If business is war, then landing page testing and development are pitched battles to win consumers over competitors. Just as in war, the first thing we do in developing landing pages is to create a strategy

This is the process we use in Engine Ready’s landing page development section. First we like to list out strengths and weaknesses of a clients offer, product, or service.

For this example let’s say our new client makes stand up desks (a hot topic in the office lately!)

These are the strong points of their product:

- Numerous Health benefits to using one over a traditional desk.

How is it healthier? Answer: Better for posture and back. Aids digestions and increases calorie consumption by burning an additional 60 calories per hour over a sit down desk. Breaking this out for someone uses a desk 8 hours a day 5 days a week leads to burning an additional 9,600 calories per month.

- Client reports receiving emails from customers who are very pleased by their new stand up desk.

If someone pays full price for a product or service and still writes a thank you note to the company they’re more than a satisfied customer. If it’s possible, we like to speak with them directly. A conversation with a customer evangelist can be very beneficial to the development of a strong landing page.

- Height Adjustment is very easy.

Since it’s easy to adjust, it’s especially well suited for home offices where more than one person uses the same computer. And for companies where more than one person uses the same work station.

This is the weakness of the product

- It’s 9% more expensive than similar desks.

Why is it more expensive? The main reason is that because our client is smaller he does not get the same discounts larger manufacturers get when they buy materials in bulk.

There’s not much we can do with this.

Almost as a side note, the client mentions that the ball bearing system in the adjustment arm he uses is more expensive. Why? Because he uses Swiss made ball bearings and pulley system which are better quality. What does this mean to the consumer? It’s smoother to adjust than other standup desks.

After bouncing ideas around we decide on turning the weakness of the price comparison to competitors into the focus of the pitch.

We do this by building text around this theme:

“The only stand up desk with the Glide Adjustment System. It might be a bit more expensive but over the life of your desk it’s less than a penny a day.

Because all stand up desks provide the same health benefits, the secondary focus will be the calorie burning and health benefits.

From there, we fill out the rest of the page with applicable text and order a 15 second video clip showing an elderly woman adjusting the desk height.

For the first split test we reverse the benefits focus and make the health features the main focus and the glide adjustment the secondary point.

If  you’re considering landing page development, why not give Engine Ready a call?  We’d love to speak with you!

Engine Ready, Internet Marketing, Landing Page Development, Landing Page Optimization, Landing Page Testing, search marketing

Beyond the basic tenets of landing page development, there isn’t any exact formula for increasing conversion rate.

Recently we tested a new version of a lead generation landing page. The only difference was an image substitution.

This image of a couple-

Was substituted for this image of a family.

As this page wasn’t particularly geared towards family services, we weren’t expecting much of a deviation.

Can you guess the result?

The family resulted in a 30% increase in conversions!

If you’re not split testing your landing pages, you’re probably leaving money on the table. If you need help, why not give Engine Ready a call?

Landing, Landing Page Development

Do you have some ongoing Google AdWords campaigns that, despite being optimized, are not performing to your expectations?

Oftentimes, the problem is with the landing page copy.

To illustrate this point, let’s say we have a software company that makes a great product at a very good price. Their AdWords account has been up and running for almost 2 months. The traffic is very targeted and the quality scores are good. The ads have a very respectable click through rate.

Everything looks great except the number of conversions. Which is everything in paid search.

If the problem isn’t the keywords or their costs, then the hurdle for the users must be on the company’s landing page.

At first glance, the landing page looks good. Visually, it’s not too cluttered, which is a common problem with underperforming landing pages. On closer examination, though, the sales copy doesn’t pop like it should.

Let’s try rewriting it. Before we start, ask yourself a few questions:

1) Why should I care? – Benefits, not features! I don’t care what IT DOES. What’s it going to do FOR ME? Clearly translate the features into benefits to the user.

The first snippet of text on the landing page to rework: Custom reports are a breeze. Using our report wizard, you select only the data that you want.

No, no, no. That’s what IT does. This is supposed to be about me.

This is better:

No more pouring over spreadsheets trying to figure out how to display only the data you want, the way you want it. With just a few clicks you’ll get your data exactly how what you want it. It’s so easy, you’re going to be wondering what do with all the extra free time you have on your hands.

The user (you) is mentioned 7 times.

2) Call to action – If you want me to do something, let me know!

Currently, they have a mediocre call to action:

Try our free trial today.

Better:

We’re so sure you’re going love all the extra free time our software gives you, we’re offering it to you to try now, risk free.

3) Why here and now? Why not somewhere else?

Lets add this:

In less than 10 minutes, you’ll realize how great this software really is. Try our demo version now and when you sign up you’ll also get our report: “The Biggest Marketing Opportunities of this Holiday Season.”

The above paragraph illustrates to the user that:

1) In just a few minutes, any doubts will be answered.

2) The free report, while working as an incentive, also creates a feeling of scarcity. The upcoming holiday season? Oh, fudgesicles. It’s almost here. There might be something in there I can use. I want to find out about it sooner instead of later when other people have the information.

You’ll be amazed at how much you can increase the conversion rates of your paid search with strong landing page development.

Remember: if you’re not testing your landing pages, you might be losing sales.

Landing page conversions, Landing Page Copy, Landing Page Development, Landing Page Optimization

Woody Allen is known for coining the phrase, “80 percent of success is just showing up”. With a little insight into landing page conversions, he could have amended the phrase to say “100 percent of conversion success is based on getting your visitor to show up”.

Since marketers have full control over their PPC destination URLs, there really shouldn’t be any issue with getting those visitors to the desired landing page.

But it’s not that easy.

Depending on your type of business, the analytics you use and the way your tracking is configured, you may have only a couple landing page URLs, or you may have tens of thousands of destination landing page URLs. If you’re lucky enough to fit into the former category, then it’s relatively easy for you to confirm that you’ve not accidentally introduced any typos into your destination URLs in your PPC campaigns.

However, even with only 35 different landing pages, advertising in Google, Yahoo and Bing, still could give you over 100 (35 x 3) separate landing page destination URLs.

Are you absolutely certain that you’re not crash landing a PPC visitor on a non-existent page due to a typo in any one of your destination URLs?

And, are you absolutely certain that a landing page you drive PPC visitors to hasn’t been removed from your site?

And, are you absolutely certain that a landing page you drive PPC visitors to hasn’t been renamed?

Ongoing and frequent destination URL verification should be a routine checklist item, and now there’s a free and quick way to be sure you aren’t driving visitors to bad URLs.

Learn how to use the DESTINATION URL CHECKER

Conversion Critic, conversioncritic, destination url checker, Landing Page, url check