Entries Tagged 'landing pages' ↓

There appears to be a trend at the moment for landing pages that are “funny”.

I’ve used inverted commas there because they are funny only in the eyes of the writer.

The humour is being used to try and get you to sign up for something or buy a product. Is that really the best way to go about it?

In my view, no.

When someone lands on your web page it’s because they’ve been searching the internet for a solution to solve a problem they’re facing.

The reason why they clicked your link was because your META description persuaded them that the content of your page would give them the answer they were looking for.

The last thing  they want to see is a lame pun trying to extract money or their contact details from them.

All they want is results.

Your product or service should be able to stand on its own two feet without the need for shameless gags.

So what will get your visitors buying?

Here are 4 things that will grab their attention.

1. Unite against the bad guy

Emotive language is a very powerful tool. Use it to show how your product or service will get rid of common niggles such as boring meetings, late paying clients, poorly performing websites etc.

2. Belong together

We like to be part of a gang; no one wants to be the outsider.

Showing you reader they are “one of the 500 smart people…” will make them feel special and part of an elite group; it gives them a sense of belonging.

3. Quick fix

If your product is “…the quickest way to…” they’ll want it. People want instant fixes, they don’t want to wait around. If you can convince them you’ll help them achieve their goals quickly, they’ll be all over you like a rash.

4. Story time

Stories are great sales tools. They are part of our heritage and as such, people are predisposed to listening to them. Weave a story around your products and services, highlighting the benefits they bring and you’ll draw your audience in.

Each of these methods will help push people towards a buying decision. The best way to find out which one(s) work for you is to test them. Once you hit the right recipe your landing pages will work like a dream.

Q: How do you create a landing page that works?

A: Write a powerful headline.

Of course, the content and call to action must be pretty damn good too, but the headline is where the power lies.

The qualities of a powerful landing page headline

You headline should possess the following 4 qualities:

1. It should be focused – no waffle, get straight to the point
2. It must be relevant – the headline must reflect the offer being made on your landing page
3. It must show benefits – tell you reader what problem your offer will solve
4. Give it urgency – make the offer time limited

I know what you’re thinking – that’s a lot of information to pack into one headline.

You’re right it is, which is why you should use a combination of headline and sub heading to pack it all in.

For argument’s sake, you’re a company that provides email marketing services to small businesses and you want to encourage them to sign up for your free trial.

How can you apply the 4 qualities above?

Focus: You offer email marketing for businesses

Relevancy: You have a free 30 day trial offer

Benefits: It’s simple; customers have control and can design their own emails

Urgency: You decide to double the 30-day free trial period for the first 100 sign ups

With me so far?

I’ve underlined the important stuff.

So, from that, your headline would be something like:

Simple email marketing for your business

Create & design you own emails to forge strong relationships with your customers.

FREE 60 day trial (limited to first 100 sign ups)

That was thrown together quickly, but it gives you an idea.

The final point to remember

There is just one more thing to remember.

Your landing page is there to sell.

That’s why it’s essential its whole focus is on what the product does best and how it will help the reader not how great you and your company are.

Author: Sally Ormond, Copywriter and MD at Briar Copywriting Ltd. Follow her on Twitter and Google+

Landing pages are a great way of creating a web page that is totally focused on one thing – buying, signing up for a newsletter, or collecting email addresses in return for free reports.

The key word in the paragraph above is focus – so the content of your landing page will be dependent on what you’re trying to achieve.

So, as an example we’ll look at…

Landing pages for freebies

Offering free reports or white papers is a great way to build your marketing list.

If you want to capture email addresses, you have to give people something (of value) in return. Information is the cheapest option and, let’s face it, people love to get free advice.

So, how do you make sure your landing page remains focused on its task – getting people to enter their email address in a capture box in return for your report/white paper?

1. Above the fold

I’m sure you’ve heard that phrase before. Above the fold basically means keeping all your important information in your readers’ immediate eye line.

After landing on your page, they are unlikely to want to start reading reams of text, scrolling down until they find out what they need to know.

Therefore, it is important all the vital information is above the fold, including your opt-in (data capture) box.

2. Don’t confuse

Your landing page has one reason for existing, and that’s to grab hold of your readers’ email address. If you add unnecessary navigation and links to your page, you run the risk of them wandering off before they’ve signed up for your report.

All you need is a single page, without links, directing them to enter their email address into a box. That’s it, nothing else.

3. Benefits

Simply adding the title of your report/white paper next to your sign up box isn’t going to convince anyone to enter their email address.

Add some short, benefits-led copy above the fold. List the benefits in a bulleted list to show them, quickly, why they should sign up.

4. Quick!

If you give your reader time to think, they’ll probably wander off without signing up. Tell them the offer is limited to a certain time period. If they don’t sign up straight away they’ll miss out on this vital information.

5. Make it scanable

People don’t have time to read every word you write, so use white space, bulleted lists and sub headings to make it is easy for them to find the information they want. A graphic pointing the way to the sign up box is also a great idea.

Landing pages are great if they remain focused on the task in hand. Giving your readers too much choice is like showing them the door. Tell them what you want and make it easy for them to comply, without distraction.

Over to you

Do you use landing pages in your marketing? If so, leave a comment below and tell us your experiences and what you’ve found works.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter, blogger and social media addict

Briar Copywriting

T:@sallyormond

F: www.facebook.com/freelancecopywriting

How do you feel when you search for something and find yourself on a landing page?

• Do you navigate away before you’re sold something?

• Do you hang around and have a read?

• Do you sigh and head back to your search result list for a real website?

People react differently to landing pages. To some they just scream BUY ME NOW because let’s face it, they expect to sell you something.

So how do you build trust and convince people you’re genuine and that it’s a good thing that they’ve landed on your page?

In previous posts I’ve already looked at what you should have on your landing page and what you can do to improve your conversion rate, so now I want to look at how you can encourage your visitors to trust you. After all, if there’s no trust there won’t be any sales.

How to gain trust

Most people don’t like being sold to. A landing page is there to sell (or gather leads etc.) so you’ll have to work hard to gain your visitors’ trust.

There are three main ways you can do this:

1. Testimonials

The good old testimonial – what would we do without them?

People like to hear how other people felt about buying from you. They want to know if the product worked how the customer service was etc.

Ideally the testimonials you use on your landing page will be linked to the product or service it is offering. That way you can convey all its benefits in your copywriting and your testimonials can back it up with real examples from happy customers.

2. Trusted logos

Are you or your company a member of an industry regulatory body, local business group or do you have some sort of certification relating to your product/service?

If the answer is yes, add their logo to your landing page. This will help establish trust because you’ll be seen as a bona fide company.

3. Privacy policy

This is very important if you’re looking to capture email addresses on your landing page.

No one wants to sign up for something only to be bombarded by emails from third parties.

Make sure you either have a few sentences outlining your privacy policy or link to your privacy policy page within your main website. If you do the latter make sure the link opens the page in a new window because you don’t want them to leave your landing page.

These simple tips will help you gain the trust of your visitors. Do you do anything else? If so please share it by leaving a comment.

What do I mean by calm copywriting?

Well let me first tell you about what prompted me to write this post.

I took my eldest son to the Orthodontist this morning. The Orthodontist is a lovely chap and comes from Eastern Europe…somewhere. Anyway, after making my son’s next appointment we got in my car to head back to school when I mentioned that I might get his father to take him in for the next appointment as I might not have my car that day.

My son looked at me in horror and said “no, you can’t do that. You know what dad’s like, he’ll try and talk in his European English so the Orthodontist understands. It will be soooo embarrassing!”

The ‘European English’ my son is referring to is the good old fashioned British way of communicating abroad – s-p-e-a-k-i-n-g   v-e-r-y   s-l-o-w-l-y  a-n-d   l-o-u-d-l-y to make sure our European cousins can understand us perfectly.

Admittedly it usually ends up either offending or reducing people to hysterical laughter.

So how is all this related to copywriting?

Well there’s a lot of ‘European’ copywriting about too.

We’ve all seen the landing pages which comprise of different sized fonts, bold colourful words and truly awful graphics. And this isn’t just confined to landing pages you can also come across it in emails, sales letters and websites.

Does it give the reader confidence?

No.

Does it engage, enthral and sell?

No.

Instead it annoys, switches the reader off and encourages them not to buy.

Rather than relying in brash sales techniques like these, use your words carefully and let them do the selling.

Keep your text uniform (other than your sub headings), calm and persuasive. It will have a great effect; make you appear more professional and approachable.

Remember your reader isn’t an idiot. They will see through all the frills, fonts and colours. If you want to be taken seriously, write seriously.