How To Create An Effective Landing Page

How To Create An Effective Landing Page
Driving traffic from PPC (pay-per-click), an email campaign
or any advertisement to your home page is a mistake.

Sending your prospects to your homepage (which is filled
with so many different options) and hoping they take action
is a recipe for disaster.

You want to drive your traffic to a landing page that
focuses on conversion. Your landing page should be
independent of your main website, and its sole purpose
should be converting traffic.

A landing page is focused on a single action that you want
visitors to take ' with the theme or topic of that page
being relevant to the keyword or topic of the PPC ad, email
campaign etc.

Warning: This list may seem a little long, but each point
is very important to the creation of an effective landing
page.

Here are some key points to consider when creating your
landing pages:

Many visitors will scan your entire site before deciding
whether to read your copy. So you must design your landing
page with scanners in mind. Do your headline and subheads
tell your story?

Go through your copy and reading only the headlines and
subheads to make sure they are compelling.

Typically Landing pages work best when designed as a single
column. However, please test this theory for yourself.

Remove any navigation elements. Your regular navigation
will just serve as a distraction. You want to keep the
prospect moving forward, and not have the eyes wandering
all over the page.

Graphics and copy unrelated to the offer can be a
distraction and interrupt the flow through your Landing
page.

Keep your critical elements "above the fold." Research
shows you have anywhere from 3 - 8 seconds to convince
users to stay on your site. What they see must convince
them they are in the right place and give them a reason to
stay.

Make sure your call to action is above the fold.

Your call to action should be repeated for each full screen
view that the user sees while scrolling through the page.

Above the fold is also the best place for your product
image. Images work best to the left of text.

The headline may be the only thing your visitors read. This
makes your headline vitally important. Your headline should
be compelling and match the message from the PPC ad, email
campaign etc that drove your visitor to your Landing page.

Subheads should be included for every major information
point. This will break up copy and make it easier to read.

Bullet points are essential for any lists.

Never ask for more information than you absolutely need
when asking people to opt-in. Make sure the information you
are requesting is relevant and tell the user why it is
relevant.

Having a visible privacy policy next to any form copy will
also help.

Your "Submit" button is the final step people have to take.
Make the text compelling. "Submit" is not compelling. Try
"Give Me My Free Report" or "Yes, I Want My Free Report."

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Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing and co-owner
of http://www.ecombuffet.com Since 1998, her expertise in
online marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has
helped clients increase revenue and achieve their business
goals. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on Search
Engine Optimization and has been published in many SEO and
marketing publications. Jennifer can be reached at
Jennifer@ecombuffet.com