Landing Pages That Convert
It is very important when building landing pages that you consider your objectives. Below are some questions you should ask yourself before setting up a page if you want a page that converts:
What are you trying to accomplish?
If you are trying to pre-sale an offer, you need to take that into account. If you are just trying to generate a lead, you need to take that into account. Maybe you are direct linking; you need setup a 301 redirect. I’m always amazed at the lack of planning people put in their landing pages. If you are just producing a lead, you want to get the visitor off of the page as quickly as possible. Obviously, you need to make sure your page accomplishes this. If you are trying to make a pre-sale, you need to have a landing page that is going to make the sell. Whether this is by testimonials, information videos, etc. – you need to make sure you do all you can to sell the visitor.
Do you understand your product?
Before running any campaign, I do as much research as I can on the offer I’m trying to promote. If I need testimonials, I get testimonials. If I need informational videos, I find videos. Don’t be a thief and copy someone else’s page, put some work into it and you’ll enjoy the benefits of being original.
Is your page FTC compliant?
The Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on fake blogs, so you better make sure you aren’t making the stuff up. Get the advertiser to send you a free sample and find someone to try out the product. I don’t agree with what FTC is doing, but the last thing I want to do is fight the government. Get legitimate testimonials for your product and include them on your landing page. It isn’t that hard.
Are you violating any trademarks?
Oprah and Dr. Oz went after affiliates for using their likeliness on diet offers. Don’t say a celebrity endorses the product if they don’t. There are plenty of ways to avoid trademark violations and still make a lot of money. When in question, don’t risk it. The last thing I want to do is have some lengthy legal battle, I don’t have the time for that.
How does your landing page look?
I’ve touched on this in detail before, but make sure your page is professionally designed. If you can’t design, find a designer. Don’t throw a page online that looks like it was put together by a 3rd grader. It won’t work. Pay attention to how your landing page is laid out and make sure it is very easy to navigate.
These tips will keep your landing pages original and compliant. Two things that are very important and that will make you sleep much better at night.
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Good info here guys.
Also included in the how does your page look should be “how does your page look in different browsers”. It may look good in Firefox but be broken in IE. Make sure you check.
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Ryan says:
Very true PPCpimps. I learned this the hard way. Back in the day of ringtones I was wondering why my page had a terrible conversion rate. I loaded it up in Internet Explorer and noticed my javascript didn’t allow the carriers to be clicked. Fixed the page and conversions went wayyy up! So always check your landing page in Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and possibly a few more!
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John says:
I recently discovered a pretty useful tool in my Safari browser that allows you to do a lot of testing without opening up all the browsers. If you to the “Develop” tab at the top then go to “User Agent” you can switch your views between Safari, IE, Firefox and Opera. (Of course this is with the most up-to-date Safari version.)
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Richard says:
Yeah, this is something I neglected to mention. Test your pages in ALL browsers. Like Ryan said, this is a common mistake that many people have to learn the hard way. Just because a page looks fine in one browser, doesn’t mean it will look fine in another. Especially focus on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari because they are the most popular but still not a good idea to overlook the others.
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When I first go started I purchased 4 domain names with the trademark in the name. That was a big mistake. One of the companies had the affiliate network turn off my links and then they wanted to sue me if I didn’t release the url to them. They forgot about me when I removed the site and their company spiraled into near bankruptcy thank God.
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Ryan says:
Steve, that’s another biggie affiliates forget. Dr. Oz/Oprah went after almost every single domain name that contained their trademark. Also owning a professional wrestling website, I’ve had numerous friends that have been in big trouble with World Wrestling Entertainment for having “WWE” or wrestlers names in their domain.
So another landing page tip: DON’T USE TRADEMARKS IN YOUR DOMAIN NAME!
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Richard says:
That’s another good point Steve. You have to be careful with the wording of your domains. This is a problem that can be easily avoidable, but sometimes overlooked.
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Great article. FTC compliance is everything (at least when it comes to continuity programs). I work for an advertiser that owns premium Acai, ResV type products, and we work very closely with an FTC attorney at all times. I’ve met and talked to the REAL people who use our program and blog about it. The product arrives in a branded package with a CD & program guide. When more companies start taking a complete approach, affiliates could spend more time doing what they do best, and less time worrying about the FTC coming after them.
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Mullikin says:
Even though you have a valid point I am afraid that I must disagree. There no way the govenrment could run down all the advertisers.
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What do you use to test your landing pages? Do you use any services to do your a/b testing or multivariate testing? Which services work best or what is the process you use to create the most effective landing page?
Good info here guys.
Also included in the how does your page look should be “how does your page look in different browsers”. It may look good in Firefox but be broken in IE. Make sure you check.
Ryan says: Very true PPCpimps. I learned this the hard way. Back in the day of ringtones I was wondering why my page had a terrible conversion rate. I loaded it up in Internet Explorer and noticed my javascript didn’t allow the carriers to be clicked. Fixed the page and conversions went wayyy up! So always check your landing page in Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and possibly a few more!
John says: I recently discovered a pretty useful tool in my Safari browser that allows you to do a lot of testing without opening up all the browsers. If you to the “Develop” tab at the top then go to “User Agent” you can switch your views between Safari, IE, Firefox and Opera. (Of course this is with the most up-to-date Safari version.)
Richard says: Yeah, this is something I neglected to mention. Test your pages in ALL browsers. Like Ryan said, this is a common mistake that many people have to learn the hard way. Just because a page looks fine in one browser, doesn’t mean it will look fine in another. Especially focus on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari because they are the most popular but still not a good idea to overlook the others.
When I first go started I purchased 4 domain names with the trademark in the name. That was a big mistake. One of the companies had the affiliate network turn off my links and then they wanted to sue me if I didn’t release the url to them. They forgot about me when I removed the site and their company spiraled into near bankruptcy thank God.
Ryan says: Steve, that’s another biggie affiliates forget. Dr. Oz/Oprah went after almost every single domain name that contained their trademark. Also owning a professional wrestling website, I’ve had numerous friends that have been in big trouble with World Wrestling Entertainment for having “WWE” or wrestlers names in their domain.
So another landing page tip: DON’T USE TRADEMARKS IN YOUR DOMAIN NAME!
Richard says: That’s another good point Steve. You have to be careful with the wording of your domains. This is a problem that can be easily avoidable, but sometimes overlooked.
Great article. FTC compliance is everything (at least when it comes to continuity programs). I work for an advertiser that owns premium Acai, ResV type products, and we work very closely with an FTC attorney at all times. I’ve met and talked to the REAL people who use our program and blog about it. The product arrives in a branded package with a CD & program guide. When more companies start taking a complete approach, affiliates could spend more time doing what they do best, and less time worrying about the FTC coming after them.
Mullikin says: Even though you have a valid point I am afraid that I must disagree. There no way the govenrment could run down all the advertisers.
What do you use to test your landing pages? Do you use any services to do your a/b testing or multivariate testing? Which services work best or what is the process you use to create the most effective landing page?
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