How to Convert – 11½ Landing Page Principles
Simply said, if you want to convert, optimize your landing page.
Don’t have a landing page? Ouch.
Roberta Rosenberg is offering a landing page makeover in her post by the same name at Copyblogger.
And although the post deals with a specific landing page (Microsoft SharePoint stuff… fun), the principles Roberta goes through in making over the page can, and probably should, be applied to yours too.
And if you don’t have a landing page, probably a pretty good place to start.
Here’s the paraphrased list of landing page musts. Have another you’d like to add? We’d love to hear from you.
1.) Kill the Clutter
Anything that distracts your visitor from understanding what your landing page is about must go. Yeah, keyword balloons are so pretty. But damn if they’re not distracting. Get rid of them. This goes for all non-essential widgets.
Unless you’re actually selling widgets, I guess. In which case you probably want to include something about a widget. Anyway, you get the point.
2.) Feel Their Pain… In the Headline
Guess what. Pain pays. And not only on some of the less reputable sites on the Internet.
Make sure your visitors real issue, their problem, the reason they are presumably on your landing page… is addressed in the headline. This will go a long way to combating the seven second average. Get them interested from the headline.
3.) What Are You Offering?
Seems pretty self-evident, but there are plenty of landing pages out there that fail miserably when it comes to describing the actual offer.
Use direct, easy to understand language in describing what the subscriber, purchaser or downloader can expect from your product or service.
4.) Visualize What You’re Selling
Visuals help. Use images. This is particularly important if you are selling an information product which can seem abstract to a potential customer. Create an image of an actual book if you’re selling ebooks. This makes the transaction, and what the purchaser gets from the transaction, more tangible. And often, value is associated with a product that can be seen, if not touched, in this case.
5.) Proposition Your Visitors… But Make it Valuable
What’s your value proposition? How is your product or service different? Don’t leave this crucial information for the fine print. Let your visitors know that yours is the best and why, early and often.
6.) Sweeten the Deal
What’s in it for me? Yeah, I might purchase your product, but take a look around. Everyone else is giving me free bonuses, guarantees and coupons for free Malibu Chicken at Sizzler. What’s included with your offer?
That’s right… free is key. If you don’t have a sweetener or three, you might want to consider coming up with a few.
7.) Proof of Life
Remember when Miss Crabapple gave everyone three gold stars for turning in their essays without any typos? Nothing has changed. People notice typus,.. or typos.
Proof, rinse and repeat.
8.) Use Your Customers to Develop Your Offering
Solicit information from those that have purchased or subscribed. The Internet makes this so easy. Market research like this used to be really expensive. And for some, still is. But you’re smarter.
Email, surveys and other response vehicles that ask for your customers’ opinions are really important. Use them.
9.) Button it Up
Don’t make it hard for your visitors to find your buttons. If they want to click it, give them every opportunity. Larger buttons that stand out are the way to go. Always above the fold.
10.) Make it Readable
So you’re a design guru and you just love the subtlety of Celadon text on a Kelly Green background. Great… use it somewhere else.
A landing page is not the place for cutting-edge design. What’s important is the message… your offer. Simply said, make it as easy to read as possible.
11.) Pop-ups Piss People Off (alliteration aside – they really do)
This one might be controversial with some. But personally, I cannot stand pop-up subscription windows. And typically, that’s the last thing I’ll see on that page. And probably the last time they’ll see me.
Don’t throw a pop-up in the face of your visitor. This is the equivalent of Sam the Butcher lofting a porterhouse your way as soon as you get within site of the meat counter.
Not appetizing in the grocery store, not appetizing online either.
11½ .) Finally, one other tip I would add. And this one goes to the cutting clutter recommendation above. Cut down on the unnecessary links on your landing pages. Links are yet another distraction. I know that deep linking is great. Just don’t do it on your landing page.
Testing goes without saying on just about all of the above recommendations. Test different versions of your page frequently and modify accordingly.
Landing pages are for converting, not just landing. Pithy though the preceeding sentence may be… seriously, if anything is taking away from the visitors ability to understand your offer and find the button, it probably doesn’t belong on your landing page.
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