Engineering Smarter Landing Pages
Not all landing
pages are created equal. How well they convert rests solely on how well you
engineer them. Lets discuss thought, design, engineering, and how they make
a difference.
Smarter landing
pages are 'human friendly.' They're based on what is known about people and
what people like and don't like. And that knowledge isn't arbitrary. It's based
on research, marketing testing...facts.
In a certain
sense your landing pages should be unobtrusive. Your potential customer should
feel so relaxed and satisfied with the 'overall' that she just naturally wants
to know more and clicks through to your vendor's site.
What
Elements Comprise A Smart Landing Page?
Numerous factors
influence what people find appealing. Similarly, there are many ways to subtly
influence desired responses in people. Colors, for example. It's known that
people tend to respond to different colors in certain ways.
Dark blue tends
to evoke feelings of trust. Brighter shades of red are associated with aggression
and energy. Shades of gray and darker shades of red are associated more with
a sense of 'establishment,' like an established bank.
Carefully
consider your target market and who you're sending to your landing pages.
Your copy needs
to reflect the appropriate information people need to make a positive decision
in your favor. And your copy needs to be in the appropriate amount based on
your target market.
Some examples
Sidebar:
The 'need of your reader' refers to what is necessary to make a positive decision.
Your landing page should provide enough to satisfy while creating a desire for
more, thus producing a click-through.
If you're promoting
music, ask yourself what people 'need' and look for when shopping for music,
or a music-related service. People looking for mp3's to download, or a download
service, need much less copy than people searching for SEO software.
Mp3 downloader's
want a good selection of music. They want to know the benefits a particular
service offers. Can the service be trusted? How can you let them know if a service
can be trusted? Simple. Show them awards and reviews from media like newspapers
or magazines. Of course shoppers are always price-conscious. So you could offer
them a comparison of different providers.
All that information
can be conveyed with a short amount of copy. They don't need to wade through
400 words of copy to make a decision. If you try to force that on them you risk
exceeding the bounds of their patience.
SEO software
shoppers, for example, are different and need more information.
In this case,
more copy is beneficial if it provides detailed information about the software.
Tech specs, comparisons with other popular s/w programs, customer support issues
and availability, upgrades, etc. There's a great deal more information that,
when properly expressed in terms of benefits, will help push your searcher toward
a vendor's page or your own site.
On the
other hand, you have to find a good balance between presentations.
You want to
avoid having all the information from your destination page on your landing
page. Putting too much info on your landing page results in significant duplication
and will annoy your reader. There'll be a feeling of wasted time. Not good!
So you need
to have the right amount of quality information, in terms of benefits, that
will 'compel' your reader to desire more and click through.
Landing
Page Layout Certainly Influences Your Conversions.
You want
clean, simple, smooth, easy to understand pages that minimize effort. I've
found having deep links to relevant destination pages dramatically increase
conversions through my landing pages. But make your deep links well-thought
out. Get inside the mind of your market.
Another copy
technique that's very useful is the appropriate use of bullet points.
These devices
are great on landing pages. Bullet points are little benefit headlines. Maximum
useful information that's easily digested by the reader. They make for very
quick understanding, quick scanning, and minimize decision-making time. Your
readers will respond better if your bullets talk in terms of benefits, and not
features.
Finally, every
marketing effort needs to be tested to maximize conversions and ROI. However
if something isn't broken, then by all means don't try to fix it. And only you'll
know when you reach that point.

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