If you’re serious about conversion marketing – that is, getting people to perform your intended action upon arrival at your landing page – then you have to get your point across quickly and effectively. Throw too many messages at your potential customer and they’ll feel like they’re herding cats (too much effort with very little chance of success).
Herding cats is difficult… even for cowboys
A Bookstore Example
To help visualize the problems that an overcrowded landing page can present, consider the example of purchasing a book in the brick and mortar world.
The Ad Click
Imagine walking down the street. You see a board outside your local bookstore advertising the latest and greatest vampire novel. Having just seen the movie Twilight, you’re interested enough to go in and take a look.
The First Impression – Done Wrong
Inside you are faced with about 60,000 books all vying for your attention. The first shelf is full of bargain books that are of no interest to you. You wander blindly around for a while, and decide to look in the fiction section. What was the author’s name again? Oh right, there wasn’t enough room on the sign to tell you that, all you know is that it’s a new vampire novel. You’ve already spent too much time on this task so you decide to leave and pick up a John Grisham book on the way out the door.
Let’s try that again…
The First Impression – Done Right
Inside you are faced with about 60,000 books, but right in front of you is a display table with a cardboard cutout of a bloodsucking vampire. The table is piled high with multiple copies of a single book. The background noise blurs as you focus your attention on reading the back of the book, you found what you were promised quickly and easily. Without being distracted by any competing information. You buy the book and leave a happy customer.
The Lesson
Just like the bookstore, I’m sure you have many messages you want to get in front of your customer. But remember that your banner ad only said one thing, so don’t be tempted to bombard the customer with “extras” simply because they are paying you a quick visit.
Use some marketing restraint and focus on one message and one offer at a time, measure it’s success, optimize your landing page by tightening the messaging and copy even more and reap the rewards that come with a focused approach to conversion marketing.
