What do IKEA and direct-response landing pages have in common?

Strategic manipulation.  Of you.

That’s right.  They provide a very specific, highly-thought-out journey for their visitors.  People go where these things want them to go, with little to no choice but to follow a predetermined path from start to finish.

So, follow me, if you will, as I make sense of how a Swedish furniture store offers a great blueprint for “buy now” salesmanship.

First, let’s define “landing page” since this tends to be thrown around all willy-nilly.  The term is so loose, in fact, that when I’m approached to write one of these, my first step is always to clarify what the client means.  Nine times out of 10 they’re talking about either a home or a product/service page.

I don’t really care what they call it as long as we end up on the same, well, page.  But, technically, an LP is a direct-response sales or lead-generation tactic in the digital realm.  In other words, its goal is to get a visitor to take decisive action on the spot.

Think of the difference in terms of furniture showrooms.  Your typical store has an open floorplan.  Go right to the section you want, and if you see something else you like, you can take various shortcuts to get there.

Sounds like your average website, right?  Arrive at the home page, quickly locate what you’re initially looking for, and then click a bunch of links to float from place to place at your leisure.  For many businesses, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this.

It’s just not how Ingvar Kamprad would do it.

IKEA’s late founder figured there was a better way to set up his store.  His revolutionary layout was inspired by, of all things, a visit to the Guggenheim in the 1960s.  Like the art museum, IKEA’s floorplan doesn’t give you a choice on where to go the way its competitors do.  It forces you to take a prearranged route from entrance to exit.  This, ostensibly, increases the likelihood of a purchase by showcasing all of its inventory rather than solely what you came to browse.

Shrewd move on the way to becoming the world’s number one furniture retailer.

A direct-response landing page works the same way.  It follows a specific motivating sequence designed to poke pain points, paints a picture of a better reality, introduces the company’s solution as the way to this reality, and then proves that claim.

Put another way, they control the entire journey from start to finish.  Visitors can’t just skip down to see product specs or service benefits.  There aren’t even links to other webpages.  LPs create a self-contained narrative that builds on itself.  Prospects have no choice but to stay on the company’s yellow brick road if they want to understand its full value proposition at the end.

That’s why many LPs use longform sales copy.  Grasping the true value of something that’s expensive, complex, or otherwise commitment-heavy requires a powerful pitch.  Not really necessary for something like a vacuum cleaner, but definitely effective for, say, a major risk/reward investment strategy.

Just keep in mind, as I’ve repeatedly mentioned, that “longform” doesn’t mean endless.  Yes, you need sufficient sales copy to make your case and knock down objections.  But, if what you’re putting into your content doesn’t advance your offer—think fluff and redundancy—then it’s gotta go.  Say what you need to say and say no more, and then utilize things like descriptive headlines, short paragraphs and sentences, and graphic cues to usher future customers along their trip to your door.

By the end, they’re primed to click through to the one place they can go next—the purchase page.  You’re not asking for them to pick up the phone or submit an inquiry.  You’re asking them to make a firm decision right then and there.

This is what makes direct-response so attractive from a measurement standpoint, too.  True LPs aren’t accessible from search engine results or even from your main website.  The only way for people to reach that particular offer is through PPC, email, social media, co-marketing promotion, or some other targeted marketing channel so that it’s clear what drove the sale.

This also gives you the opportunity to A/B test to your heart’s delight to maximize that all-important conversion rate.  Examples of things you can test on the page include:

• Headline
• Diction
• Arrangement
• Colors
• CTA copy
• Graphics, video, and animation
• Countdown timers and other features

And if you don’t think IKEA mixes things up from time to time at its big-box locations for the same reason, think again.  Online or offline, B2C or B2B, product or service, this take-‘em-on-a-journey, test-and-learn strategy continues to work for all kinds of businesses.

Maybe even for Rooms to Go.

Are you a fan of extended furniture-store analogies?  No?  Well, call me anyway and I’m sure we can find something constructive to talk about with your business.