There are important and huge differences between a landing page and a regular website home page. When you think about what’s going on with those pages you can quickly see just what those differences are. While both serve their own specific purposes, a landing page serves a more immediate nature. This is the page that will offer you the most desired response that you’re hoping to get from your visitors. This means that, in this situation, there are specific dynamics at play which can have an affect on the way that you approach things. You’ll have a different mindset when you are putting together your page and using basic design tools differently.
You do know the decision to remain or make an immediate exit from any kind of site is made in just a few seconds after arrival. There’s no getting around this fact, which is what makes landing pages so critical. It’s hard to even calculate all of the factors that come into play regarding this decision. While there may be many elements that affect visitors’ decisions, one we can be sure is important is the headline on your landing page. So, always be direct in any headline you write and avoid being cute, artsy or collegiate. An effective headline will not produce head-scratching moments or anything resembling a lack of clarity.
One thing to always avoid is placing unusual demands on your landing page visitors. Most online marketers are aware of being careful with the questions asked of potential subscribers. Of course, it’s possible to find forms that look like the kind of forms you fill out when you are applying for a loan or maybe even an abbreviated form for loans.
The point is that if you ask too many questions your conversion rate is going to go over about as well as a lead balloon. The same consideration applies to your copy, as well, and you do not want to fill the reader’s mind with too much to think about. Remember to keep the overall gist of your landing page as focused as it can be.
Separate the approaches you take on your landing page from what you do throughout the rest of your site. Typically copy is what you will use to convey the messages you want for your marketing and information. Of course, on your landing page you won’t have the space or the time for that. A landing page is supposed to be kept short and abbreviated and get to the point. So then what you will do is to make the whole thing mainly visual. It’s possible to imply all sorts of things with images; there’s no reason to think that you need to rely totally on copy. Humans, by nature, are visually oriented and men are more visual creatures than women. It doesn’t really matter who is more visual because when you have a clever selection of graphics and compelling imagery you can tell quite a good story.
Landing pages have so much more to them than most people think is there and the new online marketers typically don’t have a real clue about that. So then is it really a surprise when the newbie person’s landing page doesn’t perform optimally? When you don’t have a solid grasp on how landing pages work and the dynamics that are involved then you will almost always be shooting in the dark.
You’ll be happy to learn that it’s possible to counteract that by doing your homework, learning everything you can and putting in a vigorous testing program.
