Unfortunately, There were a number of unanswered questions that we wanted to be sure to address.

If you couldn’t attend, you can relive it here.

Questions we didn’t have time for. Answered.

About Social Media Icons on Landing Pages

There is always heated discussion around the use of social media icons on landing pages. We say, “Save them for the thank-you or receipt page.” One smart attendee asked if these wouldn’t qualify as trust symbols, which they can be, if the cost is not too low.

Teresa wanted to know if placing a Facebook comment widget on the page that didn’t take visitors away was OK. This widget can be a great source of social proof, if you’ve got people commenting. I’ve seen it used effectively on video sales pages for entrepreneurs with big lists. Most of us won’t have that kind of following, and so the widget can simply be a distraction or a resource for trolls.

We marked up several pages in our live landing page critiques.

About Generating Calls

Phil asked about his high-priced security product. His call center operates 7 days a week. Shouldn’t he focus on getting calls? We say, “Yes!” My partner on the call and fellow Conversion Scientist Joel Harvey is our “Lord of the Rings.” He makes the phone ring. Find out how to make the phone ring in my MarketingLand column.

Vicky asked what we thought about having a Live Chat button on a lead-generation landing page. We think that your prospects are going to be delighted to get instant access to someone who is knowledgeable. Conversion rates for live chat can be much higher than for completed forms. However, if you don’t have someone manning the live chat during appropriate hours, it may work against you.

About Landing Page Length

Moazzam asked about customers who are known to need more information before taking action. We say, “Put whatever you need on the landing page.” You may need a multi-page landing microsite to satisfy your methodical prospects, but in most cases, you can put all of the objection-handling content on the page. Use tabs, scrolling and even overlays to get the information to the visitor without letting them navigate away from your offer.

Bradley wanted us to speak to the value of brevity. We say that brevity for the sake of brevity isn’t helpful. Write as much as you need to in order to deal with objections and reduce abandonment. If your copy is boring or irrelevant, then brevity is your friend. Hire a copywriter and trust them.

Massimo asked if putting the call to action button below the fold impacted conversion. We often increase conversion rates by moving important elements, such as trust symbols, above the fold. For those who come ready to take action, put the button above the fold. This may not be the right thing to do for longer landing pages.

About Mobile Landing Pages

Kelly asked about having desktop and mobile landing pages. Is a responsive template that resizes dynamically a good idea. Dynamically responsive templates can be difficult to test. Visitors can change the look of the page simply by resizing their desktop. Visitors on tablets can get a desktop template, but have a very different experience from desktop viewers. We say, “Turn off the dynamic nature of the template while testing your landing pages.”

Myrtha asked the common question, “What is a good conversion rate.” The average ecommerce conversion rate is less than 2%, so a conversion rate over 5% is considered good. With the right traffic and a great offer and lots of repeat visitors and a well-known brand, conversion rates over 15% are expected. Myrtha, a better question is, “What is my acquisition cost?” Divide the number of new customers by the cost of generating the traffic, and you can see how your conversion rate is affecting your business.

About Video on Landing Pages

During our discussion of video on a landing page, Mike asked, “How do scribble or text-based videos do?” We actually did an eye-tracking study of landing page video. To learn some of what we learned, watch our mini-course on Business Video.

Ronald asked if a landing page video should ask the viewer to “click here.” The answer is, “Yes.” Landing page video is most effective when it addresses the offer on the page, and includes calls to action. Remember that lighting and audio are always important in video.

Eric wanted to know if videos should start automatically. This is something that changes from page to page. Auto-start video frequently tests best, but we suggest only autoplay video if the ad or link to the landing page promised a video. This is “playing it safe.” Steve asked about on-screen spokes-model video, the kind that seems to walk around on your page. We’ve seen autoplay work here as well in one situation.

About Other Kinds of Landing Pages

Casey asked if the home page could be considered a landing page for a site that sells multiple products. We say, “Nope.” The job of a home page is to get visitors off of the home page (thanks Tim Ash) and into the site. The job of a landing page is to keep people on the page until they take action. Treat your home page as a multiple-choice question and your product pages as landing pages.

Sérgio asked about B2B catalog ecommerce businesses, like restaurant and hotel supplies. If you’ve done your ads and SEO right, the primary landing pages are going to be the category pages and the individual product pages. The product pages in particular should follow our rules for landing pages: Minimize distractions (like navigation), build trust, offer proof, show the product and provide all the information necessary for the visitor to take action. The call to action is almost always “Add to Cart” or “Add to Basket.” These are great offers.

Steve asked about landing pages for our email subscribers. Should landing pages that offer new content ask for contact info, even if we already have it? We say, “Not necessarily.” If your personalized landing pages can track visitors individually, it’s better to learn something new about them.

Dave wanted to know what image we would recommend on a landing page that is offering a newsletter. We say, “Show them a copy of an issue or two, even if the newsletter is strictly electronic. The image at right is for a weekly newsletter that we offer called For Further Study. It’s just a screen grab of one of our emails.

Thomas noticed that our examples used in our critiques didn’t seem to be optimized for search. Landing pages don’t need to be optimized for search traffic. They serve ads, links and emails. They are often not part of a larger corporate site. A landing page is designed to single-mindedly keep the promise made in an ad or email and to get the visitor to take action. SEO isn’t important in this case.

Angie Schottmuller asked about what makes a compelling testimonial on a landing page. She mentions including a photo of the testifier, dates of engagement, location of testifier and targeting testimonials to a certain persona. These are all good ideas. I’d ad this: summarize the most important point in the testimonial quote.

Enjoy the recorded version of the full presentation.

Thanks to the brave souls who submitted their landing pages for review.

One of my favorite online videos of all time imagines how Microsoft might have re-designed the original iPod packaging. The comments on YouTube indicate that this was actually made by Microsoft to illustrate the problem with Microsoft’s policies.

MS iPod Parody

Landing Pages go through the same process and end up completely missing their intended purpose.
Done right, they keep the promise made by an ad, email or link.
Done right, they single-mindedly get visitors to take action.
Done right, they make the effective cost of your advertising shrink.
Done right, they focus on an offer and not the company that produced them.
However, many of them don’t deliver. It’s frustrating and maddening.
There is hope.
Our friends at Unbounce, the landing page Kings, have asked me and fellow Conversion Scientist Joel Harvey to explain how to get to “Done right.”
in our presentation The Chemistry of the Landing Page, we show you how to build a landing page backward and are going to critique a number of pages live online.
Several brave souls allowed us to critique their site as a part of the presentation. Watch now as submissions close on Thursday.

This is my presentation setup. Click to enlarge.

There is a recipe for landing pages that will work for you over and over. It involves a finite number of elements.

• A specific actionable Offer.
• A Form or button that gives the visitor a way to take action.
• Something that builds Trust.
• Proof that you are credible.
• A picture of the product or service. Yes, I said a picture of the service.
• Design that guides the eye to the important elements and makes the page easy to consume.

However, the most important feature of a landing page is a whole lot of nothing – nothing that isn’t supporting the offer, enabling action, building trust, providing proof or showing the offer.
Anything else is creating Abandonment.
We’ll talk about the problem of Abandonment and how your landing pages are giving visitors unnecessary opportunities to flee.

Ample Schadenfreude

We pick a few pages submitted by brave viewers for a live critique, applying the landing page formula.
This is not to be missed.
We have a lot of fun with these critiques and you will too. It’s perhaps the best way to get good at constructing landing pages.

Here’s a freebie just for reading

Here’s an example of how easy it is to apply landing page chemistry to the question, “Should we put social media icons on our landing pages?”
Is the primary page offer to like, friend or follow? Do the icons build trust or credibility? Do they create an opportunity for visitors to delay their action or abandon the page altogether?
For most landing pages, social media icons are a bad idea. They make visitors delay taking action and really don’t support the offer with trust or proof.
Save social media icons for the “Thank you” page.
Watch the complete presentation.