The Digital Platform of Marketing - Essay Example

Marketing using Landing Pages

Online marketing occurs once after one has done the big task of ensuring that the visitors will get to the website and access the information with ease. There is always a major disconnect between the benefits of the landing pages and their application by the marketers. However, it is good to conduct an A/B test to split the audience and understand the best way the digital platform of marketing can be effectively used. Though the landing pages are still underutilized, they are the heart of the of the inbound lead generation efforts of the online marketers. The landing pages are quite critical to the success of the lead generation attempts to sweep under the rug (Sheehan, 2012). The landing pages will target a specific audience and captures the information from the visitors via the lead-capture form.

The Client X introduced the product that is targeting the parents of the newborns which will require an A/B test to help split the audience and address the problems related its online campaigns before the official launching of the campaigns. The test is done before launching the digital marketing campaigns also helps to challenge the assumptions that may affect the marketing of the new product. The A/B test took two weeks to understand the problems associated with the product’s marketing strategy. The test took two weeks to offer enough time for the visitors to the website to have sufficient opportunity to interact with the new product (Wei, 2014). The test helped in splitting the audiences and ensuring the launch of the online campaigns for the marketing of the product was going to effective.

The new product is an app that can track the sleeping time, feeding and activities related to the newborns. The new product had to undergo the landing pages split test to determine whether the elements that were on the page were going to help its performance and rectify those that were not going to be of importance in its marketing. Two different platforms on the landing pages were used to test the performance of the new product and understand the top-performing page. Again the Client X did the A/B test for the new product to understand the visitor priorities and behaviors when they visit the website. The test was also meant to help in correcting particular problems that were associated with the site pages (Sheehan, 2012). In other words, the test was used as a diagnostic tool to determine what was going wrong and help to fix it in the right way.

The A/B test was also used to challenge the assumptions that had been made in the best way to write or design the landing pages. The A/B test not only changed the minor elements of the landing page but also completed and made dramatic redesigns of the page. The test yielded the most valuable results that had a dramatic impact on the success of the site (Ramos & Cota, 2014). The following is the A/B test that Client X ran before the launch of the new product for the parents of newborns and the findings that were made during the after the test.

Test 1: Impact determination of the provided information of the email response rates

This A/B test was very simple and had two emails that prompted the visitor to the site to drive click through the site and convert the leads into the sales. In the Email A, there was sales text for the new parents’ product within the emotionally charged perspective for the visitors to interact with it. In the Email B, there was no specific mention of the functions of the new product, but it alluded to the importance it had to the mothers. In the two cases the essential difference was that in one of the emails the specific functions of the new product for the parents with newborns was mentioned while in the other it was not. Client X tested the new product by messaging to over three thousand email addresses. The results were compiled after twelve days although more clicks were trickling in during the compilation of the outcomes (Wang & Hering, 2013). The following results were obtained from the test for the two types of emails after twelve days.

Email Test Results

Emails sent

150,000

150,000

Clicks

5120

4358

Click through rate in %

3.03

2.60

Sales

180

120

Conversion: click to sale in %

3.43

2.76

Conversion: email to sale in %

0.11

0.07

It was observed that Email A that had provided sufficient information and the specific functions of the new product it significantly outperformed the Email B. The click-through rate increased by over sixteen percent and the overall conversion of the email sale also increased by over forty percent. The email that identified the specific functions of the new product that was under test generated sixty more orders than the email that had the information that alluded to the new product without specifying the particulars.

Test 2: Testing for a particular Problem

In the second A/B test, it was believed that the clients who visited the test site with 1024 by 768 resolution monitor were not getting the relevant information about the sales for the new product for the parent newborns unless they had scrolled down the site page (Wang & Hering, 2013). This aspect prompted Client X to undertake an A/B test with the following hypothesis:

• Page A was the original page that featured some shortened data and applied a ‘click here' text that leads visitors down the page to access more information about the new product. This page had the order process displayed on 1024 by 768 resolution monitor, and while on the 800 by 600 resolution monitor it showed the offer copy for the new product.
• Page B had a radical redesign, and the order process could have been seen on the 800 by 600 monitor resolution. The page used two columns that availed more information about the new product.

The A/B test gave the following results:

A/B test

Page A

Page B

Percent of traffic in %

33

33

New sales

281

113

Change in %

N/A

-59.43

It was observed that Page A performed exemplary well, while Page B was a terrible failure. In that test, the hypothesis sales language appearing on the page proved to be correct. The two-column approach in page B was confirmed to be ineffective after testing. However, in another test that was done later by surveying the audience, they overwhelmingly choose Page B. Their choice confirmed that what may seem ‘intuitive’ to most of the marketers may not always be the best page according to the testing.

Test 3: Challenging the Assumptions and Learning from the observed results

In this A/B test created two versions of the online sales page. Each of the pages had two screens that asked the visitor of the site to complete the simple form for them to receive the informational product.

• In the version A, there were some personal elements added to it that included the Client X photo, some personal introduction, and the signature. In other terms, the page had the personal sales letter included.
• In the version B, there was the sales copy of the new product but it was without the personal elements, that is, no signature, no photo, and no salutation.

The conventional wisdom indicated that the version with the added personal elements was going to win. However, the results proved otherwise (Sheehan, 2012).

A/B test

Version A with personal elements

version B (Institutionalized)

Conversion rate in %

34.5

40.0

It was observed that version A was outperformed by version B by over fifteen percent. In this case, the expectation that the version with the personalized elements added was going to do better was not met.

The results from the A/B test will greatly impact the final campaigns for the new product from Client X. First, if the tests had never been done the money would have been left on the table with the assumption that the version that had added personal elements was going to do better in the online marketing (Charter, 2012). Secondly, the launching of the online campaigns will use the efficient approach and version that will fetch good market from the online customers.

All the assumptions that were made before conducting the A/B test were challenged, and actual information was obtained that will ensure that the relevant information that is required by clients is available on the landing pages (Wang & Hering, 2013). The A/B test also gave the opportunity to maximize the conversion rates and solve the problems that could have adversely impacted the online campaigns after launching the landing pages marketing campaigns.

The A/B test that was done on the new product from Client X also ensured that the launching of the online campaigns was not based on guesswork but the tested and proved approach. The probable problems that would have affected the final campaigns were solved after doing the A/B test. This aspect was quite imperative, and the final campaigns will be quite effective since the probable inherent issues that could have arisen from the assumptions that were made were solved during the A/B test.