2008-Jun-21 - Intro To Landing Pages (Report)
Introduction to Landing Pages
Before you begin the attempt to build a successful list or create a powerful salespage, you will want to start with a rigorous introduction to landing pages. In stark contrast to undifferentiated, unfocused home pages, landing pages focus specifically on capturing leads for a newsletter or making sales for a specific product – and make no attempt to give visitors a different option.
Another word which is used for a landing page when it functions for the specific purpose of capturing leads is “squeeze page.” A squeeze page is a page designed to get names and email addresses. Usually, however, a squeeze page is usually a smaller type of landing page, which usually has an opt-in form in sight when the page loads.
So what is important to learn in an introduction to landing pages? First, it is important to recognize that all successful marketers use these. If you plan to sell a product over the Internet, you will want to use one, too, rather than relying on sidebar opt-in forms and unfocused pages that do not convey a single point and a single call to action.
Another important thing you will want to take away from this introduction to landing pages is that every landing page contains the same parts and is focused on a SINGLE goal – getting the visitor to become a subscriber or buyer.
These parts are as follows: an opt-in form (or sales prompt), a brief or lengthy introduction, a picture of the list/product owner, the signature of the list owner, and a call to action (or multiple calls to action).
Determining which model will work best for you can simply only be done through testing. While many boast a conversion and attribute it to the shortness of their introduction (many will be one short paragraph), otherwise will boast a high conversion rate because they use lengthy, thorough, and compelling copy. Jimmy D. Brown's list and traffic, for instance, has an unbelievably high opt-in rate, but he uses lengthy copy.
If there is anything you absolutely must take away from an introduction to landing pages, it is that you cannot create a landing page or squeeze page that isn't focused.
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The Landing Page System
The landing page system provides a uniquely powerful system through which you can derive profit from multiple streams. This article will briefly discusses some of those different streams – and how you can manipulate them.
Let's start with the landing page itself: all traffic is sent to the landing page. From there, it will have a number of options, depending on what you have given them. Many marketers suggest that your landing page should always be an opt-in form. Others will suggest that it should simply be a salespage.
Whether it's a free newsletter or a product for sale, the landing page system you create should include a “one time offer,” which will compel them to take action – subscribe, buy, etc.
Once they subscribe or buy, the landing page system you create should then re-route them to a thank you page, which opens up more means through which you can upsell. One quick way to upsell is to simply include advertisements on your thank you page for related affiliate products or for your own products. Here, again, you will want to give them a one-time offer.
Also, if you haven't yet asked them to join your mailing list, this is where you should do it – on your thank you page. Once they opt-in to your list, you now have a whole new options you can use in conjunction with the landing page system to generate revenue.
One such option is selling ad space in your newsletter or ezine. The more people you have reading your newsletter, the more you can generally charge for adspace; however, you will want to avoid overselling to your list to ensure your advertisers actually make money.
Your next option is to endorse a product as an affiliate. You can tell your subscribers how someone has just created a brilliant product – and you can offer it to your subscribers through an affiliate link. You may even want to use other products you have has bonuses to give them something extra.
The last and most profitable way in which you can generate revenue through your newsletter is by creating and selling your own products to them.
It is important to note that you don't have to use all of these means to generate revenue; however, the more you use, the more you earn in general.
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What You Need Before Getting Started
Before you get started building your landing page, you will need a number of things to a) make your offer actually have a point; and b) facilitate the creation of your landing page.
One thing you absolutely must have before you get started is an autoresponder. Without any autoresponder, you are tossing potential bags of money in the garbage. Rather than creating a relationship with customers and potential customers – and giving yourself the opportunity to attempt future upsales -- you're allowing them to leave and never return.
In addition to an autoresponder, you will need to have an actual offer that people want to buy. You may want to develop a product, such as an ebook or a piece of software. If you don't have the skills to do either, you can always hire a professional to do it for you through elance.com or guru.com. You will then either want to sell this product and attempt to get subscribers from your thank you page – or you will want to get subscribers by offering the product for free (which is what many Internet marketers now do).
Another thing you absolutely must have before you get started is a check out service. You may want to consider Google Check Out, Paypal, a Shopping Cart Service, Click Bank, Sale Flurry, or 2 Check Out. All of these services will allow you to make transactions quickly.
Another thing you must have before you get started is a set of graphics, which usually includes a graphic header, a check out button, background wallpaper, and
a half-decent picture of yourself. You can probably provide the picture of yourself, but you might want to hire a professional to do the rest.
Another thing you will need before you can get started on your landing page is some way in which to create a realistic signature. Http://www.vletter.com is probably your best bet; but, if you're on a budget, you may want to opt for simply using a wordprocessing program.
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Planning Your Landing Page Theme
Perhaps the most important part of creating a landing page is planning your landing page theme. How you select your theme, of course, will all depend on how you plan to generate traffic.
If you decide to generate traffic through search engine optimization, planning your landing page theme will entail finding phrases within your niche which have a high demand (aggregate search value) and a low supply (small amount of competing sites) and then creating multiple landing pages, each which is optimized around a different phrase.
If, on the other hand, you decide to generate traffic through pay per click (PPC) programs, such as Adwords, planning your landing page theme will again entail tuning a number of different pages to fit the keywords you are purchasing.
This is actually where most people fail when they create a landing page: they don't tune it to fit a specific audience. For instance, in the case of a squeeze page for a newsletter, they might start a newsletter about toys, but they only create one landing page and send all traffic to it. This is a big mistake.
Chances are, if you create a quality product or newsletter, it can benefit a number of people. So why not communicate the exact benefits they will derive from subscribing or buying? If, for instance, you have a newsletter about legos and toy blocks, so you group it under the loose heading of “toys,” a visitor who is looking specifically for information about either legos or toy blocks will click off your page if they don't see the direct connection to the exact topic for which they were searching.
Instead, you will want to setup a page centered around legos and a page centered around toy blocks. On each page, you will want to communicate the specific benefits to joining the list for each of those groups of visitors.
Going one step further, in addition to planning your landing page theme, if you are creating a landing page for a newsletter, you may also want to segment your list, so you can send information specifically about legos to those who request it – and information about blocks to those who request it.
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How to Write a Landing Page that Converts
Most people have no idea how to write a landing page that converts. Instead, they slop together elements that they have seen used in other landing pages – but usually do not put them together in the same way the owner of the successful landing page did.
One major problem is copy. And that's fine. Not everyone is going to be an excellent writer – nevermind a copywriter. But as someone selling a product or trying to build a list, it is important that you know your strengths and weaknesses – and that you either spend the time to overcome them or hire someone else to do it for you.
With copywriting, for instance, it is important to use a mix of compelling sales points with powerful psychological triggers. Most people who create a salespage miss either one or both of those elements.
For instance, they might concentrate so much on building hype that they don't actually explain what solution they are providing – and for whom they are providing it. If I don't have a specific problem that your product solves, why would I buy it? I wouldn't.
Now, if they fail to sprinkle in psychological triggers, such as “scientifically proven,” “guaranteed,” and “shocking,” no one will feel compelled to continue reading, as the benefits will have a low or average perceived value.
In addition to these two problems, some salespages lack coherency and direction. The copy looks amateurish and it doesn't slowly grind forward, breaking down the visitor's resistance to the sale – and compelling him or her to buy more and more at each sales point.
Additionally, if there aren't multiple calls to action – another form of psychological trigger – then a potential visitor might never feel compelled enough to pull out his or her credit card on the spot and make the purchase.
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Tips on Increasing Your Landing Page Conversion Rate
There are three major ways in which you can create your landing page conversion rate. All landing pages created by professionals usually include these three elements at a few others.
The first way in which you can increase your conversion rate is through personalization. This is usually done in two ways: the first way is by providing a photo of yourself. The second way is by adding your signature to the bottom of your landing page. This radically increases visitors' trust. Most people who resist buying products online do so because they're weary of getting scammed by a faceless liar, who wont be around when they need help or when they need to return the product. By adding your picture and signature, you can gain visitors' trust.
Another way in which you can increase your landing page conversion rate is by using black text or a white layout. Regardless of what anyone tells you, this is one of the easiest ways in which to make your page look professional, rather than pathetic or desperate.
The third way in which you can gain trust is by offering something for free. This is generally what you will do if you're using a squeeze page to generate leads: you'll offer a free report or five-day course – and then use that to generate leads, which you will later upsell or generate revenue from via affiliate sales. Why is this technique so effective? Quite simply because it allows them to judge your work and ideas before they actually have to pay for them. Additionally, it builds trust.
In addition to these three general ways in which to increase your conversion rate, you should always guarantee a product. If you sell through Click Bank, you actually wont have a choice. But if you're using Paypal or some other check out program, you will want to make sure you clearly state that customers can return your product for any reason within a given period of time after the purchase.
Follow all of these steps and you will significantly increase your landing page conversion rate.
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Driving Traffic into Your Landing Page
Driving traffic into your landing page – it sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, it's not. And no matter how great your landing page is, it wont matter if no one ever reads it. Furthermore, if everyone in the world other than your target audience reads it, it also wont matter. This is why you need to find media through which you can drive targeted visitors to your landing page.
One way in which you can drive traffic to your landing page is through natural search engine optimization. This is the slowest process, but it is also one of the best ways to ensure a continually-increasing stream of traffic over time.
Generating natural search engine traffic generally entails getting links to your site. While reciprocal linking was once the best strategy, experts now believe that major search engines are devaluing reciprocal links in favor of one-way links and triangular links (which search engines can't really detect).
Another way in which to get natural search engine traffic is by optimization your website for certain keyphrases. You can do this by creating pages that specifically focus on one keyword on your given niche. You can then set the page extension to that keyword and optimize the content at a 1.5% density for that keyword. You will also want to use it in header and title tags.
Now, in addition building natural search engine traffic, you will want to consider using pay per click advertising. You can do this by opening an account with Google Adwords.
As mentioned earlier, successful Google Adwords campaigns do two things: they group keywords into multiple, small, related groups – and they send leads to multiple, tweaked landing pages.
This means you will have to start with some careful keyword research; and you will then have to alter your landing pages to match that research.
These are some of the most commonly used tools for driving traffic to a landing page; however, they are not always the most effective.
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Finest Examples of Landing Pages
When you are constructing a landing page, it is always a good idea to refer to a number of other successful landing pages for ideas. The following are three examples of landing pages that convert well:
http://www.ebizmodelsyoucancopy.com/resellrights
What works well with this page? The first thing to note is the header, which is red. Generally, one of two colors (other than black) are employed in a header: red or blue. Blue relaxes people and red creates urgency. Another thing that boosts the credibility of this landing page is the graphic.
Another good point about this landing page is the picture and signature of the product owner. This, again, boosts trust and increases conversion rates. Another important and notable part of this landing page's success are the testimonials, which also increase trust.
Let's check out other successful landing pages:
http://www.privatelabelrightsgold.com/
http://ad-alyzer.com/727/PROCHOICE100
What works well with this landing page? Again, the red font creates a sense of urgency. In addition to that, all benefits and costs are quantified to the penny and exact percentage. This increases the perceived value of the product, which is important, as people purchase perceived value, not value. If your product is good, you have to create perceived value to match the real value.
Another effective method employed in this landing page is the auto-updating time stamp. When a visitor sees the time stamp, they feel that the product or service was released or updated that exact day – or at least that someone is maintaining it on a daily basis.
Another powerful element that makes this landing page successful are the repeated psychological triggers. “Smoking HOT products,” “insane profits,” “instant access” -- all of these phrases create urgency, increase perceived value, and induce action.
And there you have it: being successful with landing pages really is a repetitive process. If you follow the tips outlined and use good examples, you should have no problem constantly increasing your conversion rates.
Thanks For Reading,
Laurie Brandt
Please Feel Free To Leave Your Comments Anytime
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