Catch more conversions with direct mail landing pages

Last year ExactTarget did a study on channel preferences, which found that “direct mail influences 76% of Internet users to buy a product or service online.” That’s too big of a number to ignore.

In fact, one of our own customers is consistently seeing a conversion rate of 30-40% from direct mail pieces. They achieve this through dedicated landing pages for their B2C campaigns, and personalized URLs (PURLs) for their B2B campaigns. 

Conversion rates of this magnitude suggest exactly what the ExactTarget study found: offline-to-online integrated marketing campaigns are powerful.

3 tips for creating high-converting direct mail landing pages

1. Match your landing page copy & creative to your mailers. This creates a scent, and reassures the visitor that he or she has landed in the right place. 

2. Pre-populate forms if you can.  If you’re creating PURLs, pre-populate form and page content to increase relevancy and reduce workload for the visitor.

3. Track your conversions. You can do this by using unique URLs for each campaign, or including a promo/coupon/special code that can be tracked.

A campaign landing page can help you catch more conversions from your direct mail pieces.

The ExactTarget study that shows direct mail influences 76% of Internet users to buy online, also demonstrates the value in testing an integrated campaign.

New Deloitte survey shows 33% spike in e-commerce. No better time to start optimizing.

Perhaps it’s because of the recession that shoppers are researching and buying online 33% more than last year, or perhaps the shift to e-commerce was on its way anyway. The reason doesn’t really matter as much as simply knowing consumers are checking out your Website to make purchasing decisions.

A recent survey put out by Deloitte shows that:

33% of consumers are purchasing more online compared with a year ago

48% are going online to browse products

35% are reviewing recommendations

21% have used a Web-enabled mobile phone in the shopping process

You can read more statistics from the survey, here.

So what does this mean?

We have to optimize our e-commerce pages and shopping cart…immediately.  Both for Web and mobile viewing.

There is no more time left to shuffle conversion rate optimization off to the side until next quarter. There is no longer justification for not tracking consumer behavior throughout your conversion funnel, and there is no reason not to be using landing pages to your full advantage. 

Consumers are coming online in record numbers to check out your product/service/solution with the intent to purchase. Don’t put off your analytics and optimization program until tomorrow, because you can get bet your competitors who don’t will be gaining a huge advantage. As Avinash so eloquently put it a couple years ago, “experiment or die, there is no try.”

You already did the hardest part when you put up your Website and first landing page or two. Now let your customers show you how they want to be approached. Let them help you optimize your pages for higher conversions.

Run experiments, find your champion, optimize in real time, increase conversions.

You’ll be very happy you did because the whole process is exciting and addicting. Ask any one of the smart people in our Twitter world that contributed to our conversion rate optimization tips list. They’re addicts just like us! 

Keep your forms relevant and streamlined

Asking a respondent to hand over personal information—even if it’s only an email address—is no small request. Customers are skeptical or even wary of divulging any information these days. Admit it, most of us are. So the onus falls on us, the marketers, to alleviate their fears, be considerate of their need for privacy, build trust and confidence (the list goes on)…all while still finding a way to get that sought-after respondent data! Achieving this cosmic balance could be simpler than you think. I can sum it up in two words: 

Tread lightly. 

B2C and B2B relationships are delicate ones. And yes, a form could be the very thing that will make or break it. Here are a few proven best practices to make sure your post-click forms are performing at their best:

Don’t be greedy.  Limit form fields to only the absolute, must-have, ‘we can’t process this lead/order/request without it’ fields. Adding more jeopardizes total conversions in the interest of collecting ‘nice to have’ information from a handful of respondents. The form is the moment of truth, and perception is everything. Extra fields may result in a more cumbersome form, or worse—the perception that you’re prying (“Why are they asking me this?!”). Neither reflects favorably on your company. So the rule of thumb here is that if it’s not critical to your end goal, don’t ask for it. 

Say ‘no spam’ (and mean it).  Including a link to your ‘no spam’ or privacy policy on or near the form is a little accessory that can make a big difference. Plus, everybody’s doing it. Do you really want to be the only one not openly professing your steadfast commitment to protecting the privacy of your customers? (Nothing like a little peer pressure to bring things into perspective.) 

Make it easy.  A tried and true formula for any target audience. When it comes to forms, this translates into organization and functionality. 

• There are standards in the world of online forms, and the best thing you can do is follow them. For instance, organizing fields in the order of name, address, city, state and zip (the same way we address an envelope in the offline world). Standardization adds a sense of familiarity and comfort for respondents, minimizing hesitation and increasing the likelihood of a conversion. 
• Remember multiple-choice tests? Back in school, most of us preferred them over written exams. That’s because the answer is right there in front of us—just choose a., b., c., or d.—easy, right? At least that’s what it seemed like. The same holds true for online forms; the less thinking or work required, the better. Need to collect address information? Typing in the State leaves room for error, use a drop-down menu instead. A user-friendly form is a conversion-friendly form.

Post-Click Perspectives: Q&A with Carrie Hill

As part of our mission to expand the coverage of post-click marketing on this blog, we’ve started to invite other respected professionals in and around this space to contribute their perspective. This is our inaugural post of that kind, a Q&A with Carrie Hill.

Click to read more ...

Hawthorne effect boosts landing page performance

After hearing a number of case studies from different vendors as well, each hawking their own special methodologies — and all of them showing nice performance gains, of course — I’m struck by two simple observations, universal truths…

Click to read more ...