As you might guess we couldn't wait to share these results with the client and thought that they, in turn, would share our enthusiasm. Well�?� yes and no. They were pleased with the results, but felt the winning page was �??ugly."

�??Ugly??�?? we responded. �??Doesn�??t 140% lift trump ugly?�??

It turned out 140% did trump �??ugly," and they kept the page, which has affectionately come to be called �??Ugly Betty�?? by members of their team.

Still, the situation begs the question, �??Should �??ugly�?? always win?�??

To clarify, the client felt the page was ugly because it didn�??t completely fit within their brand guidelines. So we must consider what about the page caused it to perform well. After reviewing the page, we�??ve come away with 3 key principles that helped this page perform so well:

1) Messaging should grab the visitor�??s attention�?�subtly

This means that while it�??s important for the key messaging on your page to stand out, it�??s equally important that it doesn�??t stand out to the point of being a distraction. With the increasing use of RIAs on sites, this can be a challenge. RIAs can be extremely valuable when used effectively, but we�??ve all experienced sites where the overuse of RIAs (like Flash) can be a distraction.

However, burying your important messaging within the other elements on your site can be equally damaging. Make sure your important messages are crisp, clear and easy to see. The page we developed for our client had 3 clear messages of 4 words or less. Together, the messages were one of the most prominent elements on the page.

2) Where�??s the call-to-action?

It�??s amazing how often a page leaves us unclear on what we're meant to do. The call-to-action is the one thing you cannot allow your visitor to miss.

The page we developed for our client had a large red button with a clear call-to-action that was the most prominent element on the page.

How do you know if your call-to-action is too bold, too obnoxious? See below�?�

3) Test it

Did we have any idea that �??Ugly Betty�?? was going to perform 140% better than the original? Nope. In fact, we may not have even tried this page if we had decided purely on looks. As marketers, it�??s easy to get caught in the traditional way of doing things. �??This is how we do it,�?? and, �??This is our branding,�?? are statements we hear a lot.

We would ask a different question, �??How do your customers want you to do it?�?? Trust us, they�??ll tell you. That�??s why we test. The winning page was one of 4 versions we tested against the original page. All pages performed well, but only one produced 140% lift.

We�??re not telling you to build a page that is completely against your brand. How your brand fits into design is an entirely different topic. We�??re simply hoping the principles we saw working from our experience with �??Ugly Betty�?? will help you get more out of your landing pages.

Who knows, maybe you can build your own �??ugly�?? page that performs 140% better than your original.

Would that be so bad?

Posted by Joel Hall

In fact, one of the most common mistakes made by media sites is spending too much time on their home page and not enough focus on engaging those users who enter on a content page.

As a product manager at a media web site myself, I always wrote off landing pages as a phenomenon for e-commerce sites. Boy, was I wrong. I now realize that landing pages are just as important for media sites - perhaps even more so.

It's best to think of your content pages as the de facto homepage for most users. After all, that's where most of them start their experience on your web site. So when you have an incredible scoop that you�??re promoting on your site�??s homepage, consider this: how are your landing page users getting exposed to it?

Here's another question: how are you promoting the value proposition of your site to your landing page users? You've worked hard to create branding and messaging for your site. Is all of that great messaging apparent on your typical content page? Check it out for yourself. You�??ll probably be shocked at how little of your site's messaging actually surfaces.

But don�??t get discouraged. You don�??t need to redesign your landing pages from scratch to make big improvements. Here are three simple things you can do immediately to make every landing page on your site speak for your site�??s strengths.

Target new users to educate them about your site
Carve out some real estate near the top of the landing page and "mbox it." That is, create a content slot that allows you to change content easily depending on user-type. Then, target users depending on whether they have visited before. To new users, serve content that lets them know what is special about your site: Can users comment on stories? Does your site have an active community? Don�??t let new users leave without telling them what makes you unique.

Recommend next steps
Offermatica offers automated content suggestions (ACS), which can recommend additional content (stories, videos, or whatever!) that will engage your users. Displaying these content suggestions as a next step is one key way to hook a new reader to spend a few more minutes of his or her busy day with you.

Use keyword reinforcement
Repeat the Google keyword the user searched on to get to your site; place it near the top of the landing page. This can be a simple message, like �??You searched for �??automated content suggestions�?? on Google.�?? This lets the user know that you understand what he or she is looking for. Make that keyword clickable to generate an internal search, so the user can see the content your site has to offer on the subject.

It�??s hard to accept that so many of our readers don�??t enter our sites the way we imagine. As publishers, our hope is to give them the experience of reading our site �??cover to cover�??. Ironically, the best way to get more users to do just that is to make the landing page the best start page it can be. You have your 2.3 seconds of time with your new users. Make it count.

Posted by John Broady

The difficulty stems from a belief that on site BT is complicated. I hear people say that the effort requires major work and organizational change. To be fair, between no BT and full BT, there is significant work and major change required. Fortunately, getting started requires neither.

Here are 4 things that you can do right now to find quick wins with on site behavioral targeting:

Do you remember the story line from the movie �??The Breakfast Club?�?? It was based on a familiar theme: social groups are forced into close proximity and their differences seem insurmountable. In "The Breakfast Club," it was the Jocks, the Freaks and the Popular Kids. They were forced to interact because they shared a (long) Saturday detention. After hours of forced closeness, they realize that they aren�??t so different after all, and, with the help of a catchy soundtrack, they join forces against the abusive principal.

We watch this story unfold over and over again and might conclude that it is both possible and highly desirable for everyone to get along. After all, we have to interact, we are more similar than different and together we can do things that we cannot do alone. So why does it never stick?

�??I�??m glad you called, I was about to call you. There is a stock that I think you should look at.�??

�??We just got the silver one with the black leather seats in. Walk with me, I want to show it to you.�??

Personalization happens in the real world. It makes us feel like a valued customer. In high-touch service business and retail it is expected. Why do you think that it does not happen on line?

We at OTTO Digital and Offermatica have been optimizing flash for some time with clients. Here are some of the things we've learned.

6 Steps in Optimizing Flash Video

Step #1. Theme
The best video is not the one the interactive designer or the brand agency delivers. It's the one that gets the highest percentage of users to perform an action.
For a travel site, for example, do you show the video with the happy family enjoying their time together or do you show fantastic clips from some of the most popular travel destinations? How about a mix of both?

But do you know what all of the networks�?? fall lineups have in common?
None of them, none, show the same program every hour, every day in every market.
They show different content to daytime viewers, primetime, late night. Different content on each day of the week, based on who is watching and what type of program they seem to like on those days.

In particular, �??Call phones�?? did not seem to translate well the fact that Skype users could buy credit to use their Skype software to call landlines or cell phones. And �??Shop�?? did not make you feel that Skype has a full-fledged accessories store. Finally, �??Share�?? meant that a user could invite friends or family to join the Skype network.

We decided to try just three different wordings in a simple A/B test performed by Offermatica to try to increase Revenue per Visitor (RPV). So, we changed �??Call phones�?? to �??Skype Credit�??, �??Shop�?? to �??Accessories�?? and �??Share�?? to �??Invite friends�??. The test ran for 10 days and the results were dramatic! The new variation of the top navigation bar showed an increase in RPV of 18.75% with a 99.9% confidence level.

Three small changes within a test that took half a day to implement resulted in a dramatic increase in sales. These results were totally unexpected by Skype. They were aware that their choice of words in the navigation bar was perhaps not the best, but they had no idea how much it was impacting their bottom line. At OTTO, we knew that having more direct call-to-actions and a better adequacy between link names and their click-through pages (especially for products and features that are not strongly promoted throughout the site) can translate into big results.

Posted by Andre Prevot

Your client may not know it, but you certainly do: your designs could be better.

Maybe you're creating a new homepage, or redesigning a checkout flow, or creating a new flash game. Maybe you're even helping your customer rework their business model.

And, hopefully, you've done your research. You've synthesized your client's goals and their customers' goals into a coherent business strategy. Hopefully, you've conducted a competitive review. Maybe you've even done some observational customer research.

The problem I have with conversion optimization services [all company names deleted] is less that they could be misconstrued as spam, but rather the fact that they don�??t take the potential SEO impact into account. So, for example, a conversion optimization test of the home page might show a clear winner as far as the the best converting variation. However...

Almost any question can be answered, cheaply, quickly and finally, by a test campaign. And that's the way to answer them�??not by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort�??the buyers of your product.

�??Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising, 1923

Tip #1: Move Bigger Levers First: List, Offer, Creative

In descending importance, the three essential elements of a direct marketing campaign are "list" (who, and how many, people receive the offer), "offer" (what merchandise you offer those people, at what price, and with what service), and "creative" (how is the merchandise presented, described, and displayed.)

That�??s how the ecommerce marketing manager for a large online retailer described the company's old approach to site redesign: they�??d spend a month deciding what to change, all the ideas would go into a pile, the site would be designed, and then all at once, on a single morning -- ta-dah! -- a brand new site would be launched, while everyone involved would watch and pray.

Today, the retailer has found a better way, based on using a more gradual -- and more effective -- approach. Now, the ecommerce team takes those ideas for change and tests them one by one, finding and then implementing winners, so that the site goes through an evolutionary change. And already, they have learned much about consumer behavior that will forever impact future site changes and the bottom line.

For example, the company has found that the biggest lifts come from tests that happen closer to checkout, which indicates customers pay more attention to a site the closer they get to their wallets. The company has found that changes to font and text color do not make much of a difference, meaning that customers tend to notice details less than marketers think. And, they have found that changes they were certain would improve conversions actually do the opposite.

Those realizations have big revenue impact for the company: first, the negative changes (ones they normally would have included during an overall site redesign) have not been implemented, so they have already neutralized some revenue detractors. And second, knowing that minor changes are less effective, they are confidently able to test more dramatic changes than ever, knowing they can stop wasting time on details that don�??t matter.

Overall, the company�??s original, revolutionary site redesigns, though, had been successful, always boosting conversions and revenue. So why fiddle with something that already worked?

Because the revolutionary approach (a drastic change happening all at once), though used almost universally by web marketers, contains two inherent problems:

1. There is no way of telling which changes work and which don�??t.

�??Among the million changes we made, some were good and some were not as good,�?? says the ecommerce marketing manager. The not-as-good changes, then -- those that hurt conversions rather than boosting them -- cancelled out some of the good changes.

2. Marketers run the risk of scaring off loyal customers with a brand new look.

Thousands of marketers are familiar with the sinking feeling as they watch sinking conversions following a relaunch. But even the luckier marketers, who net higher results with the redesign, are missing out on potentially large streams of revenue.

But companies such as this one that are willing to use an evolutionary method of site redesign can reap the rewards of a relaunch without inviting a crazy amount of risk, simply by testing one change at a time, slowly yet perceptively improving how the site works.

This method can also help justify and validate a web marketer�??s very existence as far as redesign. �??There might not be that much excitement internally about change in the design of shipping options,�?? the ecommerce marketing manager points out. �??But if you can show a two percent lift in conversions, and that�??s two million dollars a year, and you don�??t have to acquire new customers, that�??s free money.�??

This article was originally published in Selling By Design, Offermatica's newsletter.

On miacosa.com, I currently have two A/B test taking place. The most obvious one is the hero shot where I am either showing Wrigley field (Go Cubs!) or the SF Giants stadium.

The second test is at the bottom of the page where I have an A/B/C/D test optimizing Google text and image adsense. Recipe A is two text ads, Recipe B is text on the left/image on the right, Recipe C is image on the left/text on the right, and Recipe D is two image ads.

This is by no means a definitive look at what matters on landing pages. There are more than seven rules. For additional insight I would direct you to this three-part series on Landing Page Optimization. However, these seven basic elements are ones I�??ve used consistently for many years now with great results.

1. Have a Clear and Direct Headline
Your landing pages should be designed so that the headline is the first thing a user sees upon landing. First impressions on landing pages are as important as they are in the offline world. Make sure the headline is a direct and simple statement of what the user is trying to accomplish. The goal of the headline is to bridge the moment of recognition so the user knows the rest of the page is aligned with completing their goal.

2. Place High Value on Whitespace
Users do not read all the text on a web page. Users scan the text and take away only certain elements that they use to make a decision if the page is relevant to their goal or not. Clean use of space allows users to scan and absorb key messages.

3. Deliver Your Value Proposition with Short Direct Messaging
Your value props should all be the answers to �??why?�?? Keep them limited to three or four bullet points and don�??t mince words. This is no time to get cute either. If users can�??t quickly and easily understand the benefits of you product or service they will not hesitate to click the back button.

Click here to read the rest of the article on Jon's blog.