One of the most important parts of any lead generation campaign is the landing page. Some would argue that the landing page is THE MOST important part of your entire lead generation campaign. You can make an argument for that being true because the landing page is the point in the process where the decision is made by the user.
When the user clicks on your call to action or your ad to get to your landing page, they haven’t yet made up their minds to convert. They are curious about what you have offered them so far. They have interest but they haven’t made a decision. That’s because they don’t yet know what you want in exchange for what you’re going to give them.
You’ve got their interest peaked, but now you have help them make the next step.
Whether that next step is a purchase or you’re just asking for data, the user goes through the same decision process. They evaluate what they are giving and its value versus the value of what they are getting in return.
So let’s say you’re running a lead generation campaign and your company sells to other businesses. You’ve done a good job getting your content out there so your targeted persona (your ideal customer) has liked what they saw and clicked on your call to action. You’re using calls to action in all of your content, aren’t you?
The user arrives at your landing page and they see what you are offering for their data. You’re offering a fairly valuable white paper with a super catchy title. The user looks at it and thinks, “I’d like to see these 7 Secrets to Optimum Widget Making Success.”
So they look over your landing page, but they end up leaving without filling out your form and clicking your button. Why have they abandoned you? You thought the two of you were such a perfect fit. They thought so too, until they hit your landing page and your whole conversion process got blown up by three simple things. Fix these landing page roadblocks and watch your conversion rates soar.
Here are the 3 things that are interfering with your conversion rate. You should remove them from your landing page now.
1) NAVIGATION
There’s a time and place for your website’s navigation menu and it ain’t your landing page. Your website’s navigation can go on pretty much every other page on your site. But please, please, please take it off your landing page.
The landing page should be focused on one thing, getting that conversion action completed. You don’t even have to worry about the final conversion action that you want your user to take, it’s all about this particular conversion action. The sales funnel is a process and this landing page is just a part of that process.
You want the user to make a decision to move forward so you have a warmer lead, or drop off as someone you shouldn’t be wasting time chasing. Now, they may be much more receptive to a different offer, but right now we are focused on this offer and this landing page.
2) THE WORD “SUBMIT”
Submit? Really? That’s not creative and it’s not even marketing. Your form’s button is some great marketing real estate. You’ve done all this great marketing work on the ad or call to action that got the user to the landing page. Then on the landing page you’ve done a ton more work writing headlines, coming up with exciting benefit bullets and a crafting a short easy to fill in form. Why give up there and put “submit” on your button?
Make sure you have a high contrast between your form background and your button. Use the button to reinforce a benefit for the user and to directly tell them what they get for their action.
So instead of the dreaded “Submit” say “Get Your White Paper” or “Get Your 7 Secrets”. Go crazy, test different ideas and see what works best, but please don’t use “submit.”
3) SOCIAL SHARING BUTTONS
How could I say this???? Facebook has a bajillion users who are constantly using it. There are 40 bajillion tweets an hour. How could we remove our social sharing icons from our landing page?
Patience grasshopper, you’ll get a chance to add your social sharing icons. Add them to your thank you page.
Again, the landing page should be focused on one thing: getting that form filled out, your conversion action.
We’re already a short attention span nation. Don’t give us another opportunity to get distracted before conversion.
When I think about someone getting to your landing page, an old saying comes to mind. One in the hand is worth two in the bush. You’ve got one in the hand, now get them to convert. Social sharing is a bonus if you get it.
Always test to make sure that changes you make will be beneficial to you. You should test removing these three things from your landing page and let me know how much of an increase you got in conversion.