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Landing Pages

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What is a landing page?
A landing page is a custom page that visitors are directed to once they have clicked on a link, usually from an outside source such as an advertisement. The page is usually focused on a particular product or service, with the aim of a sale. Landing pages are a great way to increase conversions by creating customized pages for your major products/services.

Your landing page is your front line for making a vistor stay and return at a later time.

Below are some obstacles you will face along the way & the reasons why:

• Fill out a form - Instrusive and time consuming
  
• Provide personal details - Spam has become a huge problem for legitamite advertisers such as yourself
  
• Buy something - This is not the place to blast an ad
  
• Read a lot of information - Reading information at long lengths is a turn off to potential customers
  

So Then What Is The Plan?
The idea is to try and put yourself in the customers shoes:

Most visitors come to your landing page and read everything they see. They come to find quick answers and scan your page for clues that they have come to the right place. Typically the train of thought behind a customer is:

• Is this the right place?
• Is this how I imagined it would be?
• Should I click the back button?
• Does this look trustworthy?
• How much time is this going to take?

We need to establish a virtual realtionship with our potential customer. We need to provide them with the information they seek quickly and effectively. We also need to reach only the people interested in our product or services. The only way to do so this is to research. A little demographic research goes a long way. Figure out what your visitor is looking for and what offers work. Build a profile of your ideal visitor. Keep this person in mind when creating your landing page. Do not construct the page for anyone else - generic and broad pages are proven to fail - and keep everything on target. Your ad campaign already funnels traffic to your landing page, so visitors are expecting a very targeted message. Tailor the pages to them.

Stay On Target
If we put ads or links in the wrong spot our vistiors might click themselves away from our site. Make sure you have your link set in the right locations so that your site is not being used to simply upsell another product for someone else. Be confident about your product and service and put it out there for everyone to notice. Make it the center of attention on your site keeping the visitor informed and ultimately interested in what you have to offer. People who have arrived at this page are expecting a very targeted message, so be sure that you give this to them. Remember they found your page through some sort of advertisement or link, so make sure your prepared for their arrival.

How To Be Eye Catching
Use typography and color to your advantage. Lead the eye along the page towards the conversion. The use of whitespace, large copy and graphics can make a long page seem much shorter than it really is. But be sure not to go to the other side of the spectrum with a very large image as they will demand a lot of eye time and if misplaced will convey the wrong message. The use of the bold tag can take your site to the next level. It will allow potential buyers to scan your page wuickly and get the genral idea. Make sure these keywords make sense. Try to keep a flow of keywords and if possible make a sentance of out them as if the readerwas only reading the bold words.

Technical Issues
Face it, if it does not work people will not be interested. Try and give examples and testimonials if possible. Keep your customer confident that your product is worth their time. Another issue is getting this product be sure your submission forms, download links, and/or any other aspects of your website are in working order and allow your customer to get to the product or service without error. We need to show off our site when dealing with the technical foundation of a site. If it does not work or does not look right it will drive a visitor away almost instantly. Also be sure that if your product requires technical assitance that you have a dedicated staff to respond effectively and politely.

Thank You?
As simple as it sounds many websites do not thank the user for visting their site. Remember the customer is always right and you need to respect the views of the visitor. We need to make sure they understand that we appreciate their time and honestly enjoy helping them. Customer service has gone south over the last ten years and many see this as a great selling point for you and your company. Use it to your advantage.

Conclusion
A landing page is one the most cost efficent ways to improve your conversion ratio. A properly designed landing page can increase sales at no cost to you. I hope this article has kept you the reader informed on what todays surfer is looking for when they hit a landing page. A very important issue in this article is to not confuse a landing page with a home page. Both serve a very specific purpose and should each play their role on your site. The common factor in each is to keep your visitors coming back and enjoying your site and hopefully increase your sales.

Article Written & Owned by: Nerd Lib Software Labs