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Oli Gardner Talks Landing Pages, the CTA Conference, & More

By Site Strategics
June 24, 2016

Oli Gardner is not your typical digital marketer. In fact, he admits that at one point he disliked marketing altogether.

“It was my mission to become a good marketer because I linked it with sales and I didn’t like either,” said Gardner who is one of six co-founders at Unbounce, a company which allows marketers to build, publish, and test landing pages without IT or software.

Admittedly, six co-founders is a lot – but it meant there was no need to hire anyone for about 2 years. “We did all the work,” said Gardner. “It was nice because we were very cash strapped in the beginning.”

What Makes Unbounce Unique

Unbounce offers a self-serve platform which allows anyone, regardless of a digital marketing background, to build landing pages and do A/B testing.

“This empowers marketers to do their own work and gives the tech people a break,” said Gardner.

Ease of use, customization, and responsive design are just three of the features that marketers love about the platform. Furthermore, it’s very easy to set-up multiple versions of landing pages inside one campaign.

Behavior Metrics & Landing Pages

Gardner got his start in behavior metrics working for a gambling company. They had a massive, high traffic website, and he was in charge of running usability tests on sports bidding.

He started exploring conversion optimization and user behavior, and eventually rebuilt the entire online betting process inside the sportsbook.

Digital Marketing Tips

One thing Gardner always suggests is running a five-minute clarity test. “This is one of the best ways for finding insights effectively,” he said.

He also suggests running an A/B test to improve the performance of your website, but only on high traffic sites.

“If you don’t have enough traffic then don’t do A/B testing,” said Gardner. “Wait four or five months until you get your traffic up.”

Until traffic increases, he suggests running Google Analytics regularly and doing five-minute clarity tests. At the same time, he reiterates you never want to start a marketing campaign without a dedicated landing page – his number one recommendation.

Beyond Unbounce

When Gardner isn’t doing speaking engagements or advising the marketing team at Unbounce, he’s taking photos. He has his own personal website that’s dedicated to the 30 days he spent in the desert. He calls it a 30-part photographic essay on the American Southwest.

Yellowstone is Gardner’s favorite place on earth and he’s had some unusual stories associated with taking photos of bison. “I’ve almost been gored by bison three times,” he said.

Call to Action Conference

For the third year, Unbounce put on the Call to Action Conference in Vancouver this past week. If you missed the conference, you can sign up to get the conference notes here.

“We scoured the country for the most entertaining, dynamic speakers, and we’ve got the best of the best,” he said.

Unbounce records and gives the attendees all the speaker notes afterward.

“It’s exceedingly helpful because it allows you to just sit back, enjoy the speakers, and not have to worry about taking notes,” said Gardner.

To catch the #edgetalk crew’s entire interview with Gardner click here.