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12 Marketing Hacks To Improve Landing Page Conversions

Does your online marketing deliver real results? Often times landing pages that are designed for lead generation fall short.

Photo: Luke Pitman | Source: Courtesy Photo
Photo: Luke Pitman | Source: Courtesy Photo

Does your online marketing deliver real results? Often times landing pages that are designed for lead generation fall short. When someone clicks on an ad, search result, or social media post the landing page they land on doesn’t do its job.

Landing pages should convert site visitors into paying customers or entice them to take specific actions. If you spend a lot of time reading about how to improve conversions it won’t actually yield results. You must implement actionable steps to increase conversions.

Below, you’ll find twelve hacks that you can complete very quickly, each in 30 minutes or less. Apply as many of these tips as possible and watch your conversions grow.

 

1. Start A/B testing

This useful hack is fairly important. Strategies that work well for one company may not necessarily work for you. Thus, you need to test and measure what does and doesn’t work.

If you use a landing page builders like LeadPages or Unbounce, it’s very easy to set up A/B testing since it is a bundled feature included with the service. However, if you host your own landing page, then a Google Experiments Guide can help you set up A/B testing.

Test multiple versions simultaneously. Meanwhile, you’ll learn more when you make bigger changes.

 

2. Experiment with microcopy

The small bits of copy on your website that help users do stuff can yield big results. Error messages, contact form explainers, e-commerce tips can all have a significant impact on conversions. For example, make your call-to-action button copy more value-oriented. Instead of ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Download’ try using ‘Make Your Life Better’ or ‘Get This Freebie Today.’ Remember: Well-written microcopy will guides site visitors.

 

3. Ensure call-to-action buttons stand out

I often stumble across articles that suggest some colors work better for CTA buttons and we should all use those colors.

In truth, though, contrast is more important than a particular color. If a landing page has an orange background, use violet or blue colored buttons. Use big, colorful buttons for text-based pages. To ensure visitors see your buttons, add small text links just underneath them.

You could also try the following:
 

  • Include a photo of someone looking in the direction of the button

  • Use an arrow to point toward it and draw attention

  • Use a cool hover effect and make it look like a button

  • Create a unified look across all buttons with similar functions

  • Repeat the button, but keep one above the others

 

4. Test animated countdowns

Sales copy leverages the power of urgency by offering exclusive discounts for a limited time only. You can generate a similar effect by adding a countdown animation GIF to your site. Or just get the real Javascript. With tools like Countingdownto, you can create an animated countdown clock to embed in your website without technical skills.

 

5. Ensure sales copy is benefits-oriented

You may feel that your new app is awesome because it was built with Ruby programming language. Only nobody cares, except techies, of course. So emphasize product benefits rather than “cool” features that may or may not excite potential customers.

 

Photo: Burst, Pexels
Photo: Burst, YFS Magazine

 

6. Improve the usability of your forms

No one likes filling out long forms, trust me. So ask for the least amount of information necessary (you can always ask for more later after they’ve completed their purchase). Meanwhile, show progress indicators, retain information and pre-populate fields with smart defaults. For example, place the two most active countries at the top of your drop-down list. Lastly, avoid requiring guests to sign up for purchases.

 

7. Create different landing pages for various traffic sources

Create custom landing pages for search engine traffic, guest blog posts, and PPC ads, etc. This will ensure site visitors complete a specific action that is tied to their initial contact with your business. For example, if you offer a discount on a social media advertisement, direct the visitor to a landing page that mentions the discount in the copy.

 

8. Create online banners that correspond to specific landing pages

If you use online display advertising to promote your products or services, it’s important to design online banners with similar colors and headlines as the landing page. As a result, the landing page will seem familiar to site visitors and that breeds trust – making sales more likely.

 

9. Build trust through established brands

Make your brand a lot more trustworthy by associating it with popular brands. Utilize partner logos, SSL and similar certificates (especially at checkout). Display badges that signify location-based pride such as “Made In London.” Lastly, include “Featured In” logos on your site to show where you’ve been mentioned or featured in media outlets, blogs and partner sites.

 

Photo: Burst, Pexels
Photo: Burst, YFS Magazine

 

10. Get rid of external and internal links

After all the hard work you’ve put in to get visitors to your landing page, the last thing you’ll want is to distract them. So hide or get rid of links that would prevent them from taking a desired action.

 

11. Test landing page usability

Ask someone to browse your landing page while you watch. This will help you get a sense of its usability. Include any questions they may ask in the FAQ section of your site. For more precise data, use tools like Hotjar and Mopinion to see how visitors are really using your website, collect user feedback and turn more visitors into customers.

 

12. Experiment with pricing psychology

Pricing experiments such as removing dollar signs from prices can produce interesting results. Meanwhile, consider price anchoring by offering two options instead of one. “As the saying goes, the best way to sell a $2,000 watch is to put it right next to a $10,000 watch. But why? The culprit is a common cognitive bias called anchoring. Anchoring refers to the tendency to heavily rely on the first piece of information offered when making decisions.”

 

Armed with the marketing hacks above, you can quickly improve landing page conversion. Select the most applicable hacks and implement them. Make your marketing dollars work smarter and harder.

 
Luke Pitman, Vice President, Lending Officer at NBC Oklahoma, is a results driven, highly collaborative professional with a successful track record of originating relationships and closing deals; well-versed in all facets of sales, marketing, branding, and managing complexities from concept to delivery.

 

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