September 23 2013 Keep It Simple When Creating Powerful Landing Pages for Your Campaigns Attracting your customers’ attention online is a challenge. Once you’ve engaged them, you don’t want to lose your opportunity. By creating a landing page that is simple yet strategic, your message will resonate with your audience because you’re not overloading people with too many messages. Psychological studies show that too many choices and too much information can paralyze customers. Keep your message and action items focused sharply on your campaign and your landing page will be more effective. Here’s how to do it. Clean up your design. Once a customer reaches your landing page, they have tunnel vision. Avoid distractions such as site navigation and attempts to cross-sell. Use this landing page for the simple, singular purpose of conversion, and support your mission with a design that makes your point obvious. Your customers will appreciate the clarity. Write a punchy headline. A ho-hum headline is like a weak, clammy handshake—unappealing. Be confident in what you’re selling on this landing page and use authoritative, action-oriented words that keep customers interested. Also, be sure to do your SEO keyword research ahead of time and optimize the headline accordingly. Present concise, actionable content. Make your pitch with a bulleted list of informative content that tells your customers exactly what they need to know and how they can act on it. Edit your content aggressively to remove the fat of unnecessary verbiage and leave customers with a trim chunk of Grade A information. Include a visual payoff. Don’t just tell them, show them! You typically get one chance to share an image with your audience so choose one that accurately represents what you’re selling. Eye-catching photos and unique angles can sell your product or service more effectively than your written content. Invest some time in finding the perfect image. Provide a clear call-to-action or embedded form. Your customers are ready to act on your message. Now is the time to lead them to action, and then get out of their way with a clear directive or form. Think about the moment you’re ready to commit to something online and you can’t quickly figure out the next step. Few elements of an online interaction are more frustrating so only ask what you absolutely need to know. Use tracking code. When you add tracking code to your landing page, you can see how your audience interacts with the page and its linked content. Use this information to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, including any pay-per-click campaign designed to deliver visitors to your landing page. Perform A/B testing, if possible. If you have the budget available, A/B testing can help you create the most effective landing page possible. Changing a few words or using a different image can change the impact of your landing page and, ultimately, your ability to convert leads. Use the testing to find out what resonates with your audience. Understand your audience. Design your landing page to cater to the device your audience will use most often to access the page. A responsive design provides an all-inclusive solution for any device, but if you’re running a strictly mobile campaign, make sure you use the proper design specs. If your landing page is part of a targeted pay-per-click campaign, you will benefit from incorporating the geographic location of your audience, too. Launch, monitor and improve. Landing page projects don’t end with launch. Analyze your landing page’s performance and then adjust elements of the page that aren’t helping you convert. The information you glean will help you create more effective landing pages for future campaigns, too. Ready to create a landing page that delivers a better return on investment? Contact ZAG Interactive today and our team of developers, marketers and strategists will tailor a solution for your next campaign. Landing Pages & Microsites posted by Michelle Brown VP of Sales & Marketing Share this article ZAG Interactive is a full-service digital agency in Glastonbury, CT, offering website design, development, marketing and digital strategy to clients nationwide. See current job openings.