We’re starting off the session with Tim Ash, who reports he’ll be doing this at NY speed – with my laptop in my lap, this is about to get interesting!
7 Tactics for Landing Page Optimization by Tim Ash
Tim Ash from SIteTuners sets the tone by opening with, “Ignore your landing pages at great peril.” He’ll be dishing out his 7 best tactics for landing page optimization:
1. Unclear Call-To-Action
Who are the only people that matter on your website? Visitors. Not your webmaster, ad agencies, or anyone else.
Welcome is not a call to action. A large image of two people is not a call to action. Spiffy, colorful icons are not calls to action. Tim advises, death by “and” – work hard to avoid it. In other words, the less the better.
What is the purpose of this page? Begin with the end in mind.
Different pages can have different purposes, or multiple purposes. A landing page with a clear call to action is best – make it simple, like a zip code and an enter button.
For example, on one of SiteTuners pages, there is one visually stimulating icon, and that’s it – it makes the call to action clear.
2. Too Many Choices
When a user lands on your page, he or she is asking, “What do you want me to do?” Too many red buttons is not good. Editing is hard, but it’s your job to curate the content to tell the user what’s important. If you have competing goals, prioritize.
3. Asking Too Much Info
Don’t ask for information out of order. Without a relationship, you don’t have a right to ask for that information right off the bat. As soon as you get online, you suffer from greedy marketer syndrome.
You need to build the relationship before asking for the visitors information. Ask for the minimum amount of information to start the process.
There must be enough value in your download in order for someone to click it. Trust symbols need to be more prominent. Shorter forms can increase your revenue.
What is the minimum information we need to download this information? Nothing. Let them download it. You haven’t lost anything except your control – add your links add the end.
4. Too Much Text
You don’t want a landing page with scrolling text.
Nobody reads on the web – cut down the text, increase comprehension and conversion.
5. Not Keeping Your Promise
Who trusts consumer reports? Tim shows us a Consumer Report ad for Best Digital Camera – when we get to the landing page, it’s all the major brands. Then, a little red button “Join today!” Fail. They promised me expert camera reviews, and there were no reviews. They broke a promise.
The number one driver of conversion is matching visitor intent
6. Visual Distraction
You don’t want visitors to look at a big image of “The Rock,” you want them to look at the call to action. Large images are distracting. If you have a visual rotating slider – don’t do that! Our brain does things on auto pilot, we will always react to motion. Every time you have motion on your page, I’ll look there, and not at your form or call to action.
Exit pop ups are fair game – give them a survey for 10% off and ask why they’re leaving. But, don’t interrupt them in the middle with a pop over.
7. Lack of Trust
A woman in sneakers blowing a bubble is not a signal of trust. Your influencers or trust signals do not belong at the bottom of your page. If you won a bunch of awards, list it on the landing page as a signal of trust.
Don’t let your client lists take up most of the page – it can intimidate the smaller companies. Sometimes you can have too much trust on a page with too many logos.
That concludes Tim Ash’s portion of the session! Up next we have Janet Driscoll Miller. First, she’ll discuss six basic tactics, and then she’ll dive into advanced tactics and testing.
10 Tips for Improving Landing Pages by Janet Driscoll Miller
1. Keep the Promise
Look at user intent, and follow through on that intent. You want the keyword searches to match the ad, all the way through to the landing page.
2. Include a Call to Action
By creating a landing page with a clear call to action with a form, it helps the person understand “what do I want you to do?”
3. Make Your Message Clear
Reduce the number of choices on a page! Keep the choices simple – one, or two.
4. Call To Action Colors
Keep it complimentary! You want the opposite to what’s on your page. Use a complementary color to the overall page color scheme. A small change can make a huge difference.
5. Keep Your Messages Above the Fold
The call to action needs to be above the fold (before where the user will have to scroll).
6. Reduce Form Fields
Even reducing form fields from 9 to 3 fields can lead to a 300% increase in conversion. The shorter the form, the more likely the visitor will fill it out. Gauge how much information you really need, and the value of the exchange from a consumers point.
Marketing automation allows you to reduce form fields – use it! Nurture customers through form fields.
7. Don’t’ forget good usability
Try to repeat keywords in your headlines.
8. Consider Adding “Trust Badges”
Customer logos and awards and certificates are forms of trust badges.
9. Consider Marketing Automation
Marketing automation sits between your website and CRM tool. This tool allows aggressive profiling, which is helpful in a longer sales cycle. It propagates a user’s profile over time, marketers prioritize the fields to capture. Each time it will automatically ask different form fields to compile a complete look at the user.
You can do this inside the tool using the progressive profiling form feature. Or, outside the tool use the API, which is helpful for website pages, marketing library logins, etc.
10. Why Social?
Search is lacking in demographic data. LinkedIn and Facebook offer a bit of demographic targeting. We use Facebook for B2C and LnikedIn for B2B. Using cookies with social ads is a great way to gather this information.
You can implement social logins on landing pages as a form of marketing automation, you’re leveraging a third party tool API. Check out:
- https://developer.linkedin.com/documents/sign-linkedin
- https://developer.linkedin.com/documents/profile-fields
Conclusion
Tim Ash concludes with, “make radical changes,” apparently “as the ladies say, the bigger the better.” That’s a wrap on Best Tactics in Landing Page Optimization! Thanks for tuning in.
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