“Yes, I will go out with you”

The Similarities Between Landing Pages & First Dates

You gain the courage to ask the girl you’ve been flirting with for weeks out on a date, and she says yes. You are ecstatic, but my friend, saying yes is only the first step to a successful date. Similarly, optimization-focused initiatives pre-click are important, but not the full picture to conversion.

As marketers, we spend a lot of time attempting to make a first impression, only to fail

• Appearances matter. If you look like you’ve been through the ringer, chances are a second date probably won’t happen. Why? Because appearances matter. With landing pages you should be thoughtful about design, elements, and focus. And if all else fails, consider a makeover.

• Watch the language. No one likes a date with a potty mouth. Don’t just spend time on making your pages look great; make the content resonate with your audience. Relevance is important – and if you aren’t spending time on the message, then you are missing out on an important conversion opportunity. 

• Romance doesn’t just happen. Romance is work, and so are conversion-generating landing pages. Creating a path to conversion means knowing your audience and driving them towards a goal.  So think about your offer, call-to-action, and form process to make certain you are “romancing” your visitors. 

• Mix it up. Don’t be the guy who takes all of his first dates to the same restaurant. Your landing page strategy shouldn’t be set to auto-pilot. What works today won’t necessarily work tomorrow. Continuously test elements, experiences, and content.

• Mind your manners.  The date should never end with you pushing them out the door so you can move on to the next thing. Yet, often times, we marketers don’t spend enough time thinking about the post-conversion strategy. Are you thanking your visitor upon conversion? If not, here are some great tips on minding your manners.

If you want the chance for a repeat visitor (a.k.a. ‘second date’), be thoughtful of your online strategy from first impression to post-conversion. Keeping these strategies in mind will help to increase your chances of a future “I do”.