Remember how your landing page needs to be an evolving thing? Well, the best way to make that happen is by using A/B testing your landing page, data, formatting, and by having it be a part of a planned sales funnel. Unfortunately, when it comes to testing, formatting options, and a sales funnel, one post simply won’t be enough to talk about every detail. However, we can help you get an idea of the big picture. Ready?
The Big Picture of Testing Your Landing Page, Formatting, and Sales Funnels
As you look at your blog, you need to first see what the big picture is. What is the whole point of it? Are you trying to help people? Awesome. But… what are you getting out of it? Satisfaction is great, but so is a paycheck! Plus, running a successful blog takes a lot of time and energy – for which you deserve to be compensated. That’s why you need a financial plan – and a map of how to reach those goals.
The way you get there is using a sales funnel. Now, if you do a quick Google you’ll see that there’s a ton of sales funnels out there. Most of them have the same format.
Your reader visits your site and reads an article. They see a printable or download that they’d like to get – and so they subscribe to your newsletter to get it. You deliver the promised item, as well as a lot more fantastic content via your newsletter. But you also offer them products and services that will make their life richer, fuller, and easier. You’ll offer sales, tripwires, and promotions.
This is your sales funnel – with the end goal of building a profitable relationship for both you and your reader. And, you’ll want them coming back for more – more content, more reading, and more sales.
The best way to set up your sales funnel is first to know your plan – and then to reverse engineer your own based off of a successful one like this one.
The Importance of Frameworks and Formatting
As you start building your sales funnels and landing pages, you’ll begin to notice that many landing pages tend to follow similar formats or frameworks. This isn’t by accident! Take a look – and you’ll see that they’re following one of the frameworks we’ve talked about.
However, there’s another format within the framework being used. This formatting is a lot harder to spy, but it’s just as vital. You see, while nobody wants to write specifically for the ‘bots, you also have to if you want your stuff to get seen.
In other words, if you want people to be able to search for your stuff, you have to implement SEO formatting into your pages and posts. The best SEO formatting tools I’ve ever found (and use myself!) are available right here.
And, if you check out their other products, you’ll be able to get all of your analytics stuff set up the right way – so that you’ll be able to collect the data you need to update your ideal client profiles. Boom – that’s a solid win.
Okay – now you’ve got your sales funnel and formatting vision in place – let’s look at testing.
How Testing Comes into Play
As you hit publish on that first landing page or post, it’s going to be time to start looking at the data. You can test in several ways. One way is via A/B testing. We’ll talk about it in a minute, because it does require a certain level of traffic before it’s a reliable way to collect results.
When you first start blogging, your traffic isn’t going to be anything close to that of an established blogger. That’s normal. You’ll have to build up to that. So while you’re doing that, the best way to test your pages is by looking at the data. Ask yourself, how many page views am I getting? What’s my CTR? How can I improve the bounce rate or get them to buy now? Is my offer the problem?
Until you’re getting enough traffic and actual data, all of your testing will be based on guessing. Try something. Give it some time – promote it. See if it works. And, if it isn’t working, tweak it. Dig into your data to see if you’ve got enough feedback yet. If not, guess again.
Once you’ve started getting enough traffic (and that level will vary from site to site), you’ll start seeing patterns. You’ll see why your page is or isn’t working – and that’ll give you ideas on what you need to tweak. Or, if you need help making sense of the data, find a data-buddy. That way, you’ll get a fresh pair of eyes and new insights.
When I started writing about sleep regressions (my kids are horrible sleepers), my first offer was a printable for a bedtime checklist. Why? Because it had helped me – so I reasoned it would be a hot download. It got some traction – but once I got data, I realized that it wasn’t what people wanted. They wanted help with knowing how to identify and manage sleep regressions. So now I’ve got a new printable – a page that helps people do exactly what they were searching for. And, it’s all thanks to the data and the landing pages that are formatted to succeed. Of course, the copy framework helps, too.
In any case, this stuff often gets packaged as individual, plug-n-play stuff. And, if you use it that way, it won’t work super well for you. But if you start looking at it, digging into the data, and making it yours – then it’ll work like magic.
So start testing. See what works. Make it better. And watch as your blog keeps growing.