Landing Pages 101: The Beginners Guide To Multivariate Testing

So do you want to become an internet marketing expert?

Maybe the better question is: do you want to close sales?
You can have all the knowledge in the world about internet marketing, but if your landing pages aren’t “sales closing machines,” then what good is all that knowledge?

The best internet marketers create simple but solid landing pages that convert suspects into buyers (B2C) or into leads (B2B). And the best internet marketers create slightly different versions of their must successful landing pages, test both versions, and see which converts better.

Because closing more sales isn’t about being an internet marketing expert – it’s about conversions.

A/B Split-Testing is a Complicated Topic

But it doesn’t have to be complicated to get started – or to be effective. You just have to know a few basic things.

Internet marketing experts will tell you they know all about the rules of compelling content, what drives conversions, and why you need to use a red button instead of a green button.

But real results defy logic.

In a study done by Paras Chopra on Copyblogger.com, readers were asked to guess which calls-to-action converted better. When I tried the test I got nothing right. The split tests conducted using a professional split-testing tool produced completely different results.

Real results defy logic.

What Should You Test For?

The basic elements to test for are:

Headline

This is probably the most important item since it is what gets the rest of your landing page read. If you get this one wrong, nobody will visit the rest of your page, and you’ll have nothing more to test.

Call-to-action items

If you’re driving for opt-in email subscriptions, or direct sales, you need call-to-action elements, such as buttons or conversion forms. Test for placement of call-to-action items, text and colors.

Product positioning

How do you describe your product or service? Who is it for? What images are you using?

Product benefits

Play around with different benefits to see what appeals to your audience. You might think one set of benefits appeals more to your prospects, but an entirely different set of benefits might appeal to them.

Copy length

Will long or short copy convert better? Most people think short copy converts better. But many times long copy drives more conversions. Test for long copy vs. short copy.

Video or text?

Are your customers primarily visual or text-driven? Don’t know? Test for it.

Other Split-Testing Testing Tips

Beginners are often impatient.
They don’t stay with their tests long enough to get statistically significant results. They want to test too many things. They’re not tracking their tests.
There are a few things you need to know to make sure you’re split-tests are effective:

Test for your conversion goals

Your goal is to convert visitors to prospects to leads, or leads to sales. Whatever your landing page goal is, test for it. Don’t test for anything else.

Give your tests enough time

Let your tests run until you have a 95% confidence level. Don’t stop your split-test just because you feel one page is converting better than the other.

Test one thing at a time

The surest way to muddy the results of a test is to test for too many elements at one time. Be very clear which change on your landing page caused which change in visitor behavior. Testing one item at a time will help you do that.

Track and measure your experiments

Measure your results. Sounds logical, but too many marketers don’t measure their results. Instead, they perceive that one test is doing better than the other.

Also, track your tests. Document what works and what doesn’t. Build up a knowledge base of best practices.

Your next steps

You can improve landing page conversion rates when you test different versions of your landing pages. Data from real people interacting with your landing pages is a more reliable indicator of success than “logic.”

And real results defy logic.

That’s why we’ve introduced Lander, a new landing page platform that makes split-testing easy with our built-in multivariate testing tool

Click here to find out more about how easy it is to conduct an A/B split-test using Lander, and become the internet marketer who actually closes sales and beats the experts!