4 Things You’re Probably Doing Wrong and Don’t Even Realize, Part 3

In part 1, we looked at mistakes people make when doing e-mail marketing and in part 2 we looked at mistakes people make with split testing; the most common one being not doing it

This time we’re going to look at one mistake that people make on their landing pages – sales pages, squeeze pages, blog posts, etc.

But this is not an obvious mistake like bad sales copy or hideous graphics.

It is one much more subtle but is so important that doing it can multiple your conversion rate and really strengthen your Conversions Pillar.

Research has shown that one of the biggest reasons people quickly leave a landing page is…
…keywords.

What do I mean by that?

People came to your page most likely because they were looking for something.

I know, you’re saying, duh!

But so many times people forget that when it comes to landing pages.

They spend time and most targeting keywords both in their paid search like AdWords and in their free, organic search efforts, sucking in the prospects.

But then on their landing page they seem to forget what drew the people to the page in the first place.

Use What You Know

In my free copywriting course, I talk about the “trance” people are in and the conversation they are having in their head. On a landing page you have to enter that conversation and direct the trance to be the one you want them to have.

But if someone comes to your landing page with something specific in mind, in their head, and they don’t immediately see something that fits into that conversation then they leave and they do it quickly.

Let me give you a quick example using a project I am working on.

The “product”, which I can’t talk about yet, is something that would be very attractive to 4 different groups (at least I hope so

First, people who have been laid off and need some source of income and they need it fast

The second group is people who are still employed but are impacted by the economy and need to earn some extra income.

The third group is a very different group, it is people who have jobs but are unhappy and want to leave them, hoping to go out on their own and be their own boss.

The fourth group is existing businesses who want to either break into the Internet Marketing world or add an additional revenue source.

Now each of these groups, while having the same core desire of earning more money, have differing needs and motivations.

The first group I’ll call the Desperados, the second group I’ll call the Maintainers, the third group I’ll call the Job Shovers and the fourth group I’ll ignore for this example.

The keywords, or attractants as I some times call them, that the Desperados use are all about their situation. They want a job, they want quick cash, they need something and they need it fast.

Doing some research I see that for finding a job there are hundreds of thousands of searches on things like “find a job”, “need a job”, “find me a job”, “I need a job now” and “help I need a job”. I also see thousands more searches for things like “get quick cash” and “how to get quick cash”.

So if I am targeting the keywords this group is using, with either SEO or PPC, and I get people to my sales page unless I am talking to them directly (talking to their desperation) then they will leave because the don’t have time to waste.

So I need to be putting those keywords right in the Headline. For example:

“Laid Off? Bills to Pay? Need a Job NOW? …”

You can’t waste time with these people and you need to enter their conversation and feel their desperation. And if you are using the words they are using in your sales copy, that is, the keywords they typed, you’ll quickly lose them.

Then you need to be scattering those keywords around your sales copy to keep them realizing that you understand their situation and have a solution.

The Maintainers are a different group, while they feel they need some extra money they don’t have the strong emotional motivator fear that the Desperados have.

They don’t need a job and they don’t necessarily need money immediately.

Doing research for them I see LOTS of searches for “how to make money”, “get extra income”, “extra money” and even things like “home based business” and “make money at home”

A very different conversation in their heads. The headline above wouldn’t work for the Maintainers and would likely immediate turn them away because it doesn’t match their thinking so they’d assume that the landing page wasn’t for them.

The headline and other sales copy needs to have the keywords they are looking for. For example:

“Money a Little Tight? Want Some Extra Cash Every Month? Exciting New Home-Based Business…”

As with the Desperados though you need to continue being part of the conversation while you direct them to your solution by putting the targeted keywords in strategic locations (bullets points, sub-headlines, etc.)

I think you get the idea and can imagine that the Job Shovers would need very different keywords in a sales page directed to them.

The point is that you need to talk to your prospects but they have the control so you need to enter their conversation and make them connect with you before steer the conversation in the direction you want.

The problem is you don’t know their conversation EXCEPT you’ve probably got them there but your targeted marketing so you probably have a good idea of the “keywords in their head” and you need to use them; talk about what they want to talk about in their language.

One easy way to do that is to use those keywords in your sales copy, something people frequently do not do.

But Beware

There are two dangers though that you should be aware of.

1. Make Good Sales Copy

Don’t fall into the trap of having bad sales copy just to make sure you have the keywords in it.

Good sales clear copy trumps keywords so, similar to my recommendation with Article Marketing, write a good sales letter and then go back and see where you can strengthen it with keywords.

2. Don’t Use Too Many Keywords

Sometimes I see people go in the exact opposite direction. Instead of not having keywords in their sales copy they have way too many keywords.

Not only does this make for bad copy but it “feels” wrong to the prospect like the stereotypical “used car salesmen” who wants to trick you into paying too much money for a car that has hidden problems.

What to Do

You already know you need to make sure the keywords are in your landing page but you may feel you don’t know what the keywords are.

That is an entirely different discussion but the importance of you creating your marketing campaigns to direct people to your sale funnel can’t be over emphasized; this is one of the keys to a strong Traffic Pillar.

When you do that you do know, or at least have a good idea, of the keywords and the “path” the prospects took because you paved that path to go right to your door.

You’re probably also thinking “but how to I satisfy multiple types of prospects, do I need a sales page for each group?”

The ideal answer is yes, you should have a specifically targeted sales page.

However, that can be time consuming and costly. So there are a few things you can do to get much of the benefits without paying too much in time and money.

First thing you can do is have completely separate squeeze pages for each group and eventually funnel them to a common sales page.

The separate squeeze pages are much easier to create – less time and money – and can talk to each group. The follow up should start moving the prospect from their specifics to your solution.

By that I mean say if a Desperado is look for a job but you want to sell them something that would help their situation but not get them a job you could create a short report that talks about why they want a job, their motivators, and how there are other ways to achieve the same thing.

Then you could, over a series of e-mail and other things, show them how they can achieve some of their desires with your solution.

Another thing you can do is direct you copywriter to create more generic copy that can easily be changed for different types of prospects.

Some copywriters will be “offended” that you are ruining the “purity” of their copy and, it’s true, the sales copy probably will be weaker in general but you are looking for beautiful sales copy so much as sales so even if each group have lower conversions than they would with a “perfect” sales letter the additional sales you make by being able to target the different groups will more than make up for it.

Conclusion

Just remember, to turn a prospect into a customer you must join their internal conversation, get them to feel you understand them and then direct them to your solution without losing their trust and belief in you.

One way to do that is to use the keywords they used judiciously in your landing page copy.

Make sure the copy is good copy before you worry about keywords, although you should provide your copywriter with your keywords, and be sure to not try to use too many keywords or it will backfire on you.

In the next post we’ll look at what may be the biggest mistake people make and don’t even realize.

Before you go tell me what you think, share your thoughts and opinions or even just tell me I am full of it

Talk soon,

David
The “Shameless” (but “Ethical”) Marketer
http://www.8-8-8Sale.com
http://www.MusicForInternetMarketers.com
http://www.SecretsOfGoogleAdWords.com

O.Y. If you want to learn how to write your own copy, or how to tell if your copywriter is writing good copy for you, check out the free copywriting course at http://www.StreetGuideToCopywriting.com.

Tags: 3 Pillars of Guaranteed Success, 3 Pillars of Success, better conversions, conversions, Conversions Pillar, customers, improve conversions, prospects, sales copy, sales letter, salesletter, sticky traffic, Traffic Pillar