How We Doubled Our Landing Page Conversions

Doubling Our Landing Page Conversion Rate

Last week, we ran a landing page split test for Rugby Bricks.

We asked people for their first name and email address on one form.

And just their email address on the other.

Numbers: Removing our ask for their first name doubled our conversion rate from 1.05% to 2.06% and dropped our cost per lead from $.39 to $.28.

Those results were achieved with a sample size of ~5,000 landing page visits, so you'd have to assume those numbers are sound.

And so far, touch wood, this change has made no difference to the lifetime value of our mailing list subscribers.

Notes:

Nothing complicated here - all we did was remove a little friction.

A possible downside is a drop in the quality of our leads, which means they'll be less likely to open our emails or buy from us in the future - so far, that has yet to happen.

When marketing, it helps to ask how much work I want my customer to go through to buy from me. You can view work as the price you're asking them to pay to become your customer.

Generally, the more someone is willing to pay to give you their custom, the more custom they will give. Hence, an email subscriber is worth more than a Facebook follow, and a Facebook follow is worth more than a Facebook like etc..

Beginning With The End In Mind

In 1997 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs said a line that was as wonderfully insightful for product developers back then as it is now…

"You've got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology. You can't start with the technology then try to figure out where to sell it."

You'll have noticed this mistake if you paid attention to the Web 3.0 slash crypto space these past few years. They took the technology and tried to cut a path to the customer - most failed.

We've made this mistake ourselves.

We took ideas for products and services and brought them to market with little thought given to why and how our customers would use them. Then tried to figure out how to get people to buy them as an afterthought.

Framework: Begin with the end in mind is a framework that applies to all explorations of the human imagination. Create once in mind, then again for reality.

At Rugby Bricks, we launched a range of socks, just cause. Without any thought given to who our customer is or why they'd want them - they flopped.

At World Fitness, just this month, we almost launched a concierge service for members because we thought it'd be cool without considering why our members would want it…. They probably don't.

​Eric Reis, author of the lean start-up and other highly regarded start-up manuscripts like Steve Blank's 'The start-up owner's manual' also drill down on this point.

They say you should start with your customer's end result in mind and then let them tell you the solution.

Steve was bold enough to back his instincts on the solution with the iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc. But we don't have to to be successful unless we want to change the world.

Notes:

The point is starting with the end in mind, i.e. the outcome for the customer and working backwards to the solution dramatically improves our chances of creating something people want.

This is the opposite of starting with the product or service and trying to convince people why it is right for them.

Building Wealth

Billionaires get rich from valuation, not cash flow. - Nassim Taleb

While we don't care much about reaching billionaire status, one day, we hope to build enough wealth to provide our families with a safe and healthy life.

History says the best way to do this is not by saving cash or buying index funds but by building and selling a business.

The problem paradoxically is the very thing that gets these ventures started, i.e. us, and the value that we create for the business makes many businesses unsellable or at least not for a worthwhile amount.

We can't be sold, so the more valuable we are to our businesses, the less valuable they are to someone else.

So to build a business worth selling that can create real wealth for our families, we have to develop one that works as good as, if not better, without us.

Notes:

There are many exceptions to this point. I know a few who've done very tidily on wages and with property investment - but they've played the corporate game well, which might be just as difficult.

However, earning returns of 20,30 and 40% compounded annually is only achieved by a rare few investor, like the infamous chain-smoking Jim Simons. While many, many business owners do this without any obviously exceptional skills.

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Need business advice? Ask Kale and Rhys here.