There’s no doubt that the digital marketing game is going to change. We’re already seeing some top SaaS companies leading the way with conversational selling techniques. Fashion giants are beginning to emerge with brand avatars like we’ve never seen them before and content is now King, Queen and everything in between.
But, what does this mean for our landing pages? How can we keep our landing pages fresh, innovative and doing what they’re designed for? In this article, we’ll explore six landing page A/B testing experiments to try along with a couple of examples, too. These tests will keep your brand at the top of its game and make sure you’re staying on-trend throughout the year.
1. A/B Test Your CTAs
You’ve heard this before, but we want to go a level deeper into your CTA tests. The year is set out to be a year of addressing burnout and exploration of mindfulness culture. What does this mean for brands?
We’ll start to see softer colors emerging and featuring in digital marketing efforts. We’ll also start to see less “urgent” messaging as the consumer has had enough of Cialdini’s scarcity. What does this mean for your landing page CTAs?
i. A/B Test CTA Colors
You’ll want to look at implementing colors in your CTA’s that evoke calm feelings. Colors like blue, green and turquoise (not all at once) should feature prominently as you look to place the power back into the consumer’s hands and eradicate that fear of burnout that’s sparked by colors like red, yellow and magenta.
Source: ignytebrands.com/
Test out colors that fit with your brand aesthetic but also keep in mind the consumer mindset and try to show colors that people will be thankful to see.
ii. A/B Test CTA Language
Secondly, you’ll want to A/B test the language in your CTAs. Find words that sell your product, but are not too pushy. It’s a fine line, we know, but you won’t be able to stick to the traditional “Buy Now” or “Book Now” that people are familiar with. The best landing pages are challenging traditional CTAs.
If you want to keep your bounce rate low and your lead completion rate high then be more thoughtful with your tone of voice and CTA messaging. Split test CTAs that get your point across but are not so harsh.
A few quick language tips:
a. Avoid Plosives
Plosives are words that most commonly start with a B or a P, or have these letters in them. A plosive is a harsh sounding word and often evokes feelings of worry or anxiousness.
b. Consider Sibilance
Look to incorporate softer sounding words into your CTAs. Use more sibilance in your vocabulary; this is normally words with S sounds in them.
2. A/B Test Video, Virtual Tours & Brand Avatars
We all know that video content has been consistently on the rise, Wyzowl says 85% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. They also found that 84% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. But, what’s the next evolution of video? Interactive Video.
Try to A/B the use of more traditional video alongside an interactive video. An interactive video can be anything from:
i. Virtual Tours: Great for coworking spaces or real estate, as you can see in the landing page example below.
ii. Brand Avatars: Fantastic for fast-moving goods, fashion and thought leadership.
iii. Live demos: Perfect for SaaS companies.
Photo from Matterport
Some of the best landing pages are going to be featuring these content types, but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily a fit for your brand. One thing is certain though, you’ll need to incorporate video to some degree within your landing pages. Find the video format that suits your demographic best and run with it.
3. A/B Test Various Social Profiles for Social Proof on Landing Pages
Word of mouth remains our strongest form of marketing. 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over any other type of advertising. The issue has been making strangers appear like friends and family.
To answer this, brands often use well-known figures or businesses for social proof. Most brands know this and it’s the reason why so many landing pages host reviews or client logos near the signup sections of a landing page.
The year will see the rise of the micro-influencer and with that will come the rise in trust for smaller brands. Whereas before, having a better-known brand logo on your landing page, or a testimonial from a high-flying CEO would have helped your case, will see consumers questioning that.
Throughout the year you’ll want to look at split testing different social profiles as social proof on your landing pages. We’ll start to see a shift as consumers begin to support and trust the “underdogs.” Learn from this and make sure you’re giving those smaller clients or customers just as much (if not more) airtime as the larger corporations. You may just see an increase in conversion rate because of it.
Expand on Your Social Proof
Photo from MailChimp
The best landing pages will take testimonials a step further and build authentic use case examples from smaller clients. MailChimp does this well in showcasing how their product helps small businesses. Consider doing the same and build longer content journeys from your landing pages to focus on the micro-influencers among your customers as well as strengthening trust with potential customers.
4. A/B Test Landing Page Conversational Sales Bots
We briefly mentioned this earlier with top SaaS companies beginning to implement conversational selling techniques into their landing pages. What we want to do now is bring a particular focus on conversational sales bots.
The conversational bot found its feet in 2019 and 2020 will just see it go from strength to strength. 80% of businesses expect to have some sort of chatbot automation.
Businesses should seriously consider split testing the use of one in your landing pages. Split test your efforts and use a project management tool to stay on top of your efforts.
Drift found that just 14% of people said they would rather fill out a landing page form than use a chatbot. A bot has all the power that a lead form can acquire but it can also do so much more. It will leave your landing page visitor leaving feeling like they’ve had more of an engagement with your brand than a traditional form can do.
We’ll cover a little more on the chatbot later on in this article. However, if you’re seriously considering implementing a chatbot onto your landing page then give your chatbot character, as it will often be the first touchpoint a customer has with your brand especially if they’ve come through a PPC ad words initiative and first impressions count!
5. A/B Test Navigation to Nurture Journeys
This year will see a rise of story-telling marketing, as we go back to basics. As dynamic as you want your landing page to be, perhaps that’s no longer what the consumer will be looking for. This year we’re predicting that people will want to hear use cases in new and innovative ways. Consider how you can do that through story-telling and split test giving your landing page visitors the option to navigate away from the landing page to explore these use cases further.
We know what you’re thinking, this goes against every landing page grain in the body. However, you still have the power to decide where you’d like the nav option to go. Make the most of it.
Consider sending your landing page visitors down micro-journeys of your own. Whether these journeys are customer success stories or perhaps they’re valuable resources that will later be that much more useful with your product underwing. Either way, think wisely about limiting a landing page to just one page and consider what your customer would want more of.
Use data-fed decisions to get to this point, don’t leave it up to your team to decide what your potential customer wants to see. Make informed decisions.
Here’s a sure-fire way to decide where your customer would want to navigate to:
- Set up a heat mapping tool on your landing page.
- Implement snippets of micro-journeys and extra content, these can be in boxes and be condensed down to under 100 words.
- Track visitors’ actions on the page, if you see a trend of many consumers trying to click through to one piece of content then test linking out to that piece of content.
All you’ll need to do is make sure the pages you link out to allow to capture the lead as well.
6. A/B Test Gamification Features
We’re constantly vying for people’s attention in today’s market. Social media is over-saturated and advertising efforts are certainly the same.
How can you stand out? Gamification. 87% of marketers consider interactive content to be more attention-grabbing than static content.
Think about how you can gamify your landing page visitor’s experience:
i. A/B Test Quizzes
Image from BeardBrand.com
A quiz can be a great way of engaging with landing page visitors from the moment they enter the page. Quizzes can also act as your lead collection form but in a light-hearted way, plus they have a 31% lead capture rate.
Frame your questions so you’ll have everything you need from your potential customer before asking for their email address and offering them to opt in to further communications from your brand.
By taking their email address at this point you can offer to share their quiz results with them. In doing this, you’ve managed a positive landing page experience, a lead collection and a high chance open rate in that initial email send-out as well.
ii. A/B Test Interactive Content
If you have the capacity, let the consumer play around with the product. Gamification can be something as little as clicking to see different elements of the product in action. You’re asking the consumer to actively engage with the page, and you’ll have someone’s fuller attention than if your page were simply scrolling content.
iii. A/B Test Chatbot Replies
This is a huge one and can bring sheer joy to your consumer. If you’re able to do so, then seriously consider gamifying your chatbot’s language and conversation skills.
Put in playful terms, perhaps play up to it being a “robot,” and if your style guide allows it then let your bot tell a few jokes along the way. In 2022 we’re seeing a desperate need for genuine interactions again. Just because a human is talking to a robot, doesn’t mean we can’t make that interaction as genuine and as authentically “robot” as possible. Let your consumer leave your page smiling.
Final Takeaways From Landing Page A/B Testing Experiments
Hopefully, these landing page A/B tests will inspire your own landing pages. As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, this year is set to be a big year for digital marketing and we’re going to see some epic changes in the way brands market.
To Conclude:
- A/B test your landing page CTA – Colors and copy
- A/B test video opportunities – Interactive video
- A/B test social profiles for social proof – focus on small stories
- A/B test conversational bot implementation
- A/B test navigation away from your landing page – expanded content journeys
- A/B test gamification features – be playful with your work
By adopting these split testing options for your landing page strategies you’re no doubt going to stay ahead of the game, keep your visitors engaged and give your unique landing page the best opportunity it could have in addressing consumer needs.
Note: This article is a guest blog post by Ray Slater Berry. Ray is a content strategist at Outreach Humans, and has been working in social media and content marketing for eight years. He specializes in the tech, innovation and travel sectors. He has also recently published his first work of fiction, Golden Boy.
** Editor’s Note: This article is edited for clarity.
Saad Khan
Muhammad Saad Khan is a Director of Product Marketing at Cloudways (by DigitalOcean), a Growth Hacker extraordinaire, and a force to be reckoned with on the table tennis court. He's spent a decade building innovative customer-led growth strategies that helped Cloudways grow from 0 to 89,000 customers & is a regular at WordCamp events worldwide.
