Dissecting Your Landing Page

This past Holiday season, I think my inbox and mailbox hit an all-time max with emails and advertisements from large brands and consumer-based companies pushing this season’s “hot product.” Though the showcased product varies, all of the ads contain one similar thing – how to take the next step as a consumer. Of course the goal of the advertiser is to sell, but as a consumer, unless I know exactly what this product is I’m probably going to do a little research before I buy.

With the majority of these advertisers, they don’t want me to find my way into a Google search to learn more, because I will have a better chance of finding that same product for sale from their competitors. So, if they were smart enough to think about this, within that advertisement they educated me enough to feel comfortable about purchasing this product. Or I was directed to a website or landing page based around this product that will eventually take me deeper into the sales funnel as my interest grows.

So let’s take a step back, obviously the initial advertisement had to really stand out for me to take the next step and learn more. Once I finally took the next step, as a consumer I’m now looking to find information about this product in a unique way – very informatively, very quickly and hassle-free – or I’m hitting the back button! This is why they’ve developed a landing page, a page completely dedicated to this product with something to attract every type of consumer. Whether it’s to learn, purchase, share it with a friend, compare it to another product and so on. As a business, you’re really putting a lot on the line with this landing page, considering the average time spent on a page is under 30 seconds. With that being said, here are a few things to consider before building yours, not just for sales conversions, but for pushing your pay-per-click campaign performance on a page that’s only around for a few weeks!

1. A Nice Looking, Relevant Headline
Make your headline stand out. Make sure it’s clear to your visitors what you’re promoting. Remember, not everyone that is coming to your site is coming from your original advertisement.

Keeping the headline related can also affect your PPC Campaign ranking, because your AdWords score allows a site to discover the cost-per-click. This score can be improved by having consistent content between the ad message and landing page text.

2. Elementary School Students Aren’t Proofreaders
Want to lose the trust of your users in a matter of seconds? Try surprising them with some typos! If you’re an online retailer, throwing some typos in the billing process will make a consumer take a step back before they pull out the credit card, every time.

3. Build Some Trust
Before purchasing something online, I always check reviews, not only on the product, but also the individual or company I am getting ready to buy from; positive reviews, customer testimonials, guarantee seals, security certification, VeriSign, Better Business Bureau, etc.

4. Strong Call to Action
Don’t make the visitor guess what to do next. Keep the call to action presence strong and easy to find. After a visitor reads the headline, it’s crucial they know what to do next.

5. Buttons and Calls to Action Should Pop
Identify keywords people are interested in like “free”, “new”, “buy”, “guaranteed”, “trial”, “download now” or “purchase”.

6. Don’t Scare Them Away
Throwing too many links onto the landing page that connects them to other sites won’t benefit you at all. It distracts users and raises your bounce rate. On a homepage of a regular website, that’s fine, you want to pull them deeper into a site; on a micro-site or landing page, you want to keep it brief, easy and to the point!

7. Keep It Above the Fold
Scrolling isn’t a problem, but you’re advertising one thing. The space a visitor sees without having to scroll is where the most important parts of the webpage should be.

8. Never Stop Testing
No one has ever hit a landing page right the first time, those who think they did, never tested it against another design. Whether it’s A/B testing or trying one layout for some time then another for another set of time, always test for better results.

9. Spread the Word
Social media is something everyone trusts, if your friends like it, you feel comfortable liking it. Add social media sharing capabilities so consumers can share with their friends.

10. Mobilize It
You’re sending advertisements during busy times, times consumers probably aren’t in front of a computer. Smart phones are the big thing right now, make sure your site is amazing on a computer but is also easy to use on a mobile device.