Successful inbound marketing programs focus on delivering content in the context of the buyer journey, working to create a remarkable experience from the first time prospects land on your site to the moment they choose you over your competitor.
One of the best ways to do this is through landing pages, implementing a conversion strategy that is very specific to the content, sales funnel and persona. You may not know this, but the NSA has been keeping these secret tips out of public reach for years, and we just got our hands on them.
The following tips require Level-10 security clearances, but we are able to bring them to you today through a highly trusted source that shared them with us. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone. Well, okay, tell as many people as you want.
Top-Secret Tip 1: Make these pages personal. What we mean by personal is persona-specific. Themore specific the landing page, the higher the conversion rate. It’s simple: People who land on pages that are specific to them, their challenges and their content feel safer and convert at a higher rate. Use terms that are specific to their job, role or industry. Maybe you just met them or attended a conference together – be sure to mention that as a way to make the experience more personal. This extra effort typically doubles the conversion rates. It’s worth it.
Top-Secret Tip 2: Remove ALL navigation. This might feel counterintuitive. After all, we don’t want to limit what our visitors are able to see, right? Wrong. On landing pages, you want to control visitors' behavior, and there is ONLY ONE thing you want them to do: convert. Removing navigation focuses their attention and improves conversions dramatically. Try it on a page or two. It won't be long before you’re taking navigation and extra links off all of your landing pages.
Top-Secret Tip 3: Make it visual. People have two eyes for a reason. We are visual beings. If the landing page doesn’t have a visual representation of what you are delivering, the conversion rates are going to be low. Make sure the image is "wow." Make it graphically interesting and visually appealing. We like to do 3D renderings of content so people see that the materials are meaty and comprehensive. Videos are also effective: If visitors see a short video on what you’re promising, it helps.
Top-Secret Tip 4: Optimize the page for search engines. Landing pages, especially those related to high-quality educational content, are often highly ranked by Google and other search engines. Make sure your landing pages are optimized – both technically and in terms of keyword usage in the content.
Top-Secret Tip 5: Limit your form fields. When it comes time to collect information, marketing people go crazy. Hold back. The more information you ask for, the lower your conversion rate. In fact, if you’re not planning on using the information for segmentation or personalization, don’t ask for it at all. Also, consider the landing page's step in the sales process. If the landing page is at the top of the sales funnel, you only want to ask for an email address. If it’s in the middle or bottom of the funnel, you're okay to ask for more. Testing is key. Try eliminating a few fields, and watch your conversion rates skyrocket.
Top-Secret Tip 6: Get good at writing the copy. Once you get a visitor to a landing page, you still have to convince him or her to take action. That’s where great copywriting makes the difference. You have to make a compelling argument as to what your prospect is going to learn from your content. It has to be quick, easy to digest (bullets work great) and about them, not you. Ensure that the copy on this page also includes your keywords. This is how you get the page optimized for and indexed by search engines. Oh, and don’t forget to include social-sharing buttons and remind visitors to share the content with their own networks.
Top-Secret Tip 7: Create a lot of landing pages. Companies with 30 or more landing pages generate seven times more leads than those with fewer than 10. Create a methodology for developing these landing pages. Make sure you use a naming convention and actively retire underperforming pages. By getting in the habit of creating new landing pages for new offers, new campaigns, new emails, etc., you also get in the habit of personalizing your visitor’s experience, which helps turn anonymous web visitors into hot leads for your sales team.
If you apply these conversion tactics to your website design plan, you're going to get much closer to having a website that attracts new visitors and drives new leads for your business.
Start Today Tip – This is an entirely new way to think about marketing. In the old days, we just sent everyone to our home page. But today, we want to provide a more personalized experience. Creating one or two landing pages each week, managing 40 or more of them, tracking them, optimizing them and analyzing the results makes marketing much more complex than ever before. The only way to get good at it is to jump in and get going. Add a few new landing pages and see how they perform. If you want some suggestions on your approach, our team is ready to help.
