Langing Pages: What's HOT / What's NOT
Whether sent from an email, Facebook, Twitter, an Adwords ad, or a radio ad, there is a special expectation visitors have when they happen upon your landing page… and you have less than four seconds to not mess it up.
So now that you’ve got them there, just how do you keep them? Or for those more technically driven, how do you turn their “click” into a “conversion?” Website and landing page design have a huge impact on conversion, therefore consider the following when developing either.
WHAT’S HOT:
Familiar headlines
A familiar headline tells visitors, “You are in the right place.” Match your introductory language to keep your visitor oriented and engaged, and confident that they are where they should be.
Learning something in journalism school
Go ahead, invert your pyramids. Keep your most important points at the beginning of paragraphs and be a friend to bullets. Use headers, subheaders and bold text to organize and highlight information thoughtfully for your visitor. Remember that most visitors are skimming and skipping through your copy, so make it easy for them to read it and digest it.
Calls to action
Don’t force landing page visitors to have to figure out how to act. Not only can that be awkward, but if you are going to lead the horse to water, make it nice and easy for him to drink. Provide straws and cups to ensure he won’t leave thirsty, or get confused and wander off.
Branding it
Landing pages should be branded as thoughtfully and thoroughly as your web site and other marketing communications. They work along with and alongside everything else and deserve, and require the same amount of love and care.
Trust Elements
Do you think because they clicked on your link that that means they trust you? Well it doesn’t. Show them your qualifications and accreditations so they know you can be trusted. Check out Terrakon’s trust elements.
Earmuffs
Remember, visitors are on your landing page for a reason. Don’t distract them with other things, offers or extraneous bells and whistles. Protect them from their own online ADD and keep them on task. Removing unnecessary information that doesn’t support your end goal will have you reaching your end goal more often.
User testing
Don’t assume the landing page from your dream last night, or that of your web designer is what will convert best. Test your landing pages. See what works and lose what doesn’t. Testing will never go out of style.
WHAT’S NOT:
Throwing them on your home page
No matter how pretty or Flashy your home page, the visitor clicked your ad somewhere, and they are expecting to see content relevant to what sparked their interest to begin with. And most likely, your flowery “About Us” paragraph and graphical header are not it. Take them to what they want and expect, or expect to see a few more unwanted tallies on your bounce rate.
Content regurgitation
Don’t produce landing pages that contain the exact information, verbatim, from the referring email, or blog post. Why land readers on a page with redundant information? Be sure the landing page is equipped with new, or extended value and information to avoid senseless, and time wasting déjà-vu.
Use of “we”
There’s no “I” in “we”- and that’s the problem. The visitor is thinking about themselves (the “I” and the “me”). And they expect that you are too. Write in the second person – and use “you” and “your” – abandon the “we.” Visitors don’t really care about you, your company, or your product or service except as to how it benefits him or her. Make it about them and reap the brownie points of the “customer-centric.”
Skimp
No one wants to read your memoirs, but think longer copy when you’re looking to close a sale, especially on higher ticket items. Within reason, a visitor will read long copy as long as it continues to build a strong, motivating case for him/her to act. That doesn’t mean a tea party for the long-winded in all cases, however, as varying products and services will require unique copy investments. On landing pages, less is not always more. Note: Skimp is acceptable when it is introducing a subscription sign-up, or potentially an offer of less cash commitment.
Asking for blood type
Internet users already feel they are poked, prodded and surveyed at their every online turn. Don’t be the next offender, and ask for only enough information to complete the sale or the desired action. They didn’t sign up for a marketing survey, and if they are interested in doing so, they will let you know- another time, another day. Today and now, concentrate on the sale.
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