💰 7 questions to improve conversions

Hey 👋

People love designs that make their lives simpler.

This holds true in both the physical and digital world.

For example, when people visit your homepage (or any landing page), they don’t want to work hard to understand what you offer. They want one single idea or message with a clear path forward.

This is why product marketing and copywriting are two extremely valuable disciplines in marketing.

Communicating your product goes way beyond just features and benefits. You need a big idea or message.

And this is where many companies struggle — never knowing how to maximize their conversion rates.

When people visit your website, this is what generally happens:

• 100% of people visit a website

• 10% sign up to try

• 5% become active users

• 1% become paying subscribers

• 0.3% stick around and become repeat customers

These numbers represent a relatively healthy conversion funnel. But the reality is that many companies fall short of these benchmarks.

Why? Because they have a Knowledge Gap — a disconnect between what the visitor knows and what they need to know to take action.

To improve your conversion rate, you need to either increase or decrease the amount of knowledge required for a visitor to sign up. This foundation of conversion rate optimization (CRO).

If your landing page is cluttered with too much information, has more than one call to action (CTA), or uses marketing jargon, your visitors will feel overwhelmed and bounce.

You need to simplify by focusing on one big idea and eliminating distractions.

But, on the other hand, if your page is too thin and over-simplified, your visitors won’t gain enough understanding or trust to move forward.

People buy things from people they trust. Without trust, there is no sale.

In this case, you need to increase knowledge on your landing page by addressing the core questions that potential customers have:

1. What is the CTA? How quickly does it lead me to the “aha moment” of the product?

2. What is this product or service? What is the key benefit it delivers?

3. Is this product right for me? Is it relevant to my needs?

4. Is it legit? Does the page convey trustworthiness and credibility?

5. Who else is using this product? Is there social proof or testimonials?

6. How much is it? What’s the catch? Is the pricing transparent and simple?

7. Where can I get help? Are resources or support options easy to find?

If your landing page can answer all 7 questions clearly, you’re 10 steps ahead of most brands.

Semrush does a great job of this. Here’s how their homepage addresses these questions:

1. The CTA is to enter your website URL to see analytics on how your online marketing efforts are working (or not).

2. The “See what’s inside” section clearly shows the product’s benefits it delivers — from SEO, content marketing, ads, social media, and more.

3. There’s immediately a quote from a Performance Marketing Specialist that uses Semrush — showing who their target demographic is.

4. There’s a section showing how many people use the platform, the number of awards Semrush has won, and how 30% of Fortune 500 companies use them.

5. There’s an entire section called “Here’s why marketers love Semrush” with testimonials across their different product suites.

6. Not much information here on pricing but there is a CTA to start a free 7-day trial.

7. There’s an option to contact them for support, along with a footer that includes several resources.

Semrush’s homepage really is a masterclass on creating a landing page that converts. You can literally scroll through it from top to bottom and see how it addresses each of these questions one by one.

So next time you think you have a conversion rate problem on your homepage or a landing page, ask yourself the 7 questions (from the perspective of your ideal customer).

If you have multiple CTAs and MBA-writing jargon, chances are you need to decrease knowledge (simplify things). If you have just one CTA, but people aren’t signing up, chances are you have to increase knowledge (answer the 7 questions clearly).

Remember, people love things that make their lives simpler. Make it easy for them to figure out if your product or service is for them, and they’ll trust you enough to pull out their credit card.

With that, let's get into what we have in store this week (lots of good stuff):

• Marketing news from the past week

• The subscription value loop framework

• 5 most effective copywriting formulas

• 4 SEO lessons from a 48M traffic site

• 5 phases of brand building

• Ad of the week

• Website of the week

• Cool marketing jobs

• And much more

🗞 In the news

• YouTube develops new processes to detect AI deepfakes

• Google’s August core update rollout completed

• Madison and Wall forecast $397 billion in 2024 ad spend

• Google's lucrative ad tech business goes on trial

🚀 All things growth & product

A framework for growing consumer subscription businesses, how Klarna grows, how to craft onboarding surveys users love, and product lessons from six top consumer apps.

💌 Emails, copywriting, & AI

How to start (and grow) a newsletter, how to orchestrate your email campaigns, five most effective copywriting formulas, and how to break away from the AI sea of sameness.

✍️ SEO & content marketing

Four SEO lessons from a 48M traffic affiliate site, how to know when to change a blog post URL, and three methods to turn content into revenue.

🤳 Ads, social media, & branding

How to use Google Ads for maximum ROI, a framework for making your social media posts extraordinary, and the five phases of brand building.

☁️ Food for thought

📣 Ad from the past

💻 Website of the week

🏝 Cool marketing jobs

• Social Marketing Strategist @ Figma

• Content Marketing Manager @ Alpaca

• Paid Digital Marketing Manager @ Stripe

• Head of Marketing @ Curated

• Head of Growth @ Superhuman

Okay, that's it for now 💛. See you in the next Tuesday!

“Life is a spiritual dance and that our unseen partner has steps to teach us if we will allow ourselves to be led. The next time you are restless, remind yourself it is the universe asking 'Shall we dance?’” — Julia Cameron

Riddle answer: None; they’ve automated it.