for a campaign. It’s certainly an important issue see as a donor can’t donate through an email – they have to go to a processing page and that’s where user experience can be a deal breaker. To me, single page versus multi-step process is the most important thing to consider. You want to make it as seamless as possible for someone to donate. Don’t bog them down with extra info or design.