Want your landing page to sing? Solve for X
I know you hate algebra, but if you want to increase conversions on your landing page, you have to solve for X.
X is the real problem your potential customers and clients have that your product or service solves and that problem is almost always rooted in a feeling or emotion that you can tap into with your copy.
Let’s look at some examples.
One of my clients makes a glove that helps stabilize the hands of people with essential tremors (basically uncontrollable shaking of the hands or other body parts).
Their landing page was full of highly technical information about the gloves themselves. It did talk about problems people with essential tremors face like spilling drinks, but the page was written from more of a “features viewpoint.”
While potential customers are probably somewhat curious about how the glove works (it really is quite interesting), and the various features of it, how it works isn’t the main selling point. The main selling point is that it will stop the myriad problems that essential tremors pose for people.
And those problems — things like spilling drinks, not being able to put on eye makeup, not being able to hold objects, not being able to sign a document — all have a common denominator; they’re embarrassing.
And that is our X: Embarrassment.
(The gentleman in the company’s demo/testimonial video also talks about these types of problems being embarrassing to reinforce that this is our X.)
Not being able to do all these activities, which others take for granted, can be a source of embarrassment for people like him whose hands shake uncontrollably.
And that’s the emotion/feeling that should drive the copy for this product.
- Your essential tremors cause you X (embarrassment).
- Our product/service can help you control your essential tremors, thus solving your X.
SweatBlock, a special antiperspirant for people who sweat excessively, also does a good job of using the embarrassment factor as their X.
But, it’s not always embarrassment.
Another company, a home cleaning and pet sitting franchise with multiple locations around Ottawa that has been around since 2001, was having trouble distinguishing itself from all the popup* home cleaning services in the area, which were basically copying everything on the franchise’s website.
In talking with the franchise owner, I discovered that a lot of her franchisees’ current clients were former clients of these unprofessional popup businesses. The customers had had bad experiences with these poorly run companies and didn’t want another unprofessional business running around with their house key. (Some of the former clients of these popup businesses actually took the step of having their locks changed because they couldn’t get their keys back from the companies.)
Also, some of the franchisees’ home cleaning and pet sitting employees also came over from these popup businesses and complained about their lack of professionalism, like buying cleaning products at the dollar store instead of using certified safe cleaning products.
Compounding the home cleaning franchise’s problem was the fact that these popup businesses would make slick websites that basically copied the franchise’s site in tone and aesthetic. This made it difficult for the franchise to distinguish itself from the less professional companies.
It was pretty obvious what the X was for the prospective customers of this franchise; lack of trust.
People who required home cleaning and pet sitting services felt like they could not trust the businesses offering these services because of the bad experiences they had had with the popup businesses.
So, the copy for their landing page needed to focus on solving this X. Fortunately, all of the franchisees had superb Better Business Bureau (BBB) ratings, the franchise as a whole has a well established history and it also has a lot of good word-of-mouth advertising going on.
So, the formula for solving for X on their landing page is:
- You’ve had or heard about bad experiences with cleaning companies in the past, so you have the problem of X (lack of trust in cleaning companies).
- Our home cleaning franchisees all have stellar BBB ratings with zero complaints, we’ve been around since 2001 and our customers often recommend us to others completely unprompted, thus solving your X.
Add some testimonial videos in there and voila. You’ve got yourself a great landing page.
By tapping into your customers’ X, or their true emotion-driven problem, you can create your own landing page formula to solve for that X. It may be obvious, or you may have to do some market research, but when you find out your prospective customers’ X, you can target your landing page copy with pinpoint accuracy.
See? Algebra is useful!
*Popup business — A business that is created quickly with little to no regard for quality or customer service in an industry with perceived low barriers to entry such as cleaning and pet sitting.
