Landing Page A/B Testing Principles In Online Dating Profiles!

Online dating can be a grueling or easy experience, it all depends on the person, what you’re looking for, what they’re looking for, and which medium or apps you choose. Much like creating an A/B testing landing page for your product or service, there is a lot of experimentation before getting it right.

Some say, online dating is easy to do well. Others say, “All I attract are people who are nothing like their profiles.” There are subsets for whom this post is written for. Start getting swiped right, liked, matched, wooed and connected.

You might be wonder why Lander is writing about online dating when we are known for online marketing and landing pages. The truth is - A/B testing a landing page is a lot like getting your dating profile optimized just right.

Optimize online dating profile elements using landing page A/B testing principals:

The Headline is all important. It’s the first and often the only thing they’ll read. You can’t show desperation, avoid neediness and definitely don’t even suggest that you’re not confident. A strong headline has a couple of elements that stand out - confidence, creativity and humor. Mix and match until you get it right.

Some apps have headlines; others have space for you to add text. Be sure to use that space to appeal to your partner to be. Include aspects of what you do for fun, to the work you do, and things you’d like to do with your partner. They are all great for this space.

Experiment with the title of your job - use a creatively worded title and watch those connections rise, don’t lie about yourself though.

A successful landing page uses headlines with strong calls to action. It’s a similar to online dating, if your marketing message isn’t matching with your product, your landing page will not perform as well as you’d like.

Pictures - Dating profiles are made or broken by the pictures used. What are you trying to convey with your picture? Are you looking for love or love in all-the-wrong-places? All of these traits and more can be conveyed by your picture. Make sure to use images that convey a sense of what your personality is.

Choose the strongest picture that you have, make it your main picture. Choose the location where you shoot by the background colors, sights and keep the light on your face, not behind.

Do - more photos, the better. Don’t forget to smile! Have a face-forward, eyes to the camera headshot. Use recent images of yourself (don't catfish your dates).

Avoid close ups on the face, drab, dark or blurry shots. Also, mirror selfies have no place on your profile - especially the shirtless variety. Don’t have pictures of large groups of people where you are hard to find. Great that you have friends, however, the profile should be about you, not finding Waldo.

Landing pages are great places to include a picture or video of your product. The goal is to design a page that makes an immediate impression - you want the visitors to want your product really, really badly.

Use pictures of real people, not stock images. Stock images have a way of warding off conversions. Using non-stock images means it requires planning - great lighting, staying on brand, use a professional photographer, not professional models. Test images to see which works best.

The use of pictures can range from direct to subliminal marketing. Direct being, a person or people using your product. Subliminal marketing uses eye-tracking movements where the picture of the person’s face and eyes point in the direction of your intended action. Test everything! Be it gender, ethnicity, age or even what they’re wearing.

A dating profile needs content. According to Coffee Meets Bagels, “the top 10% most LIKED profiles were 35% longer than the bottom 90%.” Be more descriptive. Write more. Make it interesting and something that will appeal to your potential mate.

Are you a fan of ‘going out’? Try ‘catching an indie show’ or ‘grabbing a beer at the local dive bar’ instead of not having anything in your profile. Try different bits of what makes you interesting and start connecting.

Landing pages have targeted content - speaking to the needs of the visitor based on where they are in the purchasing funnel. Test all copy incrementally. Start with the headline and images first, as mentioned earlier. Then, test the body of the content below the image. Try with and without video content.

If you are selling an e-commerce product, use prices and/or use the word “sale”. If something else, use action verbs like "Get, Buy, Download" etc. Essentially, instruct the user what the goal of the page is, don't leave it focus-less - you'll lose your shot to convert those visitors into customers.

Good luck and watch your conversion/match rate rise!

This article has been published on LinkedIn Pulse's Featured Posts.