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E-Marketing Performance Blog

Landing Page Makeovers

I attended ion Interactive’s “Extreme Makeover: Landing Page” series this week. On Wednesday landing pages for lead generation were addressed, then today landing pages for transactions were covered. I found both of these webinars provided good information, however I felt they weren’t much different from each other. The advantage for attending both was that I was able to see/view more examples.

Key Problem Areas

There are four problem areas common to inefficient/ineffective landing pages:

  1. Message match: Often times the search phrase (keyword) and promise in the ad text are not even mentioned on the landing page. Make it obvious that the search phase they used, and the ad they clicked on, are what the landing page is all about.
  2. What they want: What’s in it for them? What’s the unique value proposition for the visitor?
  3. Make it easy: Don’t make them search for the information they’re after. Use clear and easy to find calls to action. Crowded landing pages will confuse your visitor and they leave. You don’t get their information, you’ve lost the lead.
  4. Keep it simple: Keep the forms simple, collect only the essential information necessary. No one likes long complicated forms – collect additional information after you’ve contacted them.

Comparisons

There was a limited demonstration of improved results on modified landing pages, where landing page testing had been completed. We were shown the ‘original’ page, then the ‘redone’ page, and given examples of the improved performance the new page had over the original.

Review Landing Pages

Attendee’s had submitted their landing pages for review. Pulling all the reviews into a summary, these were the most common problems in the submitted pages:

  • CTA: the ad, and landing page didn’t have a distinctive obvious CTA. If a CTA was on the page, it was often below the fold. fix:put the call to action above the fold, and be very clear.
  • Incentive: What’s in it for the visitor? fix: make it clear why the visitor should complete the form (or buy from you if it is a sale site)
  • UVP: No clearly defined reason that the visitor should buy from you. fix:look back at your home page, reinforce what makes you special
  • Benefits: No clear obvious benefit why this product is right for the visitor.fix: state why the product will benefit the visitor, clarify value (savings)
  • Too cluttered: too much information on the page, one size fits all content. fix: segment information to different users. Too many options are distracting so simplify

Testing testing testing

One element not emphasized by the webinars was the value and importance of testing. Key to all landing page performance is testing. There was a brief section (3 – 4 examples each day) showing the original page and the ‘new page’ and some analytics to demonstrate improvement, but nothing more after that segment of the presentation ended.

At the end of the presentation, the speaker mentioned the need for multiple landing pages to serve different purposes, and proceeded with a sales pitch for working with ion interactive and their ‘live ball’ landing page software. It was a very soft sell for a simplified method of creating various landing pages, but there was no real emphasis on testing.

End take away is that I now have one of Stoney’s favorite features, a LIST of features to check against the landing pages I use. A check list that I can use when developing new test landing pages.

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