Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Using Continuity and Congruence in Conversion

The folks at Marketing Experiments did a couple of landing page case studies that used Continuity and Congruence to improve conversion results significantly.

The Eisenberg brothers have one word for it: scent.

Continuity means, in this case, making the headline and copy of the landing page match the ad that drove the traffic to it. They also call this ad-to-page relevance. I love big words.

To increase continuity, they recommend "determining why people are using a key phrase" and "Writing ad copy that goes beyond key words to the intention of the searcher."

So, how did they know the why and the intention? How would you know?

Congruence means "ensuring that every element of your page either states or supports the Value Proposition."

They increased congruence by making all elements address an "intense, emotional tone" and "emphasizing what the charity is doing with the donation."

So, how did they know to make the changes they made?! How would you know?

Here is the value of the Persona and the Conversion Profile.

Megan's Law Persona

image Judging from the first case landing page they created, they had in mind someone concerned about their children. They are a parent of children under 15, probably female. They aren't on the site to read about Megan's Law. They want to know if a sex offender lives in their neighborhood.

The headline talks about Megan's Law telling them their in the right place. The copy is brief and uses scannable bullet points. The signup form is brief and right at the top of the page. This is someone who is behaving with a Spontaneous personality on this page.

The Alzheimer's Donor Persona

image Relaters or Humanistic personalities want to do good by others, often putting themselves second to others. The page created for the second case study starts with a picture of an Alzheimer's patient and their grand child. "Meet Jenny and Her Grandma."

Elements on the page are designed to build trust, since their greatest fear is being taken advantage of. The page tells them that the cure is near if only they could do their part.

Your Personas

You can make good decisions on your Web site and reap the rewards by creating profiles of your best customers. Why are they searching? What are their payoffs for buying what you sell? What is happening in their lives that have brought them to you?

Profiles help you organize what you already know about your customers. They are communication tools that make sure everyone is on the same page: the copywriters, designers, and ad people.

Drop me an email and I'll share with you a sample profile format that you can use in your business.

Landing Page Optimization

Photos courtesy of brendan76 and chadguy.

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