Who doesn't love road trips? Image source.If you've ever been on a road trip, you know that it can b...

1. 5 Expert Tips That Will Get You On the Road to Conversion
Who doesn't love road trips? Image source.
If you've ever been on a road trip, you know that it can be the best time ever with bits of the worst
time ever thrown in for good measure.
Kind of like being a marketer, isn't it? I'll refrain from using a "marketing is a journey, not a
destination" analogy here but regardless of the cliché, it's not so far from the truth.
We're taking off on the Conversion Road Trip in June, holding events in New York, Toronto, Chicago,
and Boston with the world's leading optimization experts.
We asked five of them to share some lessons from their own marketing journey (fine, it's a journey)
to help keep you on the road to marketing mastery. Read on to learn how to speak to specific
segments of your audience, how to outpace your PPC competition, how creating hubs around one
topic can increase your traffic and more.
Angie Schottmuller learns to speak her customers' language
When Angie Schottmuller was just out of high school, she took a road trip from Wisconsin to South
Carolina with some friends. They were in need of some cash so they started asking residents for the
location of a bank machine - which at the time, was referred to in Wisconsin as a TYME Machine.
Seriously. TYME machines. Who knew?
Now, imagine going to a place where people have no idea about TYME machines and asking them
for directions to one. Needless to say, they got quite a few odd looks from the locals before running
into someone from Wisconsin who told them to ask for an ATM.
Fast forward a few years and Angie has been named by Forbes as one of the top marketers of 2015 -
so she understands the value of learning about your customers and how engage and convert them.
When we spoke to Angie a couple of weeks ago, she recommended starting by assessing the
different needs within the segments of your customer base, and then writing copy that speaks to
those groups.
For example, how would customers in the 18-24 age range who live in Mobile, Alabama who work in
dentistry describe what you're selling?
Establish a content baseline that will appeal to the majority of your audience. Then brainstorm and
investigate potential variants (minor changes) that correspond to audience differences that you can
readily identify or target (e.g. user location, Facebook interests, LinkedIn job title). Bucket
meaningful opportunities, and then evaluate ways to tweak, swap, or augment your copy and visuals
accordingly for prioritized segments.
Angie encourages marketers should not be afraid to speak to regional audiences in their own
'language.' Some people drink pop, others drink soda. Some people say "you guys," others say "y'all."
Some people say "TYME Machine", others... you get the idea. Those subtle dialect differences can be

2. specifically targeted within ads or dynamically inserted/adjusted on-page based on a user's geo
location or IP address.
To progressively improve your conversion rates, define a relevance roadmap that increasingly helps
you learn and speak your customer's language.
These very simple, and very small changes can make all the difference in gaining the trust of your
audience and can elevate engagement and drive conversions.
Kyle Rush on landing page change you can believe in
Kyle Rush is no stranger to the road and neither is his dapper dog, Tito, who keeps him company in
the car. Kyle is as vigilant about making sure his dog looks good as he is about making sure that his
campaigns are optimized.
Proficient in chemistry, advanced physics and being a good boy.
Kyle is perhaps best known for his involvement in the 2012 Obama campaign. As he said in a
Growthhackers AMA earlier this year, his most successful test turned out to be a "false positive in
disguise."
There's a psychological trick used on high-end restaurant menus. Dollar signs are removed from
the prices and patrons end up spending more money. The idea is that the patrons are focusing on
the food rather than the prices. Inspired by this concept, Kyle decided to remove dollar signs on the
donation forms for the Obama fundraising campaign.
His first experiment showed an amazing 40% increase in revenue. But Kyle found out it was too good
to be true.
As elated as we were, that's an extremely hard number to believe. So we tested it two more times
and only one of the three tests was significant. Turns out the visitors we sampled in the first test
were somehow heavily biased towards the variation.
From there, Kyle and his team were a lot more careful about their sampling. This was a really
important lesson that helped them be a lot more successful in the long run.
It's easy to get carried away when seeing great results from a test. Any positive numbers, especially
ones that are overwhelmingly positive, can be tempting for marketers to claim as fact. But it's not
until further testing against other sample groups that you find where the truth lies in any group of
statistics.
Sampling requires an investment in time. Like any good road trip, testing is all about being in it for
the long haul.
Larry Kim on getting there first
If you've traveled out of town on a long weekend, you know that you have to leave early. You don't
want to get stuck in traffic for hours on highways that look like the "leaving Atlanta" side of the
highway on the Walking Dead poster.
Only get there first if you are certain there are no zombie hordes. Image source.

3. As the proud papa of son Jules (#ppckid), Larry Kim is well aware of the importance of leaving early.
And with a car full of toys, a playpen, a diaper bag, bottles and more, road tripping is a whole new
adventure.
In a conversation we had with Larry, he recommended employing this "get going" strategy in the
PPC game as well.
My best advice for PPC advertisers today is to be a first-mover. Spend time reading up on the new
features and options in AdWords, new targeting features in Facebook Ads, etc. Do whatever it takes
to learn about and try out those new technologies and tactics your competitors haven't caught on to
yet.
Advancements in PPC come fast and furious. There's always something new going on. But the only
way to find the true winners is to stay up to date and test new features.
Something as simple as adding new extensions to ads can help you stand out in search results,
garner more clicks, raise Quality Score and, in turn, lower costs.
If you're looking for a resource to help you stay on top of your PPC game, check out this exhaustive
list of great PPC blogs.
You know what they say: The early bird gets the click from the search term.
Andy Crestodina on niche destinations
Andy Crestodina, Co-Founder and Strategic Director at Orbit Media Studios, wants you to create a
niche destination for your traffic.
A niche destination for a road trip might be somewhere like Orlando, Florida, where you'll find
SeaWorld Orlando, Universal Orlando, Disney's Hollywood Studios, the Magic Kingdom and many
more family-friendly attractions.
People go to Orlando because they know they're going to get a specific type of entertainment.
You can do anything in Orlando! Image via OrlandoWeekly
Andy explained that you can get more traffic on your site by making it into a niche destination with
something called a content hub.
Anyone can publish an endless stream of loosely related posts. But a pro knows that a great blog is
built around sets of tightly related topics.
Start by picking a topic that is relevant to your audience. Dig deep into the problems/questions
people have around the subject, as well as what your company does to answer/solve them.
Then start making friends with influencers around that topic. Like Andy says:
Follow them, share their content, comment and do anything else that slowly wins their attention in a
positive way.
Now you're ready for your "central hub." Your central hub will be one piece of content on your site

4. that is the strongest and most useful piece of content you have on this particular topic.
Next, publish "supporting content" in the form of webinars, blog posts, infographics and anything
you can use to support your position on the original topic.
If you've made relationships with influencers as suggested above, then at this point you can start
asking them to share your content. See if you can get a guest post exchange with your new contacts.
You've now built a content hub that will give you an advantage in search rankings, social sharing
and lead generation. By dominating a specific topic, your traffic to your niche destination will
increase, and your influence with regards to the topic will rise right along with it.
Oli Gardner on focusing attention on landing pages
Unbounce Co-Founder Oli Gardner travels so much, we often wonder if he remembers where he
lives. And he never takes off without his trusty camera.
Oli's not just a landing page expert, he's a professional photographer who will go so far as to take a
solo road trip into the desert to take pictures.
In Oli's blog post, Designing for Conversion -- 8 Visual Design Techniques to Focus Attention on Your
Landing Pages, he unpacks some visual techniques from the world of photography that can help
guide landing page visitors through your page to the conversion area.
Oli breaks the techniques up into two categories:
Suggestive directional cues: Abstract techniques that guide attention in a more subtle way.
Explicit directional cues: The use of arrows and real-world indicators already familiar to us.
There are eight techniques covered here, but one of the most fascinating is broken down in a section
titled, "The Suggestive Power of the Eye."
Imagine yourself sitting in a restaurant across the table from someone. The other person is talking
to you, looking at you, and then suddenly turns their head slightly to the right and looks over your
left shoulder.
Chances are good that you, too, will pause and turn around to see what's going on.
The same principle applies in photography and, as it turns out, on landing pages.
Take this picture that Oli took of a monkey. The monkeys eyes and tilted head force you to stare at
the banana.
In the landing page example below, the woman's gaze is focused on the headline, which prompts us
to focus there, as well.
Unfortunately, the headline doesn't tell us much, but at least they managed to get us to look there!
You can make use of this suggestive directional cue on your landing page to help draw your visitors'
gaze to a section of your page that requires special attention. It is especially useful as a directional

5. cue to get visitors to look at that all-important call to action.
The journey begins
Since marketing is all about the journey, you should come join us for one of the stops on the
Conversion Road Trip to hear one of these wicked smart optimization experts break down some of
the most valuable marketing insights you'll hear all year.
Whether you make it or not, we hope these tips help you find your way on your great marketing
adventure and point you in the direction of the marketer's favorite destination: the conversion.
- Mark John Hiemstra
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Unbounce/~3/MYy2jvkiqhA/