(The following is an excerpt from DirectMarketingIQ's new report "Perfecting the Landing Page: The complete guide to landing page optimization, including: Best Practices for getting to know site visitors, avoiding landing page turnoffs, testing strategies, 4 Case Studies, and more!")
Think of the work it takes converting a visitor to a customer as similar to baking a batch of the perfect award-winning chocolate chip cookies. For your award-winning cookies, you need to first identify all of the right ingredients, and then gather, measure and mix those high-quality ingredients in just the right quantity and in the right order. Mismeasure the flour, or settle for a lower quality grade of chocolate, and you're headed straight down the path to mediocrity.
Here are three of those ingredients:
1. A Clear Vision and Singular Purpose of the Page ... Based on What You Want the Visitor to Do
Effective landing pages are designed with a singular goal in mind. There are many landing pages that either never had a clear mission in the first place or through poor execution, fail to deliver on that mission. They often try to sell the product of interest to a visitor, of course, but then they dilute their marketing efforts and disrupt the visit experience by too prominently trying to cross-sell additional products before the visitor's sold on the primary product. They simply distract with too many attention-grabbing elements and too many calls to action.
Don't fall into the trap of thinking, "Since we've worked so hard to drive this visitor to our site, we want to make sure we get something out of it." Most visitors to your pages arrive with a specific problem to solve. It's your job to anticipate that problem and craft your page around convincing the visitor you have the solution they need.
Effective landing pages cannot be all things to all people. Instead, be sure that you can clearly answer this question: "What's the primary purpose of this landing page?" Next, focus all your Web elements around accomplishing that one goal.
2. Compelling Headline and Descriptive Subheads
Headlines and subheads are your opportunity to grab the visitor and say, "Yes! You're in the right place, and we have exactly what you're looking for." Effective headlines are those that prominently and instantly tell the visitor that it's worth investing their time to scan your page.
Secrets of Direct Marketing Testing
PURLs for Profit
