In our last communication we deliberated on the fundamentals of an effective landing page . While identification of the message based on the target audience is rudimentary to the development of the sales page, it is not all pervasive. There are other factors like page layout and its design, efficacy testing of the respective pages and their technical viability, which augment the marketing efforts and convert those eyeballs to sales.

The objective of each landing page is different, hence, each page merits specific promotional strategy. While the principles of promotion remain uniform, their application would need to be customized. To achieve that coveted edge over the competitors, and to ensure that the visitors do not leave the webpage prematurely, it would be pragmatic to consider the following points while developing the landing page:

Logical sequence of the page: The page should be so designed to ensure that the visitor does not need to navigate too much and the navigation is seamless integrated. Care should be taken to desist from using unneeded elements, such as links to other resources.. The endeavor should be to encourage the visitor to focus on the page and get them to complete the one action on which your landing page is focused.

Page Layout using heading, fonts and color: The aesthetic of the page is tantamount to the presentation of a culinary delight. Not only should it look good but be functional too. The colors should be chosen to be consonant with the theme of the page and should be restricted to three, including black. The fonts could be varied to highlight a particular message.

Length of the page and the details, therein: The length of the page is a function of the product / service, its value, and the duration of the post purchase period. It is an accepted criteria, that more costly an item is, or the more unique it is, the more content will be needed to influence the buying decision.

Use of Images and graphics: A picture is worth a thousand words is a cliché that has relevance in the context of the web page design. However, images should not be used only to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the page, as it may distract to the visitor. The images can be an effective tool to corroborate the message since they are remembered easily and are appealing to the eye. The text can be illustrated by the image, though its relevance and positioning are points, that should not be ignored. Further, it is recommended that the image be placed on the left of the text, since studies in eye tracking suggest that it takes more effort to move the eye back to the left.

Address the check out dissonance: It is imperative that anything that could cause the visitor to change their mind about the transaction, be adequately addressed. It is not uncommon for visitors to abandon shopping carts and forms at the last minute. This could be due to anxiety that stems from the uncertainty, post purchase. To address this point, there should be an effort to put the visitor at ease by ensuring that the sales process is reassuring from the beginning to the end. Reiterating the expected action through the entire process is another way this phenomenon can be arrested.

Also, it is always a good idea not to give the visitors a choice at this stage of the conversion funnel. Testimonials of satisfied clients, would further add to the credibility of the service/product, and help allay the fears of the visitor at the checkout page.

Search engine consideration: It is a well established fact that a well developed Search engine reduces the Cost of Acquisition (COA), by reducing the bounce rate.
A targeted landing page is the best candidate for being promoted on the search engines. The factor that works in its favor, is the relevance of the page to the target audience. Search engine spiders are known to favor landing pages that contain lots of good, keyword-rich test.
However, if the strategy is to create multiple landing pages with cosmetic changes in text, it is advisable that these pages are kept away from search engine spiders. In such circumstances, the general purpose landing page can be made available for indexing, while robots meta tag or robots.txt directive could be employed to exclude the others. This initiative ensures that the search engines don’t interpret this as spam because of duplicate content.
The mandatory test before the Launch: A 360 degree view of the effective landing page is incomplete without the mention of testing. Before the web page is launched, it is always a prudent exercise to test the efficacy of the respective web page. A functional tool for such analysis is the A/B testing methodology. This involves splitting traffic randomly between two pages that are identical except for the individual factor that is being tested. This test allows us the user to understand the variables that work in favor of the website, and the others that would not.

Review, Reform, Repeat: There should be continuous effort aimed to check the bounce rate and the click through rate in the website. It is always a good practice to periodically research the competitor’s web appearance, and analyze the change in target audience, and their behavior.

It is paramount to ascertain a lower bounce rate by keeping the website updated, by catering to the changing needs of the assorted users. The design and development of the landing page is not a one time effort, and needs continuous improvisation, depending on the changing market dynamics, and how the businesses evolves overtime. However, care should be taken that the intended theme of the webpage is not diluted.

The aforementioned points are intended to act as a guide in your crusade to develop that perfect landing page, and capture the interest of each visitor.

An effective sales plan involves prudent selection of the marketing tools complemented with the appropriate Search Engine. While these would catalyze the arrival of the visitors, it may not necessarily facilitate conversion of these visitors to a sale / sign up.

The visitors may arrive as a result of the marketing initiatives like pay per click ad, email marketing or simple keyword based organic search. Brevity and clarity of the message that is being communicated through the respective page, would ensure that the visitor performs the desired action. Further, the message should have enough call for action to persuade the visitor to initiate the appropriate action.

In Marketing parlance, while the marketing initiatives may bring the horse to the well, it may not be adequate to make it drink. The well should be appealing to galvanize the swig!!

Determine the objective of the Landing Page: While designing the landing page, it becomes imperative to identify the objective, that is expected to be achieved through the landing page. A landing page is required to be a highly focused web page. It may be designed to achieve any of the following objectives:

Sell a product.
Provide Contact Information.
Promote a service or an idea.

The landing page demands considerable effort and time, and should be developed after due introspection. Sending your viewer to the homepage is not always a good idea. Doing this would make the visitors search through the site for information proposed (through the email or pay per click link). Consequently, the visitor may leave the page out of dismay. It is always recommended that there should be ease of navigation for the visitor and the visit should be well orchestrated.

It is ideal to get the visitors to an attractive landing page, carefully crafted for the ad link. It should be in consonance with the brief ad copy, given in the email or the PPC link. PPC driven landing pages may be thematically organized for each keyword. Further it is suggested that the look and feel of the landing page is consistent with the email content, as it renders user experience, more fluent and persuasive.

Know the identity of the target audience: Landing pages may be used to target both B2C and B2B contacts, with each having their specific characteristics. While B2B customers seek detailed information, price range and testimonials to facilitate decision-making, B2C customers are more interested in brand names, price tags, discount rates, free offers and shipping charges.

For a B2B customer, the landing pages must establish a sense of reliability and quality for the company’s products and/ or services. Landing pages for B2C must be concise, quick to scan and focused on selling, rather than convincing. B2C pages must sport product pictures with exact price tags, preferably inclusive of shipping charges and other applicable taxes. Irrespective of the type of customer, there should be an attempt to provide a promise of privacy, and the policies of the company must be communicated succinctly.

Gather contact information – The immediate objective of a landing page may also be to obtain some ‘call of action’ for future follow up. It is essential to capture useful contact information of the visitor to facilitate follow-up. However, asking too many questions may irritate the visitor. Hence it is is a good practice to desist from collecting too much personal information. Just the relevant questions intended to elicit appropriate information is usually sufficient.

Technical considerations – Fast loading time of landing pages is absolutely essential to hold and capture the otherwise short attention span of the potential customers. In other words, the landing pages should be vivacious in every sense of the word. Hence, heavy flash images are usually not recommended.

Use of daughter windows is often recommended while opening new content, rather than overlapping information in the same window. This would ensure that even if the landing page takes the visitor to a third party link, the return can be easily accommodated.

Incorporating the aforementioned points while developing the landing page, would reduce the bounce rate of the respective page, and increase the chances of a closure. This would assist in achieving the Online marketing objectives. In other words, this would ensure that the horse drink from the well. Happy closures.