Why Oli Gardner is a Badass Marketer

Digital

One of the most exciting things about marketing in the digital age is that there’s always opportunity for growth.

One individual who personifies this is Oli Gardner – a programmer turned user experience expert turned marketer who’s now the Co-Founder of Unbounce and the king of landing page optimization.What you might not know is how he got there, why it matters, and why you can’t afford to miss a chance to learn from one of the best conversion optimization gurus around.

1. He’s been a developer

Oli cut his teeth at Bluezone, where he learned what working at a startup was like, as well as life in the early dotcom internet boom and the fallout to follow. From there, he turned to Columbus Group and other companies to perfect his programming chops.

2. He’s been a creative director

Oli’s path started to naturally curve as he parlayed his position of Usability Lead at Riptown Media into a Creative Director position, which led eventually to a similar position at Bodog, the popular entertainment brand most often associated with online gambling.

3. He’s been a UX director

Eventually Oli created the first Usability team for Bodog, and continued down the path of convergence between design, development and experience as he segued to become the Director of User Experience at Silver Oak Casino. With such a winding path through both the practical and emotional side of web communication, it’s hard to imagine how he wouldn’t have become the go-to expert on landing page optimization.

4. He’s an accomplished photographer

Oli hasn’t been plugged every second of the day, however – he knows how to get out and see the sights. Need proof? Check out 30 Days in the Desert, his 30-part photo essay on the American Southwest. The man has an eye for the creative, that’s for sure.

5. His unique perspective on marketing

All that traveling and design and programming must have gone to Oli’s head. “I’ve had quite the laundry list of roles in my career,” he said in an interview on Optimizely’s blog, “beehive factory worker, C programmer, front-end web developer, C# developer, Expedia photographer, interaction designer, usability team lead, producer, creative director, marketer, writer, and speaker. Each one has given me a different perspective on what it means to create online experience and communicate to marketers.”

6. He’s passionate about conversion rate optimization

All of those roles naturally fostered a love of merging technology, usability and design together, resulting in a passion for making things that just work. Thankfully for us, he decided to use that passion to create Unbounce, a premier landing page optimization company, and share both his passion and knowledge of conversion optimization with the rest of the world.

7. He wrote the ultimate guide to landing page optimization

No, really. He wrote the Ultimate Guide to Landing Page Optimization, a 58-page eBook chock full of examples, experience, and tips and tricks to take your landing page content to the next level.

8. He’s the master of attention ratio

Attention Ratio is the “ratio of interactive elements (links) on a page, to the number of campaign conversion goals (which is always one).”What I like here is the subtle reminder that the conversion goals on your page should always equal one. It should never not equal one – which is why he’s seen so many landing pages that have failed. He also claims to have seen more landing pages than anyone else on the planet. I wonder just how many he’s really seen?

9. He knows about focus

“Clarity is arguably the most important aspect of a high-converting landing page,” said Oli on the Usertesting.com blog. “You can break clarity down into two fundamental aspects: visual clarity and clarity of communication.” All those landing pages he’s viewed have provided an easy way to break down landing page design. Ask yourself, “is the message I’m trying to provide to my visitors clear?”

10. He’s willing to teach you

Fortunately for us, Oli has published eBooks and courses on learning the tricks of the trade on conversion optimization.”Conversion optimization is essential because it lets us separate the bullshit from the truth,” he says. “Data-informed copywriting, design, and communication is the most important movement in the history of modern marketing.”

11. …and he’s coming all the way from Montreal to speak to YOU!

Even with all those resources available, there’s an even better place to start: Oli will speak at the 2015 Go Inbound Marketing Conference this June in Indianapolis, Indiana. He’s coming all the way from Montreal to help folks get started on their landing page optimization journey. It’s almost too good an opportunity to pass up – the chance to meet the king of conversion optimization and get your content jumpstarted to convert more visitors.I’ll be there. So I guess the only question left to ask is, will you?

As the Senior Director of Strategy at Element Three, Dustin is dedicated to helping businesses grow, crafting demand generation strategies that stand above the rest and create true business impact. His background in journalism, digital communication, and ecommerce positions him as a unique voice in the cluttered digital marketing industry. When he's not writing about the forefront of digital marketing, you can find him jamming with a guitar or at home with his wife and two children.

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