Landing Page Design and Execution
September 23, 2009 | Posted by admin Landing Page Points to Execute
Writing a landing page is more than just crafting catchy phrases and push button buy now strategies. In order to see a cost effective return on investment there are a few points to consider when planning, scoping, and executing a landing page and subsequent traffic driving initiatives. The following are points to consider when creating an landing page or landing page campaign.
Meta Tags:
Most people will tell you that meta tags don’t matter. This assumption in many cases may mean the difference between a good quality score and an average one. Google for example operates in a linear manner when evaluating a page. The sheer volume of pages submitted ensures that the vast majority of pages are completely evaluated using an automated method.
The evaluation is based on what they program reads in the source code. If you want to see an example of source code right click and choose view source (ie), view page source (firefox and chrome). If you scroll down the first important element you see is the <head> tag. Within the <head> you should find at bear minimum the following.
<title>Learn to Write Landing Pages Content from Source Code to Submit Button</title>
<meta name=”description” content=”Writing Landing Pages can be a challenge for copywriters of all skill levels, follow us as we lead you through the important elements that should be addressed from proper meta tags in the source code, information elements, call to action, and usage of graphics, links, and closing the sale.”/>
<meta name=”keywords” content=”landing page content, writing for landing pages, landing page copy, marketing copy, sales writing”/></head>
If you happen to gain a prominent rank for your page having a strong title and description increase your chances of them being used by the search engine to represent your page. If you do not use a title and meta description tag the search engine will make one up for you.
While meta tags alone are not going to get you the best quality score or in some cases ranking in the search engines, it is a great way to show whatever program is parsing your content what your page is about, by setting the theme of the page. As long as the rest of your page content aligns with the meta tag theme, the page will score higher than if you did not use meta tags, or tried to misrepresent the page by using conflicting keyword phrases dissimilar to the pages content.
Keep it real, keep it simple, your not going to fool anyone.
Headlines:
Very few things turn off a potential customer than clicking on an ad, link, or banner and being routed to a page, or micro site that differs in content or theme of the originating link. It is important to ensure that your traffic vehicles call to action match those of the destination page. In todays adwords driven environment there is a tendency to optimize the ad campaign without adjusting the target page, or site. Over the period of a long duration campaign this could mean the difference of a stable quality score for your ad, or higher click costs attributed to low quality score. If you have a team working and maintaining various pieces of the campaign, employing weekly meetings will aid in keeping your page content in harmony with your traffic initiatives. In addition to driving up the price of traffic acquisition the users impulse to buy may be dulled by a conflicting or drifting message.
Bottom Line: Keep a parallel theme between ads, links, and banners, relevant to the target page.
Call To Action:
The need to have a strong, clear, concise call to action is paramount. A weak call to action will stunt your campaign’s success. Leaving out the call to action is the equivalent of sending out invitations to a party and then leaving town on the day you are hosting it. Use graphics, text links, or a combination of both to ensure your customer understands what they need to do to obtain your product or service. Whether you are using a short or long page format, a minimum of 2 calls to action should be employed on the short format with up to 5 when using the long format landing page. When calculating the placement of buttons, and text link calls to action ensure that no matter where the user is on the page that they can readily click on the button and complete the transaction.
Bottom Line: If you don’t ask them, or tell them, they won’t buy.
Page Message:
Like your call to action, the message preceding your calls to action should explain the features, advantages, and benefits of the product or service you are marketing. Three to five primary features should be stated, and explained before your first call to action. Your opening paragraph should be short but sweet using 2 or less lines of text. Subsequent paragraphs should not exceed 5 lines in order to keep the customers attention. Avoid using the same line length in your paragraph blocks, as variation in line length is easier on the eyes than rigid blocks of text. Other features should follow with additional calls to action to give additional confidence to the consumer supporting their decision to buy. Utilizing bullet points, bold text, and varying color are a few basic methods to ensure the user notices the importance of the products features.
Bottom Line: Craft your message toward selling important selling features and ending with calls to action. Keep your message tight using a max of 5 lines in paragraphs after the opening.
Customer Information:
Congratulations! Your customer has clicked a link or button and has arrived at the order form. Make sure you get just the information you need to fulfill the order requirement. Any fields or requests that are not pertinent to fulfilling the order should be rigorously avoided. If your customer feels their information is being misused the chances of transaction drop off increase dramatically. A prominently placed, detailed privacy policy may act as a sales support tool by increasing the consumers confidence in your handling of their personal information.
Distractions:
Eliminate any distractions or focus away from the product or service you are marketing. Your goal is to get the user to commit to an action of your design and choosing. Any navigation, offers, or hyperbole that is not within the scope of your <title>, <description>, headline, message, or call to action is a distraction which will lessen the users attention and focus on the product.
Bottom Line: The user clicked on your ad, is interested in your product, don’t waste their time by trying to sell them additional items they aren’t expecting or wanting.
Testing:
It is a rare occasion when a campaign is 100 percent successful out of the gate. Keeping tabs on the conversion rate is not enough to enable you or your team to make meaningful changes in your campaign. Utilizing tools like Google Analytics, Omniture, or other products will enable you to track entry methods, time on page, pages viewed, and exit points. These are important areas to watch as any low scores among these metrics will allow you to focus on specific problem areas rather than trying to rebuild your campaign from scratch.
Bottom Line: Test, Track, Modify, Rinse, Repeat.
Stay tuned as we cover more exciting topics and landing page examples.
Categories: Landing Page Design | 
Tags: call to action, customer information, landing page meta tags, writing for landing pages | 
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