CXL Conversion Optimization Mini Degree #8 Review

For those of you that have not read my first 7 blogs, be sure to check it out. In summary, I decided to further my education in digital marketing and take one of CXL.com

mini degrees. Essentially, CXL offers a couple of mini degrees (Conversion optimization, technical marketing, digital analytics, growth marketing, digital psychology and persuasion, and technical content marketing) Each one varies in length. Some take 20–30 hours, and some take well over 100 hours. The one I chose to do is called conversion optimization which takes roughly 86 hours. Because it comes with a large price tag, I decided to apply for CXL’s scholarship. To qualify for the scholarship, one must write 12 blogs summarizing their weekly learning and give an honest review of the material. So that’s what I’m doing.

For those interested in taking a mini degree with CXL.com click here- https://cxl.com/

This is week 8.

Before we jump into this week’s learning, I wanted to recap a little of last week’s learning. We ended week 7’s blog covering landing page optimization. I covered the three main steps in the rough research process. Step 1 being the Heuristic walk through in which you go through the whole sales funnel and process. Step 2 being quantitative research in which you dig into the analytics. Lastly (this is where I left off last time) we end with qualitative research. This is where we will start today!

Qualitative LPO Part 1 and 2

After walking through the sales process yourself and then taking a deep dive into the analytics to see what you can find, the final step in the research process is to do the qualitative research. The section is important because it most often tells you the why. Why are your potential customers dropping off. Why do they click? During this process, it is important to have your notes from Google analytics with you along with Google analytics itself. That way you can make sense of the data. Although I can’t go into full detail of this section because it was well over an hour, I can give you a short synopsis. Here are a few important things to do during qualitative research

• Go through the landing page/funnel using the 5 second rule
• Then go through after analyzing the pages thoroughly.
• Take screen shots
• Look at company/product reviews
• Interview customer service and sales team members
• Use heat maps and click test when necessary
• Create polls/questionnaires with at least 100 replies
• Utilize usertesting.com or trymyui.com to get solid feedback

All of these suggestions are just suggestions. Each landing page may be different and may require all of these tactics or a mixture of some. It’s important to recognize which one of these would be most useful when optimizing.

Landing Page copywriting 1 and 2

After doing research on the landing page and the funnel, it’s now important to think of the copy.

Effective Landing page copy

• Shortens the journey from click to conversion
• Follows up on promises made in the ad
• Speaks to the users motivation & addresses future barriers
• Answers important questions & creates clarity
• Creates a clear path to a conversion goal

The key in writing phenomenal copy is writing to customers’ needs. Are they problem aware? Solution aware? Product aware? Or most aware?

If they are problem aware:

1. Elaborate on the problem
2. Introduce the solution
3. Introduce your brand

If they are solution aware:

1. Give a walkthrough of your solution
2. Show the benefits of your solution to others
3. Introduce your brand

If they are product aware:

1. Give a short summary of your solution
2. Show the benefits of your solution compared to other similar brands
3. Dangle the carrot (Incentivize them to buy now)

If they are most aware:

1. Make sure you have a good offer
2. Makes sure your offer details are clear

After learning the importance of good copy and how to tailor the copy based on the customer’s current awareness, we learned the 5 most important copy elements.

1. The headline- capture their attention
2. Benefits/features- present important information and emphasize the value of your offer.
3. Credibility- Make the content trustworthy
4. Expectation manager- Ensure users know what to expect
5. Call to action- Make the user click!

Keeping these important elements and awareness levels will really help you write better copy for your landing pages. The instructor did a great job with these two sections.

Design

This section along with the copy section will make your landing pages unstoppable. Coupled together will build trust and drive the customer down the funnel and eventually get the conversion.These 3 sections taught the importance of implementing the 5 copy elements into your design. It also taught how size, space, font, color and direction really affected the success of a landing page.It ended teaching the importance of good form design. I know I didn’t really go into much detail here and that’s because I wouldn’t do it justice. I’d recommend just taking this course to see the little details he shares.

Putting it all together and testing

We finally have come to the end of the Landing Page Optimization module! After doing your research, writing compelling copy, and designing a phenomenal page, it’s time to put it to the test.The last couple of sections in this module cover just that. It reiterates the research process along with the copy and design process. He then teaches how to implement your page and how to test for any issues. Will you have any issues on mobile? Test it. Will you have any issues on Safari? Test it. It’s much better to catch the issue right away when you set the page live then when its been running for days and you’ve missed out on loads of conversions. Finally, the instructor teaches the importance of continually analyzing. This isn’t a one time thing. It’s important to analyze analyze analyze to make sure you get optimal results. If you do a good job with that, you can answer any questions that may pop up and be ready for anything.

Next week we cover conversion research!