The Risdall digital team attended DNN Summit, the largest DotNetNuke conference in the United States.  The conference offered sessions on the direction of the DNN platform, modern development practices, current themes in digital marketing and practical advice for running DNN websites across multiple verticals. Keynotes were delivered by Andy Tryba, the new CEO of DNN Software, and Shawn Walker, the creator of DNN.

DNN Summit on DNN Landing Page Optimization

Risdall team member Erik Hinds led a comprehensive session on creating high-converting landing pages in DNN. Erik addressed all aspects of landing page creation:

    1. Definition & goals
    2. Creating a workflow
    3. Audience definition
    4. Crafting an offer
    5. Tools for effectively building a page
  1. Best practices for landing page design
  2. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
  3. How to build landing pages in DNN

The bulk of the session focused on planning a proper conversion campaign by addressing the prospect’s needs, challenges, pain points and questions. Erik offered several strategies and tools to help identify those points and how your offer can help. Some of the tactics included:

  • Creating customer personas
  • Using a “Before and After” grid
  • Outlining your touch points with a customer journey map
  • Marketing automation

As Erik said, “Landing pages are merely a conduit for creating multiple touch points in a marketing program. The effectiveness of the landing page is contingent on creating a very specific offer and presenting it to a segmented and qualified audience. Speaking in a transformational manner and presenting your solution in the right sequential order is much more effective than directing high volumes of traffic at a web page and hoping for the best.”

DNN landing page workflow

Best Practices for Building Landing Pages in DNN

 

Sample landing page layout

A fair amount of time was dedicated to covering best practices when designing and developing a DNN landing page. These best practices are universal across CMS platforms and addressed four key areas:

  • Offer – is the offer clear, relevant and maintains “ad scent”?
  • Form – are you asking for the right information, lowering form friction and building strong CTA’s?
  • Building trust – are you using strategies for positioning your offer as trustworthy with testimonials and other forms of social proof?
  • Visualization – have you ensured the page is laid out correctly, has visual appeal and doesn’t contain exit paths?

Testing CRO in DNN Landing Pages

Building a landing page is only the beginning of a successful landing page campaign. Erik discussed how to conduct optimization testing and some of the tools that can be leveraged.

As Erik noted, “Collecting quantitative and qualitative data is crucial to making smart decisions when determining whether the page is successful. There are a multitude of third party tools that can be easily integrated into DNN.”

Some of the types of testing and analysis Erik recommends are:

  • Heat mapping / click testing
  • Session recording
  • Form drop off analysis
  • Exit polls
  • Preference testing
  • 5 second testing

Erik finished up the presentation with an engaging Q&A session with audience members on some of the challenges they have faced when creating landing pages in DNN.

“It was a really great audience consisting of marketers and developers across multiple verticals. I loved how they engaged with thoughtful questions. I hope they received a lot of value from the presentation and Q&A.”