193 Oli Gardner of Unbounce on Landing Pages and Conversion Optimization

Our guest this week is Unbounce co-founder, Oli Gardner. He’s obsessed with identifying and reversing bad marketing practices, and his disdain for marketers who send campaign traffic to their homepage is legendary, resulting in landing page rants that can peel paint off an unpainted wall. A prolific international speaker, Oli is on a mission to rid the world of marketing mediocrity by using data-informed copywriting, design, interaction, and psychology to create a more delightful experience for marketers and customers alike. In our conversation, we talk with Oli about landing pages, and conversion rate optimization for pages. There's a lot of psychology behind what landing pages are, and why they are superior to inner pages for pushing a specific offer. We look at all the things you should know about landing pages, and what makes people click. Guaranteed, you'll learn something new from this interview. Unbounce https://unbounce.com/   The Unbounce Conversion Benchmark Report – Average Conversion Rates by Industry and Expert Recommendations https://unbounce.com/conversion-rate-optimization/unbounce-conversion-benchmark-report/   ==================   Table of Contents for Episode 193   0:00 Podcast intros. 1:13 How Oli got into digital marketing. 2:09 What is the difference between a landing page and an ordinary page on your site? What specific purpose does a landing page serve? 3:21 What is attention ratio? How does it relate to where people click and what action s they take? 4:59 What are some common mistakes that people make with clarity of message? 8:51 What role does design play in optimizing a page for conversion? 11:20 We need data for A/B testing. What is a good sample size for A/B data? How long should those tests run? Defining your ideal customer. 17:47 The power of social proof. Who should you be using in testimonials to influence your target customers? 22:01 How much automation should you use in marketing? How machine learning is going to change everything in the next few years. 25:56 How can designers, marketers, and copywriters work together? What is the ideal workflow for page design, and page optimization? 28:57 Advice for writing headlines. 30:47 Thoughts on videos. Don't do things just because other people are doing it. How to use video in a powerful way. 33:45 Have an open mind when optimizing pages. Trusting the data. Using what you have to improve. 35:20 Some other influencers to follow and watch presentations by. The upcoming Call to Action Conference. 42:30 What would Oli tell his younger self to make his journey easier? What does a modern marketer need to succeed? 44:10 The strengths and weaknesses that Oli sees in the WordPRess ecosystem. 46:00 What are some tips that Oli has for speakers and presenters looking to up their game? 47:47 Podcast outros.   ==================   Links mentioned during the show:   TinEye Sample Size Calculator Hotjar Readable.io Retirement of AlchemyAPI on BlueMix Watson Developer Cloud (BlueMix) Watsonfinds (WordPress plugin) Qualaroo Wistia