MarketingExperiments Blog: Research-driven optimization, testing, and marketing ideas

When it comes to designing a homepage, sometimes people forget that its purpose is to give multiple types of users what they want, and to do so as quickly as possible. After all, you only have their attention for a brief moment, and they can easily make your page disappear by simply clicking on that little “x” on the corner of their screen.

This is especially true, in the case of e-commerce Web sites — where visitors have differing motivations for visiting the page, and are probably looking for specific types of products. But, how do you effectively meet all those needs?

Well, that’s exactly what we wanted to find out during an Optimization Training Session class (which I infiltrated, by the way) taught at our labs by our Senior Optimization Manager, Adam Lapp.

This is a class where some of our newest research team members hone their optimization skills – they even have homework! But, Mr. Lapp, isn’t one of those boring, monotone-lecturing teachers who puts their students to sleep (which reminds me, I really don’t miss school). He’s that cool teacher who lets you call him by his first name. And one of his latest, fun teaching tactics included launching an e-commerce homepage optimization contest. So, I brushed up on my journalism skills and took notes to give you a report on the contest results. Read more…

Recently, I sat in on what I like to call a “meeting of the minds” – where the research team in our lab sits down to discuss their ongoing research in online marketing, and optimizes pages together. Here in the labs, we call this a Peer Review Session. So, I took notes to share their advice with you and make you feel as if you were right there with us.

While there was a lot of helpful content being discussed, I decided to share their optimization suggestions for a landing page that I got to present to them, thanks to the help of the Director of Editorial Content, Daniel Burstein. The page was from the CBS Sports Web site, and it had to do with their Fantasy Football league (I play in the ESPN league, by the way). Yea, yea. I know, the 2010 NFL season ended a couple of weeks ago, but this advice will last forever (was that too much?)

Because, while CBS Sports submitted this page for live optimization during a Web clinic about homepage optimization several months ago while football was actually in season, we thought it might be more interesting to provide optimization suggestions for what they do in the off season.

After all, many marketers have a product that has an on and off cycle. I wondered what optimization and testing ideas our researchers would have for an off-cycle product page.

Here’s the page they reviewed:

Click to enlarge

THE GOOD

Before I go on and show you what the team (pun intended) felt this page was doing wrong, let me tell you what they did think it did right.

This page is making a push for the upcoming fantasy football season, even though the 2011 NFL season is months away (and may not even happen because of a potential lockout). When we looked at their competitors’ respective fantasy football league pages, they were either static or had no option to start planning next season’s registration early (even my beloved, ESPN league was guilty of this…Tisk, tisk).

Research Manager, Jon Powell, noted that at least CBS Sports had an interactive page and was giving potential players a reason to get engaged early and maybe even play ball (another very intended pun). The fact that they’re starting a conversation could give them a slight edge over competitors who are probably waiting for the season to get closer before making a move.

So ask yourself, if you have an off cycle product, what landing page is currently awaiting your off-cycle traffic? Are you just showing them that the last event closed? Or offering up a reason to join you for the next, future event.

THE BAD

And now, what you’ve been waiting for, the bad.

This page is a bit confusing. The problem is, it has no focus. It has two calls-to-action, making the page “conflated,” according to Jon.

On one section it’s asking you to put in your email address to get notified about next season’s launch, meanwhile, in the other it’s asking you to start a free trial. Another thing Research Analyst, Dustin Eichholt, pointed out was that the calls-to-action were flip flopped.” “Why are they asking for an email and then selling you the product?”

Exactly! A person is not going to just put in their email address all wily nilly, especially if they don’t understand what they’re being offered in the first place.

THE SOLUTION (WHICH ISN’T UGLY AT ALL)

Step 1: Focus on one main objective

So, in a unanimous decision, everyone agreed that the page needed to be focused on one main objective. The research team’s suggestion was to get rid of the section that asked you to start a free trial and remove pricing all together.

But wait! You might be asking yourself, “isn’t the objective to sell a product?” Yes! But, you can’t sell something without first starting a conversation with the visitor and showing them why it’s valuable to them. The objective here should be to start up an email nurturing campaign. Especially, considering this page is trying to pre-sell.

So, CBS Sports has more than enough time to get the potential gamer interested by showing them over time why they’re the best fantasy football option for them. You show them price in the emails. But, I won’t go into depth with that, because we’re still trying to optimize the landing page and get people interested. Email campaign stuff comes after engaging the visitor.

Step 2: Find the differentiator

So, now that we have a clear objective, what’s the next step? Senior Director of Sciences, Bob Kemper, said they needed to express their value proposition, which is essential in online marketing. Clearly show the audience the value of the product through a quantifiable statement.

Your value proposition should be you conversation starter and show the visitor what makes your product their best option. This is especially important for CBS Sports’ fantasy football league, the only online fantasy football league that isn’t free (according to our limited research of visiting three sites)!

So, they need to really express the “differentiator” as Bob said during the meeting. Senior Optimization Manager, Adam Lapp, (who happens to play fantasy football using CBS Sports) mentioned they had some great features, which they had buried all the way at the bottom of the page – where the free trial section is. He suggested they move those up to show visitors the product quality. Those features can support your value proposition and make your product more enticing. But remember, you’re not selling the product just yet, you’re getting the visitor pumped about your league and getting them interested.

Step 3: Capture the email address

So, you’ve focused your page objective, have expressed your value prop and got the visitor a little interested in your product. How do you drive in for the touchdown and get that email address?

Time to optimize that form field! People get anxious when it comes to putting in their email address, because they think you’re going to spam them ‘til they go crazy. So, as our Managing Director/CEO, Dr. Flint McGlaughlin says, you need to show the visitor that the offer is worth the risk of putting in their email address.

How do you do that? Simple, offer something. You don’t want to come off as if you’re just trying to get their email address. In this case our research team had a few incentives CBS Sports could try.

• A free preview guide for the upcoming season for all those potential commissioners who sign up early to get information about the league. Trust me, fantasy football players love that stuff!
• An exclusive top players draft list for the potential commissioners, (the first year I started playing fantasy football, I probably would have given up my first born for that list. I kid, I kid. I don’t even have a child, but yea, I definitely would have been interested in that list of top prospects.)
• Another nice incentive that Adam suggested was offering those potential commissioners an exclusive 20% discount just for signing up early and reserving their spot. That discount could be used if they finally do decide to register for the league that season.

The next way to optimize that form field is changing the look a bit. One thing Adam suggested was changing the birth date section to a pre-selected “Yes, I am 18 years or older” line. It takes away the hassle of having to type in your date of birth to confirm you are the appropriate age to use that product. Remember, you want to make the process as smooth as possible for the visitor.

My two cents on that form field would be changing the call to action from the current, “sign up now,” to something like, “Get in the game now,” “Reserve your spot now,” or “Get an early start.” Obviously it would have to be a phrase that complements the incentive. I think that would get me more pumped about signing up than what’s currently there.

Well that’s it for my notes! I hope these tips helped you. I will make sure to take notes at my next infiltration of a “MECLABS meeting of the minds” and bring you some more insight.

(Now that you’ve read our two cents, I welcome you to use the comments section and tell us what you would do to optimize this page!)

Related Resources

Landing Page Optimization: Identifying friction to increase conversion and get a Nobel Prize

Landing Page Testing: Designing and prioritizing experiments

Internet Marketing: Optimizing form fields to maximize conversions

MarketingExperiments Quarterly Research Journal, Q3 2010

Finding appeal for your PPC ads is never easy. But if you take the time to think like the searcher and then offer them what you truly believe they are looking for, you are one clear step closer to finding the key that unlocks the door to a significant increase in conversions for that segment.

Let’s see what the process of finding appeal might actually look like as I quickly apply it to one of our audience-submitted PPC ads from our previous Web clinic on PPC. Read more…

After being involved in our recent Web clinic on PPC ads, I feel it’s important to talk about one of the most misunderstood elements involved in effectively writing a PPC ad. This is the element of appeal. Let me take a step back for a moment. MarketingExperiments has done extensive research (here’s one example) about the elements of an effective value proposition in the hopes of creating a repeatable process that marketers can use to optimize their own value props. In an effort to help simplify this process, we have created a breakdown of what makes a value proposition truly forceful:

• Appeal – How much is this offer desired?
• Exclusivity – Is this offer available elsewhere?
• Credibility – How believable are your claims? Read more…

This week marks the fielding of MarketingSherpa’s third annual Social Marketing Benchmark Survey. Looking back, I am fascinated at how far our practices have advanced in this channel in the past three years.

One of the most significant advances has been the materialization of the social marketing architecture.  This systematic redesign of how social media sites individually contribute to overall marketing performance, has also brought attention to the significant need to incorporate landing page optimization as an important element of a social marketing strategy. Read more…

Some people might think that optimizing a payment form page is a waste of time. But, I would have to disagree. In fact, I would argue it’s one of the most important places to test. And when it comes to a form, the same elements of optimizing a landing page apply. If your analytics are telling you that you’re losing traffic in the form fields, that’s like if a person was standing in line at the grocery store, ready to check out, and then suddenly they drop their groceries and run to the car. You’re losing out on what otherwise could have been a sale.

In the case of our next example, UNICEF, you would be losing out on a donation that could help children worldwide. We’re going to be taking a look at UNICEF’s monthly pledge payment page. As always, we’re going to structure our thought process around the MarketingExperiment’s Conversion Heuristic, our thought model for conversions, and highlight how we can use some of those elements to achieve our objective – more monthly pledges for UNICEF.

Don’t assume these suggestions only apply to non-profits or NGO’s; many of the elements are exactly the same regardless of industry or business. Read more…