Many, many studies have shown that 80% of visitors to most business websites leave in just a few seconds. There are many reasons for that so I’m just going to focus on five main ones for this blog post. I think these are essential things to bear in mind when building a good website.
Inconsistency
It seems like such an obvious concept but it’s frequently overlooked, especially with people running adwords campaigns. It can kill your website marketing strategy very quickly.
It’s critical that there is consistency between the call to action in the ad that brought the visitor to your site, and the landing page they visit. It’s all part of create a meaningful user experience for your visitors.
Good websites make sure the visitor immediately makse a connection between what they were thinking about when they clicked on the advert and what they see when they arrive. Better still, they can predict in their minds what to expect from the landing page and have that view reinforced when they arrive. You’ve half won them over already if you do that.
Your prospect will look somewhere else if they can’t immediately find the thing that solves their problem. How do you feel when someone offers you something to get your attention, then gives you something else in return?
Tip: Be consistent with your marketing message. You will turn prospects into paying customers by giving them what they wanted when you get them to your landing page.
NO Call to Action or the Offer has NO Emotional Appeal.
You need emotionally compelling ad copy that stops visitors dead in their tracks. People buy on emotion. They justify with logic. People gravitate toward pleasure and away from pain.
Remember the old adage,”Fear of loss is greater than the desire for gain.”
Get inside your customer’s mind. Find out what gets them emotional about your product and/or service and quickly explain how your offer benefits to them.
Too Many Calls to Action
Remove all distractions. Your landing page should focus on one thing. This is critical when the landing page is a sales letter page. So many times I have seen people think “I’ll add an opt-in box on my sales page, then if they don’t buy at least I’ll stand a chance of getting their email address”.
But think about it – how many times have you visited landing pages that offered you so many options you ended up bewildered didn’t know what to do?
Stick to a single message. If you ask a visitor to:
- Read your copy
- Sign up for you mailing list
- Watch this video
- Check out this or that article
- Click on this or that link
If you don’t do that, you will confuse the person, and as a result they’ll do none of the above.
Good websites never create mental tension. Don’t overload people with options. Eliminate distractions and your sales conversions will increase dramatically.
If it’s a sales letter, it’s critical that you get your visitor into a buying frame of mind as soon as possible.
You have to:
- Get their attention
- Turn that to interest
- Create desire
- Close the sale
- Turn the customer into a company advocate
Bad Design
Landing pages should be optimised for 1024×768 resolution if you want to capture 89-94% of online users.
Make sure visitors can see the offer in the first screen. That’s usually the upper 400 pixels on the page.
Make sure the offer is very clear and easy to take advantage of. Repeat the offer anytime they scroll past or leave the first screen.
Confusing, Flakey or Invasive Forms
Prospects are always reluctant to part with personal information – they never know where it is going to end up. You need to be sensitive to their concerns and ask for the minimum amount of information you need to fulfil their order. When it comes to data capture, keep it simple, keep it minimal and keep it relible
- Keep forms simple
- Repeat the offer on the form
- Use as few fields as possible
- Collect new information only
- Make sure the info is saved as they go so if they accidently hit the back button they don’t have to start over.
- Let people know you will never share this information with third parties
Follow these 5 tips and you will soon see an improvement in the effectiveness of your landing pages and your website marketing strategy.
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 0 comments… add one now }