Did you see the interview with Madonna on 20/20 in January 2012? I’ve always been a big Madonna fan (even dressed like her for Halloween one year in the 80’s), so I definitely saw it and wasn’t disappointed. There was a conversation about Lady Gaga’s Born This Way that sounded a lot like Madonna’s Express Yourself. 20/20 interviewer Cynthia McFadden asked Madonna if she found it annoying. Madonna replied, “It felt reductive.” McFadden asked, “Is it good or bad?” Madonna replied, “Look it up.”
There are several definitions for reductively, but this is what I agree with for the purpose of today’s article. Reductive is an adjective that means: Having a tendency to present a topic or problem in a simplified form, especially one that is considered raw. So is your landing page reducing?
Not sure what a landing page is? According to Wikipedia, a landing page, sometimes known as a lead capture page, is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on an ad. The landing page usually shows targeted sales copy, which is a logical extension of the ad or link. Landing pages are often linked to from social media, email campaigns or search engine marketing campaigns to increase the effectiveness of the ads. The general goal of a landing page is to convert visitors into sales models.
So what should your landing page look like? You have an average of 8 seconds to catch the visitor’s attention. In bull rides, this seems like an eternity; but when it comes to visitors to your site, it feels like a moment! Here are a few key elements you want to follow.
· Your landing page should clearly show visitors where they are. Whether you’re doing email marketing, social media promotion, ads, or search engine marketing campaigns to get traffic to your site, make sure your design and promotion matches. You don’t want them to click a link, go to your landing page and then wonder if they’re in the right place.
· Your offer must be visible. Whether you are selling a product, event or free offer, make sure your visitor can easily see it. And be sure to repeat the offer in your email, advertising or promotion on your landing page.
· Be clear about what you want the visitor to do next. If you give them too many choices, they probably won’t do anything and you’ve lost the collection of their information. If necessary, repeat your call to action.
· WOW your visitor! You want to make sure your landing page packs a stamp, but too much written content loses them. You have to find a balance between going over the top and being too reductive (ie simple, raw). Silver-pop surveyed 150 landing pages and found that 36% of pages surveyed used 100 words or less, and 38% used between 100 and 250 words. That is 75% of the landing pages surveyed, with less than 250 words.
· Use headings and sub-headings to remind visitors of what makes your offer great and outline their benefits. Headlines and subheadings catch the reader’s eye, so use them to highlight text.
· Add video to your page, but be sure not to set it to start automatically. You never know where your visitor stands when he sees your site, especially today with mobile devices. And you never know how loud the speakers are – you don’t want to scare them out of their chair with a blaring video that suddenly, unexpectedly, starts playing!
· Use pictures. When you use the right images, they not only break up the text, but also entice visitors to read more.
· Have a strong call to action. Make sure your registration form is easy and not too complicated. Use as few fields as possible. The more information you request, the greater the chance that they will not bother. Instead of using “Send”, use a stronger call to action like “Get it now!” or “Send my free gift”.
Just because you have followed all of the above tips does not mean you have got the best landing page you can. Test, test, test. Your ideal market may be different than my ideal market. There is no tried and true rule for everyone and any product. If something doesn’t work, make some changes. Test your colors. Test your graphics. Test your text. Find what works for you digital business pages.
