4 TIPS FOR A CRAZY HIGH CONVERTING LANDING PAGE
So what exactly is wrong with your landing page? The only people that will know are your readers.
I think I’ve gotten a hundred emails in the last 2 days asking me for tips and advice on “making my landing page convert”.
It’s a good question. I mean, 68% of B2B businesses use landing pages to collect new leads that eventually convert. (source).
So what exactly is wrong with your landing page? The only people that will know are your readers.
While you’re developing a landing page, avoid conversion pitfalls by thinking about how your readers move through the sales cycle.
"Call to actions promoting ebooks get almost twice the click through rate as emails promoting webinars." -@HubSpot #Goodadvice #yourchoice
— Olivia Derby (@OliviaRDerby) July 11, 2016
Landing page content needs to
-Present your product
-Create an insane amount of need in your readers.
-Prove your product works
-Answer the most pressing questions of potential customers
It needs to do all that without being long, boring, or difficult to read.
Here are a few rules that will help point you in the right direction.
1. THE BIGGER THE ASK, THE LONGER THE PAGE
Pages designed to collect contact info in exchange for a good piece of content don’t need to be very long. A paragraph and an image are usually enough to do the trick. In general though, your page should have about 500 words minimum. You can check out Crazy Egg’s article on that here.
Hubspot does a great job at creating awesome, simple landing pages that collect contact info in exchange for great free downloads.
This page for their free ebook, Lifecycle Loop has all the elements of a good landing page, but makes it very clear that they don’t expect very much of you. A few short paragraphs addressing the problem readers are having and what the ebook covers is all it takes to get you on board.
Zapier on the other hand (sorry guys), does a not so great job at putting together a page for a free ebook. Aside from the fact the design is confusing and uncomfortable, the content is a little overkill. After scrolling for for several seconds, you start to forget why you’re there in the first place.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the size of your “ask” is directly related to how much money you’re asking for. Your ask might not require any money at all from your reader’s but may be demanding a lot of time or effort.
For example, Hubspot offers a free CRM (check it out here…I’m a big fan!), but knows that asking readers to transition to a totally new system to manage their business means that user will be investing a lot of time into setting it up and keeping it updated every day. Although this product is still free, they take the time and the space on the landing page to really sell the product.
2. MORE PARAGRAPHS, FEWER SENTENCES
People have short attention spans. You probably already know that, but do you know what to do with that info?
The best landing pages (like the best blog posts) present their key content points in short, simple blocks of text. Keep your paragraphs short by cutting out the fluff (anything salesy or unnecessary) and focus on your main ideas to keep your page length under control.
Bellabeat does an amazing job at this on their page for the LEAF. They break down their sales pitch into a handful of key points, and let the photos and graphics do most of the talking.
3. NO COPY IS RIGHT ON THE FIRST SHOT
Your readers really are the only ones who will know when you’ve landed on the perfect configuration of content. It doesn’t matter how many landing pages you’ve written, how long you’ve been working in marketing, or how well you know your end user. No landing page is perfect on the first go.
Once you’ve created your content, designed a beautiful page, and sprinkled in kick ass call to actions, publish your page and start looking for places to improve. A/B testing is every marketer’s best friend and should be something you get used to very very quickly.
Most landing page development programs have easy A/B testing features built right into them. In many you can simply enable the A/B test option, make any changes you want to try, and your software will serve the pages in a random succession to collect data on how well each performs.
If your page isn’t converting, look to your copy first and then to your design.
The landing page for a webinar I did awhile back with Riss Lawton took several revisions before we landed on a configuration that converted at a rate we were happy with.
The page’s copy went through no less than 7 rounds of edits while it was live and what began converting at 2% finished out the campaign converting at 25%.
4. THE MOST IMPORTANT SECTIONS NEED TO BE THE LONGEST
The most important section of your content is not the features. Any good sales person will tell you that you need to sell the value of your product, not the features. This is true whether you’re selling cars, info products, spots in a mastermind program, or trying to get people to sign up for a free webinar.
Invest the bulk of your time into creating content for the section of your landing page that creates need and builds value, and the section that offers social proof supporting your claims.
Owlet does a really nice job of creating value in the content on its landing page. They spend way more than 50% (closer to 70 or 80% sometimes) connecting with their potential customers, addressing the pain points every parent can understand, and explaining how the Owlet fits into their reader’s lives.
Creating a landing page that converts at a crazy high rate really only requires one thing from you. An open mind. Just like anything else in business, a great landing page should grow and evolve as you learn more about your customers and their patterns.
Now put your nerd hat on and go update your less than superstar landing pages.
Need some more? “Cherries, Sprinkles, & A Landing Page on Top”, the ultimate guide to creating amazing landing pages that convert like crazy is coming soon. Join my newsletter here to find out when.