Brand Guardians vs. Conversion Improvement

Brand guardians must understand that landing page testing can be an excellent way to conduct market research and understand the changing audience's needs.

In my previous column, I looked at the roles that are typically needed to implement a landing page optimization program. You need the active cooperation of the team to pull off the project. Although there are common difficulties with some of the required team roles, there are ways of mitigating these issues.

Each department in your company serves a needed function. But eventually they can also take on a life of their own, and like any power construct, their primary goal seems to become self-perpetuation and reputation building. This is often done by exerting influence in the form of noncooperation. Departmental silos and territorialism are often the biggest obstacles to successful landing page optimization. The power of these people is the ability to withhold permission. Remember, it only takes one “no” from any of these people to stop your landing page optimization program in its tracks.

The brand guardians within your company can include elements of advertising, marketing communications, product development, and product management. These functions can be augmented by outsourced support from your ad agency, media buyers, or public relations firm. Tangible embodiments of your brand include your logo and acceptable logo presentations, website style guides, public relations messaging points, and color choices.

Of course, a brand can be one of the most powerful assets that a company possesses. It can cut through the clutter in a prospect’s mind and serve as a shortcut to decision making. Many companies spend huge sums of money promoting and building their brands for this reason. They also vigilantly guard against distortions or miscommunications of their competitive positioning and messaging points. There’s a danger of a brand becoming fossilized. As the brand becomes increasingly powerful, it takes on a life of its own. The stronger the momentum of the brand, the more difficult it is to make significant changes to it. For better or worse, this is not an issue for many online companies that are contemplating landing page optimization. Chances are your brand isn’t that well known (at least to the new visitors who arrive on your landing page as a result of your traffic-acquisition efforts).

One of the biggest problems encountered by brand guardians is the lack of consistent messaging about the product. Because of this, brand guardians are often insistent that the key messaging point and look and feel must be repeated across all media outlets and marketing channels without variation. We once had a multibillion dollar company have us digest a 179-page brand guideline document before we could propose changes to their home page for a landing page test. Unfortunately, these guidelines were developed in the age of printed materials and were against many Web best practices. Although consistency is generally a worthwhile aspiration, remember that the goal of landing page optimization is to find a landing page design that your audience responds to best.

As part of this, you’re trying to find the right message and the best presentation of it. So brand guardians’ insistence on messaging orthodoxy can often shut down the testing of revolutionary new sales copy or headlines that represent outside-the-box thinking. If one of your alternative messages draws a better response, it means that it resonated better with your target audience. The winning element can in fact become part of your new and improved product messaging.

Brand guardians must understand that landing page testing can be an excellent way to conduct market research and understand the changing needs of the target audience. They must not simply insist on the endless (and sometimes mindless) repetition of the current approach. The original messaging and presentation may very well beat out any of the tested alternatives. But at the core of testing philosophy lies the possibility that you may not have the optimal solution, and that you may find better performance through the testing of alternatives.

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Whitepapers

US Mobile Streaming Behavior
Whitepaper | Mobile

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

5y

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...

View resource
Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups
Whitepaper | Analyzing Customer Data

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

5y

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics f...

Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...

View resource
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people
Whitepaper | Digital Marketing

Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its peopl...

2y

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...

View resource
Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy
Report | Digital Transformation

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

1m

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Exp...

Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...

View resource