HackerSafe & The Power of Trust
I am often asked by people what sorts of items I would recommend testing on a landing page. There are no universal truths and your mileage may vary. However, there are common themes that work well across a range of industries. One of these is the use of trust and credibility indicators. These reduce anxiety for your visitors and increase their confidence when interacting with your landing page.
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Conversion Rates & The Value Of Outsourcing SEM/SEO
I recently got my hands on Marketing Sherpa’s newly released Landing Page Handbook. This detailed guide is packed full of industry information and practical case studies.
One of the things that jumped out at me was a table of conversion rate averages for different marketing tactics. The survey data was drawn from over 5000 active online marketers in a variety of settings.
In-house managed PPC Search - 3.84%
Outsourced managed PPC Search - 5.40%
Difference: 40%
In-house Natural Search Optimization - 2.62%
Outsourced Natural Search Optimization - 4.76%
Difference: 80%
As you can see, the outsourced conversion rates are much higher. Before I go any further, I must admit that this is not a scientific sample, and that self-selecting biases of various kinds are bound to obscure these results. We are not given any breakdown by industry or company sizes, or other critical information. However, at a high level the data makes perfect sense, since agencies must perform better to justify their fees and keep their client’s loyalty and business.
Agencies that are specialists in a particular area see a wide cross-section of accounts and industries among their clients and should be able to do a better job. This is not a slam at their hard-working and capable in-house counterparts. It is an acknowledgment that our industry moves very fast, and unless you have a whole organization focused on keeping up with the changes, it is very difficult to stay up on the latest developments.
Marketing activities are the engine of growth for a company. […] Read more »
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Your baby is ugly - why you need Landing Page Optimization now
My first SEW blog post…
All new parents think that their drooling, wailing, wrinkled little midget is beautiful - and that is as it should be. And the same seems to be true of landing pages. If an online marketing campaign is making money, this is taken as proof that the landing pages are beautiful and do not need any further improvement.
In fact, landing pages typically range from barely acceptable to horrible. They are often at direct cross-purposes with the desired conversion action and stated goals of the business. In this sorry state of affairs lies a terrific opportunity - fixing your landing pages can often lead to long-lasting double or even triple digit gains in conversion rate. This can change the economics of your business overnight.
Landing page optimization is no longer optional. It is one of the core activities that all online marketers must pay serious attention to. Landing page optimization spans the important topics of usability, copywriting, web design, and information architecture. But it also requires a proper grounding in math, test design, the messy realities of real-time marketing, and the organizational considerations required to build a testing program and mindset within your company.
I have covered these topics and more in my recent book Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions (John Wiley Press 2008). You can download the first chapter in PDF form at LandingPageOptimizationBook.com. The book even got a really nice unsolicited writeup from ClickZ’s Mike Grehan in his […] Read more »
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Your Baby’s Ugly - Why You Need Landing Page Optimization Now
All new parents think their drooling, wailing, wrinkled little midget is beautiful - and that’s as it should be. The same seems to be true of landing pages. If an online marketing campaign is making money, it’s taken as proof the landing pages are beautiful–and don’t need further improvement.
In fact, landing pages typically range from barely acceptable to horrible. They are often at direct cross-purposes with the desired conversion action and stated goals of the business.
In this sorry state of affairs lies a terrific opportunity - fixing your landing pages can often lead to long-lasting double or even triple digit gains in conversion rate. This can change the economics of your business overnight.
Landing page optimization is no longer optional. It’s one of the core activities that all online marketers must pay serious attention to. Landing page optimization spans the important topics of usability, copywriting, web design, and information architecture.
But landing page optimization also requires a proper grounding in math and test design. The messy reality of real-time marketing rears its ugly head. Organizational considerations required to build a testing program are key. You may need to change the mindset within your company.
I’ve covered these topics and more in my recent book Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions (John Wiley Press 2008). The book even got a really nice unsolicited writeup from SES London Chair Mike Grehan in his How To Avoid A Crash Landing column (and I didn’t even have […] Read more »
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