One of the “levers” in making a campaign more profitable is your landing page.
After someone clicks on your ad, your landing page is the “salesman” that converts the “curious” into a lead / sale.
The higher the conversion rate on your page, the more money you make.
You can see that having a great landing page is crucial to profitability.
But what does the typical affiliate marketer do?
They use spy tools, rip a landing page they see, and cross their fingers hoping that it’ll convert.
What’s the problem with this approach?
They don’t know WHY a page is successful. And because of that, they don’t know HOW to split-test and come up with their own pages.
Their success is dependent on other people.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t wanna have a career that’s based on copying others. I only trust myself.
I wanna share with you a “framework” I’ve used the past several years called the LIFT model.
I bought a book a few years ago called:
“You Should Test That” by Chris Goward.
By the way this highlights my approach to improving in affiliate marketing. I learn from other industries and apply the knowledge to my campaigns.
1. If I wanna improve my landing pages, I look at landing page optimization experts.
2. I wanted to learn how to systemize my companies & campaigns more, so I studied how Toyota does it.
Don’t limit your affiliate marketing knowledge to just blogs and forums.
Don’t worry about the color of the button, or what headline to use. Those are small details. Those are tactical.
If you want to create higher converting landing pages, you need to understand the psychology behind optimization.
The LIFT Model
The LIFT model has 6 components.
You want to increase:
- Value Proposition
- Relevance
- Clarity
- Urgency
You want to decrease:
- Distraction
- Anxiety
These are the levers of a landing page and increasing landing page conversions.
Optimize each concept and watch your profits soar!
Lets dive deeper into each part.
1. Value Proposition
This is the most important one.
What are you offering to people?
The easiest way to think about it is:
Value = “Benefits of your offer” – “Cost of obtaining that offer”
Remember cost isn’t just the price, it’s the energy and effort it takes to get it.
The easiest way to show the value proposition is the “angle.” Make them want your product.
One thing I’ve learned from psychology is people are motivated two ways: they are moving towards their goal, or moving away from a pain.
People will make more money for “pain killers” than for “vitamins”
2. Relevance
I was analyzing the campaign of one of my newbie friends.
They weren’t profitable and couldn’t understand why.
They were getting cheap clicks, but none of them were converting into leads.
The landing page looked fine.
When I saw his ads & and his angles…that’s when I realized what the problem was.
Lets just say he was being deceptive with his ads, and what he was offering had nothing to do with the ads.
The users were clicking the ads expecting one thing, and he was delivering another.
He made the angles & landing pages more congruent.
Even though his cost per click increase…his profit increased.
Are you measuring the right metric? I don’t know about you guys, but all I care about is the profit.
3. Clarity
Have you ever heard “ugly” increases landing page conversions?
I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. The deeper meaning is that ugly pages are clearer.
So many “fancy” looking pages are distracting.
How do you make your landing page more clear?
- Better copywriting – you should be writing on a 5th grade level. Don’t use big fancy words.
- Make the call to action more prominent.
- Every single element on your landing page needs to have a purpose. I always ask myself, “is this going to boost conversions?” If not then get rid of it.
4. Urgency
This is one of the most powerful psychological principles.
Your friend wants to hang out this Friday, but you rather stay at home and catch up on Game of Thrones.
But he says, “I’m moving overseas in a few days, this could be the last time we see each other for a while.”
How’s your motivation level now? Probably 10x what it was before.
You have to give people a reason to take action now. People are easily distracted.
What are some specific ways that you can add urgency to your landing pages?
- Countdown timer – You can add a script that has a countdown. You’ve seen this on infomercials on TV before. You have either 5 minutes left to buy this, or the offer ends at midnight!
- Scarcity – You can communicate that there’s a limited supply. Every dating landing page features this.
“You have to sign up now. We almost have the max number of men allowed on the site. We may not open registrations again for six months.”
One tip to increase urgency is to explain why.
You can’t just say you’re closing the offer down in 5 minutes and expect people to believe it.
Give them a valid reason why – people aren’t stupid.
5. Anxiety
You want the conversion. You want the sale. That lead brings you one step closer to retiring in Bangkok.
But what’s in the way of you getting that lead?
Anxiety.
You’re asking people to take action.
This means they could be giving your their credit card. Or they’re entering personal information.
That’s kinda scary. There are a lot of creepers on the internet.
You can use your landing pages to build trust.
Here are some ways.
Social Proof
When you walk into a room full of people, you tend to adopt similar behaviour to fit in with the group.
This is how people work – they wanna fit in. Can you show your audience that your product helps them fit in? What sort of social proof can you offer?
This ad from Oracle says to me “If you have a big company, and you don’t use Oracle, you are missing out… Almost all of the biggest companies in the US use Oracle, but not you.”
Trust Seals
The online research group Baymard conducted a survey and asked people which badge they trust the most. Here are the results… Is your offer endorsed by any company, or does it use a special technology that you can show on your lander to improve trust levels?
Testimonials
This is what people are actually saying about your product. Sure there are a whole lot of fake testimonials out there, but if you can get real testimonials, it’ll set you up for more long term success.
Someone shot this pic of Obama while he was in China, and then the company who makes these jackets some how got hold of it.
Next thing, the company puts massive billboards up with this image.
Even though there was never any official endorsement and the company was made to take them down, a testimonial could not be much stronger than coming from President Obama.
6. Distraction
Go through every single element of your landing page.
Ask yourself, “Does this increase my conversion rates?”
If not then get rid of it. Hack away at the unessential.
What’s next?
Analyse your landing pages and try to follow this model. Give people an offer, then reasons why they should take up your offer now.
Remember that real people are reading your landing pages – they have needs and wants, but they also have fears, distractions, and anxieties.
Don’t just believe that what you currently see out there is the best.
Million-dollar angles and ideas pop up every single day and if you are the first mover on a good idea, you’ll take home a much bigger chunk of the rewards than just blatantly copying other people’s stuff.
Featured Image by Turnsasedgars
