Forget Everything You Know About Web Design and Build a Great Landing Page

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April 21, 2009 | BY Glenn Seaberg
  


Glenn Seaberg
Spyder Trap Online Marketing

At the core of every successful sponsored search or e-mail campaign stands a great landing page.   Designing a great landing page, however, is counter-intuitive to everything most website designers think they know.

If you want the highest conversion rate possible from your landing page, follow these absolute rules:

Designate only ONE purpose for your landing page.  Allow your visitors to take only one course of action such as request more information, subscribe to a newsletter, submit an inquiry, or make a purchase.  If you offer them a choice, chances are great that they will decide on neither and bounce.

  • Answer these inevitable visitor questions in less than five seconds.

    • - What are you offering me?
    - Why should I care?
    - What do I do next?

You have six seconds to convert your visitor.  Do not expect them to stick around longer.

  • Unless your goal is to repress response, don’t ask the visitor for more information than you need to begin the relationship.
  • Keep both the offer and the response form above the fold.  This will increase the visitor’s ability to process your offer.  Adopt a side-by-side layout to ensure this occurs regardless of a visitor’s monitor size or settings.
  • Your landing page is not a portal to your website!  The only link you should include is the one that links your submit button to your “Thank You” page.
  • Be prepared to test.  Split-test your landing page constantly to determine the most effective mix of headline, layout, message, and call to action.

Ignore these rules at your own peril.  Clutter your landing page with too much information or too many options and you will scuttle your chances for success before the first visitor reaches the page.

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  • Anna Slyter

    Great info – I have been working on some landing pages and ran across some of these same issues. Lots of debate about the added links and multiple offers. Thanks for reinforcing that we’re going in the right direction.

  • http://www.spydertrap.com Glenn Seaberg

    Thanks for your participation Anna. Let me know how it goes with your client.

  • http://www.themarketingstoreusa.com Jonathan Lawrence

    Hello Glenn, I also liked your article and agree with your ideas. I have a client in the home improvement business that is using a landing page, at the recommendation of a marketing consultant, that only gives the option of filling out the form. There is no other way to contact the company but to fill out the form. No other links, no phone number just a Request for Estimate form. What do you think about this tactic?

  • http://www.spydertrap.com Glenn Seaberg

    Hey Jonathan –

    Thanks for taking the time to comment!

    Landing page purists would say that your client’s approach is the “correct” way. However, every client is different. If the client only wants business from the landing page, this is the way to go. Plus, if set up correctly with analytics code, conversions from this campaign will be 100% trackable.

    I completely agree with having no other links on the landing page, but the lack of a phone number may suppress overall responses as some visitors will not want to complete the form. In any case, the form should require as few fields as possible. I hope that helps!