Posted by Patrick Murphy on Tue, Jan 12, 2010
In online marketing a landing page, sometimes known as a lead capture page, is the page that on a website where traffic is sent specifically to prompt a certain action or result. The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines.
Most blogs and articles cover top tips and best practices for landing paging to convert your visitor's into leads. But what if you do not want leads and look to have the lowest conversation rate as possible.
1 Make it Big
Slow loading pages can lose potential customers. Research shows that more than 80% of customers click away from a page that takes too long to display. Google says that page loading time will be considered in determining the "Quality Score". Keywords that lead to landing URLs that are slow loading pages will get lower quality score than those which load faster. This means the minimum bids for a keyword that leads to a slow loading page will be higher. The web page header has to be downloaded fully before any content is displayed to the user. Therefore, a page header that has to make too many calls to the server to download all the CSS and JS files will slow down the page loading considerably. So make sure it is big and as complicated as possible.
2 Ask for everything
Apparently no one likes to give away too much information when they want to download a free report, get a demo of your product or sign up for a free trial. If you want the visitors to try your product without any obligation, you should ask for as minimal information as possible. Initially, you may just take their name and email address for a way to contact them in future to build a relationship. Gradually over a period of time, you may slowly get more information & feedback from them. Every extra field in your landing page will reduce your conversion rate, so ask from as much details as possible. You never know when you might need their pet's name.
3 Confuse them
Plain and simple, consumers will not take the desired action on a website unless the information, instructions, and path to a conversion point are laid out neatly before them. For lower conversion rates try not to optimize landing pages by controlling the conversion path to achieve higher conversion rates and lower bounce rates. Providing users with too much information can delay conversion time and bog consumers down to where it might actually prevent a conversion. To avoid having that happen, keep in mind that people like to consume information in chunks. Utilizing bullet points that feature product details, testimonials, or contact info is an efficient way to communicate information. Keeping information short and to the point will allow for quick consumption, and not pull the consumer away from your conversion path.
What are you views, what other tips to do have?
At SiliconCloud we understand the importance of Internet Marketing and Social Media in today's business environment. This week we are running a free webinar for anyone on how to use Social Media for Lead Generation.
Covering areas such as:
How to incorporate social media into your overall marketing strategy
How to attract more website visitors from social media sites
How to leverage a social media community to share and promote your content
How to convert social media visitors into leads and customers
While SiliconCloud are partners for HubSpot this will not be technology focused. So anyone can register....
Register at Social Media for Lead Generation
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Wed, Dec 02, 2009
So we have done the hard work on getting the internet to our website, but sometimes we let them slip away with no call to action!
Every website should have a call to action, a response you want users to complete. So how do you create an effective call to action?
Having an effective call to action is an essential part of any website. It is not just limited to ecommerce sites. Every website should have an objective of what it want the user to do, or complete filling in a contact form to request for information, signup for a newsletter or to request a demo.
A call to action provides...
- Focus to your site
- A way to measure your sites success
- Engage with the users of your website
- Direction to your users
So how do create a great call to action!
1: Why do they need it?
Like all sales there has to be a need, so has your site created a need that your call to action can fix? So take this call to action found on HubSpot.com. They have created the need with "Optimize your website to get found by more prospects and generate more leads". Then by clicking on the call to actions, we can start the process of fixing issues and start generating more leads!
2: Offer a little more
Sometimes you may have to sweeten the deal to encourage users to complete a call to action. In this case it is offering a change for an exclusive phone! There has to be that reason to click now, and why.
3. Have a small limit of distinct call to actions
It is also important to be focused in your calls to action. Too many and the user becomes overwhelmed. Studies in supermarkets have shown that if the shopper is presented with too many varieties they are less likely to make a purchase. So why try and make the same error on your website.
By limiting the number of choices a user has to make we reduce the amount of mental effort. Effectively you guide the user around the site step by step.
For example if you look at the Skype home page, they only have 3 "call to action" buttons.
4: Use active and urgent buttons
A call to action should clearly tell users what you want them to do. They should include active words such as:
- Call
- Buy
- Register
- Subscribe
- Trial
All of these encourage users to take an action.
To create a sense of urgency and a need to act now, these words can be used alongside phrases such as:
- Offer expires March 31st
- For a short time only
- Order now and receive a free gift
Back to HubSpot, in their call to actions they have "Get Started" and "Register Now"
6: The position of you "Call to Action"
Another important factor is the position of your call to action on the page. Ideally it should be placed high on the page and in the central column.
Once again to the HubSpot home page, right in the centre and high on the page.
7: Try to have a call of action on every page!
Just think every page on your website as a chance to engage the user! Look at the HubSpot website!