How Groove used real customer feedback to build their landing page

Landing pages are critical to any business and any website. They’re the place where you can get people to sign up for an email list, to sign up for a service, or to schedule a call.

One of the most important parts of a landing page is the copy and messaging. Many people try to make their copy “clever” and “funny”, but that’s exactly the wrong thing to do.

Here’s a quote from Alex Turnbull of Groove:

If you want your landing page to be successful, you need to hit a very specific set of notes. You need to make it clear what your product does and how it will help people. You need to give them a compelling reason to buy, and you need to provide the reassurance that they need to feel comfortable doing so.

That’s it.

And honestly, if you’re really good at it, you could probably do it in a few hundred words or less.

How Groove rebuilt its landing page

Groove’s first landing page was full of clever copy and lots of humor. But it didn’t speak to customers.

So the Groove team decided to figure out what its customers wanted to hear. And they figured out the best way to do that: Ask them.

The team started by reaching out to some of the company’s beta testers. They asked them a series of questions, including:

• Why did you sign up for Groove?
• What was your first impression after trying it out?
• What do you love about Groove?
• What do you wish it could do?
• What other tools do you use?
• After answering a few of these questions, Groove’s beta testers ended up writing more than 1,000 words in just a few minutes.

That’s when Groove knew it had a problem. The copy was too clever. It was too funny. And it wasn’t speaking to customers.

The team needed to go back to the drawing board.

The process

Once the Groove team had figured out what its customers really wanted to see, it started the process of rewriting its copy.

The team started with a simple two sentence description of the company:

Groove is a simple, beautiful help desk that makes it easy to answer and manage customer support requests.

Once the copy was done, the design process started. But Groove didn’t start with the design. Instead, the team wanted to focus on the copy first.

When it was done, the team went back to its beta testers and asked them to review the new copy.

The team made a few tweaks to the copy, and then it was time to start the design process. This time, it started with the copy, and only when that was done did the team move on to the visual aspects of the website.

The results

Overall, the changes to the company’s landing page doubled its conversions.

The new landing page had a conversion rate of 4.7%, compared to 2.3% for the old one.

The takeaway

If you’re building a landing page, it’s important to start with the copy first. Start with a simple two sentence description of your company, and then move on to the design.