It may be the most critical component of your pay per click (PPC) program. It’s where your visitor decides either that there’s something here worthy of further evaluation …or that she’ll just click on over to YouTube (or somewhere).
Yes, it’s your landing page. Much has been written about how not to do one; there’s even a webinar from Google, which we summarized here awhile back. Some of those no-no’s include:
- distractions, a confusing layout, and especially multiple headlines
- making the offer / call to action unclear or difficult to find
- using excessive explanation or difficult prose
- requesting too much information
- encouraging navigation away from the page
So how to develop a good landing page? Posting in iMediaConnection, Mason Wiley presents a number of best-practice “dos” that his firm (Hydra Networks) uses with clients, sometimes helping them increase conversions by 100% or more. These include:
- Use a people picture: make it a real photo, not ClipArt, and zoom in tight on the face. Ideally this shot can also show the product or the result of its use, or the service being delivered. Make the product or offer the star.
- Use a photo caption: after the headline, it will be the most-read copy on the page.
- Big headline: a single, big, bright headline should dominate.
- Lead the eye to the conversion button: place the photo in the upper left, with the headline just to the right; place the form lower on the right, but starting above the fold. This placement best leverages people’s natural eye movements.
- Critical info above the fold …like your key promise/benefits/value. Whatever readers see when they first land needs to be convincing and motivating enough to make them want to scroll down for the rest.
- Make text easy to read: Long copy blocks should be on white (easier to read), at least 12 pt, flush left, and not more than 50-60 characters across. Use bullets vs. paragraphs wherever possible. Highlight the gist of your message with subheads or bolding; it may be all that some people will read.
- Make it quick-loading …even by dial-up.
- Brevity: You should be able to do everything on a single page. More pages simply create more opportunity for prospects to fall out of the funnel.
- Simple form: Keep it as brief as possible, and design it for the ease/convenience of your visitor, not your IT group; that means few fill-in fields (pre-populated, to the extent possible), using check boxes or radial buttons – but not both! – where possible, and saving info to prevent start-overs in case of errors. Make the Submit button impossible to miss (red or orange helps), and try putting some wording on it that ties to your offer (vs. the generic “Submit”), like “Download my free trial now!” or “Yes, send me your white paper”.
- Finally… a great offer: OK, it’s not exactly part of the landing page, but it is why you have a landing page. As Mason says, “Not following the rules can kill a good offer. But nothing can save a bad offer.”
Of course, the only way to ensure optimal conversion performance is by testing …with real prospects, under real market conditions. For B2Bs with typically low volumes, that can take awhile; so you’ll probably have to keep it to the big items that you suspect can actually swing the result. But by simply following the recipe above, you’ll definitely be helping to improve your conversion rate.
