The Design of Conversions

My mom had always told me "You never get a second chance to make a first impression". This quote resonated with much of my childhood in Seattle, WA. From making friends to engaging my first official job interview to my university application form—first impressions are imperative to building relationships and becoming an influential leader. Likewise, first impressions are relevantly significant in today's digital age—not just pertinent to our Facebook profile pics, but moreso for our captivating landing pages on our websites.

So what is a landing page? Well, from a marketers perspective, it's simply the initial point of contact a web-user will visit that allows you to capture their information through a lead form. Simply having a web presence is not enough to generate a meaningful ROI or entice your audience to keep coming back. That's why having an effective landing page could be the make-or-break point for your business. Landing pages are a great opportunity to provide something of value (such as a free blog subscription or an ebook) to your visitor in exchange for their information in the conversion process. Hubspot says it best: "Too many companies send their advertising, email, or social media traffic to their homepage. This is a huge missed opportunity. When you know a stream of targeted traffic will be coming to your website, you can increase the likelihood of converting that traffic into leads by using a targeted landing page."

At a quick glance, your visitor should understand the nature of the offer and why it's valuable to them. A blink test is an optimal way to simulate your customer's experience. Realistically, your visitor is going to make a decision about your offer in just a few seconds, so it's necessary to effectively communicate your message in a way they can perceive it quickly.

Now let's take a step back. You may be wondering how people arrive at the doorstep of your landing page. Chances are, your visitors were not impelled to look for you. The source that drives visitors to your page is defined as a Call To Action (CTA). A CTA is a button of some sort that promotes your offer and links to your landing page. Here are some Call To Action best practices from our friends at hubspot:

1. Make it action-oriented—It's critical that you effectively communicate how your offer will aid in solving your users' problem or how it will benefit them. Direct action verbs (i.e. Download the free Adventure Travel Guide) and keeping it brief make for a great CTA.
2. Include keywords consistent with your offer & landing page—Using the same keywords and phrasing for the entire conversion process helps your visitors understand what they are going to get.
3. Make it attention-grabbing—There are many misconceptions for making a CTA attention-grabbing. There really aren't boundaries or prerequisites on how to leverage your CTA other than making it stand out so your visitors will click on it. Consider your buyer personas taste when creating your button—would they like a certain font or color?
4. Use strong and appropriate on-page placement—Consider where you're placing your CTA on a page. Is it the first thing your visitor sees? Does it belong at the top of the header or should your visitor scroll before seeing it? There's really no right or wrong place to put your CTA; just make it perceptible.
5. Test changes and analyze results—When analyzing the effectiveness of your CTA, a good goal to shoot for is a 1-2% Click Through Rate (CTR). Fundamentally this means out of everyone who noticed your CTA, around 1-2% of them actually clicked on it. This is where you conduct A/B tests to determine which button better seizes your audience's attention to optimize your CTA.

Moz utilizes SEO to target leads through their purchase funnel. "They key aim of a Landing Page is to optimize the user experience when visiting a site, especially for the first time." This is why the design process is indispensable in understanding your user's behavior around your offer and how they engage your website. This is where User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) come into play.

User Experience (UX)—The user experience is moreso the emotional aspect of design. It's how the user feels when they interact with a certain product or service. When a company builds a buyer's persona, they often consider specific traits or characteristics that align with a niche market. UX designers ensure a sensible flow regarding their buyer persona when constructing the architectural flow of a website's pages. One way a UX designer can build a buyer persona is through conducting in-person user tests to observe their behavior.

User Interface (UI)—UI is the technicality of the design. It concerns how the product is laid out rather than how it feels. A UI designer creates the visual design layout with which a user interacts and ensures that it visually communicates the path that a UX designer has established. Most companies tend to lump both UI and UX designers into the same job title because they are so closely integrated. However, by separating the two, a company can create a truly specialized website that executes both sides individually and cohesively.

Like before, you only get one shot at a first impression. Compelling visual design and a thorough understanding of your buyer persona's will be the determining factor of whether a visitor or a lead will create more "Thank You for Shopping" pages.

Onward,

Jonah