We hereby grant you permission to roll your eyes at anyone who says that increasing landing page conversion rates is difficult and highly technical. The only thing you have to know is basic human psychology.
We’re all wired the same way, and we all have generally the same mental triggers which drive our actions. If you influence someone, you’ll create a conversion. Which means you need to know what those triggers are and how to use them in your landing page.
We do not like pain. We avoid it. We prefer pleasure. We will seek out pleasure even if it means enduring something painful. You must use this trigger on your landing page. That means you have to understand what your prospects associate with pleasure and pain.
Because you’re going to torture them? No – because you’re going to influence them. The only way to know how to gain their trust by showing them you understand their pain point is because you’ve done the appropriate amount of research to make sure you have placed your landing page in front of the right prospects.
You get off the freeway because you see this is your exit sign. This has to be applied to your landing page as well. Its goal is to move you as close to a state of satisfaction as possible. This, by the way, produces pleasure, which we previously noted is the primary thing that drives all human behavior.
Exposure to something unfamiliar but pleasant increases dopamine levels in the brain. Novelty causes us to explore the possibility for reward, and potential that this reward might be pleasurable causes us to proceed.
Does it have to be something completely new? Compare the very first iPhone produced by Apple to the latest model. The changes are incremental. Even so, there’s always one specific thing that’s new and different enough to grab the whole planet’s attention when Apple unveils the latest iPhone model. Apple knows that even the perception of novelty is enough get someone to buy. Put what Apple has proven over a billion times to work for your landing page.
Our brains are hardwired to look for explanations. We’ll make one up if we can’t find one. We will even change our planned behavior when an alternative that offers us an explanation is offered. Harvard University professor Ellen Langer proved this in what’s become known as the Xerox Study.
Langer discovered that people standing in line to use a photocopier were 34% more likely to let someone cut in front of them when they were told why – even when that reason was “because I have to make some copies.”
Your landing page should explain why you are making the offer, as well as why prospects will benefit if they take advantage of it.
We’ve been telling stories since we acquired the ability to use language. It’s been our preferred method of preserving and transferring information for about the last 30,000 years. Successful marketing is storytelling. The subconscious emotional parts of our brain make decisions for us. Stories activate the areas of our brains associated with sight, sound, movement, and even taste.
We experience the story. A portion of our brain believes this story is actually happening. Your landing page must tell a story that establishes the end state of using your product or service. If you don’t tell a story, you won’t sell.
This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about landing pages. Previously we referred to what we called the “No Bells, No Whistles” approach. Creating successful landing pages is more about what you get rid of, rather than what you include.
We humans aren’t necessarily lazy, but we do want to pursue the easiest option to get the best result. Can you turn your storytelling into a step-by-step journey that gets them to conversion with no diversion?
Congrats. You just cranked out a killer landing page.