Testing the right things can move you forward. Testing the wrong things will have you running in circles. You’ll make all your decisions based on numbers, but those numbers will be largely irrelevant to helping you reach success.
To get the answer, look at it from the perspective of your visitor. We’ll walk through the major decisions he has to make as he visits your page.
Decision #1
The first decision your visitor has to make when he shows up at your site is whether or not to stay there.
If we’re talking about a typical sales page, your headline plays a huge role in this decision. I’m not talking about the color of your headline. I think testing like that is ridiculous unless you’re already generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. I’m sure there are exceptions but do you really want to take your chances on being the exception?
The important part is what your headline communicates and how it does that—the appeal. If your appeal is on target, he’ll start to read. If not, bye, bye.
If you don’t have a headline, then what you’re testing is the appeal of the page. What is your big idea? What is the positioning you’ve created for your product/service?
Decision #2
So your visitor has read your headline and decided to stick around. The next question that’s going through his head is something like, “Should I spend even more time on this page or should I go back to Facebook®?”
That’s really what this next part comes down to. Is your visitor attracted enough to your presentation to even stick around long enough to get the details?
Remember the last time you went to a web page that was selling something and, for some reason, you just didn’t feel it was worth digging enough to even figure out exactly what the offer was?
The device that keeps the visitor on the page after those first initial seconds really varies with each specific situation.
Ask yourself, after the headline, what part of my page has the power to draw people in or repel them?
Figure out where this “Decision #2” happens on your page and start testing alternative ways to keep your prospect glued to the presentation.
Decision #3
Should I buy this? That’s what every visitor is asking at some level.
In addition to all the ninja marketing tricks we know about how to get your visitor to say, “Yes,” a large part of that decision really comes down to one thing:
Is your offer awesome?
Not enough focus is put on the OFFER. That’s really the most important part of the whole puzzle here.
Test your offer. That means adding/removing stuff, changing the price, payment terms, etc. Be creative and keep rotating in the changes.