Jun 30, 2015

Craft Landing Pages That Convince, Convert Capture Your Prospects’ Digits

Your landing page is getting in the way of you attracting new customers. Yes, it’s ruining your acquisition game. How? Well, you’re talking about yourself too much, you’re not being clear, you’re asking too many questions, you’re not being honest. I hate to break it to you but you’re coming across as boring, selfish, self-centered and a little (dare we say it) needy.

Your customers are growing bored, impatient, disillusioned. They’ve had enough of your sales-speak.

We’ll show you how to use the subtle art of value-adding persuasion to convince and convert visitors into leads and nurture them into full on paying customers. Your mission is to whet your visitors’ appetite, pique their intrigue, give them a little and leave them wanting more.

Your Landing Page Goals Should Look a Little Like This:

  • Convince: Offer value that’s relevant to your target audience’s deepest desires.
  • Convince: Communicate your value proposition clearly.
  • Convince: Add social proof to enhance trust.
  • Convert: Save your visitor’s time by optimising design and form for usability.
  • Convert: Offer alternative means of getting in touch.
  • Convert: Include a strong and clear call to action.

And Your Most Important KPI That All Other Goals Should Strive Toward:

Capture: Encourage x (insert amount of leads you would like your form to generate) visitors to fill out the form and become a qualified lead in x (insert amount of time) months.

First Step Convince Visitors

Customer Convincing Tactic #1 Offer Appealing Value from the Outset:

People are growing tired of self-facing sales copy that offers little and expects lots. That’s why it’s never been more important to answer that ‘why should I care?’ question immediately, without delay and without fluff. And the only way to answer that is by communicating the ‘what’s in it’ or ‘unique value proposition’ for prospects.

That’s the key to unlocking their tightly guarded details. Of course, the value you offer prospects depends on your business and the specific problems your target audience face. However, below are a few proven-to-work examples you can consider offering.

Examples of Value You Can Offer:

  • Content Giveaway: consider whitepapers, webinars, podcasts, industry reports, etc.
  • Sample Product/Content/Service: offer a sample product or service your business sells.
  • Consultation/Advice: offer free advice on a topic related to your business or service.
  • Tips & insights: if you’re creating a newsletter, for example communicate clearly the types of articles they can look forward to reading and the value they will bring.

Customer Convincing Tactic #2 Create a Relevant Headline That People Get:

The most commonly shared advice for creating effective landing page headlines is to ensure that it’s attention-grabbing and eye catching. While this can help, I think many digital marketers overlook the importance of clarity and relevancy. In my opinion, the most important factor of all when crafting your headline is to ensure your visitors get your message and your value proposition instantly. They need to understand what you’re offering the moment they open your landing page.

It’s better to be clear and transparent rather than showy, ‘clever’ and salesy.

Here are a Few Clear & Value Adding Headline ideas:

  • Sell it to them straight and simply state what you’re offering.
  • Promise to solve a problem (and tell them how you’ll do it).
  • Display your unique value proposition (something that sets you apart from competitors).
  • Try a little humour (only if you’re funny and the message still remains clear).

Customer Convincing Tactic # 3 List the Biggest Benefits Your Audience Cares About:

List the benefits, not the features your product or service offers. Choose the top 3 to 5 benefits that will appeal to your target audience, help them solve their problems and enable them to achieve their deepest desires.

Here are some of the questions your benefits should address: ‘How does your product/service/content giveaway solve your visitors’ specific problem?’, ‘How does your product/service/content giveaway help your visitors to achieve their desires?’, ‘What does your business offer that other businesses don’t or can’t?’

Your benefits should be displayed clearly and concisely a quick sweep of the eye should tell your visitors everything they need to know about why they must have your product, service or giveaway in their lives. To ensure your benefits quickly grab your visitors’ attention you can display them as bullet points, super short paragraphs or subsections.

Customer Convincing Tactic #4- Gain a Stamp of Social Approval:

You’ve got the words and they’re good. But where’s the proof? You’ll need a social endorsement to support your statement/statements. For example, you can add weight to your words by adding customer testimonials (in the form of snappy quotes or video snippets) to your landing page.

If your business is supported/endorsed by or partnered with a well-known big brand name, it may also be worth mentioning this and including a logo. The inclusion of trust symbols can increase conversions by 42%. Any proof point that offers credibility and highlights your company’s trustworthiness is worth displaying.

Second Step Convert Visitors

Customer Converting Tactic #1 Grab a Conversion Friendly Landing Page Tool:

Want to improve the usability and conversion rates of your landing pages? Why not grab a tool that helps you achieve both? Below I’ll take a look at Unbounce and Wishpond two of the best landing page platforms around.

First, Let’s Define the Elements of Landing Pages You Can Test:

To increase your conversion rates on landing pages you’ll need to test different elements. These can include, but are not limited to:

  • Headline variations
  • Call to action options
  • Landing page with and without video
  • Longer landing page and shorter landing page

Unbounce:

Unbounce is a leading platform that allows you to quickly and easily build and publish mobile responsive landing pages. You can also a/b test your landing pages to help you test and optimize performance. Your a/b testing findings help you make calculated decisions that can significantly increase your conversion rates.

Unbounce Price: Pricing starts from $49 per month for individuals which allows you to create and publish unlimited landing pages and acquire up to 5,000 unique visitors.

Wishpond:

Wishpond is another alternative to Unbounce. It enables you to design, publish and a/b test your landing pages. You can choose from (and customize) a suite of 40+ mobile-responsive templates.

Wishpond Price: Pricing starts at $45 per month for unlimited landing pages, contests and forms and unlimited pop-ups. The price for A/B testing, auto submit and pre-filled forms and custom CSS is $65 per month.

Customer Converting Tactic #2 Consider Your Call to Action Placement

Contrary to popular digital marketer belief, the best spot to place your call to action might not be above the fold. According to Michael Lykke Aagaard, a split test genius from ContentVerve.com, if the product offer is detailed and complicated it’s best to place your call to action below the fold. If, on the other hand, the offering is simple to understand it’s best to place your call to action above the fold.

That’s why it’s important to experiment with your call to action placement. Use one of the landing page a/b testing tools listed above to help you improve your conversion rate optimization and select the perfect place for your call to action.

Customer Converting Tactic #3 Use Minimal Fields to Enhance Conversions:

Removing one field alone on your sign up form can improve your conversion rate by 26%. It’s, therefore, essential to get clever about the details you’re asking your visitors to submit. Think of it like this: your form should be created on a strictly need to know basis.You will most likely need your prospects’ name, email address (and maybe phone number). Do you really need to know more?

If so, it’s best to choose one or two more important fields for example, you might want to know their job title or country (make sure you’re clear on why you need this). But for heaven’s sake, play it cool you’ll have a chance to find out more about your prospects at a later stage as they contact you, become paying customers or move along the sales funnel. Don’t blow your first chance you won’t get another.

Design, create and implement email marketing campaigns. Learn how to write compelling copy, split test design templates and test campaigns to guarantee optimal open and click through rates...

Upgrade to Power Membership to continue your access to thousands of articles, toolkits, podcasts, lessons and much much more.
Become a Power Member

CPD points available

This content is eligible for CPD points. Please sign in if you wish to track this in your account.