PPC-Advice.com

What are visitors looking for in a landing page?

I get asked about this topic almost each and every day, mainly because I’ve done a lot of testing on different landing page designs, content writing alternatives, and e-commerce conversion optimization projects.

Although different sites cater to different users, many themes hold true across varied landing pages, keywords, and search engines.  Let’s take a closer look at a few of them…

Landing Page Design

When I say design, I don’t mean the layout necessarily, I mean the actual aesthetic.  Depending on your target demographic, you may want your landing page to look more modern, cleaner, more traditional, more corporate, or even just simpler than your homepage.  The main rule of thumb for landing page design and establishing an aesthetic is to keep it clean, non-abrasive to your target market, and to establish credibility immediately.

Copywriting

It’s amazing how much better a landing page performs with cleaner, more concise copywriting.  I never claim to be a wordsmith by any stretch of the imagination, but I know (after considerable testing) that peopel want the straight goods.  Skip the tired cliches, skip marketing snake oil, and skip anything that doesn’t help convert your visitors.  Everything else is fluff.

Don’t believe me?

Look to Google.  Sure, they have incredible international brand awareness, but the magic started with the simplest, most concise search engine solution on the market.  Now they’re evangelizing all kinds of products in the same style.  Speak to visitor needs, competitive advantage, and trust - the rest will follow.

Here’s how you can clean up your copy and make a big impact on conversion:

• Ditch your company history, employee profiles and phony testimonials.  Actual value propositions, comparisons, and credible external references speak louder than “Mary Smith of Knoxville, TN”.
• Summarize key product features in short bullet lists, keep long lists of tech specs in a separate “specifications” section.
• Link to or show images reinforcing contextual examples of your product or service in use, providing examples of success/value.
• Do research for your visitors, eliminate the need for comparison shopping.  Don’t BS your visitor though - your landing page is unlikely to be their first.  Keep current with your competitor landing pages and adjust accordingly.

Concise, powerful copy goes a long way to the overall success of your landing page.
Usability

Finding the best landing page solutions with respect to usability can be tough, especially in light of e-commerce giants that break all the rules of customer engagement (you know who you are).  The take home message when it comes to any kind of interface, navigation, or conversion stream testing is to maintain a logical progression throughout the visit.

Common themes in optimizing usability include:

• Keeping users aware of where they are in the process
• Allowing users to go back and make changes, evaluate other options, or ask for help
• Always including offline conversion options
• Refraining from too many upsell attempts (or providing escapes)

Many times, landing pages and conversion streams will fail to include information required for visitors or potential customers to make informed decisions along the way.  Don’t be afraid to tell the truth, in plain english, right there in the signup stream.  At the very least, it should minimize your customer service call times and post-sale complaints.

Trust

Trust is big, but not necessarily as big in your industry.  Many vendors will be quick to point out reports and testimonials that prove conversion latency is on the rise and that adding their trust mark will speed your visitor time to purchase.  Not necessarily.  Some sites with good copywriting and clear value propositions don’t see any increase in conversion or time to purchase, regardless of trust marks.

Promotion

It’s no surprise that visitors are looking for a deal.  If you can somehow convey value in your product or service without offering up a discount or promotion, God speed.  Most landing page tests require some kind of promotion in order to determine for sure whether price is a factor in conversion rate.

Conclusion

Don’t be afraid to ditch much of your existing landing page content, design, or promotion.  Sometimes the most off-the-wall solutions turn out to be the best converting ones.  That being said, sometimes the simplest of landing pages works far better than anything else.  Test, test, and test again.

Buzzworthy? Bookmark to: