Creating more alcoholics

[Andy Black]

Yeah, no need to have dynamic landing pages at this stage.

Determine your bulls-eye buyer keyword(s), and create the ad, and landing page for them. Simple, simple, simple. Then fire consistent traffic down it, get your conversion rate, then take it from there. If it sucks, try and beat it (using the same traffic!), if it's good enough, try and convert the leads into cash.

You need a funnel first before you can fix the leaks in it.

Don't get too hung up on pretty landing pages, and world-class copy.

Sales come from the right people, hitting the right offer, at the right time.

If they were actively searching for what you're selling, then that's 80% of the battle.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Tengen]

Just finished Page 1 of my launch funnel. Looks pretty snazzy, have now cloned it and working on page 2.

Have also contacted a couple of friends who I know are into photography, going to see if we can get a few personal style shots to add to the website.

In the meantime, does anyone want to critique/eviscerate my landing page? (That is not a picture of me BTW, just a place holder until I can get some nicer pics of myself).

 

[smithsta]

Hi Tengen,

This is a great thread, I feel like I've learnt some things just reading it. I just started work on a landing page today so will definitely be reading up on AdWords advice and I have bookmarked the IMGRIND website.

In terms of your landing page, I'm by no means an expert but on first impressions of your website I would say that there's just too much text on white background and almost everything seems to be aligned to the left.

You could perhaps break up the text with some small images/icons and headers/subheaders. For instance, a header saying something like 'Try our Free Personalised Wine Consultation and Satisfy Your Tastebuds Today' (My copy isn't the best haha)

Then where you have the 7 points that the personal brief will teach you, you could separate these by use of small images or icons. The landing page template I'm using does this (http://www.shapingrain.com/preview/3804089/) so you could do something similar.

I hope my constructive criticism helps you as much as your thread here will no doubt help me. Thank You.

 

[Tengen]

Thanks for the feedback smithsta.

Haven't updated this thread because still working on the same thing, page 2 with new elements. Also need to draft, cleanup and schedule a blog post today, so going to be busy today.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Tengen]

Parkinson's Law really shined in the past 24 hours. Managed to polish off a 500-word blog post about an hour before it was due to be published.

Working on page 2 of my funnel and it's really shaping up. Added a few price comparisons, a guarantee and added more detail to various text boxes. This is the part where they are going to hand me their money, so extra information will empower them.

Will go back to page 1 and fix up a few things, then planning on launching a test in a few days with Adwords.

 

[Tengen]

Alright, both page 1 and 2 are 90% done, just need to finalise a few images and set up email response for testing.

Once again, I am open to any criticisms you guys might have in regard to the current designs. This time i've added some extra colour, so it's mainly black/white/orange.





Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

[Tengen]

Getting close to publishing the launch pages, but finding myself scrutinizing and rethinking how everything is written - i'm not a natural copywriter and imitating others can only get so far. I'll give myself until the end of the week to read through everything and finalise before launching and activating adwords.

Also thanks to @Silverhawk851 who gave me some quick landing page tips here.

I guess the biggest thing I did was create a product preview for what i'm offering - a 4000-word, 11-page personalised profile. I basically replaced the body of it with your stock "Lorem Ipsum" text, which gives them an idea of what to expect without disclosing the exact information I'll be offering. See below for a preview.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[smithsta]

Getting close to publishing the launch pages, but finding myself scrutinizing and rethinking how everything is written - i'm not a natural copywriter and imitating others can only get so far.

Are you my twin? This is me too!

I do my best to write copy but I'm always rethinking or having a mental block. I can never decide what sounds good and what doesn't, if it's in the right order, etc. I was attempting the Gary Halbert 30 day challenge but it's too much when your trying to start up a business, so i'm just reading when I can. I guess it's something that takes a lot of practice until your confident with how your copy sounds and know that it's working.

I just decided to go for it in the end and I think you should just dive in and go for it too. Like you, I was attempting to have everything perfect before launch but was told by a certain someone on here that it's never going to start off perfect. 'Just take baby steps and don't over complicate things by trying to get it all perfect.'

I like the product preview feature btw, may have to try that one myself!

 

[Tengen]

Hey guys, feeling very excited now as I'm very close to another milestone.

I've revamped the landing pages and ensured that they linked up together. Email forms seem to be OK and OptimizePress is working like a charm making things look beautiful on computer and mobile. Tomorrow I'll set up the AdWords campaign a la @Andy Black and get ready to test the waters.

To be honest i'm a bit apprehensive. All these weeks tinkering around and it's coming to this, putting everything I have to offer to the test of the market.

Anyway, to give you guys an idea of what's happening, here are a couple of attachments:

First, when someone clicks the AdWords link they will be directed to this page:


Once they click the "Continue" button at the bottom of the page, they'll be redirected to the next page. I've incorporated 3 opt-in boxes so there should be plenty of opportunity to register interest:


Once they fill out the opt-in box and click the magic button, I'll receive an email confirmation with their name and email address. They will be redirected to the following "Coming Soon" page. Just a short message, a placeholder picture and a few hyperlinks to some articles on my blog:


So that's the gist of it. Tomorrow will begin the next phase and the hardest thing of all - sitting on my a$$ and waiting for responses.

For anyone who's interested here are some thumbnails of how things should look on a mobile platform. You'll see OptimizePress rearranges things accordingly and everything still looks smooth.

-> -> -> -> -> -> -> ->

As always, would appreciate any feedback or opinions. Even prayers and good luck wishes will be welcome!

 

[smithsta]

I must say Tengen, personally I am very impressed with that Landing Page. Puts mine to shame. It's neat, simple and attractive in my opinion. I'm sure you will have plenty of success with it. How is the sitting on your a$$ going? Many responses?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[DaRK9]

I never even knew this was a thing. Sounds interesting. Is that you in the landing page? I feel a professional picture of you would be beneficial since this is somewhat of a personal type of service. I may be wrong though.

 

[Tengen]

Ah, one of the ironies of life - woke up this morning to get ready, discover my website is down due to a 503 error.

:vamp:

Have sent Dreamhost a support ticket and tweeted about it to get things rolling. In the meantime I'll work on crafting a detailed AdWords campaign and polishing up a new blog post to be published tomorrow.

PS - No that's not a picture of me in the landing pages, just a placeholder for the testing stage. When things prove to be successful, I'll enlist the help of some photography friends and get some nice shots done and get rid of my horrendous nose in photoshop.

 

[Tengen]

UPDATE: After less than 2 hours the site is finally back up, woot.

Following @Andy Black 's Excel+Adwords advice and video, i managed to create 22 ad campaigns in a matter of minutes.

All systems are now go and just need to sit back with a glass of wine and observe.

I am very excited and a little apprehensive. Heart-rate is slightly elevated. Now i just need to focus on my next blog post.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

I am very excited and a little apprehensive. Heart-rate is slightly elevated. Now i just need to focus on my next blog post.

Yay! You're off the launch pad (again). Your excitement and apprehension comes from leaving the "echo chamber"... where you hear your own thoughts and positive feedback on what you're doing. Now you're baby is out there and you'll find out what the market thinks. Hats off to you for doing that, as many people never get out of their echo chamber.



Ok, my feedback... hope it helps!


1) Professional enough?

That nano-second where people decide whether they trust your site? I think it passes.

I do think the font is too small, however, and you could try it with 16px.


2) The headline?

“On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy.” (David Ogilvy)

80/20 again eh?

The purpose of the headline is to let people know they are in the right place, and to get people to read the next line.

Does the experience match expectations for the visitor?

It's very hard to judge a landing page in isolation. Ideally we know the search term that they typed into Google, and the ad creative that enticed them to visit your site.

Did you promise them a course on how to become a sommelier in your ad? In which case the headline doesn't match their expectations.

Did you promise them "7 key wine concepts" in your ad? In which case it's a great headline.

We can't tell. (Don't worry... you're in good company - EVERYONE thinks of landing pages in isolation. You might want to check out this thread.)

TIP: You should be split-testing your ad copy to find out what headline and benefits to put in your landing page... for visitors using that search term.


3) Long form or short form sales letter?

Which is best?

Only your market can tell you, so you'll want to test both.

Whenever I see a client's landing page, I request elements to be REMOVED from the page, to see what effect it has on conversion rates.

So if you're going to end up testing a long form sales letter against a short form sales letter anyway, then which should you start with?

Which would be quicker to create, and get you out of the echo chamber to get market feedback earlier?

Hint: Which are you going to be less depressed doing? Removing a lot of work from your long form sales letter so that you can test a short form, or vice versa.


4) Write for the web

"An ad is finished only when you no longer can find a single element to remove." (Robert Fleege)

I think you can remove a LOT of words and tighten up.

For instance:

7 Key Wine Concepts You Should Know

The Question

'How do I find the best wine for me?'
​

Could just become:

What's the best wine for me?​

That's enough for now.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Tengen]

1) Professional enough?

That nano-second where people decide whether they trust your site? I think it passes.

I do think the font is too small, however, and you could try it with 16px.

Awesome, looks like the investment in OptimizePress paid off

UPDATE - their support group finally helped me to install all of the templates. A little bit late, but at least I'll have access in the future.

I'll look into the 16 point font later, but didn't want people to feel like they were reading a hand-out flyer.

Did you promise them a course on how to become a sommelier in your ad? In which case the headline doesn't match their expectations.

Did you promise them "7 key wine concepts" in your ad? In which case it's a great headline.

I definitely mentioned the 7 key wine concepts in each iteration of the add. See screenshot for sample.

4) Write for the web

"An ad is finished only when you no longer can find a single element to remove." (Robert Fleege)

I think you can remove a LOT of words and tighten up.

For instance:

7 Key Wine Concepts You Should Know

The Question

'How do I find the best wine for me?'
​

Could just become:

What's the best wine for me?​

That's enough for now.

Let us know how you get on.

Will definitely keep this in mind, reminds me of Bruce Lee's quote

 

[Andy Black]

Great Bruce Lee quote!

Can you give one example of your SearchTerm - Ad - LandingPage funnel?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Tengen]

Great Bruce Lee quote!

Can you give one example of your SearchTerm - Ad - LandingPage funnel?

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean. If you mean the pathway from search to landing page then:

1. Someone searches on Google for "Best Red Wines"
2. They see my ad and click on it
3. They are directed to my "7 Key Wine Concepts" page, which is the beginning of the funnel

 

[Andy Black]

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean. If you mean the pathway from search to landing page then:

1. Someone searches on Google for "Best Red Wines"
2. They see my ad and click on it
3. They are directed to my "7 Key Wine Concepts" page, which is the beginning of the funnel

Yes, that's exactly it.

So search term: best read wines

What's you ad? Post a screenshot.

What's your landing page? Post a screenshot (just above the fold necessary).

 

[Tengen]

Yes, that's exactly it.

So search term: best read wines

What's you ad? Post a screenshot.

What's your landing page? Post a screenshot (just above the fold necessary).

1.

|
|
|
2.

|
|
|
3.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Andy Black]

Now that you can see the search term, ad, and landing page laid out like that:

1) What do you think the searcher wants to find based on their search term?

2) What does the searcher expect to find on your website, based on the ad that they *scanned* and clicked on?


Is it possible that you could write a more targeted landing page, that contains the search term in the headline?


EDIT: Here's a post that's relevant: The Holy Trinity of Paid Search

 

[Tengen]

Now that you can see the search term, ad, and landing page laid out like that:

1) What do you think the searcher wants to find based on their search term?

2) What does the searcher expect to find on your website, based on the ad that they scanned and clicked on?


Is it possible that you could write a more targeted landing page, that contains the search term in the headline?

1) The search wants to be told what the best reds wines are, or wants information on how to find the best red wines themselves.

2) They expect to find brand names of red wines, or actionable information to help their search.

I remember you mentioned using URL-Params but I'm still not entirely sure how best to intregrate it with OP; i was just aiming to get something out to testing in the shortest possible time.

I could possibly clone the initial landing page multiple times and subtly edit the headlines e.g. "Find the Best Red Wines using the 7 Key Wine Concepts", and apply the same changes across all the ads.

So with 20+ ads running i would have 20 clones of the same page with different headlines.

 

[Andy Black]

1) The search wants to be told what the best reds wines are, or wants information on how to find the best red wines themselves.

2) They expect to find brand names of red wines, or actionable information to help their search.

I remember you mentioned using URL-Params but I'm still not entirely sure how best to intregrate it with OP; i was just aiming to get something out to testing in the shortest possible time.

I could possibly clone the initial landing page multiple times and subtly edit the headlines e.g. "Find the Best Red Wines using the 7 Key Wine Concepts", and apply the same changes across all the ads.

So with 20+ ads running i would have 20 clones of the same page with different headlines.

When you get your stats for your 22 keywords (search terms), then pick the one with highest volumes, and craft a landing page specifically for that one. Send the traffic for that search term to that landing page, and see if it does better...

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Tengen]

When you get your stats for your 22 keywords (search terms), then pick the one with highest volumes, and craft a landing page specifically for that one. Send the traffic for that search term to that landing page, and see if it does better...

Just confirming that by "volumes" you mean impressions?

I'll sit on the current campaign until at least the end of the week to get more data, then i'll revisit the ads and landing page designs.

 

[Andy Black]

Just confirming that by "volumes" you mean impressions?

I'll sit on the current campaign until at least the end of the week to get more data, then i'll revisit the ads and landing page designs.

Yeah, start with impressions. It should really be volumes of conversions, at the right CPA. But you don't have that data yet. So start by buying impressions, then clicks, then conversions.

 

[Tengen]

Mid-week update:

16,000+ impressions, 60+ clicks, 1 full conversion (email captured).

A bit underwhelming, but i'm getting a lot of data that will help improve things in the future.

For example, one adgroup seems to be getting the lions share of impressions, but not a stellar CTR. May indicate need to reword the ad itself.

Another doesn't have a large % of impressions, but an above average CTR - might see how i can improve both the ad and landing page.

Also thinking about adding two add groups in particular following the vein of the first one.

A lot of this is still just speculation. I'll keep observing until the end of the week

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[SYK]

Hey mate, a fellow Australian here. Nice work on getting things going.

I haven't read through this thread forensically but I did take a look at the site. As a casual wine drinker, some expert knowledge would potentially be of interest to me but not for $89.

Wondering if you could establish a model whereby you offer the consultation for free and get some wine makers as partners who give you a % of referral sales. Kinda like a wine broker, I suppose.

E.g. You have John as a client, you provide your full consultation for free, establish his tastes are Pinot Noir and Sangiovese and you refer him to your wine maker partner who just happens to make the best Pinot Noir and Sangiovese on the market for John's taste. Oh, and here's a 10% discount when you buy 6 or more bottles because you're such a great student of wine.

Like I said, my analysis of your situation hasn't been in depth. This method might not work/would need a lot of tinkering/or may have already been tried but just throwing my immediate thought at you.

Good luck with whatever approach you take!

 

[Andy Black]

Your stats, plus @SebYK 's response, is telling Tengen.

You haven't detailed your keywords and match types (you may not want to make them public, which is fine).

With so many impressions, are your Ads showing in front of people actively looking for what you are offering on your landing page? Your buyer search terms will be those used by people looking for a wine consultation, or how to choose a wine, not actual wines. These would be the easiest to sell to and get profitable with initially.

Is the top of your funnel too wide at the moment?

If SebYK was looking for a "wine consultation" rather than "best red wines", then he'd be more "sold" on the idea of paying for a wine consultation.

"Buyer search terms" are ones where you can visualise the searcher with their credit card in their hand as they search.

 

[Tengen]

Thanks for your input guys.

As a casual wine drinker, some expert knowledge would potentially be of interest to me but not for $89.

I would imagine a lot of people would feel the same way, which is fine as that's not the market I'm aiming for.

Wondering if you could establish a model whereby you offer the consultation for free and get some wine makers as partners who give you a % of referral sales. Kinda like a wine broker, I suppose.

My issue with this model is that it raises the question of my inteegrity. I've worked with wine clubs before and while most operators are pretty honest, you get the desperate schmuck who would promise the client the world as long as they would buy the next case. Claim "Oh, you love big, full bodied Shiraz, well i got just the thing for you!", and then send them something that completely did not match the description - I would know, it was usually up to me to fix up their mistakes, organise returns, etc.

Staying disconnected from the supply-side keeps me impartial. At least that's how i feel.

You haven't detailed your keywords and match types (you may not want to make them public, which is fine).

Would be happy to share them with you via PM

Is the top of your funnel too wide at the moment?

If SebYK was looking for a "wine consultation" rather than "best red wines", then he'd be more "sold" on the idea of paying for a wine consultation.

"Buyer search terms" are ones where you can visualise the searcher with their credit card in their hand as they search.

I suppose my problem is that the concept of wine consultations is quite new and has not been heavily pushed. Going into a market with little competition has it's downsides.

My idea is to go for people looking to expand their wine knowledge in one way or another, either through casual research or looking for courses, wine dinners, etc... So the funnel is definitely wider than needs be, but capped with a rough sieve.

Perhaps I will look into using negative keywords as your latest post suggests?

Looking at my various analytics trackers there are quite a few interesting search terms being used. I may elaborate more at a later update.

Latest - 28,000+ impressions, 100+ clicks, 2 full conversions (emails captured). May not be relevant, but interesting to note that both conversions and a good amount of clicks have come from India. While they are proving to be an emerging wine consumer market, a part of me is wondering if i'm being trolled...

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[SYK]

I would imagine a lot of people would feel the same way, which is fine as that's not the market I'm aiming for.

You've ruled me out of your 'market' without knowing much about me. You've essentially said "you're not my market because you aren't willing to buy my product". I presume you're targeting those who drink wine religiously, the people who are A. likely to already have a deep knowledge of wine or B. have the cash to buy wine and find their likes through trial and error. (note. I've worked in the alcohol biz a bit.) A lot of hospitality venues send their staff for wine training, could this be an avenue for you??

Staying disconnected from the supply-side keeps me impartial. At least that's how i feel.

I totally get this and had it in mind when writing my comment. I think there are methods that could mitigate this though. You said yourself that it is the "schmucks" who derail this. You not acting like them immediately puts you on the path to credibility.

Hope it works out for ya!

 

[Andy Black]

PM away...