Posted in Landing Page Optimization	September 21, 2005

Discover how one publisher was able to increase landing page conversion rates 23 and 27 percent by repurposing his direct mail sales letter copy

Executive Summary

• Long copy will increase landing page conversion rates for paid offers
• Your direct mail creative will work online as it works in the mail
• An increase in landing page conversion rates is a quick path to profits

Admittedly, I can be a pest. I've been giving one multi-title financial services publisher, who I've known for years, a bad time about his skimpy sales letter landing pages.

But it wasn't my goading that triggered the test. Apparently, my friend has been reading Mequoda Landing Page Reviews back at the Mequoda Library. At some point the cumulative harping of John Clausen, Bob Bly, Peter A. Schaible, Peter J. Fogel and others caused him to try to increase his landing page conversion rates.

Opportunity: In addition to a Mequoda Internet Hub and a membership website, he has two very successful print newsletters. Both have #10 direct mail packages with eight-page sales letters as their long-standing control. His Internet sales letter landing pages, on the other hand, have short, postcard-like copy with a postage stamp-sized newsletter cover. They are—in a word—puny.

The Test: He took his direct mail control sales letters and used the content to create two simple sales letter landing pages following the 12 guidelines put forth in the Mequoda Sales Letter Landing Page Scorecard. He ran them in a pay-per-click (PPC) A/B split-test against his puny (is my bias too obvious here?), postcard landing pages until the test panel with the lowest number of orders had 347 gross credit card orders.

Results: The longer sales letter landing pages won in both cases by 23 and 27 percent. (I'm not surprised. Are you?)

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Bonus: In addition to the clear gross order win, his pay-up went from around 85 percent to a low 90s percentile on both products. Apparently, when we spend more time selling something, its much more likely to stay sold.

Lesson: When you're asking for money online as in the mail, you better do a thorough job of telling your product's story. There are few ways ever invented to tell a product's story better than with a long, well-written sales letter (landing page or otherwise).

Other Resources

• How to Develop a Landing Page That Closes the Sale
• Marketing Sherpa Landing Page Handbook How to Raise Conversions—Data & Design Guidelines
• Google AdWords Learning Center Catalog

Note: As always, the details of the case have been modified to protect the identity of the publisher and the program.