Landing pages are where you send potential customers and subscribers and are arguably the most important element to the conversion process. Whether you are a first-time marketer or a veteran, these 11 items are a must during the creation process.

1. Start With the End in Mind

What is the ideal desired outcome? Are you looking to make a sale, collect information, have the visitor initiate a phone call, or is there some other intended action.

2. Be Laser Focused

Literally. Lasers are so powerful because all the light waves are congruent – in sync with each other. Your landing page design should be the same way – every pixel is there for one reason  -because it’ll help encourage the visitor to take the desired action. Everything you put on that page should pass this test.

3. You Know What I Mean, Don’t You?

Be rigorous about investigating your assumptions about what your visitor knows and thinks. Unearth them and, to the extent possible, never assume. Our advertisers know that assumption without explanation is like skipping a step – just like missing a base in baseball or “can force you to start over – if you’re lucky.

4. Less is More

Following up on the concept of being laser focused – less is better. Avoid the temptation to multipurpose the landing page. White space is good. Here are some examples of simple and effective design.

5. Include Multi-media

Every picture tells a story. Be sure to use at least a picture, or better, a video on your page above the fold. Videos increase the time spent on your page – absorbing your message. These days, many of our advertisers are finding that you don’t need high production values on your videos. Edgy and unfinished is cool – just like your favorite jeans.

6. Consider the Source

Our best performing clients always keep this question in mind – Where is the visitor coming from? Make the landing page experience continuous with the place they came from – the PPC ad, another page on your site, an e-mail or banner ad. Leave no doubt in the visitors mind that they are at the right place, by having a consistent look and feel.

7. A Clear Call to Action

Our advertisers’ best results occur when the call to action is clear and unequivocal. Tell the reader exactly what to do and exactly what they’ll get in exchange for taking action.
Include a strong privacy statement right underneath your call to action if you are asking for their email or other contact information.

8. Build Trust

People deal with those they know, like, and trust. Our best performing clients raise their trustworthy quotient by displaying testimonials and known security symbols like PayPal, VeriSign, BBB, etc.

9. No Tpyos!

Check and double check – and then have it checked by someone else. People are notoriously hard on small misspellings or grammatical errors; it colors their whole perception of your organization.

10. Consider the First Impression

First impressions count. Want to know what the first impression is for the people who visit your landing page? Try www.fivesecondtest.com. They’ll give you a report based on feedback from their testing team or a group of your own respondents.

11. Request Minimal Information

Don’t be information greedy. People don’t like forms. Try to get away with capturing the minimum amount of information you can. It’ll increase conversion rates.

Okay, go out and create a great landing page – and remember – testing isn’t the way to find the holy grail of landing page design, it is the holy grail.

BONUS TIP: Ready, Fire, Aim

No, that’s not a mistake. You’ll never start with a perfect lander. Be prepared to test and test and test – knowing you’ll never get it right, you’ll just constantly be making it better.  Our most successful advertisers are constantly testing each aspect of their landing page designs. Build A/B testing into your plan from the start.  In our experience, the best landing pages are the result of a process, not something that comes finished out of the box.

If you have any tips of your own to share, leave them in the comments!

Photo credit: http://tpdsaa.tumblr.com/

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Tags: design a landing page, how to make a landing page, landing page best practices, landing page design, landing page design priciples, landing page design tips

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2012 at 9:00 am and is filed under Marketing News, Marketing Tips, Pay Per Click. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.