Oli Gardner will make you blush when he rips your landing page copy from its safe HTML home and shows you what it says as a plain text file.
I got to thinking, what if we just pulled the images from your website? Would they be able to tell the story of your value proposition?

The Role of Images on a Web Page

Too many designers see images as a way to break up the copy on a web page. They use filler images, stock photos and silly graphs that have no meaning.
Images are a powerful way to convey your value proposition – the reason that a visitor should consider your offer. This is true for landing pages as well as your home page.
The impact on a landing page can be extreme.
Images draw the eye. When your visitors first arrive, these are the elements that get seen first as they scan the page. Images can immediately ask the first question your prospects have, “Am I in the right place to get what I’m looking for?”
Images should compliment, support and enhance the copy on the page. Any image that doesn’t move the value prop forward is hindering it.
Pull the images from your page and take a look.

The Image-only Version of Your Landing Page

If you were to pull just the images from your site, would they tell your story? Here are the images from a site offering information on annuities.

What does your landing page say in pictures?

What does your landing page say in pictures?


 
It starts off great. The main image has a stock model representing the target audience.
Adding text to an image makes it relevant to your message.

Adding text to an image makes it relevant to your message.


Adding text to an image is a simple way to give it power.
Adding text to an image is a simple way to give it power. Furthermore, the model is looking at the information you want them to read. If a model is staring at the visitor, the visitor tends to focus more on the face, and less on the messages on the page.
This is essentially an in-image caption.

Captions Get Read

One of the most read portions of your landing pages is the caption. Unfortunately, most pages don’t use captions. Captions explain the image in more detail, moving the value proposition forward for the reader.

Captions are a great place to repeat the offer on the page.
Captions are a great place to repeat the offer on the page.

The Caption Test

The best way to test to see if your captions are helpful is to ask a stranger to write a caption for it. How would our annuity page fare?

Graphics without meaningful information don't move your value proposition forward for the reader.

Graphics without meaningful information don’t move your value proposition forward for the reader.


Caption Test: “Get complex information about something.”
The heading for the copy next to this is, “What are the fees associated with an annuity?” This should be repeated as the caption.
The remaining images don’t do so well.
Is this a happy customer? An employee? We can tell the difference between a model and a real person.

Is this a happy customer? An employee? We can tell the difference between a model and a real person.


Caption Test: “I will meet attractive older men. Sooo handsome.”
The copy headline next to this image reads, “What if I need access to the principal in my annuity?” The answer may have made this handsome man smile, but the image really doesn’t support the point. This would not work as a caption.
Another lost opportunity to communicate something valuable.

Another lost opportunity to communicate something valuable.


Caption Test: “Time is running out for you and your little dog too!”
What are your images bringing to mind in your reader's mind?

What are your images bringing to mind in your reader’s mind?


The copy next to this image reads, “How long will I be able to receive income from my annuity?” This would work as a caption. But with the power that an image has for conveying a message, I think this page could do much better.

Images that Work

In general, your images should strive for the following characteristics.

Use real people when possible: employees, clients and spokespeople are great choices.

Use real employees, customers or spokespeople in your images.

Use real employees, customers or spokespeople in your images. This one needs a caption.

Use text on the image and as a caption to advance your value proposition.

Don’t be afraid to repeat offers in captions and on-image text.

This image makes great use of in-image text and an offer in the caption.

This image makes great use of in-image text and an offer in the caption.

Design images that support the copy on the page.

This image uses in-image messaging that supports the copy on the page.

This image uses in-image messaging that supports the copy on the page.

Direct the gaze of people in images to offers, forms or other important parts of the page.

This model is looking at the form, the most important part of this landing page.

This model is looking at the form, the most important part of this landing page.

For software products, choose screen shots that don’t make your product look intimidating.

Screen shots should focus on key features of your software offering.

Screen shots should focus on key features of your software offering.

Spend as Much Time on Your Images as Your Copy

Utlimately, if you spend as much time on your images as you do your copy, you will find creative ways to power conversions on your landing pages, home pages… all pages.

Images courtesy ICIMS, Expert Market and TheStreet.com.

You can’t get into website optimization without it leaking into the rest of your life. You see the world differently. At Conversion Sciences, we obsess about optimization and the affect on our lives is interesting.
We tally the coffee orders of those in line ahead of us to help with your decision.
We leave the house at the EXACT same time each day when trying alternative commutes. Of course we use the stopwatch for accuracy.
We do a quick evaluation of the speed of the grocery store checkout people before choosing a line.
And we optimize our dating lives.
We see this as an opportunity to introduce landing page concepts to a broader audience. Lots of people get excited about optimizing their dating profile. Landing page optimization makes the accountant smile. Dating profile optimization makes the heart smile. 

Basically, we are appealing to your base nature to help you make more money in your business.
Basically, we are appealing to your base nature to help you make more money in your business.
I would like to invite you into the world of optimization obsession by introducing you to a new series of blog posts coming your way:  Optimize My Dating Life.

[dating-series]

We asked Megan – one of our Conversion Scientists – to document an optimization project in which she applies everything she knows about increasing conversion rates to her online dating profile. Ultimately, a dating profile is nothing more than a lead-generating landing page, so it’s just waiting to be optimized.

How is an Online Dating Profile a Lead-Generating Landing Page?

A dating profile certainly serves a specific purpose.  You know what that purpose is, but do the people who visit your profile?  You’ve undoubtedly heard horror stories at happy hours from your single friends, or maybe you have a few stories of your own. Misunderstandings occurring as a result of a miscommunication on a dating profile.
For a time, my profile listed my favorite book as Batman: the Dark Knight Returns. I came to understand this was an error in judgment on my part. I went on dates with four different people who assumed I would be able to keep up in a conversation discussing the history of the Marvel (or is it DC?) universe.  Just to clarify: I couldn’t keep up.
Maybe you’ve created a landing page for an expensive giveaway only to receive a bafflingly low quality and quantity of leads.  Were you really communicating what you thought you were?
Previous research has determined that it all comes down to the picture. These studies were only measuring inquiries, the number of people who try to connect. We want to go deeper. We want to judge the quality of the connections.

Megan Hoover

Look at her, she’s adorbs. Who wouldn’t want to date that face?


Looks aren’t everything, right?  Well, the right images are important — on your dating profile and on your landing pages.
We’ll be testing other important components of dating landing pages: trust builders, proof points and offers.
Yes, I said, “offers”. Will the right offer on a dating landing page make the difference? We can’t wait to find out.
Finally, we want to measure the quality of our “leads”. You’ve probably been on dates with people you chose because of their level of attractiveness only to find out they’re as interesting as elevator music. You’ve probably been approached by someone who saw your lovely little mug and that person wanted to ask you on a date without knowing anything about how smart and cool and interesting you are.
And you’ve probably visited a landing page with a design that was absolutely beautiful.  A work of art.  But for the life of you, couldn’t figure out what you were being asked to do.

[dating-series]

What Are We Studying?

We will be attempting to make our little project as scientific as possible so that you will be better able to incorporate our successes (and avoid our failures) in your own landing pages.
Megan will be creating a few different dating profiles, and we will attempt to isolate the actual written content of her profile and her user pictures.

Example of a free-form question where answers could change

Example of a free-form question where answers could change across profiles and over the course of the project


okcupid tries to match people based on a series of questions, what each person is seeking by using the service, and location, and we will be keeping all of this information the same across all of the profiles so that she has a greater chance of showing up in the same searches for the same people.
Example of what will be a control across all profiles

Example of information that will be a control across all profiles


Example of what will be a control across all profiles

Example of information that will be a control across all profiles


Example of a potential okcupid question that will be a control across all profiles

Example of a potential okcupid question that will be a control across all profiles


Because lead-generation is the end goal, we will be measuring the quality and quantity of leads received on each of her profiles.  Megan’s first task will be to create a quality matrix that will allow her to rate each of her leads and avoid relying on how physically attractive they are.  So we’ll be looking at Megan’s own profile and making changes to increase the number of quality leads she receives, but we’ll also be looking at the potential leads’ profiles and rating them.
What’s a lead?  Men who message her are her leads; conversions will be securing dates with said leads.
Will Megan rate leads higher when they mention their families?  How will musicians fare?  Are vegetarians a hard-pass?  Be sure to read her next post to find out!

Use Our Love Lessons Learned to Build the Landing Page of Your Dreams

We’ll be writing posts as the project progresses. We really have no idea how things are going to turn out: will Megan find Mr. Right?  Who knows, but we might as well make the search interesting.
As for your landing pages, generating leads is a bit more of a science than finding the love of your life, and for that reason, there’s a lot you can learn from dating profiles to help improve your landing page.
So here we go…we’ll keep you posted.

We spend our days (and many nights) deciding what could be changed website to increase revenue and leads. Based on our successes, I’d say we’ve gotten pretty good.
There are five kinds of things we look at when we are planning website tests. Are these issues on your site?

  1. Value Proposition and Messaging
  2. Credibility and Authority
  3. User eXperience and Layout
  4. Social Proof
  5. Risk Reversal

I offer explanations and examples in this video taken from my CTA Conference presentation, “How to Optimize the Crap Out Of Your Lead Gen Landing Pages.”
Click the image to watch.

Brian Massey at Call to Action Conference

Click to watch Brian Massey at Call to Action Conference


 

 

What is The Conversion Scientist reading this week?

Neuromarketing – A Simple Hack That Makes You MUCH More Persuasive

If you love the science of persuasion like we do, you should definitely be following my friend Roger Dooley’s blog.
Here’s a great example of how he uses research to deliver actionable advice to marketers and business owners like us.
read more
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[forfurtherstudy]
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Perfect Landing Page Webinar · Formstack

This is a great overview of Landing Page best practices complete with examples. You’ll find a lot in common with our
Chemistry of the Landing Page

    presentation.

    1. Headlines and Ad Copy
    2. Clear and Concise Headlines
    3. Impeccable Grammar
    4. Trust indicators
    5. Call to Action
    6. Buttons
    7. Lose the Links
    8. Visuals (images)
    9. Above the Fold
    10. Always be testing

read more

Landing Page Examples: Untapped Secrets and Sources

We just can’t get enough info on landing pages. We love them.
This article helps you design landing pages for three kinds of visitors:

      1. Cold visitors (no they don’t live up north)
      2. Warm visitors (not necessarily friendly)
      3. Hot visitors (don’t necessarily got it goin’ on)

How do you address these different visitors? Read on.

The folks at SEMRush hosted The Conversion Scientist for an entertaining hour on how to design search landing pages.
It was fun and educational, and if you missed it you can see the entire thing right here.

Hosted by SEMRush’s David Black, we covered the key components of a landing page that supports search traffic.

Two Jobs of a Search Landing Page

There are two jobs of a landing page that supports traffic from search ads:

  1. Keep the promise made in the search ad.
  2. Get the visitor to make a choice.

Thus, a search landing page must be tailored for the ad that is driving the traffic.
If you don’t know the promise that is driving traffic to the page you are creating, then you are not building a landing page. You’re building something else.
If your page needs anything other than content to make a visitor want to make a choice and take action, you’re probably not building a landing page. Each landing page needs all of five components.

Offer

Keeps the promise and gives the visitor a reason to act.

Form

Provides a way for the visitor to take action, in their interest and in yours.

Trust

A catalyst that helps the visitor feel comfortable and confident taking action.

Proof

Another catalyst that supports the offer and the entire value proposition.

Image

Helps the visitor imagine themselves taking action on the site by “seening” the product.
When you combine all of these elements together, you get a high-converting search landing page that is ready to be testing to improve performance even more.

Free Search Landing Page ROI Checklist.

Download your free Landing Page ROI Checklist.

Get your free Landing Page ROI Checklist

  • Twelve page checklist based on Brian Massey’s Chemistry of High-Converting Landing Pages Webinar.
  • Makes the creation of landing pages fast and easy.
  • Offers proven and tested ways to make your landing pages work.
  • Only available from
    Conversion Sciences

Download

 

The most important part of your website is your value proposition. Find out how to communicate it in words and images.

Too often, we confuse our tag line with our value proposition.

For a website, the value proposition is the critical message that asks a visitor to explore further and to purchase.

Famous value propositions include Zappos’ “365 day return policy and we pay shipping both ways.” Warby Parker offers “Order up to 5 of our vintage-style sunglasses. Keep the ones you like and send the others back at our expense.” These sound like expensive value propositions.

Yours doesn’t have to be.

No matter how simple or complex, your value proposition should be communicated clearly in the words and images on your website. Most value propositions can’t be communicated in a sentence or two.

Let’s see how one company communicates its value proposition in words and images.

iMagnetMount Value Proposition

I’m not going to tell you what iMagnetMount does. Let’s discover it from their home page, which acts as a landing page.

The value proposition for iMagnetMount is simple:

The “Hero Shot” should tell visitors that they are in the right place.

The “Hero Shot” should tell visitors that they are in the right place.

“We make a phone mount for your car.”
If I didn’t read the text, I wouldn’t really know what this is. The headline tries to be cute, but has the magic words, “Phone Mount.”
If we scroll we get the next part of the value prop pretty easily from an auto-play hero video.

If your product is easily demonstrated, consider using video.

If your product is easily demonstrated, consider using video.

BAM! I get it. Viscerally. Nothing fancy. No catchy music. I don’t even have to read the text.

It’s solid. It’s easy. It works on the dash or on the windshield.

This is the value of having a demonstrable product. If you have a demonstrable product, use video. To demonstrate.

If anything, I would have put this at the top of the page.

Objections: What’s missing from your Value Proposition

As potential customers, what we haven’t been told will quickly gel into objections. Objection questions begin with “What if I…?” and “Will it…?” and “How can it…?”
However, these questions aren’t asked on a web page. They must be anticipated.

It’s apparent that iMagnetMount believes to be the first objection to be, “Can I trust you?” Trust symbols are seen in two places on the page.

Logos can increase "borrow" trust from better-known brands.

Logos can increase “borrow” trust from better-known brands.

 

Be careful introducing objections with little proof to overcome them.

Be careful introducing objections with little proof to overcome them.

Objections are funny things, though. If you address the right  concern, you move the prospect closer to buying. If you raise the wrong one, you create a new objection.

Here, iMagnetMount introduces an objection, “Magnets might hurt my phone” by stating that there is “No Magnetic Disruption To Their Phone.” The objection is addressed with some social proof, so the objection is raised and addressed.

If you raise an objection, handle it quickly.

What is the next thing we should learn about this “phone-destroying” product?

More Demonstration

Next is a video with a marquee frame showing the phone turned horizontally, like a GPS. Awesome!
The copy next to it says, “Life is too short to fumble with your phone.” iMagnetMount’s copywriter thought cute was the way to go.

The goal of this particular headline is to get the visitor to play the video. Instead, they introduce a new objection: “Will I fumble the phone? Will it fall off?”

Headlines should tell the visitor what to focus on.

Headlines should tell the visitor what to focus on.

In your copy, avoid cliché phrases like “Life is too short”. Instead, be more direct.

Watch this short video to see how flexible this magnetic mount is.

Managing the Big Objections

When speaking with iMagnetMount, they confirmed that a big objection is that the magnetic mount would damage or interfere with the phone.

Will it hurt my battery?

Will it fry my electronics?

Will it burn my screen?

Will it affect reception?

iMagnetMount addresses the issue in small text under an unrelated headline.

The answer to the big objection is buried in hard-to-read copy under a cutesy headline.

The answer to the big objection is buried in hard-to-read copy under a cutesy headline.

Here, the copy asks the visitor to “Turn smartphone mounting on its head.” Another throw-away headline. As above, tell them to watch the video and see the advantage.

The video demonstrates the strong suction as well as the grip of the magnet on the phone. Demonstration rocks value propositions.

These two messages – that the magnet is safe and that the suction is awesome – address two of the biggest parts of the value proposition. They should be separated and proven.

Marry Messages and Copy

Your headlines should support the image.

Your headlines should support the image.

In this part of the page, I felt that the background image used was pretty effective for making a statement about suction. It shows a suction cup sticking to a rough dashboard surface. In this case, the overlaid text supports the message of the image. Words like, “Finally” and “hassle-free” are not as powerful. Chuck these words to advance the value proposition.

Phrases like “patented” and “secure for months” are going to be more successful.

Managing Risk

Buying anything is perceived as risky, especially online. Managing the risk is a key part of the value proposition.

Risk management is a key part of your value proposition.

Risk management is a key part of your value proposition.

There are several messages at the bottom of the page that address risk.

  • You won’t have to buy a new mount if you think you’ll change phones.
  • Our mount is safe for your phone (with a link to a FAQ page)
  • Our product is built from strong stuff (in South Korea)
  • We offer a one-year warranty.
  • Over 100,000 drivers have bought your product.

The cornerstone of risk management is risk reversal. The use of a familiar gold seal tests well in many industries. The use of plain-English text describing the warranty and return is done well here.

A link to a FAQ page offers up many more objections, but also handles them well. Methodical buyers will appreciate the detail on this page.

Repeat the Offer at the Bottom

Anyone who has read through your page to the end is probably pretty interested. Always repeat the call to action at the bottom, as iMagnetMount does here.

Bringing it Home

Copy is more than words. Copy is words and the images that support them.

If there is one issue with the copy on this page, it is that copy is trying to be cute and isn’t supporting the very strong images and video on the page.

After our conversation, iMagnetMount modified the page to address some of these issues.

Proof is important when handling value objections.

Proof is important when handling value objections.

Here they’ve added copy to handle the objection, “Will the magnets hurt my phone?” Unfortunately, the image and copy no longer collaborate.

I don’t think they expend enough effort in managing this objection. Proof is key, and they have it. However it is buried, even in this treatment. They should state that it’s SAFE.

Safe for your phone. Safe for your battery. Safe for your screen. Proven with over 10,000 hours of road testing over 2 years.

Are we introducing some objections here? Yes, but if the proof is there, we can consider it handled.

With one change, iMagnetMount significantly improved the image-headline relationship in another part of the page.

When text and image work together, value propositions get wings.

When text and image work together, value propositions get wings.

What a powerful headline that begs me to watch the video to see the proof.

The Complete Value Proposition

The keys to a communicating a strong value proposition are:

  • Demonstrate your value with images and video.
  • Support your images with headlines.
  • Provide proof whenever possible.
  • Manage risk with proof and a straight-forward return policy.
  • Repeat the offer at the bottom of the page.

There are other aspects of this page that may be hindering conversion rates, and those are discussions for another day.

However, with a well-crafted value proposition, buyers will find their way through many obstacles on their way to purchase.

What is your landing page selling?

You can answer this question in one of three ways:

  1. It’s selling what I promised in an ad or email
  2. It’s selling my company and its services
  3. All of the above

The right answer is number one.

Number two is an About Us page. Number three is a typical home page.

If this was a poll, we’d see heavy voting for two and three. Why the disconnect?

I spent some time on the phone with John Colasante of ManhattanTechSupport.com to understand why his landing pages were under-delivering. It was pretty clear that he had chosen door number two.

Take a look at one of their test landing pages built on the Unbounce platform.

Original Unbounce Landing Page

One ManhattanTechSupport.com Landing Page. Click for a larger image.

This page served PPC ads promising to help mid-sized businesses choose a managed IT provider. What is the promise found on the landing page?

“Transform your IT Experience!”
Few if any CTOs have woken in the middle of the night in a pool of sweat thinking, “I need to transform my IT experience!”
The sub-headline takes a bold step. “Outsource your IT Department to ManhattanTechSupport.com.”
This is the sort of suggestion you make to someone who is hypnotized, maybe.

We would expect a high bounce rate because this landing page doesn’t keep the promise of the ads, and hasn’t addressed the fundamental question of qualified visitors, “How do I choose the right managed IT provider?”
This landing page sounds like their home page.

The promise of a home page is "We'll tell you about our company." Not so for a landing page.

The promise of a home page is “We’ll tell you about our company.” Not so for a landing page.

What is this landing page really selling?

A landing page has two very focused jobs:

  1. Keep the promise made in the ad, email or link that brings visitors to the page. We call this the Offer.
  2. Get the visitor to take action on the offer.

The promise here is to help visitors choose an IT provider. The offer, however, is “Fill out this form.” Not particularly compelling.

Reading on, the offer is for ManhattanTechSupport.com to “get back to you same day during business hours.”
Is this a consultation? A sales call? A chance to hear about the CEO’s vacation?

Can filling out a form really transform my IT experience?

John clarified this for me. It is a consultation with someone who knows the space.

Now that’s an offer.

Retargeting Your Landing Pages

How would we turn this page into a true landing page?

It’s usually the job of the headline to keep the promise of the ad. This is also why landing pages are powerful: we know what the visitor is interested in, so get to design a very targeted page.

ManhattanTechSupport.com may want to change this to “Let an experienced IT consultant answer your questions on managed IT services.” Another might be “Free Managing IT Services Consultation.”
Now we need to tell them about the offer, not the company. Our sub-headline is designed to get them to read the next paragraph.

“In thirty minutes, you will discover the key to cutting the time you spend on IT by 85%.”
I gotta find out more about this!
Unfortunately, the paragraph starts we-weing all over itself: “ManhattanTechSupport.com is your premier…”.

We want to know about the offer.

How long will the consultation be? What qualifications will the consultant have? What key questions will be answered? Will I get the hard sell? Do you have a proprietary evaluation process? Will I get a freebie just for speaking with them?

When to Talk About Your Company, Products or Services

There is often another question on the visitors’ minds: “Who are you?”
It’s OK to talk about yourself to support the offer, to build trust. But you must provide proof.

Don’t tell me that you are the “leader” or the “premier” provider in your space. What awards have you won? What famous media outlets have declared you to be top of the heap? Have you been seen partying with Justin Bieber?

The ManhattanTechSupport.com page provides some trust-builders by using logos of well-known partners below the form.

There are many proof points and trust builders you can use.

  • How many years have you been in business?
  • What is your specialization? ManhattanTechSupport.com only serves business in Manhattan.
  • Are you close to me?
  • How many customers do you have?
  • Do you have testimonials from people like me? Why are others happy with your service?
  • What are your guarantees?

ManhattanTechSupport.com lists four differentiators on their page: No contracts, Everything is included, We are proactive, and We are 24/7.

Once the value of the offer is established – the value of the consultation – this is fair game to make the visitor feel comfortable taking action.

Bring it Home

The form and call to action button bring the offer home.

The form and call to action button bring the offer home.

The form and button text must bring the offer home. We really don’t need to tell anyone to fill out a form. If we had to, then how good of an IT customer would the really be?

We could start the form with a call to action like, “Request your free consultation now.”

Copyhackers Joanna Wiebe has tested button text and recommends that it match the headline. So, we might rewrite the button to say, “Have a Consultant Contact Me.”
The form fields you choose will affect the number of conversions as well as the quality of your requests.

ManhattanTechSupport.com asks for “Company Size.” Why are they asking this? If it’s a qualifying question then are there some companies that won’t get called? Will I get an email that says, “Sorry, you’re too small for us”?

On the flip side, small companies may be reluctant to answer this question and may decide not to take the offer. This could mean higher quality prospects. It could also chase away visitors who aren’t really committed.

Your Landing Page in a Paragraph

The story of our landing page should be straight forward. For ManhattanTechSupport.com, it could read:

“Get a free consultation from one of our experienced IT managers. They will show you get back 85% of the time you spend on IT. The call is only 30 minutes and we promise not to give you the hard sell. We only work with companies in Manhattan. We’ve work with very discerning partners and have the experience to give you good advice. Tell us how to get in touch with you and we’ll make you an expert at choosing a managed IT service.”

That’s a pretty compelling offer, if I do say so myself.

A Few Bonus Tips

Here are a few bonus tips for this page.

I recommend that you limit the “knock-out” text, or light text on a dark background. Those of us over 40 with failing eyes will have more trouble focusing on and reading this text.

If you want people to pick up the phone and call, give them the number in the headline and at the top of the form. For ManhattanTechSupport.com, we’d use a headline like, “Call to speak to an experienced managed IT consultant. 646-762-7649.” The form headline would read, “For immediate answers, call 646-762-7649, or we’ll use this form to request a call within one business day.”

To solicit calls, don't put the number off to the side.

To solicit calls, don’t put the number off to the side.

Use steps and bullets. Don’t be afraid to let visitors know they are going to get a sales pitch.

The ManhattanTechSupport.com page may offer this guidance:

When you contact us
(1) We will ask you a few questions to assess your situation.

(2) We make recommendations and answer your questions.

(3) If appropriate, we will provide a quote for our managed IT services.

Focused Landing Pages are Easier to Write

I hope that this column has taken some of the burden out creating landing pages for you. When you focus on the promise, the page gets much easier to write. With a reasonable design and the right traffic, you should have  a high-converting landing page.

Share your landing page with us here and let us know what your questions are.

Well-heeled travelers will enjoy a private guided tour of the world’s various wine-making regions. Colin Simpson of Into the Vineyard arranges these advantures for them. Into the Vineyard tours are tailored and personalized to the individual, setting themself apart from other packaged, run-of-the-mill wine vacations.

The Into the Vineyard luxury landing page

The Into the Vineyard luxury landing page


Colin came to us with a landing page built on Unbounce.
They have had fairly good success with these landing pages, boasting conversion rates of over 5% and more. Colin had a number of questions for Conversion Sciences about how to optimize his landing page to see a lift in conversion rate while maintaining high lead quality.
Many of our suggestions are included in the annotated infographic image included in this post. However, one of his questions was one that we are asked all the time. Its answer is important for you to understand when you create your own landing pages.

Is the placement of the form too far down the page?

The short answer is “No.” This may be contrary to the above-the-fold or very-close-to-the-fold rule many of you follow, but there are good reasons to place your form towards the bottom of your landing page.
Into the Vineyard offers a luxury item and appropriately uses a value-building approach. Furthermore, part of the value of their offer is the ability to customization the product. Bombarding visitors with a form too early not only gives them no time to appreciate the luxury of the offer but also may elicit feelings of impersonality.
This is something to consider if you are in the luxury market. Even if a form placed “below the fold” produces a lower volume of leads than would one above the fold, you may find these leads to be better qualified. They have not only read your content to the bottom but they also know what they are going to receive in exchange for their information.

Landing pages should show the steps of the process

Laying out the steps of the process puts many visitors at ease. The use of the red arrow draws the visitor to take action.


We saw this strategy work very well in split testing for a similar company, a company that sells golf tours to Scotland and England.
A landing page that added the steps of the process after filling out the form generated a 300% increase in leads.
A landing page that added the steps of the process after filling out the form generated a 300% increase in leads. Note that this was not the only change to the page.
The bottom line is that the content of your landing page must make a clear offer, regardless of form placement, and your copy must support the offer, not just your product or company. Into the Vineyard does an excellent job of explaining what will happen if a person fills out the form.
The long answer to Colin’s question is “I’m not sure, let’s test it.” One of the awesome perks of using the Unbounce tool to create landing pages is its A/B testing feature.
For most online websites, A/B testing is the most reliable way to know where to place a form on your page to maximize leads and sales.
When you create your own landing pages, consider your market. Are you in the luxury market where your visitors may need a little more information to get excited and convert? Or, are you using this landing page to give the visitor a freebie in exchange for their information?
These two situations will lend themselves to different form placement. If you have the traffic, test the difference because no two business are the same and what works may not work for all.

More recommendations


There are few challenges more daunting than mailing to a purchased email list. In fact, I usually recommend against it. Nonetheless, it is often the only way to access a specialized audience, and list purveyors continue to lie about the value of their list.
If you are creating landing page for an offer to a purchased mailing list, you will have to work extra hard.

Stress Free School Supplies Page

The top portion of the Stress Free School Supplies Page works hard, but fails to nail the “lead.”


Such is the case with Stress Free School Supplies. The owner of the business is a former teacher and understands the problem schools have in getting parents to purchase the necessary supplies for the year.
Her offer is that she will create a custom list on Amazon.com for each school. This allows parents to buy everything they need with a click. Her business will also provide the flyers and emails needed for reaching out to parents.
Her audience is a purchased list of school administrators, whose job it is to solve this parents / supplied problem.
Any competent landing page will:

        

  • Makes an offer.
  •     

  • Provides a way to take action, typically using a form.
  •     

  • Delivers tangible proof.
  •     

  • Earns your visitors trust.
  •     

  • Shows relevant images.

For a “cold” email list the page must master two of these components: the Offer and Trust.
The initial questions for those who receive are, “How does this work?” and “Can I trust you?” Only then do you get permission to make the sale.

An Offer that Makes Visitors Want to Stay

OfferThe offer is the primary value proposition, the reason the visitor should buy — or at least the reason they should keep reading. For a cold email list, the offer must reach out and grab the reader by the throat.

Create a Stress Free Back-to-school shopping experience for parents.

Is the offer relevant to the reader?

Currently the primary offer reads “Create a Stress Free Back-To-School Shopping Experience for Parents.” This headline is directed more towards parents than it is to school administrators.
While I’m sure that school administrators love their kids’ parents, I bet we would do better if we wrote a headline that addressed their pain, rather than the parents’ pain. The key to a great headline is understanding the administrators’ pain.

        

  • That students will be showing up to school without proper supplies.
  •     

  • Teachers will have to accommodate unprepared students during a chaotic time.

Establishing Trust

Trust

Trust in this case has two components:

        

  1. How does this work?
  2.     

  3. Are you legitimate?

“How it works” is buried in this case; the paragraph below the offer is dense, non-specific and lacks clarity.
Amazon is a powerhouse brand, familiar and trusted. Since Stress Free School Supplies is an affiliate, we suggested “borrowing trust” from Amazon and using their logo on the page. Currently the logo is buried in the fine print low on the page.

Amazon Affiliate

Why is this logo buried low on the page?


We also suggested logos from any PTA associations she may belong to as well as any business associations (BBB). Another suggestion was to put a face to the company. Doing this increases lead generation conversion rates because people know they will be dealing with a real person not a computer automated recording and begins building that trust.
We usually do not recommend social media icons on landing pages. Stress-Free School Supplies needs trust symbols, and we suggested she keep them on the page. However, we recommend moving them to a less prime location than directly under the form.

Enticing Action

Form

The for is the way school administrators to taking action. The goal of the form is to make it easy for administrators to sign up for the service without looking like a “squeeze” page.

The submit button for this form is in a strange and confusing place.

The submit button for this form is in a strange and confusing place.


This form currently has six blanks, including 2 emails and a zip code. The more personal information you request on a form, the more abandonment you will experience. We suggested to her that requiring only their email would help to heighten form fills. But, the main issue with this form is not the blanks, but the button to submit the form.
The call-to-action button was lost on this page. It was up and to the right of where we had just finished filling out the form. If someone had scrolled down while filling out the form, they may miss this entirely. We suggested moving the CTA button under the form, which they have recently done.

Providing Proof

Proof

Currently the proof is given by testimonials and the FAQs.  However, The FAQs are at the bottom of the page, so 50% of people won’t make it that far and the testimonials are lost in a milky way around a vibrant picture that grabs the eyes attention to it, not the testimonials. A suggestion would be to put pictures of the individuals to these testimonials to drawl the eye and create an emotional response. Another good example of proof would be adding the number of orders filled.

Show the Product

Image

What do the images on this landing page do for conversion? Bottom Line:“The goal of the images are to help me visualize owning and having whatever it is you offer.” The image in the page header is of school supplies. An image near the middle of the page shows… school supplies. This is not really why administrators sign up. Here the image takes away from the testimonials near it.

School supplies image

The Caption for this image may be “This is what school supplied look like!”


In Summary, this landing page needs to knock the offer out of the park and establish trust quickly. It’s the value proposition to its viewers through better targeted copy and adding an image that will explain the process.

For more information, please read: Discover the Chemistry Behind a Successful Landing Page [Infographic]

My presentation “The Chemistry of the Landing Page” has been seen by thousands of (lucky?) marketers and business people. I think it’s one of my best.
The reason I think it is so popular is that it’s different every time. Each time I do it, I critique a different bunch of actual landing pages.
I start off by boiling the process of building a landing page into five components. Then I show you what makes people leave. Attendees usually start kicking themselves when at this point in the presentation.
But the fun starts when we start applying this to real landing pages. Things always get interesting.
imageWould you like to have your landing page reviewed by me? I promise that I’m gentle.
But even if you end up feeling a little embarrassed about your page – and everyone does – wouldn’t more sales, leads and subscribers make it worth the discomfort?
I recommend you submit your page for my April 10 presentation right now.
http://conversci.com/LandingPageWebinar
We start at 2:00 pm EDT on Thursday, April 10. The Webinar will be recorded.
PEOPLE LOVE THE LIVE PAGE CRITIQUES. So will you. You’ll never look at another landing page the same way.
Here’s a little sample of the questions I’m going to tackle.

        

  • What is the one thing a landing page must get right?
  •     

  • How do you “show the product” when you offer a service or content for download?
  •     

  • What is “Abandon” and how do you get rid of it?
  •     

  • How do you “borrow trust” for your landing page?
  •     

  • What constitutes “proof?”

Won’t you join us? Even if you can’t attend live, register to see the replay, which will be recorded.
http://conversci.com/LandingPageWebinar
Let’s have some fun and make more sales.
Best regards,

Brian Massey, the Conversion Scientist

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