LastPass: Homepage Calls to Action Mistake and a Lesson

Most businesses send a lot of traffic to their homepages, but most homepages are not effective. This was the case with LastPass, a password manager. I started researching password managers that offer additional functionality for businesses and teams, and LastPass was one of the search results Google turned up.

Immediately after visiting their homepage, I noticed their mistake, something they’ve done with their calls to action right above the fold. It’s something I see happen over and over again, usually because aesthetics of the website trump conversions – be it intentional or not.

Call to Action Mistake:
Too many calls to action of the same color

If you look at the screenshot above, I’ve added three blue boxes to help you see it. At first look for the uninitiated, there’s nothing wrong with how it’s laid out and the colors. But, if you spent countless hours and hours studying lead conversion principles and landing page optimization – you would immediately notice the orange color dominating calls to action.

The actual color is not the problem, the problem is that there are four different orange elements tightly packed above the fold on the right side ALL competing against each other for visitors’ attention, increasing friction, and decreasing conversions. What in the world do you want me to click on?

LastPass did not take advantage of a simple contrasting principle by emphasizing one specific and most important call to action to help visitors convert by reducing mental friction. Reduce mental work people have to do to take action on your website by helping them navigate to where YOU want them to navigate based on what you’re trying to accomplish. Otherwise, you’re letting visitors aimlessly wander around your website.

Improving LastPass Conversions on the Homepage

How would I fix this specific instance to improve conversions?

This would depend on what exactly LastPass really wants. I will assume they would want more premium sign-ups since that’s the money maker.

1. Make Enterprise Button Less Prominent

You really do have to understand visitor intent to understand how you should layout your navigation and website. There’s no reason the Enterprise menu option should be as prominent as the main calls to action. Yes, you can help it stand out from all other menu options – but do not make it compete with your ONE main call to action. Make it a light grey color, so it stands out against the black navigation menu.

People do look at the main navigation, so they will notice it there. The ones that are interested in Enterprise services are more engaged than a regular visitor shopping for or researching password managers. When someone is looking for Enterprise-level services for whatever it is, we have been conditioned to look for such things in the main navigation as well as footer links. This is usually a secondary service/product that is offered to businesses.

These are the folks who will be searching for a password manager for their business needs. It is unlikely that someone searching for a password manager for their personal use will see the Enterprise link and sign up. These users are looking for a password manager for their business, that’s the reason they ended up on the website. Their intent is to get it for their business, so they will seek those options out on the website. You just have to make it easily available, it doesn’t have to scream at your visitors.

2. Supporting Elements Should Not Compete With Calls to Action

Towards the bottom of the screenshot, you’ll see an orange bar with icons from various operating systems and browsers that LastPass can be installed on. This is a supporting element, to help users convert by clicking on the main call to action. It SHOULD NOT compete with the main call to action. It should be de-emphasized, a more subtle color used to add to the conversation but not take the conversation over.

I would try something like a transparent white background to help the supporting elements stand out, but not compete. The opacity would be very low, just enough to help it stand out from the red background, but whisper to the visitor and not yell their ear off.

3. Emphasize Your Main Call to Action

My main call to action would be the premium sign-up since that’s the moneymaker – unless they have data that shows free downloads/sign-ups convert to premium plans at a much better rate. Then I would focus on improving free download conversions. For now, I’ll focus on premium sign-ups. And you can always run an A/B test to see which one converts better.

So I would move the premium button up and the free download button down. Now, you have many options with colors here. You need to de-emphasize the free download button and emphasize the premium sign-up button.

One option is to keep the premium sign-up button orange and make the free download button light grey color, or even make it a smaller button and more subtle color. But, the only way to know what really works is to test it. Call to action colors vary in their effectiveness based on the context they’re in.

Bonus

I would change the wording of their premium sign-up button too. Of course, testing to see what works, but I think I would focus on that $1 and leave $12 until the next page, or less prominent as fine print below the button. Something like “Get LastPass Premium for $1 a month”. $1 will help reduce friction compared to $12, even though they are small amounts it’s all about the better, more clear offer that has almost no risk to sign up.

What about your homepage?  Do you have calls to action and supporting elements that compete for attention and reduce your conversion rates? Tweet me.