INFOGRAPHIC: The Master Guide to Successful Landing Pages

Tyson Quick — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:59:43 +0000

For any marketer with long, complex sales cycles, landing pages are an essential tool for generating new leads. However, despite being very straight forward tools, landing pages are rarely optimized to their full potential. The typical landing page loses over half of it's visitors immediately. This leaves a company with only a tiny portion of visitors being converted to leads or sales. So how do you not only keep visitors on your page, but successfully convert them. This infographic was put created by Pardot. Pardot provides on-demand marketing automation solutions for business to business (B2B) sales and marketing organizations. Did you like this article? Please share it! Create a Free Landing Page Now - Click Here

The post INFOGRAPHIC: The Master Guide to Successful Landing Pages appeared first on .

How to Capture Quality Leads with Landing Page Forms

Fahad Muhammad — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:29:24 +0000

It doesn't matter if you’re an opera singer or are unbelievably tone deaf, if you’re a marketer and are currently deciding on the design of your Lead Capture Form then you’ll feel no hesitation in belting out U2’s “With or Without You”. Why? Because it really is hard to figure out whether lead capture forms do more good than harm to your landing pages. On the one hand the notorious forms can intimidate users on your landing page; on the other hand, these forms are the very instruments that collect good quality leads for you. So what is a marketer supposed to do in this situation? Well, the only logical thing left for a marketer to do is create forms that smooth the lead capture process; design forms that don’t intimidate your visitors but facilitate them in entering their information.

It’s not all in the Length

Whenever one talks about lead capture forms they typically discuss form length. Yes Lead Capture Form length is no doubt a principle factor in their success, however what you as a marketer need to understand is that it’s not only the length of the forms that matter. Sometime longer forms perform better than shorter ones; the answer lies in the purpose of your landing page and your formatting skills.

A Better Arranged Lead Capture Form is a Successful One

No matter how long your Lead Capture Form is, if it’s arranged and formatted properly into only mandatory fields then it fulfills its purpose of lead capture without creating any friction. Don’t scare away your visitors with long ill arranged forms, create the only necessary fields for your forms and you’ll see that they'll do just fine.

What is the Purpose of Your Lead Capture Form?

The purpose of Lead Capture Forms is twofold; you are either looking for new leads or are collecting high quality leads. If you’re just looking to collect new leads then a short form would do, nothing too snazzy just getting a name or email address would suffice. However, if you’re looking to collect high quality leads then you need to roll up your sleeves and design a well-structured form. You can take pointers from Lyft’s Lead Capture Form which in spite of being long is still easy to fill out. Longer forms will help you gather more information, which can help you build up better customer profiles or personas which can help you better design future products and services.

A Link to Your Privacy Policy Helps

The internet can be an untrustworthy place, no one wants to give their personal information to people they don’t know. When your visitors arrive on your landing page they don’t know whether you’re a credible company or a Ponzi scheme, which is why a reassuring link to your company’s privacy policy placed under your Lead Capture Form does the trick. this is on way your visitors differentiate scammers from the credible professionals. Another thing that leads to better Lead Capture Forms is simply testing! It always helps to split test different form types on your landing page to see which one pulls in the most leads. With this post I officially announce the close of the Landing Page Optimization week. Hope you all have enough information to successfully create your POLPs. Did you like this article? Please share it! Create a Free Landing Page Now - Click Here

The post How to Capture Quality Leads with Landing Page Forms appeared first on .

How to Create a CTA Button that Converts

Fahad Muhammad — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 19:06:30 +0000

We all have different measures for gauging how things will turn out, some judge the whole future of a potential relationship with the first kiss, some judge how a young man will turn out by looking at his father. We marketing folks often judge the difference between a successful landing page and an unsuccessful one by looking at the CTA button. Because this single (can be multiple) button can either tip the conversion scale in your favor or can force it the other way around. To make sure that the scale tilts in your favor, you need to create a CTA button that has no problem converting your visitors into your customers. To do so you'll need to focus your attention on both the elements that make a conversion worthy CTA button i.e. the copy and the design.

Cinderella’s Glass Slipper Just Doesn't Fit Everybody

Think of your CTA buttons as customer tailored suits that get stitched specifically for your landing page. There’s no one successful CTA button that works wonders on all landing pages, you need to design your button especially for your page. This is why using generic CTA button design and copy is not the way to go. You need to make your CTA button count, if your landing page is offering your visitors a free ebook instead of your CTA button saying “Download” it should say something like “Download your Free eBook Now” or any other phrase that you fancy.

Make Your CTA Button Design Stand Out From the Crowd

While deciding on your CTA button design you need to consider the following aspects: - What size your CTA button needs to be? - What color it needs to be designed in? - How much whitespace should be surrounding it? As far as the size goes; the bigger and more obvious your CTA button is the better, again however there are no specific measurements that you can follow for conversions and you should always be a/b testing. Your CTA button color falls in the same category, no single color works perfectly on all landing pages, take into account your landing page colors and then decide on a contrasting color for your CTA button. Whitespace on the other hand is something that works well no matter what service or product you’re promoting and what color your landing page background is. With whitespace surrounding your CTA button not only do you make it more obvious and emphasized, but you get to de-clutter your overall landing page, which is always the way to go to get increased conversions. Getting good conversion rates isn’t really a mad science, it’s real simple if you get the mechanics right and use your head sensibly. Next up on the Landing Page Optimization Week is learning How to Capture Leads with Your Lead Capture Forms. Did you like this article? Please share it! Create a Free Landing Page Now - Click Here

The post How to Create a CTA Button that Converts appeared first on .

Landing Page Graphics Galore

Fahad Muhammad — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:49:05 +0000

While doing online shopping or checking out the link of a guerrilla wrestling a dog, what do you prefer to do? Read a long description of just how cute a pair of lace booties are, or see a picture of them? Read the droned out version of the whole guerrilla dog tumble or see a juicy video? Yes, this is exactly why a wise man declared that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. No, I'm by no means underplaying the importance of landing page copy, but this is Landing Page Graphics Galore baby and so we’re only going to be talking about these visual treats today.

More than Just a Feast for your Eyes

Apart from the obvious visual appeal, graphics work well in tying the perfect little bow around your carefully put together landing page. A good graphic is what takes an above average Landing Page to greater heights; its presence is what ascertains whether or not you have achieved a POLP (perfectly Optimized Landing Page). If you’re currently in the market for Landing Page Graphics, and want to really hit a homerun with your choice, you’ve got to make sure that your candidate fulfills the following pre-requisites.

It’s Not All Relevant

The key to getting your Landing Page Graphics right is relevancy, remember not everything goes; please choose wisely. Only include a graphic on your landing page that ties in well with your entire campaign, if you’re selling straw hats have an image of a straw hat and not that of a tin man. Consistency is a very important part of your Landing Page campaigns, stay true to your message by keeping things smoothed off and constant.

Creativity Earns You “Cool Points”

Want to be as cool as Fonzie? Well then your Landing Page Graphics need to show off your artistic flair. Go with something interesting and artsy not just some run of the mill stock photo but something that your visitors would’ve seen for the first time- that’s where the magic is, in the element of surprise. Choose colors that are memorable and mesmerizing and a design that makes all the other Landing Page Graphics look bad. Check out the psychology of color.

The Human Factor Works for Your Landing Page Graphics

Adding a personal touch always helps in the case of landing pages, the same rule applies to Landing Page Graphics as well. Including a nicely taken graphic of your company members may help boost your conversions because it will help humanize and individualize your company. Even if you don’t go the “real person route” with your main Landing Page Graphic, do include real images of your clients next to their landing page testimonial because this definitely brings you more conversions by increasing your trust factor. Just consider all of these factors before you decide on a Landing Page Graphic and you will not falter in your conversion endeavors. Next up on the Landing Page Optimization Week is learning How to Create a CTA Button that Converts. Did you like this article? Please share it! Create a Free Landing Page Now - Click Here

The post Landing Page Graphics Galore appeared first on .

How to come up with a Killer Landing Page Headline?

Fahad Muhammad — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 20:26:35 +0000

First impressions are important. Exactly the reason why we spend so much of our time getting ready each morning on the off chance that something important happens that day; maybe we find our soul mate, you know The One, maybe we win the lottery or make the biggest marketing pitch of our lives. We scrunch our hair, shine our shoes, add an accessory here and wear the perfect tie there, so that people see us how we want them to; as an epitome of perfection. Because once we’re able to make a good first impression they wanna see more of us, that’s exactly what a killer Landing Page Headline does, it inspires your visitors to want to see more of your landing page and ideally click through to becoming your customers. So, how do you come up with a killer Landing Page Headline?

Verbal Mastery

I've always been an advocate of simplicity, I've told you on multiple occasions to strip down your landing page to the bare essentials, yes I’m all for the KISS (keep it Simple Stupid) principle, however, I've always been all for creatively designing your headline too, sometimes with humor and other times with interesting stats. I know everyone is not a word wizard, however in today’s competitive market, you either put on a show or you just pack your knives and go. You need to wow your visitors with your headline even if you decide to take the plain and simple route; what you can do then is dazzle it up real nice and good with some suspense.

Your Landing Page Headline Needs the C Word

While curiosity may be a killer for cats; it does the opposite for your Landing Page Headline and by extension your landing page conversions i.e. breathe a new life into them. If you are able to create a headline that gets your extremely busy visitors curious enough to read through your landing page well then that’s a job well done that you've done right there. Craft a headline that has some character and punch in it so that your visitors are left wanting for more.

Suits Up!

Lawyers are known for many things, the art of rhetoric and persuasion being one of them, this is what keeps them afloat in the court room, gets the jury rooting for them. So, take a page out of Harvey Specter’s happening life and develop a great narrative for your Landing Page Headline, something that’ll get them hooked onto your landing page. Think of your Landing Page Headline like Medusa’s eyes except for the fact that instead of paralyzing your visitors your headline mesmerizes them to take action, teases them until they just have to click on the CTA button. Want your Landing Page Headline to deliver extraordinary results? Then come up with killer headlines and keep the suggestions mentioned above in mind while doing so. Next up in the Landing Page Optimization week it’s Graphics Galore! Did you like this article? Please share it! Create a Free Landing Page Now - Click Here

The post How to come up with a Killer Landing Page Headline? appeared first on .

Landing Page Optimization Week!

Fahad Muhammad — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 18:30:30 +0000

Last week we did a blog series on landing page testimonials which made me realize just how much I missed writing posts for a themed week and so I thought why just stop at customer testimonials? Why not continue further? And so I did, but this week isn’t dedicated to my marketer friends, it’s in fact dedicated to their landing pages. When you’ve gone through this week’s posts you’ll be able to give your landing pages the best gift of all- conversions!

What’s in Store for Your Landing Pages?

Think of this week as Christmas week for your landing pages, every post will feel like you’re unwrapping a whole new surprise for your landing pages, something that’s going to help get your landing pages to the next level; to the highest levels of Landing Page Optimization (LPO). I’m going to be breaking down your landing pages into the elements that compose them i.e. the landing page copy, CTA button, headline, lead capture form, image and customer testimonials (which we’ve already covered) and then show you how you can ace each and every one of these elements. This will in turn enable you to create a POLP which is not just a funny word but the acronym for a Perfectly Optimized Landing Page.

Creating a POLP

This is how we’re going to get you to your POLP.

Day 1: Creating Landing Page Copy that Blows Your Visitors’ Socks Off

A post that shows you how to establish repertoire with your visitors and helps you get your conversion conversation started with them.

Day 2: How to Come up With a Killer Headline

The post is going to bring to you tips that will help you create the perfect headline that will help you gain momentum towards your conversion goals.

Day 3: Graphics Galore

This post will guide you through the specifics of how to decide which graphic goes well with your Landing Page Campaign.

Day 4: Create a CTA Button That Converts

CTA buttons are your visitors’ last stop, learn how you can create CTA buttons that make your visitors stop and take notice.

Day 5: How to Capture Leads With Your Lead Capture Forms

Lead capture forms can be the trickiest landing page element, learn how to reduce friction when it comes to your contact forms. Hope your Landing Page enjoys the surprise!

The post Landing Page Optimization Week! appeared first on .

How to Write Landing Page Copy that Blows Your Visitors’ Socks Off

Fahad Muhammad — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 19:49:00 +0000

Persuasion is an art. To some this art comes naturally while others have to work at it, or to put it another way some of us are natural salesmen while others need to go through the sales manual to get things going. This post is dedicated to all of those people who work hard at persuading their clients, they to me are the unsung heroes, the people who work relentlessly towards a goal and do not rest until they achieve it. Your landing page copy is a big part of your landing page campaign- it’s the thing that separates an awesome landing page from an average one. So, it goes without saying that you need to put in a lot of thought when you sit down to write your landing page copy because the copy that you want to write is one that can guide your visitors’ hands towards your CTA button. Likable copy is the one that your visitors go for, and here’s how you can insert the like factor into your Landing Page Copy.

Bond with Your Visitors through Your Landing Page Copy

The first thing you need to do is establish a good rapport with your clients, and can you do this by writing like you talk. We have past the age of Jane Austen novels, no formalities and flowery language please- be natural to connect with your visitors. When you’re writing your landing page copy try pretending that your visitor is standing in front of you and then just talk to him while you type away at your keyboard. Use pronouns such as “you” or “we” avoid the “I” word and you’ll do great.

Assure Visitors You Understand Where They’re Coming From

Talking to your best friend calms you down doesn’t it? It doesn’t matter what type of a situation you’re in. This is because deep down you know that your friend gets you, understands what you want and why you’re upset. This is what your Landing Page Copy needs to do, it needs to establish trust with your visitors by talking to them like you know them and this can only be done if you truly know who your visitors are. You must have identified your target audience before you set about on your landing page campaign, use that information to write the best personable Landing Page Copy that you can.

Don’t Be Salesman on Your Landing Page Copy

Want to know the big secret to selling? Act like you’re not selling! Be subtle and classy in your Landing Page Copy, don’t shout buy this and buy that, instead convince your visitors that clicking the Call to Action Button is the best thing that they can do for themselves. Make them think it’s their idea and not yours. Reduce the fluff and the hype and trust me you’ll do great! Writing Landing Page Copy can be intimidating but if you keep things simple and follow the three steps mentioned above you’ll connect with your visitors in no time and then it’s smooth sailing from there. Did you like this article? Please Share it. Create a Free Landing Page Now - Click Here

The post How to Write Landing Page Copy that Blows Your Visitors’ Socks Off appeared first on .

A/B Testing 101: Answers to Basic Questions about A/B Testing

Fahad Muhammad — Fri, 31 May 2013 18:59:52 +0000

Spontaneity is great if you’re going on vacation or proposing, however while working on your Landing Page Marketing efforts, spontaneity is a killer; a conversion killer. You just can’t throw random elements together on your landing page and then expect them to do great, testing is a big part of landing page success. The best pages are those that have been tested to achieve perfection. A/B Testing or Split Testing is one of the most frequently used landing page testing techniques. While performing the split test you create different variations of your landing page, for instance you create two Call-to-Action buttons instead of one. You then test to see which one works better at getting you conversions and choose the winner to put on your optimized landing page. The awesome part is that you can A/B Test all the elements on your landing page; most frequently your headline, image, copy, lead capture form, customer testimonials, and even the page length. With InstaPage’s easy to use Landing Page builder by your side, A/B Testing is as easy as pressing a button. You can see it in action by watching the video here. Now that you know just how simple it is for you to do A/B Testing, it's now time to further learn the rules of the A/B Test game.

Does A/B Testing Always Work?

A/B Testing works every time if you define the purpose of your A/B Test beforehand. Set a goal you wish to accomplish with the A/B Test and then go about doing the test. Again there’s no need for you to start on a whim, do things methodically. What do you wish to test; are you testing your CTA button with various colors and textures or something else? Before you get down to testing make sure you know exactly what you’re setting out to achieve. Is it a paid membership offer you’re testing out against a free one?

How Many Variations Are Ideal for an A/B Test?

Logically speaking you can add various variations of your landing page elements while doing an A/B Test, maybe you’ve come up with 4 ideas that you think are brilliant and would like to test them all out at once. My advice in this case would be to take the A/B Test as a “real” A/B Test and only run 2 variations at a time. You can then just run the winner of the first A/B Test with the rest of your desired experiments. This way you’ll get concrete results. A/B Testing is truly make or break for your Landing Page campaigns. If you have additional questions on A/B testing, just give a shout out to us and we’ll be sure to get back to you with detailed responses. If you want to see some A/B Tests like the one below in action just visit Visual Website Optimizer. We're excited about A/B Testing! You can hope to see many posts like this coming your way soon. Did you like this article? Please share it! Create a Free Landing Page Now - Click Here

The post A/B Testing 101: Answers to Basic Questions about A/B Testing appeared first on .

Video Landing Page Optimization Tips That Work

Fahad Muhammad — Wed, 29 May 2013 17:32:06 +0000

Marketers have to work really hard to: a. Get visitors to “land” on their landing pages b. Fill out the lead capture form c. Click on the CTA button d. Keep on coming back for more offers & more landing pages With the marketing game changing just about every five seconds it’s hard to keep up with all the fluctuating trends. Or is it? If you have a few guaranteed tricks up your sleeves then even the Conversion Challenge shouldn't really challenge you that much. In other words if you are privy to spot on, ever green Landing Page Optimization tactics, well then the conversion rules may change but your landing page conversions will always come on top. What we’re going to be discussing today are optimization techniques that make a successful Video Landing Page, because in case you haven’t heard Video Landing Pages are in! Video Landing Pages are a huge deal because they help boost your conversion rates through the roof. Don’t believe me? Check out this study done by Visual Website Optimizer that shows that a Video Landing Page caused a 46% increase in conversion rates! If you want to get in on some of this delicious conversion pie, make sure that your Video Landing Page has the following features.

1. A Short Video is a Sweet Video

If your visitors wanted to watch a long droning video they would just go sit with their grandma and watch a chick flick. Visitors have a teeny tiny attention span when it comes to landing pages, so make sure that your Video Landing Page has a short video, yes explain your service properly but do so in an imaginative way as quickly as you can. Use animations instead of using actors if you think that’s better, add good quality graphics and a good voice over and background music. Most importantly make sure that your video explains your message properly, because at the end of the day that's what your visitors will be left with. Check out the Google Keep video below for an absolutely perfect example.

2. Opt Out of AutoPlay

The most annoying thing that you can come across on a Video Landing Page is being caught off-guard with video auto playing and you spilling steaming coffee all over yourself. Don’t torture your visitors! Setting the video on your Landing Page to autoplay is like shoving your message down your visitors’ throats. Give them a choice to play your video and they will, however if you force them to watch by playing it for them then they’re out your conversion door.

3. Include a CTA Button, Duh!

If you’re not going to include a CTA button on your Video Landing Page how will your visitors convert into your customers? You can either do a voice over CTA button or you can just do it with graphics, but don’t forget to include it because if your Video Landing Page was successful your visitors are going to want to click somewhere. Here's 4 ways you can include a Call-to-Action within your video. These Video Landing Page optimization tips may sound simple to you and yeah they are but they’re magic because they bring you guaranteed conversions. So, try them! Did you like this article? Please share! Create a Free Landing Page Now - Click Here

The post Video Landing Page Optimization Tips That Work appeared first on .

How to Gather Customer Testimonials for Your Landing Page

Fahad Muhammad — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:48:53 +0000

If you've been following our last few posts, we've discussed two new things; customer testimonials are powerful & testimonials need to be effective to actually work. While this is all informative you're probably still thinking, “where am I supposed to get these effective customer testimonials from”? Will they drop from the sky or come to me in a dream? Do I have to purchase them online or do I need to beg my friends to write one for me? Well the correct answer to your question is “D”, none of the above. Don’t you go on worrying though, I’ll give you the cheat sheet on where to get customer testimonials.

A. Get Customer Testimonials from Facebook Reviews

Your company has a Facebook page right? Sure it does! Then you have a whole community of fans ready to review. Look into any good reviews that your wonderful customers have already given you and add those to your landing pages. If you can't find one, simply ask! Just be sure to design the testimonial appropriately. (We’ll hit on optimization tips later).

B. Provide Incentives to Write Testimonials

If your product is great, your customers will have no problem writing a testimonial to vouch for you. However, very few customers decide to write a testimonial themselves, you sometimes need to give them a little nudge. Possibly offer them a discount or a voucher.

C. Set up an Email Marketing Campaign

Email marketing campaigns come in handy in a lot of situations, they help you promote new offers or maybe an ebook that you wrote. Why not set one up to gather customer testimonials? A creative way to do so is by creating a survey to do the job for you. And you can easily create an online survey by using Survey Monkey.

D. Create a Review Space on Your Website

If you provide your customers with a proper platform to write a testimonial or review about your product or service, chances are they’ll do so. Dedicate a space on your website or blog where customers can write glowing customer testimonials for your product and then simply put them on your landing page to achieve the right effect. Other platforms to gather customer testimonials are via LinkedIn recommendations, local search directories and even through Youtube video reviews. When you’ve gotten a fair amount of customer testimonials you need to sift through them and find the most effective ones to put on your landing pages. If there are a few negative testimonials in the pile don’t fret it, take them in a stride and improve your product accordingly. Just remember, no matter where you get your customer testimonials from and whether they’re positive or negative, always thank your customers for them. They did a nice thing for you, you should do the same! If you're still looking for more ideas on how to get customer testimonials, we suggest: Seven Ways to Get Great Customer Testimonials. Did you like this article? Please share it! Create a Free Landing Page Now - Click Here

The post How to Gather Customer Testimonials for Your Landing Page appeared first on .