5 dull Landing killers
- Transfer
- Recovery mode
Recently, I noticed an active increase in the number of creative landing pages, as well as the emergence of new strategies to increase conversion. Over time, the landing pages were quite similar - the title, several triggers, and the application form.
They were boring, dull and often ineffective. You can do split testing of the placement of the title and change the colors of the transition buttons at least until the end of the century, and not get a significant increase in conversion. Radical changes in approach and disruptive innovations are needed that will truly amaze the imagination.
We have entered a new era of landing page optimization. Designers, professional marketers, SEO optimizers, CRO, UX experts and other specialists have combined their collective wisdom to develop a new type of landing pages that go beyond the standard framework and defy traditional logic. These will be the landing pages of the future.
Here are some of the innovative elements in landing page optimization that I think signal the start of a new era in landing page design.
Common sense: use one quality call to action;
New Strategy: Use multiple calls to action throughout the landing page. By placing a call to action after each trigger, you increase the likelihood of conversion at various points throughout the page.
It might seem that using multiple calls to action should confuse the user. But this will not happen if everything is done correctly.
First of all, let me tell you about the wrong way:
You should not have different methods for calling to action. In other words, the goal should be only one;
Do not ask the user to simultaneously subscribe to the newsletter, like Facebook, get a free trial version and buy your product;
Do not do this under any circumstances. One action! Only one action!
Even if you have several different calls to action, they all have to perform the same function.
Adding more calls to action may increase your likelihood of conversion. Below you can find examples of how the multiple call to action technique is used.
Long landing pages
Placing several calls to action on a short page in most cases leads to zero result. Most often, pages on which you can find several calls to action occupy more than one screen in length.
Parallax effect
Pages with parallax effect or dynamic elements can increase the efficiency of the landing page, since each section of the page can include its own landing page inside the main site. The section that the user sees at a given time may have its own title, image, advantage and a separate call to action.
Smoothness of narration
The most sensible way to use multiple calls to action is to place them according to your user's mindset. For example, everything that the user sees in the first block of the landing page, namely the image, title and text, as a rule answer the question “What is this service or product about?”. For some impulsive users, this information is enough to carry out the target action, and usually these guys do not like to read. You do not want to force them to do this? Therefore, the right strategy would be to place a call to action on this part of the page.
If the user is not yet ready for the action, he scrolls the page down to the next section. This section answers the question: “How can this solve my problem?” Again, after convincing content there should be a call to action. There is a possibility that the user will order at this moment. If not, then there is an additional section below that draws attention to additional advantages - cost, warranty, comparison, etc. Each section has its own separate call to action.
Let’s take a look and evaluate this technique using several landing pages as an example.
Basecamp's landing page looks like a non-scroll page with a bold title and a BIG order button:
But in fact, their landing page is much longer.
Each section of the landing page has a separate call to action button. Three large buttons make it possible to attract the user to the order at any given point on the landing page.
The appearance of the Dell landing page for storage drives shows a similar approach. The innocuous “Learn More” text is not the strongest call to action I've seen, but you can find it more than 15 times on one page.
Landing pages with many calls to action increase the chance of ordering. The more intuitively and intelligently these calls are posted, the better.
Common sense: make your landing page short;
New strategy: to fill with a large amount of information in order to fully answer all user questions, provide guarantees, and give him all the necessary information to complete the order.
The idea of short landing pages is to reduce the time for reflection. If the text is convincing and concise enough, then the landing page will be effective.
But this does not always work. Perhaps users want more information before they can apply. Maybe the whole idea of the landing page is to give the user everything he needs to know before registering, buying, or sending an email address.
During A / B testing, we found that full-page landing page performance is 220% higher than a short page with the same appeal:
Long landing pages have an inherent SEO advantage due to their extensive content. In addition, they provide you with the opportunity to use a wide range of tools to convince the user, which ultimately increases the chance of converting a visitor to a client.
There are different approaches to convincing different customers. There are three main types of buyers - wasteful, mean and doubtful. It’s important to create a landing page that contains content that satisfies every customer.
Image from www.helpscout.net/resources/consumer-behavior
Conversion Rate Experts experts created a landing page for Moz that was used effectively for millions of dollars in sales. And here's what they said:
“We've been creating a page long enough to tell a whole story. Among Internet marketers, there is a popular myth “long pages don't sell.” These people find it much more important to have short pages that don't require scrolling. What we found in many conversations with our customers around the world is this: it’s not how big your landing page is, but how attractive it is. ”
When the Conversion Rate Experts finished redesigning the Moz landing page, she became 6 times longer than the original.
And she became ten times more effective.
The Kindle landing page is huge. If you have any questions about the Kindle, you can find the answers to all these questions on their landing page.
Common sense: landing pages should be as simple as possible to understand.
New strategy: add visual elements, attract user attention, increase page efficiency.
The lack of visual content on the page will adversely affect the response of users. The simple truth is that your visitors love beautiful things. If the landing page is unattractive, then the user might think that the product itself will be the same. In turn, if the landing page has several visual enhancements, then they perfectly affect the user's reaction.
VW.com uses landing pages with many visual elements. This company sells cars, and it is important for their customers to know how they look. Check out the photos on this landing page.
The “Scripted” landing page is more like an infographic than the landing page:
Dell Inspiron does not offer virtual services, but a real device, so it becomes clear that people want to see the product before buying. That is why the Inspiron landing page has a large, high-quality and clearly visible image, as well as various additional photographs taken from various angles.
I also found that the video is part of the engaging page. Vidyard recently inserted a test video on its page, which ultimately led to a 100% increase in conversion.
Challenger “D” - lightbox video.
Challenger “H” - video in the embedded frame.
Challenger “J” - version of the page without video.
Images and videos are an important part of the sales process. Landing pages exist not just to talk about your product. They are part of a sales funnel. Without images and high-quality design, landing pages become unconvincing.
Common sense: the only goal of a landing page is the motivation to fill out a form or send an e-mail.
New strategy: interacting with the user you attract attention, which leads to increased conversions.
When I think about landing page optimization, the first thing that comes to mind is the interactive elements. By interactive elements, I mean elements with which the user must interact, and these are not only sliders and scrolling effects. I would add videos to this list, especially those that are launched with the click of a mouse.
There are many more ways to get your visitor to interact with your landing page. Give your visitors the opportunity to click and choose something, this will allow you to engage the user in working with your site.
CommVault uses an interactive calculator on its landing page:
Invitation to calculate the cost without an explicit sale is the classic way to promote a customer on a sales funnel.
Common sense: Each landing page should have a headline, a sentence, and a set of benefits.
New strategy: use one subversive technique to increase conversion.
I usually do not recommend the use of short landing page technology, but I have seen some examples where they are extremely effective.
My personal site, Neilpatel.com, is concise but very effective. Using less than fifty words, one image and one fill color, I’ve multiplied my conversion rate.
Simplicity is the main thing.
I support the idea of long landing pages, but only for some types of conversion activities.
“CrazyEgg” tested the same model - the shortest landing page.
On this page there are all the elements necessary to immediately carry out the target action. Everything is so simple and clear that the user has no choice but to perform the target action.
For example, Optimizely use a similar technique. Short and simple.
There is no such thing as an ideal landing page formula. What used to be accepted as a standard is now being destroyed by powerful innovations.
But even in the modern world and in the process of developing landing pages, the new is not necessarily the best. For example, in this article, I suggested both short and long landing pages. And which of these options is better?
The right decision depends on your product or service, your customer, and the task of the page. The right decision should always be strategic, and should never be stereotyped.
My advice is to go beyond the bounds of template thinking, experiment, discover the unknown force of innovative tools (and do not forget about A / B testing ).
Best regards, Generate.club and Multi-landing project team
They were boring, dull and often ineffective. You can do split testing of the placement of the title and change the colors of the transition buttons at least until the end of the century, and not get a significant increase in conversion. Radical changes in approach and disruptive innovations are needed that will truly amaze the imagination.
We have entered a new era of landing page optimization. Designers, professional marketers, SEO optimizers, CRO, UX experts and other specialists have combined their collective wisdom to develop a new type of landing pages that go beyond the standard framework and defy traditional logic. These will be the landing pages of the future.
Here are some of the innovative elements in landing page optimization that I think signal the start of a new era in landing page design.
1. Multiple Calls to Action
Common sense: use one quality call to action;
New Strategy: Use multiple calls to action throughout the landing page. By placing a call to action after each trigger, you increase the likelihood of conversion at various points throughout the page.
It might seem that using multiple calls to action should confuse the user. But this will not happen if everything is done correctly.
First of all, let me tell you about the wrong way:
You should not have different methods for calling to action. In other words, the goal should be only one;
Do not ask the user to simultaneously subscribe to the newsletter, like Facebook, get a free trial version and buy your product;
Do not do this under any circumstances. One action! Only one action!
Even if you have several different calls to action, they all have to perform the same function.
Adding more calls to action may increase your likelihood of conversion. Below you can find examples of how the multiple call to action technique is used.
Long landing pages
Placing several calls to action on a short page in most cases leads to zero result. Most often, pages on which you can find several calls to action occupy more than one screen in length.
Parallax effect
Pages with parallax effect or dynamic elements can increase the efficiency of the landing page, since each section of the page can include its own landing page inside the main site. The section that the user sees at a given time may have its own title, image, advantage and a separate call to action.
Smoothness of narration
The most sensible way to use multiple calls to action is to place them according to your user's mindset. For example, everything that the user sees in the first block of the landing page, namely the image, title and text, as a rule answer the question “What is this service or product about?”. For some impulsive users, this information is enough to carry out the target action, and usually these guys do not like to read. You do not want to force them to do this? Therefore, the right strategy would be to place a call to action on this part of the page.
If the user is not yet ready for the action, he scrolls the page down to the next section. This section answers the question: “How can this solve my problem?” Again, after convincing content there should be a call to action. There is a possibility that the user will order at this moment. If not, then there is an additional section below that draws attention to additional advantages - cost, warranty, comparison, etc. Each section has its own separate call to action.
Let’s take a look and evaluate this technique using several landing pages as an example.
Basecamp's landing page looks like a non-scroll page with a bold title and a BIG order button:
But in fact, their landing page is much longer.
Each section of the landing page has a separate call to action button. Three large buttons make it possible to attract the user to the order at any given point on the landing page.
The appearance of the Dell landing page for storage drives shows a similar approach. The innocuous “Learn More” text is not the strongest call to action I've seen, but you can find it more than 15 times on one page.
Landing pages with many calls to action increase the chance of ordering. The more intuitively and intelligently these calls are posted, the better.
2. Full format content
Common sense: make your landing page short;
New strategy: to fill with a large amount of information in order to fully answer all user questions, provide guarantees, and give him all the necessary information to complete the order.
The idea of short landing pages is to reduce the time for reflection. If the text is convincing and concise enough, then the landing page will be effective.
But this does not always work. Perhaps users want more information before they can apply. Maybe the whole idea of the landing page is to give the user everything he needs to know before registering, buying, or sending an email address.
During A / B testing, we found that full-page landing page performance is 220% higher than a short page with the same appeal:
Long landing pages have an inherent SEO advantage due to their extensive content. In addition, they provide you with the opportunity to use a wide range of tools to convince the user, which ultimately increases the chance of converting a visitor to a client.
There are different approaches to convincing different customers. There are three main types of buyers - wasteful, mean and doubtful. It’s important to create a landing page that contains content that satisfies every customer.
Image from www.helpscout.net/resources/consumer-behavior
Conversion Rate Experts experts created a landing page for Moz that was used effectively for millions of dollars in sales. And here's what they said:
“We've been creating a page long enough to tell a whole story. Among Internet marketers, there is a popular myth “long pages don't sell.” These people find it much more important to have short pages that don't require scrolling. What we found in many conversations with our customers around the world is this: it’s not how big your landing page is, but how attractive it is. ”
When the Conversion Rate Experts finished redesigning the Moz landing page, she became 6 times longer than the original.
And she became ten times more effective.
The Kindle landing page is huge. If you have any questions about the Kindle, you can find the answers to all these questions on their landing page.
3. Strong visual benefits
Common sense: landing pages should be as simple as possible to understand.
New strategy: add visual elements, attract user attention, increase page efficiency.
The lack of visual content on the page will adversely affect the response of users. The simple truth is that your visitors love beautiful things. If the landing page is unattractive, then the user might think that the product itself will be the same. In turn, if the landing page has several visual enhancements, then they perfectly affect the user's reaction.
VW.com uses landing pages with many visual elements. This company sells cars, and it is important for their customers to know how they look. Check out the photos on this landing page.
The “Scripted” landing page is more like an infographic than the landing page:
Dell Inspiron does not offer virtual services, but a real device, so it becomes clear that people want to see the product before buying. That is why the Inspiron landing page has a large, high-quality and clearly visible image, as well as various additional photographs taken from various angles.
I also found that the video is part of the engaging page. Vidyard recently inserted a test video on its page, which ultimately led to a 100% increase in conversion.
Challenger “D” - lightbox video.
Challenger “H” - video in the embedded frame.
Challenger “J” - version of the page without video.
Images and videos are an important part of the sales process. Landing pages exist not just to talk about your product. They are part of a sales funnel. Without images and high-quality design, landing pages become unconvincing.
4. Interactive elements
Common sense: the only goal of a landing page is the motivation to fill out a form or send an e-mail.
New strategy: interacting with the user you attract attention, which leads to increased conversions.
When I think about landing page optimization, the first thing that comes to mind is the interactive elements. By interactive elements, I mean elements with which the user must interact, and these are not only sliders and scrolling effects. I would add videos to this list, especially those that are launched with the click of a mouse.
There are many more ways to get your visitor to interact with your landing page. Give your visitors the opportunity to click and choose something, this will allow you to engage the user in working with your site.
CommVault uses an interactive calculator on its landing page:
Invitation to calculate the cost without an explicit sale is the classic way to promote a customer on a sales funnel.
5. As short as possible
Common sense: Each landing page should have a headline, a sentence, and a set of benefits.
New strategy: use one subversive technique to increase conversion.
I usually do not recommend the use of short landing page technology, but I have seen some examples where they are extremely effective.
My personal site, Neilpatel.com, is concise but very effective. Using less than fifty words, one image and one fill color, I’ve multiplied my conversion rate.
Simplicity is the main thing.
I support the idea of long landing pages, but only for some types of conversion activities.
“CrazyEgg” tested the same model - the shortest landing page.
On this page there are all the elements necessary to immediately carry out the target action. Everything is so simple and clear that the user has no choice but to perform the target action.
For example, Optimizely use a similar technique. Short and simple.
Conclusion
There is no such thing as an ideal landing page formula. What used to be accepted as a standard is now being destroyed by powerful innovations.
But even in the modern world and in the process of developing landing pages, the new is not necessarily the best. For example, in this article, I suggested both short and long landing pages. And which of these options is better?
The right decision depends on your product or service, your customer, and the task of the page. The right decision should always be strategic, and should never be stereotyped.
My advice is to go beyond the bounds of template thinking, experiment, discover the unknown force of innovative tools (and do not forget about A / B testing ).
Best regards, Generate.club and Multi-landing project team