In this week's episode of "Inside the Mind", we talk about The Perfect Landing Page Design.
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In last weeks episode we talked about how to make a sale using social media...
Then it occurred to me, we've talked about sales, networking, strategy, content development, and key performance indicators but we haven't talked about one of the most important pieces in this equation which is Landing Pages. The glue that holds this whole online marketing business together.
So we're going to Tarentino this motha fluffa and work backwards, in part 1 of this special two part guide to landing pages.
In today's episode, you'll learn about different design techniques that go into a compelling landing page, why they work, and why these pages need to have your utmost attention.
(little tommy on shoulder) But wait, can't I just use my regular blog pages to sell stuff?
Well Little Tommy, let's look at this from your customer's perspective.
(v.o) Say you're involved in a back channel chat on twitter. For this example we'll just say it's a chat about twitter tips and you've just happened to write an ebook on the subject. And in this chat, you're on FIRE. I mean you're giving super actionable advice left and right, and like every other tweet you come out with gets retweeted by at least 10-20 people.
Well it's inevitable that someone will think what you're saying is spot on, so they'll go to your profile to click over to your website.
(Split Screen one side Big Tommy and Little Tommy)
Now in one scenario, they go directly to your homepage, which is kind of generic and untargeted, so they might look at for a total of 20 seconds before they go back to the chat. and in another scenario they go to a specialized landing page that acknowledges they're coming from twitter, gives a little background behind who you are, what you do, and your most recent project which happens to be... an ebook on twitter tips.
(little Tommy) Ohhhh
(full screen big and little tommy)
It's at this point the person makes a critical decision, do I buy the book? or do I go away?
And while you could argue there are a number of factors that go into this decision,(little tommy jumps off shoulder and off screen) the design of your landing page has a lot to do with it.
Now while there are no hard and fast "rules" when it comes to designing your landing pages you must remember that they are used to focus the visitors attention, present a high degree of message match and gently guide your users toward their goals with as few negative barriers as possible. (text overlay)
Elements like a strong logo can make a significant impact on whether a person can trust you with their credit card number or email address.
Headlines being one of the first things people read, should not confuse or bore, but invite the visitor to take a closer look. Depending on what your landing page is about, try playing with different fonts to come up with something that accurately reflects the message.
Trust symbols like third party verification or better business beauru logos indicate that you've been verified to be secure. Companies like ACLens saw a 41% increase in conversions once they started using Verisign in a highly visible location on the page.
While we'll talk more about content in next weeks episode, the content has to be there in order for people to learn more about the product. If you skimp on the content you're sure to lose conversions. Things like product descriptions, testimonials or reviews, and guarantees are all big factors in gaining the trust necessary to hand over a credit card or email address..
Make sure too that your videos and images reinforce the wording of the page. Also including video of customer testimonials or reviews, can have a really positive impact on viewers, because when you think about it, you can fake text, but it's really hard to fake being someone else over video.
And finally - A strong call to action should always stand out on the page, and be above the fold. Also, depending on what sort of information you're looking for, your call to action might be above your button, or the button itself.
Orange or Yellow buttons do a very good job at catching viewers eyes.
(Little Tommy) Yeah yeah, but what about colors? How do I know what I want my color scheme to be?
Great question Little Tommy!
There have been various tests showing that people associate colors with different feelings, so depending on what you plan on using the landing page for, will widely depend on what color scheme you use.
Black for example is viewed as powerful and sleek, while pink is seen as romantic and feminine...
I won't bore you with all the details on that, you can just follow the link in the description to read a great article on the subject.
(Little Tommy) ok and what about some of the more advanced stuff?
Ok, so if you're selling a product, show the product. Seems to make sense, but there's still a ton of companies that fail to do this.
Let's take a look at blackberry for example, while their website is beautifully designed, there is very little here that shows their new pho...oh wait there it is... oh it's gone... there's nothing here that gives me a look at what the product actually is, and they're making me look harder to learn more about the newest device.
Apple on the other hand shows me the iphone 4s front and center, and two out of three of the images here show me the improvements of this generation of iphone over the others.
(little tommy) Ohhhh I get it! What else?
Derek over at social triggers turned me onto these three concepts:
As smart as we human beings are, we can't resist certain urges, and three of those urges are as follows:
1. People can't resist following the gaze of other people
2. People can't resist seeing where an arrow points
3. People can't resist following the "line of sight" of objects
In this first example, you can see that the people are looking towards the opt in area which instantly draws your eyes over to that spot. They also make it very clear through the design that all you have to do is enter your email address, then click the button.
Next, people not being able to resist seeing where an arrow points is also very true. Granted, using arrows is about as subtle as a punch in the face, but it also visually tells your visitor to ignore everything else, and look here. You see this quite a bit on Facebook landing pages to call attention to the like button.
people can't resist following the line of sight of objects is also very truel. In Derek's article on social triggers, he shows this image of a baby looking at the headline, then points out that the baby's chin also acts as a subtle arrow to the rest of the text.
When this same image was run through eye tracking software, a study found that a viewers eyes were first naturally drawn to the baby's face, then moved in to a sort of F pattern towards the call to action.
Mega affiliate marketer Ryan Diess has also found that heavy use of "Line of sight" and natural reading patterns has become one of his top converting landing page designs.
In this example he starts with a strong headline, then an image of the product right next to it.
Then he inturrupts your eye pattern with an opt in box, brings your eye to the side of the page with the video and image, the brings it all the way to the bottom of the page with another opt-in box.
(Little Tommy) Woah... that's a lot to take in...
Yeah, it sure is. There's a whole segment of the market that is dedicated to Landing page optimization, because there's a lot that can go into the design of a high converting landing page.
And the final thing about landing page design, is that you should always be testing. If you feel like another design is going to work better, test them against each other to see which one will work best.
If you're like most people, you're on your own. So I've included all of the resources I've used for this video in the description, so you can go and read up on more of this in your own time.
(Little Tommy) Thanks!
(Little Tommy) Alright That's all we've got for today's episode of inside the mind, please be sure to tune in next week for part two when we talk about the perfect landing page copy.
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