Three tips for creating effective landing pages
Social media is no longer a fad when it comes to generating traffic and building buzz around a business. In fact, social media is essentially synonymous with marketing. It’s all about creating interest and turning that interest into qualified leads.
To harness the benefits, businesses will develop a social media strategy that has all the right elements – appropriate platform selection, well-developed content and incentives for engagement. Unfortunate for many, however, conversion rates aren’t reflecting the efforts put forth. And a lot of that might have to do with ineffective landing pages.
After a potential customer or client reads a blog or a status update on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook, the ultimate goal is to maintain their attention long enough to drive them to a landing page where a business can capture their personal information. More often than not, however, a business will develop the intrigue, but will lose it almost immediately when they send that reader to nothing more than a home page. The problem lies in the fact that there is no call to action or clear reason as to why they’ve been brought there.
Therefore, creating landing pages will be essential to finish the job that social media started. Luckily, there are a few best practices to employ when putting them in place. The following come from Pluralis.com, an organization that aims to tackle the complex challenges of conversion optimization:
1. Keep it short and sweet
“Imagine your traffic has about as much patience as a toddler after 5hrs in the car … and then start pressing the delete button,” say the experts at Pluralis. “While this trend may not be specific to Landing Pages (since when did TED talks start to feel so long?) the demand for brief and concise texts continues to skyrocket. We recommend a MAXIMUM of 3-4 lines of text in any given area of your LP, and if you can get away with less, even better.”
2. Leverage visuals
Pluralis will always tout the benefits of stellar content, however, they will never discount the power of pictures – as long as those pictures “clearly represent your product/service or target audience,” they say. “This two-pronged, ‘Show & Tell’ approach is critical for engaging your traffic and leading down Conversion Road.”
3. Don’t beat around the bush
“If site visitors don’t know within the first few glances exactly what you want them to do on your landing page (sign-up, buy, etc.), consider them gone,” Pluralis warns. “Sure, this isn’t exactly news; CTAs have always been critical to the success of a Landing Page. However, 2012 LP trends reveal that CTAs have earned somewhat of a ‘celebrity’ role on successful Landing Pages. Use bright, contrasting colors, bold fonts and standout buttons to give your CTA the attention it deserves.”
It’s important to remember, however, that not every conversion tactic will work for every business. So what that boils down to is this: Test everything that you do. And then test it again.
Need help creating effective landing pages that will garner the conversion rates you’ve been looking for? Feel free to reach out to NetSphere Strategies. We’d be happy to step in when you’re ready to put the wheels in motion.
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