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Are your marketing messages not striking a chord with your target audience? Then watch the Journey, Social Media Examiner's episodic video documentary that shows you what really happens inside a growing business.
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This episode of the Journey explores how Social Media Examiner hires a conversion expert to survey nearly 300 customers and prospects. What will they discover? How will the team alter course?
The show opens with the marketing team (Jennifer Ballard, Kim Reynold, Saidah Murphy) and Mike (founder of Social Media Examiner) meeting in Jennifer’s office to discuss ad performance. After analysis, Jen found the three best-performing ads mention challenges people are facing.
Mike says that while the job of an ad is to get people to take an action–usually a click–it’s the job of a sales page to sell. He wonders if they’ve misdiagnosed ad messaging as the problem. Could the messaging on the destination page be at fault?
He tells the team the new website will launch in the next week, and shows them a preview of the new sales page. He believes that if ads drive traffic to the new sales page, it should do its job.
Next, Mike has been staring at a screen for hours. Why? After a lot money and a lot of work by a lot of people, the new single-column website is finally up.
Later that same day, conversion expert Talia Wolf delivers a 33-page heuristic and psychological analysis report. She’s surveyed 197 customers and 81 prospects to find out what they want from Social Media Marketing World.
The marketing team gathers into Mike’s office for a call with Talia.
She’s found that people who have attended or are looking at the conference care about three core things.
First, people value the hands-on, practical tactics they leave with.
Second, the conference covers every single aspect of social media. Social Media Marketing World is the only place a person can get everything.
Third, rather than networking or mingling, people are excited about finding their tribe. Others who struggle like they do, who face the same challenges they face–people who understand them. The idea that they can stop ‘going it alone’ resonates.
Talia says current messaging talks about this generally, but not deeply enough.
Mike knows his team wants to revert to messaging about sale ending dates and quantities, so he asks Talia to speak to that.
She agrees that scarcity and urgency play a role in selling tickets, but says people aren’t convinced to purchase through their wallets. She suggests a shift from highlighting prices and early bird sales to highlighting value proposition.
Mike’s mandate? Moving forward, no written communication will mention price.
After the call Mike moves quickly. He tells marketing to work on only what’s necessary to move forward with new messaging as quickly as possible. He also begins writing a new sales page himself.
The next day, Mike is split testing the original sales page against his new version with a different headline and value propositions. In addition to customer quotes, the new page speaks to problems and struggles faced by social media marketers.
A check on early data shows the old page is actually outperforming the new page. Which, Mike stresses, is why testing is essential. Making a decision based on feelings is dangerous. How will things play out in the long run?
Do you run split tests on your sales pages? How has it helped you? Let us know in the comments below.
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