7 Proven Strategies for Landing Page Optimization

Everywhere we turn, the theme is the same, “do more with what you already have.” We hear it on all sides, from grocery shopping to business practice. So from a marketing perspective, what simple steps can you take to do things better? One key optimization comes to mind and that’s the improvement and analysis of your landing pages.

It’s proven that improving your landing page increases your conversions. Here are our 7 proven strategies for landing page optimization.

1. Keep your promises. The most important objective of your landing page is to make good on whatever you promised that brought the prospect there in the first place. Landing pages that utilize bait-and-switch tactics fail every time. Whatever compelled your prospect to the page whether it was a keyword, a content offer, an email promotion, or anything else is exactly what the user should find when they click through. If you told them to click here to receive a white paper, the landing page better focus on how they get their white paper.
2. Creative-wise, less is more.
   • Use similar elements wherever possible to the source of the landing page (email, direct mail, etc). Similar text and imagery all contribute to that feeling of being in the right place.
   • Use your graphics sparingly and only if they’re relevant to the offer.
   • White space is good.
   • Make your whole landing page easy to scan. Prospects don’t read landing pages; they scan them. Make their eyes land on what you want them to do (most likely provide you with information in exchange for your offer). Use bullets and a large font for easy readability.
   • Lose any extra navigation that will distract from your primary message.
3. Offer, offer, offer. I can’t state this enough. Landing page content has to be about the offer so double-check that the short and sweet copy that we talked about above focuses solely on the benefits of the offer. Be concise and stay focused. Not a word should be wasted on anything other than getting the visitor to act. This is not the real estate to go into great detail about what your company does.
4. Information collection. The main objective of most landing pages is either (a) to prompt a direct purchase, typical in b-c, or (b) gather more information about a prospect in order to move them through the buying cycle (typical in b-b). Here are a few tips for improving your landing page’s information collection strategy:
   • Keep it short and make sure you need to know each data point. Every piece of information you ask for reduces the likelihood that the prospect will continue, so collect as little information as you really need to route the lead and re-market to them. You can always collect more information during your nurturing process.
   • Don’t ask anything too personal (such as budget) especially if this is the prospect’s first engagement with you.
   • Consider multi-part forms where the participant can receive the offer after an initial set of questions or could voluntarily continue on to a more detailed set of questions.
   • Don’t ask them to re-type in anything you already know. Utilize pre-population tools wherever you can.
5. Collect information first; then, fulfill the offer. We’ve all seen “Mickey Mouse” data. By providing the offer via email after they’ve filled out the form, you’ll ensure that you receive at the very least, a valid email address.
6. Mind your manners. Say please. But more importantly, say thank you. Use your thank you page as a vehicle to offer prospects yet one more glimpse into the appreciation that you bestow on your customers. Also, use your thank you page to continue the engagement. Offer them something else (and in exchange, collect a bit more information). Good thank-you offers include blogs, surveys, or additional white papers.
7. Testing will give you insightful data on what’s working. Gone are the days of subjective debate; the numbers will help to guide your strategy. The most valuable things to test are the headline, graphics, the submit button, offer specifics, and form length.

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Like any campaign component, landing pages often need, to put it simply, a fresh eye on them. It’s easy to become complacent and put together pages that look and perform just as they always have. But again, during these times, we want to help you do everything about your marketing efforts better, more efficiently, and ultimately more profitably, starting with landing page optimization. Contact Yates Advertising anytime for a strategic landing page assessment.