EP. 69- 6 LANDING Page TIPS to Instantly Boost Results! Jay’s Scoop

Welcome to do this, not that, the podcast for marketers. You'll walk away from each episode with actionable tips you can test immediately.

You'll hear from the best minds in marketing who will share tactics, quick wins, and pitfalls to avoid. Also dig into life, pop culture, and the chaos that is our everyday. I'm Jay Schwedelson. Let's do this, not that. Welcome back to do this, not that.

Really excited for today's episode because we are going to tackle something today that every marketer, business or consumer struggles with. The thing that's bananas to me. We're going to be talking today about landing pages, destination pages.

Wherever you take people that are clicking on your emails, your social posts, your search ads, wherever you're taking them, to that page that has that offer where they're trying to buy something, subscribe to something, download something, you want them to fill out that form. The thing that blows my mind is that the abandon rate, the rate in which people leave that page, that destination page.

For both business and consumer, abandoned rates on landing Pages are over 90%. I don't know why marketers think it's normal that 90% of the people that just took an action.

If 100 people got an email and they clicked on it and they go to your landing page for the offer that they were just interested in, and then more than 9 out of 10 of those people, right, 90 out of 100 of those people would just leave and never buy, subscribe, download. That is your abandon rate.

And it is ridiculous that it's that high because they're interested and the reason they're leaving is there are little things that you could be doing on your landing page, on your destination page that can actually dramatically increase the number of conversions that you're able to get. So I'm going to take you through six really easy, quick landing page tips that'll increase your conversions by over 40%. All right?

And they're so small that you may be like, that's ridiculous. That's not going to matter. And it's all about testing. And we have run a zillion bajillion campaigns.

We do 6 billion emails a year, a ton of different social programs and search programs, and this is the output of all of that. So first off, let's talk about the power of the same primary image. When you send out an email, in that email, there is a hero image of something.

When you have a social post, there is a hero image of something. Could be a person, it could be a product, it could be the picture of a guide you want them to download, it is a hero image.

When the person clicks on that email, when they click on that social post and they go to the destination page, the lead image on that page must be that same primary image that you had in your email or your social post.

When that primary image is the exact same image, or at least pretty close to the exact same image that was in the originating promotion, that email or social post, we see conversion rates go up by over 15% than if that same prime image is not there. Why does that work so well? Because basically what happens is, subconsciously, we all get a little bit nervous.

We get something we're interested in, we click on it and. And then we get to the page where the offer actually is, and then that picture's not there. And you're kind of like, am I in the right place?

Is, did I land in the wrong place? And if you don't see that image, you don't want to respond. So that's an easy one.

The next one, I think almost every marketer overlooks, and that is how long it takes to get to your destination page.

What I mean by that is you send yourself a test email when you're setting up your campaign, and you get that test email, and you click on the link in your test email in your inbox, and you go to the landing page that you've set up for this campaign, and everything works. You're filling out the form, you're like, okay, great. I feel really good. This campaign's ready to go out the door, right? And you do the same thing.

Maybe if you have a search ad or social post, you test it, you click on the link, whatever. But especially for email, there's a problem that occurs.

We don't realize it, but because of all the different tracking elements that we are utilizing for our email campaigns, we're putting on so many redirects, these tracking links. So that way, when you do send out the email and somebody clicks, you're able to capture the click information and all this other information.

But the problem is that that time it takes from the time you click to get to the landing page can actually be the deciding factor of whether or not somebody decides to fill out the form. And the issue is your landing page. You've been to your landing page before because you created it. It is cached in your computer.

And all these redirect links, you've been messing around with them for weeks. They're already baked into your computer. You don't know when you have a Loading issue.

So what you want to do is open up an Incognito browser or you want to have somebody else in your department or somewhere else that basically their computer is kind of like a fresh computer, right?

So you open up an Incognito browser and you click on that link, you put that link within that Incognito browser and then you go to your destination page. And unfortunately, you're going to be shocked.

Going to be shocked because it's going to take a few seconds sometimes for you to get to your own destination page because of all the redirects that are taking place. And here's the stat that's a crusher.

Anytime it takes more than three seconds, more than three seconds to go from the originating email to the landing page, you will lose 30% of your traffic. Have you ever done that? You get an email, you click on something, it takes a second or two, you're like, ah, what is this? And you're out of there.

But you don't know it as a marketer because it's already baked into your computer. So you want to load that income cognito browser or have somebody else and say, how long did it take? Did it feel weird?

And if it does take too long, you got to back off some of those tracking links because that can be a total mess. All right, we're going to rip through these a few more that actually are holding back your performance. And all this will be in the show Notes.

So I know I talk really fast, but I want to give you some of these tips that actually can make an impact. Another one is how many fields you're collecting on your landing page forms.

You know, I would love to collect every element about every person when they come to my forms and they fill stuff out. But people get turned off. They get turned off when they get to a form and there's just a lot of fields. They get like, oh, I can't be here.

Every additional must fill field, those are those fields that you have to fill in or else a person can't get to the next thing or can't buy, subscribe. Do every additional must fill field that you ask somebody to fill in. You will lose 8% of your registrants.

So do you really need state, for example, if you're getting zip code? I don't know. Do you really need to ask their interest? You really need to ask their title if you ask their job function? I don't know.

But just realize that every additional must fill field is crushing your performance. Crushing your performance. Speaking of fields.

Another tip, if you are collecting more than eight fields of information, more than eight fields of information, you must make it a two step process.

You, you know the two step process where it shows a certain number of fields and then it shows you kind of the, the bar of how far along you are in the process and then it flips it to a second page with four more fields. And the reason being is if someone gets to a page and they see just eight fields, they instantly feel like that's homework. It is a turn off.

They this is why your abandon rate is so high. You always have to put your own hat on. Be like, does this feel like fun? No, it doesn't at all.

The other most random thing on your landing pages and your destination pages is the idea of zigzag forms versus straight down forms.

When you get to a page and the form is zigzag, where you're at putting in information left to right and then left to right and left to right, as opposed to all the fields just going straight down. Zigzag forms do not do well. They're visually not appealing. They're really tough to get people to interact with.

So if you do a straight down form versus a zigzag form, you actually see about a 15% increase in overall registrations, which is pretty cool. And the other interesting one, the last one really is a combo, is your closing argument.

They're going now, they're thinking about buying subscribing, asking for that free quote, whatever it may be, and they get to the bottom part of your form. The bot part of your form is so, so, so important. There's two things you really want to think about.

First off is that button, the actual button, the submission button on your destination page. What does it say? If it says submit, please stop listening to this. Get rid of that word. I will talk about this forever. That is a weird word. Submit.

Makes no sense. What you want to do is take whatever your offer is and repeat it right there on that button, that submission button.

If it's in it for an insurance offer, it's get three free quotes now. Because that's your offer and that's literally what your button says. If it's for a free guide, it's get my guide now.

Or if it's a discount, save my 20% now. Whatever it is, you repeat that offer, it is your closing argument. And when the person clicks it, they know that they're going to get that thing.

They get excited. It's way better than submit.

When you repeat Your offer in that call to action button, in that submission button, we see registrations go up by over 17%. That's a super no brainer.

And then the last piece to think about, right there in that same spot, either below or right off to the side of that last step button, that conversion button, you want to put a testimonial, just one testimonial, right? These are the most comfortable socks ever, said Sidney. Okay, this is the most important software in our martech stack, said Bill.

Whatever it is, you take one quote, one testimonial, every company has one quote and one testimonial. You put it right next to that conversion button, you put it right below that button.

And what it does to that person who's looking at it, it is the closing argument of why they should buy, subscribe, download with your business. It gives them that last vote of confidence, right?

So having that testimonial right there at the point of should I or should I not do it is going to get you a huge boost in overall performance.

All right, so before we get into the ridiculous portion of this podcast, which is called since you didn't ask, I want to tell you about something new. Something new I have for you all. This is actually pretty cool.

Now, if you're not aware of Marigold's consumer trends index, you are missing out. I rely on this piece of content every single year because the information they get fuels so many of the tests that we do.

I'll give you a great example. You know, I think about what is more valuable. Should I be running social media ads? Should I be doing SMS messages? Should I be doing email?

And in the last year, for example, it shows that email had a higher purchase rate originating from email than any of those other channels. And there's a zillion other elements in this trends index.

Since you didn't ask, I had a dilemma this week and I think I'm a horrible person and I need to know if I'm alone. I really might be alone in this one. All right, so here's what happened. This really happened.

So a buddy of mine butt dialed me or pocket dialed me, okay? So my phone rings, I see it's my buddy, who haven't talked to him in a couple weeks, whatever, And I pick up and go, hello, Hello. And nothing.

But I could hear his voice, and I could hear him talking. And then, you know, it's one of those situations where it's like, oh, he didn't mean to call me. And, But I could hear him.

And I, first off, I do, I do the old. I try to yell into phone hello and hello. And he yelled his name to see if he could hear me. Of course you can't hear me.

But then I get into the dilemma of life. Do I just hang up because he didn't mean to call me, or do I eavesdrop and listen and try to hear what he's saying or what he's doing?

And I found myself listening and I was like, what the hell am I doing? What is wrong with me? I'm a bad person. I'm, like, trying to, like, get the inside on this dude's life. And that's not right. But I did it.

And now I'm having this, like, moral dilemma. I, oh, I had another moral. Why do I have so many moral dilemmas? So I had another moral.

I didn't even think about talking about this, but another moral dilemma this week. And maybe you have this problem. So when I go to the supermarkets, there'll be some items that I always buy, right? There's this new kind of.

It's like, not like a soda. It's like a healthy soda of some kind. I forgot what it's called, but it's like, I don't know, probiotic or something.

Anyway, it's always selling out at my supermarket. So I'm at the supermarket and I get to the aisle where the soda thing is, and there's a.

There's only a few cans of it left because it's held by the can. It's very weird. And I, I, I wanted. I took all of them. I took all of them and I put them all in my cart.

And then as I'm walking away, I see this person go up to the same spot looking to see if there are any of them there. And there, of course there weren't, because they were all in my cart, because I took them all.

And I said, you know, I think I need to, like, sit down with myself because I should have left one. Isn't that what you're supposed to do? Like leave one. So that way when the person gets there, they're not totally disappointed.

Now what else I should have done, obviously, is go back to the person and say, hey, guess what? It's your lucky day. I'm going to give you one of mine. I didn't do any of that. I did none of that. I took them all.

I didn't go to the person and offer them one. I listen to my person, my friend. I eavesdrop on them when they, when they pocket dialed me.

I am having an intervention with myself about being a better person because these are two examples of me not being cool. It just is. It's the way it is. So this is my See, that's why I do this podcast. I need this moment to like, reflect and think about what?

How I could be a better human being. Meanwhile, if I'm putting the same situation next week with the soda, I'm probably taking it. I mean, who am I kidding? Anyway, whatever.

So thanks for being here. Please, if this thing wasn't horrible, give it a five star review. If it was horrible, I don't know, give it a 1. What am I going to tell you?

And we opened up registration for Guru Conference. It's open. Please register. It's free. It's virtual. The world's largest virtual two day email marketing conference.

Guruconference.com it's going to be awesome. And don't take the last soda. Thanks for being here. You did it. You made it to the end. Nice. But the party's not over.

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