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Smooth Landings for Your Visitors = More Sales for You

A landing page — also known as a "jump" page — is a specialized registration page tied to a specific product or offer.

It's called a landing page because the user "lands" there, typically by clicking on some sort of response to an ad. This could be a PPC (pay-per-click) ad like Google Adwords, a banner ad, or even an embedded URL in an e-mail.

If you get a letter in the mail with a Web page address on it or you get an e-mail that says "Click Here"… these take you to a landing page. The landing page has sales copy and an order form or some other way to respond to the offer.

In this scenario, your prospect has initiated some sort of relationship with you. Your landing page acknowledges this and provides additional information and a clear path to the next step.

Unfortunately, many businesses don't use landing pages or incorporate them correctly into their marketing plan. If you're not using well-crafted landing pages, all the clicks you generate — all of your costly SEO, PPC, and advertising traffic — is being directed to your site's home page.

If you aren't using landing pages, your best prospects are literally being dumped off at your front door with little direction or guidance as to how to proceed.

Creating Compelling Landing Pages that Convert

To be fair, literally any page of your website is a landing page of a sort.

Kethyr Solutions believes every page of your site should be optimized to move your visitor along whatever path you've set forth toward a sale, a newsletter subscription, what have you.

That having been said, there are several key elements of a successful landing page that we make sure our clients use to convert as many of their visitors as possible into customers:

1. Make sure your headline relates directly to the place from which your visitor came or the ad copy that drove the click. Match your language as precisely as you can — close is good, exact is best! This way you keep your visitor oriented and engaged. This is by far the most important part of your landing page.
    
2. Provide a clear call to action. Whether you use graphic buttons or linked text (or both), tell your visitor what they need to do. We recommend a minimum of two calls to action for a short landing page, and 3-5 for longer landing pages.
    
3. Write in the second person. No one cares about you, your company, or even your product or service except as to how it benefits them. Focus on your reader's needs and desires!
    
4. Deliver a clear, persuasive message. A landing page is not the place to showcase your creativity or ability to turn a clever phrase. This is business, not a personal expression of your artistic ability.
    
5. Long copy is fine as long as it's tight. We always err on the side of writing long for first drafts because it's easier to edit than inflate skimpy copy. Your readers will read long copy as long as you keep building a strong, motivating case for them to act. However, not every product or service requires the same amount of copy. If you're trying to close a sale for a high-price product or service, you'll likely need more copy. If the product is inexpensive, or you're trying to get a subscription and no sale is involved, shorter copy is usually better.
    
6. Be crystal clear in your goals. Keep your body copy on point as a logical progression from your headline and offer. Don’t add tangential thoughts, ancillary services, and other fluff. Every digression is a conversion lost.
    
7. Keep your most important points at the beginning of paragraphs and bullets. Most visitors are skimming through your copy. Make it easy for them to get the necessities without slowing down. Similarly, people read beginnings and ends before they read middles. Make sure you keep your most critical, persuasive arguments in these positions.
    
8. Make your first paragraph short. That means no more than 1-2 lines — that's lines, not sentences! Vary your paragraph line length from there. Variety in the length of your paragraphs helps create visual dissonance and makes it easier to read your copy. However, no paragraph should be more than 4-5 lines in length.
    
9. Write to the screen. Take a piece of paper and frame where your text, buttons, and design elements will go. Consider how much of your content will be seen "above the fold" or on the first screen. You can still write long copy and have visitors scroll down. If you do, you'll want to make sure you repeat essential calls to action, testimonials, and other components so no matter where your visitor is an "ACT NOW" link or button remains visible.
    
10. Remove all extraneous material. This includes navigation bars, visual clutter, and links to other sections of your website. You want your reader focused solely on your copy, your supportive visuals, and the offer you're making without being tempted to wander off.
     
11. Don't ask for what you don't need. Ask for only enough information to complete the sale or the desired action. This isn’t the time to conduct a marketing survey. Every question you ask, every piece of information you require will chip away at your response. Be judicious.
     
12. Assume nothing. Test everything. Test your headlines. Test your copy. Test your calls to action. Test everything, and test some more! Marketing is as much an art as it is a science. It's highly unlikely you'll get everything right on your first attempt.

Your Call to Action

These tips and techniques will get you started, but they just scratch the proverbial surface.

Design elements are critical — color, images, layout — as are video, audio, and other interactive elements whose purpose is to more deeply engage your prospects and boost response. They all merit a deeper look and testing where it makes sense.

A finely-tuned landing page will catch your visitors when they land, pull them through your pitch, testimonials, and success stories, and drive them safely to your checkout.

Your landing pages need to keep hold of your reader's attention, offer no distractions, and contain copy so convincing your readers will fall over themselves to sign up or buy.

Persuasively-written landing pages are potent hooks for reeling in sales and can successfully convert your visitors who are looking for an immediate, well-presented solution to their problem.

If you're not currently using landing pages in your online marketing efforts, or the ones you're using aren't as effective as you'd like them to be, contact Kethyr Solutions today!

Contact Kethyr Solutions today for more information or call us toll-free at 888-538-4971.

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