Oli Gardner: 8 Tips for Rehabilitating Your Landing Pages
The first step is admitting you have a problem: your landing pages just aren’t up to snuff. It’s okay, really. Plenty of marketers struggle with nailing down all the details of their landing pages. That’s why Oli Gardner is here to help you. (After all, he’s the guy who’s seen more landing pages than anyone else on earth.) Oli is the co-founder of Unbounce, a company that provides a mobile responsive landing page builder to marketers. And he just so happens to be a “badass.” Go Inbound Marketing 2015, Oli delivered one of the more entertaining presentations of the entire day. Let’s dig into the insights he shared in “The 12-Step Landing Page Rehab Program.”
NSAMCWADLP
If there’s one thing Oli wants you to remember, it’s this simple acronym: NSAMCWADLP. Or, “Never Start a Marketing Campaign Without a Dedicated Landing Page.”
Tip #1:
Don’t put links on your landing pages.People like to make a choice and they feel good when they make a successful choice. So don’t put links on your landing pages unless all of your links have the same goal; you want to make it easy for people to know what you want them to do.That means paying close attention to what Oli calls the “attention ratio”: the number of things you can do on a page versus the number of things you should be doing. As your attention ratio goes down, your conversion rates go up.
Tip #2:
Use fundamental design principles to shape how your information is presented.This allows you to make design decisions that aren’t just random. Copy should inform design, not the other way around, Oli says. (In any case, you want to make sure that your copywriters and art directors are “ working in harmony
Tip #3:
Get your story straight before you tell it.Landing pages should tell a linear story. Most landing pages feature the wrong copy hierarchy, with information communicated in subheads that should really be part of the headline.Also make sure that your message is clear. Learn if you have a clarity problem by asking people what they think your page is about.
Tip #4:
Build your landing pages off a solid foundation.Use form-first design, which involves designing your form like it’s the only thing on your page.
Tip #5:
Create search intent pages for e-commerce.Bid on your company’s unique benefits and design specific experiences for each. When you’re promoting a specific offer, the CTA shouldn’t link to your homepage. Rather, it should link to a specific landing page.
Tip #6:
Don’t bet your shirt on what others tell you.Just because something works once, doesn’t mean it will work again. At the same time, don’t give up when a test such as 25% off or a 7-day free trial fails.
Tip #7:
Design for your ideal customer.Your subscriptions can rise just by changing the label on a form field. For example, you might get better results from changing “Enter Email” to “Enter your business email.”
Tip #8:
When someone is about to take action, get out of their way.Sometimes marketers include a phrase like “no gimmicks” that introduces doubt in the prospect’s mind and causes them to hesitate.Finally, Oli wants you to always remember his simple reminder: NSAMCWADLP!
