"Yes, How May I Help You?"

We all have heard this phrase a lot of times! 

I know you are wondering, where? Maybe you are confused because it's been a while since we all have entered a physical store to shop. 

The pandemic made it difficult for all of us to do so but think of it and compare the frequency of the number of times you went to a physical store to shop lately vs. the number of times you went to a store 5-7 years ago.

Over the years, we have seen companies shift online. Ever wondered why? The reason brands and businesses have understood the importance of going digital is because their customers (you) are moving or have already moved online. 

As a digital marketer, I have a different outlook towards the pandemic. Where people are complaining that they have got a hit in their business, I feel it's a bonus for the digital marketing industry. 

Considering India as a market where maximum businesses still relied upon offline sales got an eye-opener and have understood the importance of going online. 

The initial struggle of convincing brands and businesses the importance of moving online has got resolved. I see brands now enter the funnel one level advanced. They don't need awareness! The current circumstances have already done that. 

The new problem is; the confusion of whether to invest in a website or not, which channels should they choose, etc. The list goes on.  

Back in the days, businesses had shops with sales representatives, attending all clients walking in. Now when the style of business has moved online, what do we need? A website! 

Business owners that hesitate to invest in a website remember that the website is your online shop. Here people can come to make purchases, gather information about your product, find the right fix to their problem, etc. 

Now that it's a little clearer that a website investment is worthy so that your online customers have a shop online to come and visit. Let's understand the important things to consider while building an ideal website landing page. 

A landing page is the page a visitor arrives at on your website after clicking an ad. For better understanding, a landing page is a particular sales representative at your physical store. I hope that makes it more relatable. 

It all starts with you showing your potential clients ads online. Just like the traditional way, where we use to give out ads in newspapers, magazines, expensive billboards, etc. Here online, you show your potential clients Facebook and Google Ads of various types (with different objectives) to land them on your website or get a call or similar call to actions (CTA)

Just like a customer walking into your store has certain expectations with your offerings. Your potential clients online have similar expectations with your website. When they click on the ads you have shown them and land on your website their first instance is to look for relevance.

If they sense relevance, they'll continue to stay, and if not, they leave your website in the hunt for a better alternative. A lot of websites don't stand this test of communicating relevances. They instead successfully confuse their website visitors, forcing them to leave.   

Over time, I realized that the contemplation to invest in a website arises when business owners misinterpret the power of a website. I don't blame them due to the lack of adequate awareness. The problem arises when experts like us forget the difference between just designing a website and designing a highly conversion-optimized website. 

Points to a high conversion-optimized website 

• High relevance between the ad's audience clicks and the landing page

A website visitor decides in 0.50 milliseconds if they want to stay or leave. If they sense relevance, they'll stay! relevance between the ad's audience clicks and the landing page.

• Fold and Length:

The fold is a term used by web designers and Internet marketers to describe a web browser window's bottom border. “Above the fold” refers to web content that is visible above the border when a page first loads. “Below the fold” refers to the portion of the page that requires scrolling to see. 

It is important that above the fold your website communicates all important points and parameters like value, motivation and anxiety points, form, and CTA.  

• Visual Hierarchy:

Research proves that images communicate brand messages faster and much easier compared to text content. Few companies including Google have research that proves that 0.50 millisecond is enough for a website visitor to interpret and create a mindset as to what the brand is communicating. 

So we as marketers only have those many seconds to capture our visitor's attention and convince them to stay. In this case, obviously, communication using visuals/images is better than complicated text content. 

What is more important is a visual hierarchy! Things you want your visitors to pay most attention to, need to occupy maximum screen space or need to be mentioned in using a different font, color, or formatting (bold/italics). Anything that looks big and different from the rest of the website will grab more attention. 

• Website Copy: 

While writing your landing page copy, remember to incorporate value, who is your offering for (e.g. for all dog lovers/owners) purchase prompts, pain points, unique features of your product/service, and how you are better than competitors. 

It is essential to speak the language your customers speak. It's only then your target audience will connect with your communication and take the desired action/make a purchase. 

Heading: Value 

Subheading: who your target audience is, purchase prompts pain points 

Pointers: USP and how are you better than competitors

• Value Proposition:

Heard of this popular phrase, "Customer is the king!"

Your king comes looking for value on the website. They don't want to know if you are the world's best solution, they want to know if your offering is the best solution to their problem/pain points. 

So it's of utmost importance that you explicitly mention the value your customers will get when they use your product/service. Your value should be mentioned in your heading text. 

• Form:

This is the most important part of a landing page. Forms help you capture the information of your leads helping you make them part of your community and connect with them later. 

An ideal website lead form should: 

• Set clear expectations: what do you want your lead to do. Mention it clearly. 
• Have minimum form fields: the more information you try and ask from your lead the higher the possibility of they not completing your form. Obviously important fields are must to ask, but try and eliminate irrelevant fields. Fields that don't add any value to you. E.g. Date Of Birth if you are an e-commerce website. 
• Intentionally increase friction: the best way to improve the quality of leads is to present your leads with long forms with relevant fields. The lead that successfully completes the form is highly interested in your offering.
• Multi-Step Form: incase you have a long-form, it is advisable that the form is a multi-step form. This means that you divide your lead form into multiple parts so that in case if anybody drops at any step, you have managed to gather information they entered on the previous steps.

The first step of the form captures important details like name, email, and contact number. After this step even if your lead decides to not complete the form and get dropped off, you have at least captured 3 essential information.   

• CTA:

A call to action (CTA) is a marketing term that refers to the next step a marketer wants its audience or reader to take. Clearly define the CTA you want your audience to take. This CTA can be "download brochure, book a free trial, try free demo, etc."

The text you choose for the CTA is very crucial. Using "Click to start a free trial" is better than "Click here when you are ready for a free demo." The client needs to feel motivated to click on the CTA. 

These points are very important to produce an ideal and high conversion-optimized website. Thanks to Peep Laja and Momoko Price for mentoring me while pursuing my mini degree at the CXL institute and enlightening me with these important points. 

I'd like to conclude by saying your website should be designed in a manner that every visitor gets the answers they are looking for and find the value that matches their pain point. If your website does, you won't have to ask your visitors, "Yes, How May I Help You?"

Let me know your thoughts and personal experiences (if any) in the comment section below.   

As mentioned previously also, this information, understanding, and insight are achieved by me during my learning process with CXL Institute. Thanks to industry best instructors and mentors like Peep Laja, Brian Massey, Momoko Price, and many more that are sharing their first-hand experiences on different aspects of Conversion Optimization through this online and self-paced course.  

I'll be continuing to post all about my learning from this course every week but if you are a marketing enthusiast I'd recommend you check out various mini degrees that are offered at the CXL Institute.

Stay tuned!