Image courtesy of enrique galeano morales’ photostream
For marketers, the landing page is one of the most powerful tools that can be indicative of how successful a website or eCommerce site is for a company. Landing pages live and die on conversions, whether the conversion results in a sale, lead or some other level of the sales funnel. Therefore, one of the fastest and most effective ways to improve your digital marketing outlook is to optimize and improve your landing pages. Here we’ll examine a few ways that you can best optimize your landing pages.
1) Is It Relevant to the Audience?
Here’s one reason that metrics matter – keeping tabs on who your visitors are is the only way to know if and how the offer and message is right for the audience. Sure, your funnel can be focused and detailed, but if the landing page is not fully relevant to your audience then it is self-defeating.
Understanding your target market is huge. It dictates what to offer and how to craft messages that make sense to them. The better you know the needs and wants of your target market, the easier it gets to make them offers that are right on the money. In a world of too many choices, relevance prevails.
2) Killer Headlines
I recently wrote about killer email subject lines, since that’s basically the headline in an email. Well, it’s no different on a landing page – the headline is the gateway to conversion, only because if the headline isn’t good, chances are that your visitors aren’t going to stick around to find out more. If your headline doesn’t create a spark, you should have some serious doubt about the user experience. Regardless of the value you have to offer, it doesn’t have a fighting chance if the first impression is bad.
3) Limit Options to Focus on CTA (Call to Action)
A landing page typically serves to qualify a prospect and move them to action. Since your landing page’s conversion goal is to make this move, it might be a good idea to scrap navigation bars and other options that might exist at the page. If it doesn’t serve your conversion goal, then it should be questioned.
4) Credible and Congruent Messaging
Regarding design, copy and anything else that makes up the user experience, your landing page has to have some consistent elements with the rest of your site to maintain congruency in your messaging. There are many templated landing page solutions that look out of the box, and don’t preserve the integrity or brand of your site. This may play a role in your landing page’s effectiveness, so be sure to test it.
Give these a shot and see what happens. Remember that testing is the name of the game when it comes to conversions. AND, incremental adjustments that result in increased conversions lead to significant gains, so don’t put this off!