Would you survive speed dating?

More specifically, would your marketing?

Split test. Optimization. Target demographic. Response rate. MVT. ROI. It can be easy to get caught up in the nitty-gritty jargon of online marketing, especially with all those great buzzwords and acronyms. Here’s an idea: let’s take a step away from the industry-speak for a second and think about marketing for what it actually is — speed dating.

Okay, the analogy isn’t perfect, but I think it’s pretty darn good. And so does Scott Brinker (did you catch his webinar last week?)…he got me thinking about the whole dating analogy. Think about it, the potential lead lands on your page, and it’s like the invisible moderator hits a stopwatch. You’ve got a tiny window of time to make a killer impression and get their phone number. Or email. Or twitter name. Whatever works.

With that analogy in mind, how would your current marketing efforts fair in a vicious round of speed dating? Here are a few speed dating pointers to help:

1. Dress to impress – Does your page look the part? Striking images, consistent branding elements, and a smooth and genuine look and feel are all part of making a strong first impression. You only have a few seconds – looks matter!

2. Tell the right story – You need an attention getter. Something that says you’re interesting and worth getting to know, without sounding pompous or desperate. Does your copy do the same?

3. Ask the right questions - A date who doesn’t ask enough questions seems self-absorbed; too many questions, and the potential lover is scared away. Same with landing pages. If you’re collecting information from a lead, you want to ask for key, strategic information, without crossing the line. Be careful of asking for too much right away. It’s just the first date, after all. 

Do you want a specialist or a generalist?

We all know that the technology landscape for marketing has grown at a rapid rate over the past few years. Just looking at the trade show floors of events like Dreamforce or Ad:Tech shows us the evolution of marketing to be technology driven. We have more technology decisions today than ever before, from bid management to social media monitoring. The result is that the number of decisions marketers need to make when it comes to adopting new technology can be dizzying.   

ion’s CTO Scott Brinker first wrote about the onset of more marketing decisions being fueled by technology back in 2010. Back then he published a small graphic that provided a snapshot of some of the technology players within the space. Since 2010, Scott has published a few iterations of his landscape. Here’s his newest version, and you can check out the blog post here.

With so many choices, it can be easy for us to choose what we could call a generalist solution—or a solution that can do more than one thing. This narrows the number of technology choices that we need to make, which sounds good, in theory of course.

We often see this in the landing page space. Many systems integrate the ability to create a landing page, and even test a page, but few of these generalist approaches provide marketers with the flexibility and agility they need to create the high-performing landing experiences that are the fulcrum of great marketing. And great marketing often leads to great ROAS.

Tom Leung from Google said it best, “Landing pages are essential to your online marketing. Be serious about your landing pages.” Becoming more specialized in your approach to creating great experiences means getting serious about your landing pages. And it will give you great returns. When TechValidate did a survey of our customers, more than 60% of them reported a 3-5X improvement in their results when they moved into our platform (wow!)—that’s the difference that a specialized approach to your landing pages can make. 

Getting serious about your landing pages means creating authoritative landing pages, experimenting with progressive conversions, growing engagement with compelling thank you pages, and creating dedicated mobile experiences for your mobile audiences. There are a bevy of strategies available today in our technology-driven marketing world that can help you create awesome landing experiences. 

Content marketing loves conversion optimization

Yesterday, as I was listening to Scott present his Conversion Content Marketing Powerhouse webinar, I found myself doodling a prehistoric version of this lovely little image:

Basically, listening to Scott, I was hit with the simple notion that your landing experiences sit at the intersection of your conversion optimization program and your content marketing. If you are using content marketing to attract more leads & cusotmers, you’re probably using landing pages, microsites, conversion paths and the like. And to win at that intersection you need valuable content, a compelling presentation of that content (user experience, copy, visuals, the X factor..), and a conversion focused experience. 

P.S. Thanks to Karen for taking my chicken scratch doodle and making it pretty. 

New Webinar: The Conversion Content Marketing Powerhouse

Join us Wednesday, January 16, at 1:00 pm ET for a free webinar featuring ion co-founder, Anna Talerico.

Content marketing and conversion optimization. Two marketing missions, alike in dignity, but divided into two different camps – until now.

Kick off 2013 with this high-energy webinar on how to combine the best ideas of content marketing and conversion optimization into a hybrid powerhouse marketing strategy known as “conversion content marketing.” 

We’ll illustrate five principles that will boost your content marketing performance for the year ahead:

• Content is king — give your landing pages deep, meaningful content to drive conversions
• Conversion is always optional — learn the art of persuasion for different situations
• Always be testing — pursue both big ideas and smaller continuous improvements
• Form shouldn’t be formulaic — stand out with landing paths, web apps and microsites
• Produce copiously —  build a portfolio strategy with highly specific customer segments

 Don’t miss this opportunity!

Register now!

12 Days of Awesome Landing Experiences

This holiday season, the entire ion team got in the spirit with our very own 12 Days of Awesome Landing Experiences. No drummers drumming, or even a partridge in a pear tree here, just 12 of the very best tips and tricks for turning click throughs into breakthroughs! From the basics of message match to exciting new ideas, we got a gift for everyone this year.

Just in case you missed any over the past few days, we’ve recapped the posts below for you:

Day 1: Santa Approved Landing Pages — Have You Been Naughty or Nice?

Day 2: A Very Merry Message Match

Day 3: Ring in the New Year with Social Sign On

Day 4: Get in the Spirit of A/B Testing

Day 5: Directional Cues to Sway and Seduce this Holiday Season

Day 6: A Very Mobile New Year

Day 7: Resolve to be R.E.A.D.Y

Day 8: All I Want for Christmas is a Clear CTA

Day 9: Santa Claus is Coming to Town With Dynamic Keyword Targeting

Day 10: Interactive Content: Best Gift Under the Tree This Year

Day 11: Joy to the Progressive Conversion!

Day 12: Thank Your Visitors Every Day of the Year

Thanks for reading throughout the year…cheers to agile, personalized, interactive and compelling digital canvasses in 2013!