Search Marketing Sage

So many of us today have an interest in what is a good landing page.  What landing page today is effective, efficient and simply appealing to the visitor? What is the landing page that can fulfill the overall objective with as much information possible without saturating the page with “too much” information and ultimately turning the visitor away. Is your landing page successful in getting the key points across and not forcing the visitor to read a gimmicky classified page?

Successful landing pages for many of us have a handful of philosophies we all tend to follow, yet most of us “experts” have a standard to follow.  A landing page should answer the question of what the objective beckons … Does the landing page follow the overall brand of the client website?  Are the colors, fonts, logos, images, etc. all in line with the client’s website and/or print collateral?  Do headlines/titles run parallel in messaging or do they conflict? So much is said about the “fold” … Is your call to action (many times a form or a large colorful button) actively catching the eye of the visitor and not stuffed at the cusp of the “fold”–or below the “fold”?  Is the general content and text allowing enough white space without creating a crammed look and feel?  Is your text leading too tight?  Is your font too small or too light in color.  Are your links (hrefs) noticeable by buttons or at least contrasting colors with even mouse over effects?

What’s wrong with this landing page?

Many landing pages are cluttered not only with conflicting message as it pertains to general text/content, but they are cluttered with conflicting messages through images and/or buttons.  If your general message or objective is to get people to sign up for landing page white papers, why are you showcasing “dog toothpaste” and even “dog shampoo”?  How many words are misspelled in your text–or headlines? If you choose to utilize phone numbers on a landing page, one phone number is enough–two conflicting is a serious “no-no”. If you have a form as a call to action, are you asking for information that asks for more than just a name?  If you cannot retrieve contact information–what’s the use!?! Is your “submit” button large enough and perhaps colorful enough? Are you getting the idea that using “SUBMIT” as your button label is not a recommended approach? Your form button label should be labeled in line with what your form objective is … such as “I Want My Free Whitepaper”.

Landing pages are not just a tool for lead generation and/or marketing information/products, but a properly landing page is a direct reflection to the overall image of the client.  Have you achieved what you believe is proper for your client? Have you challenged your client with is “correct”, or are you just folding to what your client simply wants, knowing the client requires a landing page by what YOU know is best for them?

This afternoon I watched a webinar entitled “7 Best Practices on Honest Seduction for Landing Pages” presented by Ion Interactive, an agency that specializes in post click marketing. The webinar consisted of Anna Telerico’s critique of multiple landing pages. After discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each of the pages, she concluded with the “7 Best Practices for Honest Seduction for Landing Pages”. They are as follows:

As we all know, communication is by far the single most important factor in achieving a successful business.  One key area that is picking up steam perhaps “once again” is online collaboration.  It seems that collaborating online has been left up to the likes of WebEx, Live Meeting, Go To Meeting, Adobe, for conferencing, sharing presentations and general file sharing.  These heavyweights have proven to have a firm grasp on this little corner of the market.  But what about interactive collaboration?  What tools are there available to us that provide an online sharing methodology–and as well provide an interactive model between viewers online that don’t cost a fortune?

Yes, there are a plethora of simple “shoebox” tools that we’ve seen plastered across the internet ad space, or even perhaps your junk email box.  These tools offer one or the other — if not everything to answer our needs, but yet none that I’ve seen–YET, have fully provided a solid answer to what they’re trying to provide assistance with … poorly developed solutions.

But perhaps there is something just around the corner you may be unaware of.  Are you a designer–a developer?  Are you involved in the creative process that involves your fellow marketers, advertising and/or engineering team within your company?  Are you finding yourself involved in meetings with clients, shuffling through powerpoint print-outs and listening over a phone about your client’s new branding philosophy and how they intend to integrate that into the new wireframe buildout for their website?  Perhaps you’re working on a last minute landing page project that needs to be designed and developed by tomorrow afternoon–in time for the first weekend of analytics assessment?

Take a quick look at RapidRabb–or RapidRabb.it.  RapidRabb.it has been around for less than a year, and they have developed a tool (software) that enables designers, developers–anyone, the opportunity to share an experience, interact amongst others and provide input as a team … to “facilitate more efficient communication”.  By utilizing this tool, you can reduce cost, yet employ an effective online collaborative experience.  This software was developed to enable rapid prototyping of software interfaces, website design/development and landing page campaigns.

The RapidRabb.it software enables rapid prototyping of software interfaces and easy-to-learn graphic specification, offers advanced early-stage testing, and facilitates more efficient communication.

This tool seems to be a very effective compliment to any company who thrives to collaborate online.  It is a tool that goes beyond simple screenshots and file sharing, you and users across the web can mouse and click various web page/UI entities together and come up with a common ground solution that is suitable for all parties involved.

RapidRabb.it – Rating = 3.5/5

We all realize the economy is taking a brutal beating; that doesn’t mean PPC efforts have to as well. As suggested by Karen J. Bannan in this week’s issue of B to B, try reverting back to some basic tactics to save money and increase results.

Take a step back. Step back and take a good look at your ppc account. Are there any places where geo-targeting could be used? Or how about dayparting? Do a little research and find out when the most valuable activity occurs for an account, and make some simple changes such as only displaying ads during business hours, or only within a certain proximity where the majority of your originates (say, if you are a pizza delivery service). This will help bring you better converting leads, and save money by not displaying when or where no one is looking.

Polish landing pages. Make sure you have enough landing pages, and that the right traffic is reaching them. Revisit landing page basics and be sure you are including everything you need for them to be successful. Do some A/B testing to pinpoint what elements work best for each product line. Keep in mind, if you find a good fit for one, that landing page format may not apply to the rest of your product lines. Each will have its own unique landing page and formula for best results.

Examine keyword structure. Updating your keyword lists and adjusting bids may have become pretty repetitive and habitual practices, so you may not notice where you could be missing out on traffic. Look through your site and make sure all bases are covered in terms of keywords. Also try to think like your searcher. Although you and your site may refer to a product as one thing, your potential customers could be calling it something completely different, using slang or new-fangled industry terms you might not yet be aware of.

Try a different approach. Bannan suggests considering smaller search engines to advertise on. While searchers higher in the buying funnel may use large scale engines to start their research, they may be using smaller engines to finalize their purchase decisions. One last trick was mentioned­: the old co-branding or affiliate marketing strategy. This can also aid in saving money. Some companies get creative and even use 50/50 splits, where half of the time traffic is directed to one site, and the other half they are directed to another.

In difficult times like these, recognize the importance of the basics, taking a step back and asking “What small changes can I make that can save money and still have a great impact on results.” Also keep in mind that a little creativity goes a long way. New strategies need to develop as well as tweaks to old ones, and with spend decreasing… that could be a challenge.

An often overlooked approach or initial step to creating a website or a simple landing page is the process of wireframing or “concept designing”. Without a thorough examination of what is weighed by the client for wants AND needs–in terms of the design phase, can cost you and your client considerable time and ultimately money.

Creating a site or a landing page in the design may “lengthen” the overall process, but it will also afford you and your client the opportunity to explore the necessary entities required for a simple online presence. Whether the placement of a logo, utilization of the overall brand to include font, colors, images, icons are the solid core necessities. But the ability to provide various concept designs that provide different methodologies for forms for example has proven to be an often overlooked approach and for all intents and purposes a required approach in the process. What does the form entail as far as form fields … How long is the form? Does it exceed the “fold” of your screen view? Is the “submit button” large enough or perhaps attractive enough by both color use and/or language used. Providing various landing page or site concept designs, allows you and the client to look into whether “submit” is an acceptable performer for enticing the viewing masses–versus that of perhaps “I Am Interested” for instance.

Whether exploring form requirements and placement, or utilizing various techniques for images and headlines, being able to exercise the process of designing various concept designs for a simple landing page or a website, gives you and the client a great deal of freedom and more importantly an excuse to communicate — not that that is important or anything!