Landing Page Optimization WILL Increase Your Conversion Rates

If you run PPC campaigns, Landing Pages are critical to your success. If you run email marketing campaigns, Landing Pages are critical. In fact, Landing Pages are critical to just about every Internet marketing campaign because they persuade a visitor to order a product, sign up for your services, register for a newsletter, or just fill out a form; which after all, the entire purpose of the marketing campaign is to get the highest percentage of visitors to take the desired action.

The process of Landing Page optimization requires more than just adding good copy, a flashy design, or simply scattering a few calls to action throughout the page. Your landing page succeeds when all of its elements work together to persuade visitors to take an action. Yet, the task is not as simple as it sounds. Persuading your visitor to make a purchase through a single page requires a deep analysis of whom you are targeting, what they are looking for, and the art of delivering a message that will appeal to the masses, yet feels personal enough for a specific visitor.

? Keep It Simple: Rarely do fancier designs translate into higher conversion rates. Simplify the design utilizing static images and easy to understand language. In today’s “instant gratification” world, you need to keep your landing page very focused and simple. Help the visitor digest what you are offering quickly and easily. Use short paragraphs and bullet points. Offer crisp value propositions to readers that answer the question in their minds, which is: “Why should I take the action you want me to take?”

? Continuity: The highest performing landing pages match the keywords a customer searched for and clicked on. Think of a web page as a person. If a person contradicts himself, and does not seem to be consistent, that person typically does not earn your trust.

? Track Everything. Each dollar spent can be measured and assessed through the various online analytics and assessment tools available, so take advantage and track everything. Create custom tags for each link, so you can track which links are most effective. If you have a multi-stage process, like a survey, shopping cart, or registration form, see where you lose people and improve that section.

? Don’t Let Visitors Off Your LP. This means NO navigation options. Remove the nav bar unless it’s absolutely essential. You want visitors converting into customers, not clicking somewhere else or getting side tracked. Don’t offer an escape route. Your landing pages should look similar to your website, but ultimately a landing Page is a stand-alone page where all click paths lead to the desired call to action.

? Tell Them Where They Are: Think about it. When people click on an ad, a link, or an email newsletter, they’re being transported from one medium into another. Putting language at the top of the landing page telling them they’ve landed in the right spot, takes away their first question. Some advertisers even reiterate the same offer from the original ad on the landing page.

? Don’t Take Over The Computer: Some landing pages go over the top with special effects trying to wow their visitors, which often frustrates visitors because they’ve lost control of their own computers. Don’t do this. Visitors just regain control by closing their browsers or clicking their home button – and never return to your site. Remember, many computers aren’t running the latest apps, so your landing page just becomes a dialog box that says you can’t view this site because you don’t have the latest version of whatever. Also, many computers and networks have firewalls that prevent such programs from running. Again, keep it simple and stay on message.

? Calls to Action: Customers use the internet in different ways. Some customers click on the first link they see, while others read everything before taking action. Have links at the top, bottom and in between. Make it easy for visitors to take action whenever they’re ready. Also some customers prefer to purchase online, some customer have questions and prefer email, some prefer live chat, some prefer phone calls….so let customer communicate with you however they feel most comfortable.

? Experiment with Your Registration Forms: A good rule of thumb is to only ask for data the user thinks is necessary. You’ll generate more leads when you ask for less info; however asking for more info produces higher quality leads. Finding a good balance is key. Start by getting a name & email address so you can generate as many new relationships as possible, then ask for more info down the road.

? Quality Score: For PPC campaigns, the primary goal is to create text ads and landing pages that are highly relevant to the keywords being searched for. This will increase your Quality Score, resulting in a higher ad position, higher CTR, higher sales conversion rate, while lowering your CPC.

? Keep Important Content ‘Above the Fold.  Place important content on top of the page, so it’s immediately visible to the customer; including Calls to Action, Email capture box, Social Media links, important product info, etc.

? Revisit Your Encore Page: The page after someone submits their information is called an ‘Encore page’. Visitors who have already taken action on your landing page are more likely to take more action, but you need to ask for it. Don’t just bring a customer to a ‘thank you’ page; ask them to do something else, offer a subscription to your newsletter, take a survey, up-sell or cross sell them something.

? Take Nothing For Granted: What’s obvious to you is not so obvious to other people, especially when they are unfamiliar with your company or from a different part of the world. Repeating something can provide clarity and is usually appreciated by those who are confused, and ignored by those who already know what you’re talking about.

? Test Multiple Landing Pages: “Oh, duh,” you say. Tell me something I don’t already know. I can hear people mumbling that as they read this. But how many of you really go thru the trouble of creating 5-10 landing pages to test different headers, pictures, colors, text, bullet points, calls to action, etc? Remember that your customers react differently to a site than you do. What looks good to you doesn’t always resonate with your customers. So try many different Landing Pages and make decisions based on customer data.

? Leave Your LP Up Forever: Nine months after an ad ran for a Webinar, I had an advertiser tell me people were still signing up on that landing page, even though the webinar had already taken place. So, if you can, keep your LP up forever, especially for email campaigns. People do not read email messages and newsletters as they come in. It might takes weeks or months for everybody to read that email. In short, the tail is getting longer.

? Bonus Tip: Repeat after me: “I don’t know it all.” In addition to finding out what works and what doesn’t work with Landing Pages, realize that it’s a moving target. That is, the audience is a moving target. Technology is changing and customer’s sophistication is growing rapidly. What worked a few years ago may not work so well now. There was a time when people would click on a banner just because it was there and looked interesting; now they don’t have time for it. Blasting out emails randomly used to work; now it’s just spam. One thing you can count on is that Landing Pages are becoming more specific. The more specific the offer, the higher the response rate and the more qualified the prospect. This is good news for the savvy Internet marketer because it allows us to generate higher qualified leads resulting in a higher return on investment.