Hitting the Landing Page Jackpot

Yesterday, after two months and a dozen iterations, I tasted what I can definitely describe as success through content. A landing page for an analytical product suddenly began to perform.

Here’s how it went:

Recognizing the Initial Problem
We had something I could term as a Master Landing Page. It simply had everything anyone needed to know about two of our products, and was used extensively across a majority of our campaigns. This means whether a person was searching for “analytical reporting tool” or “database report” or “report writing” they would come to the same Master page. And over time, as the page showed some success, it had generally been extended to other campaigns as well, until about 60% of our campaigns were pointing at this one page regardless of the keyword.

By studying the results of these various campaigns over a period of time, it became clear that only a couple of campaigns were actually converting from the Master Landing page, while a few like Analytics were performing rather poorly.

Creating a Focused Landing page
We first created a landing page, with new content and supporting material (case studies, brochures) that focused completely on analysis and what our product could do. What we also did was tailor the page content towards corporate analytical requirements, as our product was mainly an enterprise product.

It didn’t work.

Redesigning the Page
We then enhancing the visuals that supported our content, sample analytical reports, screenshots of the product, graphs charts etc. I had the download buttons placed regularly across the page so that our call to action was always visible regardless of how much a visitor scrolled.

It didn’t work.

Making the Content Personal
While reviewing the content, it seemed to me that the language was not direct enough. Talking on an enterprise level tends to be a little impersonal, and so we rewrote the content to be more on a first-person basis.

It did slightly better, but not really the success I was looking for.

What are my Competitors Saying?
I then went into research mode (something I should’ve done first) and looked at what our competitors were doing and adopted some of their good points into my page. Some of these activities included, making the page headline more visible, increasing the size of the download buttons, putting some important keywords/phrases in bold, linking to flash demonstrations.

Performance still average.

At this point it must be noted, that point of comparison was against the Master Landing Page. When I say performance was average, visitors were downloading, but no more that they were on the Master Landing Page.

What do visitors want?
Having also redone a lot of the ads (with much greater success) I was familiar with both the keywords and headlines that were bringing visitors to my page. So I went back to the basics: What can I say that answers/reemphasizes the headline that they clicked on? How do I bring the top keywords into the content? How do I make the content (which by now was a VERY long page) short and succinct?

After answering these questions, I finally began to see the results I was looking for.

So what worked? No doubt about it. ALL of the above.

The Winning Combination…
Getting the right content on your landing page is a process. You have to try multiple ideas, and even harder, combinations of these ideas to see what’s going to work for you.

This is what I think worked for me: focusing and personalizing the content, making the visuals and buttons larger and accessible, adding supporting material like flash demos and screenshots, ensuring top keywords were clearly visible on the page, and bringing the page content down to a single scroll.

…Trial & Error
It always seems obvious when we list it out like that, but when I applied these tactics to another poorly performing page… it just didn’t work, so here I go again.

It’s tedious and frustrating to say the least, but when you hit the jackpot I can assure you, it will be worth it.

(Re)Learning Content Strategy from Landing Pages

If you ever written content for a landing page, especially one which has an obvious measure of success or failure, like a sign-up or download, then you’ve probably been through one of the most challenging (if not frustrating) experiences of a writer/content strategist.

I work with landing pages on almost a daily basis. These are mainly pages on which visitors have landed after being directed there by a PPC (pay per click) campaign. We measure results based on a visitor downloading a trial version of our products.

When I took over content and campaign management, I inherited a legacy of keywords, ads, and landing pages that had been created over a period of three years. I’m going to put down individual posts regarding my experiences, frustrations and learnings gained while working with these pages.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

You’ve heard it a million times. The three Rs of environmental conservationists across the globe. I was listening to a song by Jack Johnson when it struck me that the three Rs can be applied to content writers as well.

Every piece of writing you churn out comes from a process. Some of us follow established processes and while some of us just create our own over time. But it still boils down to this: Write. Rewrite. Rewrite. Rewrite.

But if you hate rewrites as much as I do, here’s how the three Rs can see you through.

Reduce: Online content is best when short. When you’re done with the first draft, go through it and cut out whatever is unnecessary. Remember your précis writing exercises? This is it. Ignore the ‘longer is better’ mantra of Indian schools, and keep only what is central to your message. In other words, reduce.

Reuse: Take a look at the communication. How many times have you re-emphasized your message? This is online communication, so remember no one reads. If you need to repeat “Download now” at three different places on the page, do it. If it works to have the benefits in bullets in a text box along with the content, go ahead. Maximize your communication through reuse of content. But be careful about how and where you do this. You don’t want to be perceived as a cut-paste artist.

Recycle: Great idea, but not for this piece? Witty line, but doesn’t fit? Store these little sparks of your writing capabilities. Over time you’d be surprised how long that list can grow. Don’t force fit something that sounds great. Its time will come. Recycle.

Overcome your tech content troubles

Dedicated to web writers who shudder every time their agency lands another tech company project:

Yes, I know, the bigger they are, the harder your job is. Because like any large enterprise with hundreds of applications bandaged one over the other, a large tech company usually has swarms of free-floating content that have been written and then rewritten a gazillion times by the myriad of hands it’s traveled through before reaching your inbox.

Of course with Content Management Systems doing the rounds, hopefully your client can find the relevant, updated version of information that you need. But if not, you’re in for some serious hair tearing.

In India, it’s hard to be an agency and not have a good percentage of software companies amongst your clientele. So if you find yourself staring blankly at a long list of software service solutions here’s why there is hope:

Everyone is looking for an easier way to understand technology. Most of these companies’ business readers are in the top management bracket. CXOs. Yes, they understand technology, but what’s more pertinent is they know technocrap* when they see it.

In case you don’t, here is an example of technocrap*:

From the depth of our domain expertise and our proprietary intellectual property to our onsite/offshore delivery model, our work is not finished until there's a solution that meets the challenge.

Technology simplification is the name of the game and that goes for content writing too.

Infosys Consulting is a great example of a tech company that bucked the trend. Though their main site sticks to the content quagmire norm, their consulting site content (and design, I might add) is head and shoulders above the rest.

Check out this page: http://www.infosysconsulting.com/about_us.htm

Examine the phrasing:
“Half the battle in consulting is winning the war for talent.”

“If it won't make you more competitive, we won't do it.”

“Using global resources, we deliver high quality technology while still managing to save clients money.”

Who said tech companies can’t be interesting? Or their content hard-hitting?

With every complex phrase and technically correct sentence, there comes challenge to the communicator in you. What does my target want to know? How do I translate this info in a way that quickly digestible and serves the purpose?

The next time you’re facing technology content, get back to the basics. Think briefly on the who, what, why and how of the page. Do a few quick sentences of what you think would be an interesting way of communicating the same point. Then see what other people are saying on the same subject. Understand their communication failings, not just their information gaps. Now enhance your content to cover those failings.

You’ll find your clients will either be impressed, surprised or just plain relieved with the outcome.

* Not to be confused with technobabble.