3 Mistakes That Stop Your Landing Page From Converting
That aren’t just “change the CTA button color”
Imagine you’re riding downhill on your bike when suddenly…
*POP*
Your tire goes out.
You’d probably jump right into fight or flight mode. In less than a second, your eyes would widen, your heart-rate would pick up and your only thought would be…
“I need to stop NOW”.
You hit the breaks.
You keep your body steady so as to not fall over.
And maybe, maybe, if you’re lucky enough, you can come to a controlled stop (if the hill isn’t so steep).
“That was too close…”
And then, with your still shaky hands, you take your bike and you walk with it home.
Now, what happens if instead of you on that bike…
It was your leads?
What makes leads want to stop the second they land on your page?
What makes them not convert? And why isn’t your page converting as much as you hoped for?
There’s three reasons why, and they usually have to do with:
- Message match
- Audience match
- Offer match
Let’s tackle each one, and we’ll first start with:
Message Match
Good message match is when every part of your campaign matches with the content, key words and offer that came before it.
It’s when somebody clicks on an ad for “skinny jeans for men”, they don’t end up on a page with a headline of “pants for sale”.
And while your first reaction might be “isn’t it close enough?”, the reasoning behind it comes from this:
People click on things with a certain intent in mind. They expect a certain result from what they click and their attention is valuable.
The closer you are to matching the “message” of the previous page they were on, the less likely they’ll feel like they walked into the wrong room.
Because clicking away is too easy.
Remember you only have 7 seconds to make them feel this way. So make every second count. You can do this by:
- Making sure the headline matches with the offer they clicked on before.
- Matching the colors and design of the previous page with the new one they just landed on.
- Have the CTA in view with keywords matching the intent of their previous click. (If they clicked on a link to get an ebook, make the CTA “Get your free e-book!”)
That’s what keeps the tire from exploding. But we also have a second point…
Audience Match
Who are you choosing to target with your ads? If not ads, where are your leads coming from? Who are they? And would they be the kind of people who would want what you’re offering?
Because maybe the problem isn’t with the page itself but with people coming into your page.
As an example, you’re running a facebook campaign that leads people to your landing page. It’s for a service that offers a 7-day free trial.
But if the people you’re inviting aren’t quite familiar with the company itself yet, a lot of people would click to learn more but might not be ready to try it out yet.
Yet, if you brought in people who were already familiar with your company or offer beforehand, you’d probably have an easier time getting people to convert.
If message match keeps the tire from exploding, then audience match is what makes leads want to race downhill in the first place.
But there’s also our third point…
Offer Match
Are you addressing the problems that your leads are opting in for? Are you keeping in mind what their objections are throughout your page?
Even if you have the right audience coming in, what your offering is probably the biggest lever that’s going to affect conversion rate.
So always come up with a few options and ask yourself “what am I really trying to do here?”.
So if you’re (as a wild example) targeting busy CEOs who are looking to lose weight…
Then before offering them something like workout routines or recipe books, you can stop and ask yourself what their problems really are. If they’re very busy CEOs then they probably:
- Have limited time
- Work 60+ hours a week
- Are usually stressed
So while you might want to address the problem of losing weight, a better sub-problem to tackle might be de-stressing tactics or tackling stress-eating. Along with a huge emphasis on not wasting time from how busy they are.
Which is a better tactic then just offering something and seeing if it sticks…
So tying it all up:
If message match keeps the tire from exploding…
And audience match is what makes leads want to race downhill in the first place…
Then offer match is the bike itself. Do leads have to petal or are they racing at 50mph on a dirt bike downhill? (And doing sick jumps while they’re at it)
Because once you get these three right…
It’s hard not to have a page that converts pretty freaking well.
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