How we more-than-doubled the leads for a SaaS company (with images of the winning pages)

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Earth Class Mail is the world’s leading mail-digitization service. It allows people to receive their paper mail electronically. The customer’s paper mail is sent directly to Earth Class Mail, which receives and scans it. The customers can then read and manage all of their mail from any device, wherever they are in the world.

In July 2015, Earth Class Mail was acquired by Xenon Ventures, a leading investor in SaaS businesses. Xenon had ambitious goals to grow Earth Class Mail to its full potential.

Which is why we were brought in.

This article describes the progress we’ve made so far.

Phase I: Analyzing the business and identifying opportunities

The most critical—and most frequently ignored—stage of our unique methodology is the research that we carry out before we make any changes to the website. Our in-depth analysis of Earth Class Mail included the following:

We hosted a strategy session with the Earth Class Mail team to discuss its goals, growth plans, marketing strategy, and how we’d measure success.
We reviewed the due diligence that Xenon Ventures had carried out before purchasing Earth Class Mail, to understand its reasons for investing, and its goals for the company.
We studied Earth Class Mail’s Google Analytics data to identify which stages of its conversion funnel offered the biggest—and fastest—opportunities for growth.
We reviewed the customer service team’s data to understand the questions it receives, and how it answers them.
We designed surveys and polls to understand Earth Class Mail’s customers—and its non-converting visitors.

Phase II: Landing page optimization increased leads by 61%

Next, we designed the landing pages. Most companies skip straight to this phase, basing their designs on guesswork and so-called “best practices”—and then they get disheartened when their tests fail. Our experience has shown that the biggest wins tend to be based on insights that were gleaned from the research phase. Here’s the new landing page we designed. It beat the original version by 61%:

Landing page - original v challenger — During the A/B-test, our challenger generated 61% more leads. You’ll notice that its layout is simple and lean, which means that future tests will be much quicker to implement.

Reasons it won: 1. We amplified the value proposition

Our research revealed that many visitors didn’t understand the benefits of using Earth Class Mail—a problem that we addressed on our new page:

The new headline clearly—and quickly—describes the benefits.

We explicitly told the visitors, “Here’s what you’ll get.”

Reasons it won: 2. We included proof to build credibility and trust

Our surveys revealed that the visitors needed more reassurance before trusting a company to handle their mail. So we added the following trust elements to the page.

Adding a demonstration video provided reassurance.

Timothy Ferriss — Our research revealed that many users had first heard about Earth Class Mail in the book *The 4-Hour Workweek*. So we added a quote from *The 4-Hour Workweek*, which described the benefits and added tons of credibility.

Proof of longevity and scale helped to demonstrate trustworthiness.

Phase III: Optimizing the pricing page gave 57% more leads

Next, we moved on to the pricing page.

Here’s the new pricing page we designed. It beat the original version by 57%:

Pricing page - original v challenger — During the A/B-test our challenger generated 57% more leads. We built our new page within the editor of the A/B-testing tool, Convert.com, thus requiring no resources from Earth Class Mail’s development team.

Reasons it won: 1. We didn’t stop selling

Most websites assume that once visitors reach the pricing page (or checkout), they have decided to buy. Big mistake. Just before visitors see the price, they need to be reminded of the value.

So, above the pricing, we repeated the value proposition and the “future pacing” section:

Summary of sales message — Don’t forget to summarize your sales message on your pricing page.

Reasons it won: 2. We explained the service in more detail

Our on-page surveys revealed the questions that visitors had when viewing the pricing plans. So we added a section that answered those questions:

Responses to common questions — We included responses to common questions and objections about the pricing plans.

Reasons it won: 3. We reduced risk with a money-back guarantee

What all this means for Earth Class Mail

Earth Class Mail has calculated this new conversion funnel to be worth over $1.5 million in extra revenue. And the benefits don’t stop there.

The increase in conversion means that Earth Class Mail makes more money from its existing marketing activities, and can afford to increase its advertising spend across new channels. This will allow it to rapidly increase its market share.

Some of the tools we used

To run A/B-tests, we used Convert.com. Of all the A/B-testing software tools, Convert.com is one of the easiest to use. Our consultants find its live chat support invaluable.
To better understand how visitors interacted with the website, we used Hotjar, of which we are big fans. Hotjar makes it easy to manage on-page analytics and visitor feedback in one interface.
We identified user-experience issues and opportunities by conducting usability tests.
The video was hosted with YouTube. (Here’s a useful guide for advanced YouTube techniques.)
To understand Earth Class Mail’s visitors and customers, we sent out surveys using FluidSurveys and SurveyGizmo. We then analyzed all 1,540 responses.

Big thanks to the Earth Class Mail team

It is an absolute pleasure working alongside the Earth Class Mail team. We’d like to thank them for having confidence in Conversion Rate Experts, for trusting in our CRE Methodology, and for being so fast-moving, energetic and action-oriented.

If you think you could benefit from receiving your paper mail electronically, visit Earth Class Mail.

A few words from the CEO of Earth Class Mail, Doug Breaker

The impact was “well into the millions of dollars.”

Could you use more case studies like this?

If you would like to see more of our clients’ results, you can find a long list at our “Clients and Results” page.

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