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