Right now I was searching for informaion on "how to write great landing page" (that was the exact phrase I typed in Google). My friend and me are now testing landing pages for PPC campaigns to drive traffic and convert it on the main product site. As we are new to the whole thing, we need information on "how to write great landing pages".
Which Info Did I Realy Need?
So I typed the phrase in Google and got the list of sites with my keywords. I opened every site with a title with the keywords I typed in (as I thought they have what I'm looking for). I looked at the titles without my keywords only in the second turn (after my initial look).
And I opened several sites with "my" titles.
The very first link contained comprehensive theoretical info on different aspects of landing page ceration. But it was too wordy, each paragraph had 8-10 lines. So I scanned the page and moved on to the next site in Google.
The second site had the similar info, but not so detailed, kinda like that:
"6 Steps To Creating A Perfect Landing Page
Your landing page is the first-most glimpse your visitor gets of your website. In most of the cases, your home page, or your index page is your landing page, but if you are running an online advertising campaign such as AdWords, it is crucial that you have specially dedicated landing pages for your advertising campaigns for individual search terms. Have a lousy or ill-planned landing page and your visitors will leave your website within a few seconds, no matter what valuable service or product your other pages provide, or talk about. So in that sense, your landing page has the power to make or break your online business.
Listed below are a few steps you can take to create perfect, or near-to-perfect landing pages.
1) Define the purpose of your landing page
You need to know exactly what your landing page needs to achieve. Should it:
Prompt people to subscribe to your newsletter?
Contact you for more details?
Explore your website further?
Buy a product or a service present on your landing page?
Join your affiliate program?
Once you have a clear picture you can create your landing page with greater degree of lucidity and purpose. You can write the copy accordingly.
2) Write convincing copy on your landing page
What you write on your landing page is what you want to convey to your visitors. Keep it succinct, and be honest: honesty shows through your message. Talk to your visitors as if you are welcoming them into your office or shop. Don’t load them with information, but be titillating enough to prompt them to explore further or get in touch with you to know more about what you can do for them.
3) Keep the distractions away from your landing page
Don’t put too many bells and whistles on your landing page. Remember that the visitor is not there to be amused by you; he or she is there to do business. So keep the graphics, animations and JavaScript tricks to the minimum. Some even suggest to do away with your main navigation bar, but I don’t recommend that.
4) Create an accessible, easily navigable landing page
Create a landing page that is totally accessible. There are thousands of surfers with special needs. If they come to your website through your advertising link and then have to leave because they cannot access your website with their browsing tools it will be a big waste both in terms of lost advertising money and good will. Put all the relevant links there so that they can easily be referred to to make a purchase decision.
5) Display your contact information prominently on your landing page
On your landing page, make it very easy to contact you so that people don’t leave your website just because they cannot figure out how to get in touch with you. Prominently display your contact form and your phone numbers on your landing page.
6) Finally, keep testing your landing page
You can never create the perfect landing page just like that. You need to try different formats and copies to finalise a landing page that generate maximum results for you. Many online advertising programs such as AdWords let you try out different pages for single ad campaigns so that you can make out what works for you and what not."
See, another theoretical copy resembling the first one. I cannot say the advice given here is a bad content, but IT DID NOT ANSWER MY QUESTION HOW TO WRITE GREAT LANDING PAGE.
So I moved on to the next site, and I found absolutely similar set of tips, seemed it was just rewritten article that everybody posts on his site. THERE IS CONTENT, BUT THERE IS NO VALUE FOR ME.
Why? I analysed why this content didn't interest me. What I was searching actually was a set of rules necessary for making my own landing page from scratch, with real life examples that showed me how and what. Not only theoretical list of tips, but much more details how to combine my LP with keywords, how to place different LP elements, what is critical for my conversions improvement, I hope you see...
And majority of sites from top 10 gave me just article with a number of tips they thought will be enough for me. "Do this, do that" - why? will it work? where are the examples? are you sure I'll be able to create my GREAT landing page after reading your content?
I finally found what I needed (site #8 and 9 in top 10)
Conclusions From My "Customer" Experience
1. Keywords people type in SEs don't always reflect the meaning of a phrase. I mean the meaning is far more DEEP and WIDE that marketer might think. We should SEE THE PERSON BEHIND KEYWORDS. WHAT IS HE REALLY LOOKNIG FOR? WHAT ARE HIS NEEDS, WISHES? OPTIMISE FOR CUSTOMER-VALUE FIRST, THEN KEYWORDS. The biggest mistake I made on my first site, it is optimised for keywords, it is in top 10 for keywords, but it has average 1/80 conversion rate - very poor! I'm not answering people's questions, not fulfill their wishes, not satisfy their needs enough. There's always a psychology, a person behind keyword, look deeper!
2. If an article has NO VALUE, we can rewrite it 100s of times, and our 100s of rewrittens will also have NO VALUE for people. We better submit it to 100s of article directories and probably we'll get at least 3-5 good backlinks. We call these no-value articles "shit-content". No matter how many times having been rewritten, shit-content remains shit-content.
So What Is VALUE Then?
Well, I'm analysing the stuff a lot now, I'm trying to find the answer also, and here's what I personally perceive as value for the visitor:
- Visitors are looking for information, for answers to their questions, for solutions to their problems - not just for not just for 5 theoretical tips - valuable content provides answers to questions, delivers facts and suggests solutions, shows why these solutions good, shows how , provides examples for better understanding, - OVERDELIVERS the information.
- Visitors want to fill the lack of knowledge - valuable content provides them with real, applicable knowledge that people can USE. Well, that article is good, but will you write great landing page after reading that article above? Me not :) But if the author would add real examples to every tip, deliver links for more comprehensive studies, show pictures of example LPs - his content would be by far more valuable for me. And what would I do then? First, I would recommend his site to my friend to see (pure viral marketing - visitors promote your site for you!). Then, I would subscribe to his e-zine if he had it (if this guy explains LP theme so good, he might have some valuable info on related topics I'm also interested in!). And if he had e-book to sell about LPs or how to improve conversions - I would definitely buy it!!! Really, I would do it because he fulfilled my real needs! Now see the benefits of really valuable content?
- Visitors looking for something (info in SEs) are emotionally, so to say, a bit upset, disorganised, disturbed I'd say. This is caused by the lack of information, solutions, answers - valuable content helps people get that "emotional resource" lifted! It connects with them at emotional level. They feel - "this is for me!" They feel better after reading that content than before reading it. And we marketers will be able to create this content if we see a person behind keyword, if we care of what he's really looking for! Once more - his needs, his worries, his person behind his keywords!
0 comments:
Post a Comment