The Pragmatic Marketer

In my last post I identified six best practices that you should pay attention to when creating landing pages.

Here are six more that will further help you get your landing pages “right the first time”:

Beware the Fold

Visitors will give your landing page a few seconds to engage them. Any requirement to scroll reduces the chance that they will complete the objective, which is to convert. So your landing page should be constructed so that everything is visible - especially the call to action - to visitors using 1024 x 768 screen resolution (which is the lowest common denominator for most B2B site visitors).

Use Powerful Action Button

Your action button should achieve two things:

a. It should be descriptive. Using words like “Submit” or “Download” don’t drive the emotion like “Get my Whitepaper Now” or “Set up My FREE Needs Assessment”.

b. It must pass the six foot test, i.e it should be easy to read from six feet away. If it isn’t, make it bigger!

Take Care of Copy Length

A good rule of thumb with landing page content is to write down what you want to say and then halve it! Remember,  the visitor will only stay engaged for so long and the more copy you have prior to them taking a conversion action, the more likely you are to loose them before the do.

Be Brutal with Form Length

When it comes to forms, the watchword is short! The form is one of the biggest friction points on your landing page. And friction is not a friend of conversions. Think about the contact information that it is absolutely essential to have and make this mandatory, the rest, which is nice to have, should remain optional. Remember, with just a name, work email and web address you can find out the address and phone number of an awful lot of people with just a little bit of internet research..

Leverage Whitespace

Landing page visitors don’t really read - they scan the content to quickly determine if the page is relevant to their goal or not. Careful use of space, so that content is accessible and friendly allows them to scan and understand key messages quickly and easily.

Don’t Forget “Free”

Free is a powerful word that tells the visitor that they are going to get something in exchange for their contact information. If what you are offering is indeed free, make sure you spell it out so the visitor knows.

Add these best practices to the initial set of six that I shared with you last week and you’ll be on the way to creating killer landing pages that should help your conversions soar.

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Sean O’Donovan is the owner of FunnelBuilders, an internet marketing consultancy that helps technology organizations develop and implement post-click marketing strategies that generate actionable in-bound sales leads - www.funnelbuilders.com

Nothing beats smart, ongoing testing programs to consistently drive up your B2B landing page conversion rates in the long term. However there are a number of landing page best practices that you should pay attention to from the get-go to make sure you aren’t unnecessarily impacting your conversions as soon as your landing page goes live:

Message Match Your Headline

A clear and direct headline should be the first thing the user notices upon viewing the page and it should assure the visitor that they are “in the right place”. So make sure that the term they searched for in Google is front and center in that headline.

Powerful Value Proposition

Your landing page should have a compelling value proposition in just a few words. This should encapsulate the sum total of the value you bring. This is not the time to get cute or fancy - if visitors can’t quickly and easily understand the benefits of your product or service, they will leave. A powerful value proposition helps keep the visitor engaged and stay on the page, increasing the chance that they will fill out your form and convert, because they see value in what you do/offer.

Maintain Message Clarity

Beyond a succinct and clearly articulated value proposition, your landing page should also clearly articulate your call to action that tells the visitor why they should take the step you want them to take, which is to register for your value added content.

Minimize Anxiety

Landing page visitors always harbor some anxiety. “What will they do with my information?”, “Will I get spammed with promotional emails?”, “Will I get pestered by a sales rep?” Make sure that these anxieties are managed as best you can. Trust/security icons and assurances, as well as testimonials provide credibility and give confidence to the visitor that can have a positive impact on conversion. And be sure that there’s a clear link to a privacy policy that explains how careful you will be with any contact data they give to you.

Avoid Distractions

In B2B the singular objective of a landing page is to secure a conversion or registration in exchange for some value added content or service. To this end you should avoid any unnecessary distractions on the page that might cause the visitor to deviate from this objective. This means having one clear choice of what to do next, no site navigation and no unnecessary links to other content (unless they are integral to the conversion objective).

Create a Sense of Urgency

If possible, you should try to communicate time sensitivity, scarcity or privilege to incite the visitor to act NOW. Examples might be a webinar invitation where seating is limited, a free needs assessment available to the first 100 registrants, etc.

Pay attention to these best practices when you create a landing page and you’ll be on the right path to achieving your conversion goals.

Look out for six more landing page best practices next week

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Sean O’Donovan is the owner of FunnelBuilders, an internet marketing consultancy that helps technology organizations develop and implement post-click marketing strategies that generate actionable in-bound sales leads - www.funnelbuilders.com