Landing Pages

I recently did a webinar with Ion Interactive and Michele Hickford, their Director of Client Strategy, regarding landing pages. They had a lot of solid ideas I want to discuss here. II is a fantastic consulting group. I recommend them highly. They offer systems to measure the success of landing pages and keywords that make using landing pages much more effective than tracking calls.

The four principals of good landing pages are:

· Fulfill expectations

· Give Them What They Want

· Make it easy

· Make it simple

Well, that sounds like common sense, right? Such simplicity is actually really difficult to streamline when you have a lot of information to share. Extensively knowing the background of what you’re selling makes it hard to present it in a way that resonates with the people on the other side- who don’t know, but may want to learn more. That’s why people seek consultants, like the ones at II, who have practice with good strategies and solutions. Well, enough stroking, back to the landing pages:

You need to remove distractions and make your conversion goal obvious. There should really be no superfluous information at all. You’re making an offer, and collecting information. That’s it. You don’t want any distractions, because they will reduce your conversion rates.
Engage the respondent, collect the smallest amount of information possible to contact them, then follow up personally – you’ll gain more “face” time to sell more information.

Be Clear
The brand should be obvious – a clear logo not competing with anything. The benefits should be upfront – what’s in it for them if they respond to the CTA (call to action). And speaking of CTAs – that needs to be loud and clear, too. By loud, I rather mean large.

White Papers

White papers are a great way to get your foot in the door and collect information. They give you a forum to explain your benefits and what sets you apart from the competition. Since the title is often the only source of enticement, follow rules similar to creating a good blog title to pull readers in.

· Communicate A Benefit

· Ask A Question

· Use Key Words Pertinent To Your Sell

· Use Power Words Like ‘Discover,’ ‘Easy,’ and ‘Secret’

· Lists Like ‘10 Work Flow Killers’ or ‘Top Three Signs That It’s Time To Update Your Brand’

Offer compelling content that will entice people to learn more about your product or service. Iterate your main selling points.

A Book And It’s Cover

Make people feel comfortable about giving you their information. The site should look professional and clean. A poorly designed site will be perceived as a less reliable company. Credibility is perceived by how you present it.

Is Flash OK To Use In A Landing Page?
It depends. Don’t make ppl wait. A movie with good info is good, but let them make the decision to watch it. Don’t make them sit through it before offering a call to action, because most people won’t.

Should The Landing Page Be Part Of The Website Or Separate?

Separate. This provides more control and flexibility. And it’s easier to test. Websites have many uses – for the press, shareholders, ect. Landing page should have only one purpose, and they shouldn’t link to a home page, or anywhere else, until they are offered a call to action, and either participate or refuse to convert. Other links or options besides the one capturing information are considered bailouts, and they will lose your chance to capture lead information.

Segment People As Soon As Possible, But Only If It’s Pertinent

There should be only be more than one option upfront if you are trying to segment people before you capture the information. If they are recieving the same end result – segment later. If, for example, you have two white pages for two very different target audiences, then perhaps you should segment first.

Thank You

When user hits submit, they should see a thank you page. At this point, you can digress a bit and invite further engagement, chat, link to the website, ect. – not before. But a Thank You page is essential, so they have verification that the information they sent isn’t lost in the vortex of interwebs.

I use landing pages with my company to try to draw leads for people with different marketing and trade show needs. What do you use landing pages for?