Contemporary marketing is a very complicated business. So many details in your strategy play a decisive role and all of your efforts in that regard could be useless if you make one mistake alone. For many marketers, landing pages represent the biggest obstacle.
If you want to generate more conversions and increase sales results, you need to understand the mechanism behind a landing page. More importantly, you need to know what not to do while designing the landing page.
From this article, you will get to know 12 expensive landing page mistakes that could harm your sales.
Unattractive Headlines
If you haven’t noticed before, let me tell you straight away: Internet users don’t really enjoy reading that much. Most visitors read only around 50% of your content but even the most persistent users will not make it past the headline if it’s dull and boring. You simply have to learn how to make attractive and captivating headlines.
The title is the first thing that users notice on the landing page, which means that you need a great introductory line. Fortunately, there are a lot of online tools like Headline Analyzer that can help you to come up with the best solution. Just be patient and don’t allow yourself to lose potential customers on the first step.
Low-Quality Text Structure
Reading a book is not the same as reading Internet content. Long and tick text won’t do you any good. You need to allow users to skim and scan your landing page. Emphasize the headline and subtitles, use a lot of whitespaces, and create lists or bulletins. And keep in mind to write short sentences – 20 words is the maximum.
Low-Quality Landing Page Copy
Are you not able to produce a good landing page copy? In this case, maybe it’s better not to bother with online marketing at all. Seriously, creating a poorly optimized copy is one of the costliest mistakes that you can make, so try to design it straightforwardly and concisely.
Your goal is to reveal the advantages of products or services immediately. Let the visitors know that you can offer them better solutions than your competitors. Tell them how exactly you are going to solve their problems or fulfill their needs.
Bear in mind to include calls to action (CTA) and make them very visible. Francis Brown, a marketing expert at EssayOnTime, recently stated: “A well-optimized copy constitutes a crucial part of the landing page. It presents your offer to potential buyers, explains what makes it so attractive, and shows them how to get it. All other landing page details are more or less decorative but the copy is the one that can skyrocket your revenue.”
Creating a Complicated Fill-in Form
Some marketers think that it’s better to create comprehensive fill-in forms and receive as many data about users as possible. At the same time, they burden landing page visitors with dozens of boring questionnaires, which is terrible.
You need to avoid this mistake and let the user choose only one fill-in form that suits his or her interests the most. Furthermore, this form has to be logical and easy to understand, with only the most important questions to ask.
You Neglect Mobile Optimization
With more than 2.3 billion smartphone users globally, you cannot neglect the importance of mobile optimization. You need to adapt landing pages so as to fit all types of mobile devices and make a friendly user interface. Additionally, pay attention to loading time. Nobody enjoys waiting for the web page to open, especially inpatient mobile phone users.
Hide the CTA Button
You can make the best content and create beautiful landing pages but if you don’t emphasize CTA buttons, your efforts will be meaningless. Don’t hide this element of the landing page because it’s the one that will bring you profit in the end. Make it visible and put it somewhere near the beginning – it will make the biggest impact in this position.
Forget Perks for the New Visitors
The first-time visitors make the majority of the landing page traffic. In order to keep them engaged, you need to offer some sort of perk or benefit to your followers. It can be any kind of valuable content or even a nice promise (you offer expert help, for instance) but leave them wandering around seeing nothing but the contact form.
Posting Stock Images
Today, almost all smartphones have a high-quality camera and not to mention professional devices. In such circumstances, it would be sensational to see a generic stock image on your landing page. In a way, this could be even interpreted as amateurism, so go out there and make your own unique image.
Don’t Say It If You Don’t Mean It
Small benefits and incentives are the most efficient drivers of conversions. However, it doesn’t mean that you can make false statements and promises that you can’t keep. Keep it objective and you will prove professional credibility. Therefore, don’t promise to boost conversions by 5%. Promise 0.2% and hope to get the job done successfully.
No Testimonials
Word of mouth marketing is an anchor of modern marketing as more than 70% of users claim that positive customer reviews increase their trust in a business. That’s why you need a social proof on your landing page. Don’t use fake names or fake images. Be honest and ask real buyers to recommend your products or services.
Forget Confirmation Page Optimization
Once you’ve perfectly optimized a landing page, it is time to do the same for the confirmation page. Post-purchase follow-up is mandatory. You need to thank the buyers but also to let them know that you are going to keep in touch with them soon.
Neglect the Landing Page Testing
After all, is said and done, there is only one thing remaining: testing. Doing so, you will detect even the smallest mistakes and make the necessary correction to the landing page. However, if you skip this step, you risk facing some major flaws eventually.
Landing pages should be the crown of your marketing efforts, which means that they need to be perfect. Most marketers make serious oversights while designing landing pages and I showed you the 12 biggest mistakes. Keep them in mind and don’t allow yourself to make such mistakes on your own landing page.
Rachel Bartee is a content writer and a marketing consultant from Iowa. She is content-oriented and knows how to put words into action. She feels passionate about traveling and inspired by her morning yoga. Talk to her on Facebook or Twitter.
