The Six Best Tips for Landing Page Optimization

Using Testing and Targeting to Maximize ROI

---

The goal of the modern web site is more important and more difficult than ever, especially when it comes to a multichannel sales strategy. Consumers arrive at your web site through a number of interactive channels: pay-per-click (PPC) and organic search, e-mail offers and print offline ads. Once there, they need to fulfill the objective of acting upon a promotion, or buying a specific product.

If their entry leaves them uninterested because they don't see anything germane to what drove them there, they're most likely to exit, having wasted their time and your marketing dollars. Landing pages serve as a gateway between the marketing initiative that brought visitors to the site and the site functionality that enables them to take action, such as making a purchase or submitting a lead.

== Minimizing Bounces ==

A web site landing page is merely a page that continues the momentum from the referring channel. A common attribute might be the CPC search terms that brought them to the site, or a specific e-mail promotion that was clicked on.

In fact, targeted landing pages with keyword search terms appear more appropriate to users who have landed via a specific search engine query. As a result, fewer "bounces" occur. A bounce is a consumer who hits the landing page, stays for a brief time, then clicks the back button to return to the search engine page -- pretty much a totally wasted paid click. Customized landing pages diminish this risk.

For example, an e-mail promotion for a discounted travel package would bring the consumer directly to a landing page that reassuringly describes the offer in more detail and provides links to check availability and confirm the trip. It sounds simple enough, but put yourself in the user's shoes and do a few interactive searches of your own. You'll be surprised at how many online stores still aren't using landing pages.

== Tacticsand Tricks ==

Creating a successful landing page isn't challenging, and you can easily experiment and learn as you go. First, choose which page you'll need as the landing page for a specific promotion. You may very well have a current web page that you can use (one that's more customized than your homepage), but if you don't, consider publishing a new landing page. If that's the case, keep in mind these six best tips:

(1) Include an image along with the offer for visual interest.

(2) Eliminate navigation to keep users focused on the task at hand and reduce distraction.

(3) Keep the visual brand of your primary web site so users will immediately recognize your brand.

(4) Include a compelling call-to-action that should have something to do with the offer. For example, the copy for the travel promotion above could have a call-to-action such as “Book Now.”

(5) Reduce data collection as much as possible to decrease abandonment. If you must collect additional information, try putting those fields onto a form on a second page; the effect is that by the time users click through to this new page, they've already created some momentum in the conversion process and are less likely to click off the page.

(6) Whenever asking for personal data, include privacy and security statements to help establish trust.

Landing pages for lead-generation sites typically should focus on a single, specific goal -- getting the consumer to register or submit a lead. These types of landing pages should have very little unrelated navigation or content, and should display only relevant, reassuring messaging that encourages visitors to immediately take the next step in the registration process. There are many similar characteristics to direct mail. Every piece of literature, every page, every visual and every word in a direct mail campaign serves a very specific goal -- there's no waste. Everything is focused on getting the recipient to respond. The same goes with lead-generation landing pages.

Also, don't forget that you'll need to include the landing page's URL in the hyperlink of the message on the referring source. For example, CPC search, e-mail, and print hyperlinks should all point to your customized landing page.

== Taking it Up a Notch ==

Once you've made landing pages as part of your marketing toolbox, you should think about optimizing them for the greatest effectiveness. Direct marketers have benefited from A/B split testing for decades to discover which competing ad or sales letter works best, and you can do the same with landing pages.

For example, does putting your product's price on the landing page make more sales than if you required the consumer to click onto the next page before showing price? Using A/B testing, or more sophisticated multivariate testing, you can learn exactly which combination of alternate offers, headlines, copy, images and calls-to-action are most persuasive to visitors.

Beyond A/B and multivariate testing, you can also use behavioral targeting techniques to present visitors with landing pages that are customized based on whether the consumer is new versus returning, time of day or day of week, and so on. Employing behavioral targeting along with testing, you can easily optimize offers and other factors that will drive higher conversions and increased loyalty. For example:

* Utilize and test multiple landing page strategies to learn which is most effective on a segment-by-segment basis.

* Dramatically increase leads and conversions generated by PPC traffic, without increasing your SEM budget. * Determine search terms and keywords that will result in the best quality traffic, then target those segments with specific, highly optimized offers and relevant landing pages.

Landing pages are an important component that should be in every interactive marketer's toolbox. Try out the tips outlined in this document to produce effective landing pages for your visitors. By optimizing landing pages through the methods of testing and targeting, you'll not only increase the effectiveness of your interactive marketing dollars, but you'll learn unique and valuable insights into what makes your visitors to take action.

---

---

Comments? Questions? Email Here

© HowtoAdvice.com