How to tell if your landing page copy is not working (and how to fix it)

One of the hardest things for early-stage founders looking to gain traction is troubleshooting the copy. They're too close to the product and they don't have an easy and affordable way to test assumptions about what resonates with their target audience.

Result: Defaulting to generic copy or copy that makes sense to them, but doesn’t necessarily explain why their prospects should care or sign up. When this happens, getting customers will be hard even if your product solves an actual, acute problem. Simply because you’re not giving your prospects a good reason to convert.

To improve your landing page, you first need to figure out that something isn't working. Then you have to figure out what isn't working and why. And then you need to fix it.

Here's how.

Finding what's not working

Use tracking tools

To be able to make educated guesses about what’s not working on the page, you need to know what your conversion rate is – and how visitors interact with the page.

There are multiple tools out there that can help with that. The most common setup for my customers is a combination of Google Analytics or Unbounce with Hotjar – but you can use other tools that capture the following information:

• Bounce rate
• Time on page
• Segmentation by mobile/desktop
• Heatmap
• Scroll depth
• Session recordings

There are, of course, privacy concerns to take into consideration. While different tools have different setups, and I can't speak to all of them, Hotjar records customer behavior and/or aggregate data without saving IP addresses or form input data. I personally recommend this if you want to see how prospects interact with your page in real-world conditions.

But if this type of tracking isn't for you, alternative approaches could be:

• User tests to understand how users will interact with the page
• 5 second tests to understand if your hero section will resonate
• Messaging tests, especially if you have a well-defined audience, this can help you both understand what's not working and why, as well as get dozens of ideas on how to fix it.

Regardless of where you get it, you should use the data to pinpoint what's not working and start brainstorming possible solutions.

Importantly, the “what” may not even be copy-related.

Start by checking session recordings and click maps for UX-related gotchas: unclickable buttons, elements that look like buttons but aren't, other frustrating tech issues that are not copy.

If there’s nothing that is getting in the way of your landing page visitors, then it’s time to look at copy-related stuff (that's more fun).

Common landing page issues and how to recognize them

Here are the most common issues and what they may mean:

High bounce rate + low scroll depth:

• Hero section isn't working, need to rework the hook.
• If running ads or bringing traffic through socials, the messages may not match, or there may be confusing copy in the hero section.

High scroll depth, low bounce rate, but no conversions:

• May need to optimize the CTA or the offer as you may have high-friction copy and/or an offer that's not perceived as valuable.

High scroll depth, user sessions show prospects bouncing around the page, low conversions:

• It's possible that the page is disorganized and doesn't provide the info prospects are looking for.
• It's possible that the copy is too high-level and lacks in specificity

Fixing the right thing

You should be able to see which sections are not pulling their weight – but it may not be immediately obvious why. The next step is trying to pinpoint what may be the reason for the behaviors that you see on your landing page.

Run a self-audit instead of asking for a roast

Start with answering these high-level questions:

• Did you write for a specific stage of awareness? Do you have reasons to believe that you were right in writing for that stage of awareness?
• If you were using a copywriting formula (think PAS, AIDA, etc.) - are you missing steps (going straight to the solution) or ignoring your audience's stage of awareness?

Once you finish that, use Copyhackers’ 7 sweeps to dig into your copy and identify possible weak points based on what you’ve learned about the way your landing page visitors interact with the page.

The problem, of course, is that as a founder, it may be hard for you to objectively evaluate the clarity and the persuasiveness of your copy from the standpoint of your audience.

Start asking smarter questions

Consider not asking the IH community to roast your page (unless they are your target audience). You want feedback from your target audience. And you want targeted feedback that addresses issues they see with your on-page argument, missing information that they want to see, and their objections to moving to the next step, whether it’s a free signup or a demo call.

So instead, ask your audience smarter questions that would help you understand if your guesses about what’s wrong and how to fix it are correct. The possibilities are endless, but here are a few:

• Hotjar exit pop-up surveys.
• Wynter bring-your-own-audience panels or paid messaging panels if you don't have easy access to your target audience (or they're not into giving away their opinions for free).
• 15-minute calls with folks navigating your page IRL. Asking around for volunteers here on IH, in social media communities, requesting introductions through your network, or using a user testing service panel all can work, depending on your audience.

If you're not sure how to find potential customers that would be willing to answer your questions, The Mom Test by @robfitz is a great source of ideas (and also questions that won't lead to biased answers).

The next step is to find the words and arguments that would actually move the needle.

Getting “copy that works” – even if you don’t have customers yet

Where to find inspiration to shift from me-focused copy to customer-focused copy

For early-stage founders, the biggest copy shift is from “This is an awesome product you really need in your life” to “You have this problem in your life that hasn’t had a good solution – until now.”

The second-biggest shift is accepting that your prospects will have objections and hesitations that you’ll need to address, while reminding them why solving this problem is worth the effort.

The easiest way to answer the question “Why is it worth it?” is talking to your existing (or potential) customers.

Here are some additional ways to understand your audience's mindset (if you’re not convinced that it’s worth the effort, one of my clients got a 3x industry average conversion rate through this type of research):

Review mining for competitors’ solutions:

• What does your target audience actively dislike about existing solutions?
• What’s missing? How is it relevant to your product?
• How do these folks describe the problem they’re trying to solve? Can you use this information to align your product with their goals and jobs to be done?

Social media listening:

• Forums: when your target audience is asking for help with solving relevant problems, how do they describe them? What’s preventing them from finding a solution? What are the pros and cons of existing solutions they discuss?
• Social media: What are some (strong) opinions about the industry? Any future developments or challenges you can align yourself with? Any conversations that can help you position your product as the best solution for your target audience? Any trends that work in your favor?
• Any other places your audience is hanging out and discussing the problem you're trying to solve: What are existing beliefs about your product or your product category? Any beliefs about the competitors that are creating resistance to switch? Any beliefs that would work in your favor?

Transforming common landing page into copy that converts

High bounce rate + low scroll depth

Reworking the hook:

• What (in your target market’s words) is the most annoying thing about the status quo/current solutions?
• What (in your target market’s words) is the outcome they’re trying to achieve, but can’t? How can your product help them get there?

High scroll depth, low bounce rate, but no conversions

CTA section or the offer:

• What is the benefit of acting – for your target audience? Is it explicit? Is it aligned with their goals? (“Talk to sales” is not aligned)

Reducing friction:

• What do your prospects need to believe to act?
• What are they worried about?
• What is making them reluctant to act?
• How can you address this in your copy and decrease the perceived risk, effort, or time-to-value?

High scroll depth, user sessions show prospects bouncing around the page, low conversions

Page structure and information:

• Is your page following a copywriting formula (not the same as a template)? If not, should it, based on the feedback you’ve received?
• What info is missing, based on your research? What do you need to add to make sure your target audience gets both what your product does and why they should care?
• Is the page flow aligned with their stage of awareness (or are you jumping straight into features)?

Specificity:

• Could this page be describing literally any other SaaS product in the world?
• If not, could this page have been written by a competitor?
• If not, are there any SaaS buzzwords or marketing / PR fluffy statements that should be replaced by VoC?
• Is the updated copy aligned with your target audience’s mindset, stage of awareness, and goals?

Once you’re done making the edits, make sure you go through the 7 sweeps process again, and again, and again. The rule of thumb is: If you don’t loathe your copy by the time you publish it, you haven’t done enough. That may be just me though.

Fixing your copy: process in a nutshell

If you prefer a tl;dr version, here’s what the process looks like:

• Use quant data to identify which elements are underperforming.
• Make initial guesses about why they’re not performing well.
• Gather qualitative feedback to validate those guesses and gather voice-of-customer data.
• Improve your copy (not forgetting to use Copyhackers’ 7 sweeps to get out of your own way).
• Monitor results and continue improving your copy based on what you learn about your target audience.
• If you need to ask for help from your community, make sure you’re asking specific questions, instead of assuming that someone can wave a magic wand and fix your copy without knowing your offer, your audience, and your competitive environment.