We’re 10 days into January, 1 day past College Football’s Title ‘Game‘, and 8 days since my futile fantasy football campaign ended. Hope your season went better.
As I rebuild my life🏈, today we talk landing pages on two fronts. Because they may be slowing your email list growth. Also hurting your conversion rates.
These are major problems, Inbox Hackers. Especially when you’re putting max effort into email campaigns. I won’t stand for all your work going down the drain. Let’s learn how to soup up your landing pages right now.
Example Pages that Stick Landings
Before we dig into Marketing Insider Group’s 6 Landing Page Principles, see these slick lead gen landing page examples.
Why they work:
- Pages load fast
- Quick forms (email field only)
- Includes testimonials (from super-attractive people 😅)
#1 Tip→ Don’t confuse people. Less is ____.
Landing Page Know-How
The 6 landing page principles I mentioned.
Insiders know their stuff and stats: “Brands that heavily utilize landing pages as part of their conversion strategy (30-40 landing pages) get 7x more leads than those that don’t (1-5 landing pages).”
Don’t freak out. 30 pages may not be doable. But one page won’t do.
Here’s how to make 5 effective landing pages in no time:
Get personal. Change the headline to fit 5 different target customers / clients.
Same page, different headline. May need to tweak just one word (more on one-word power upcoming).
How to make 5 more personalized pages? Use 5 different images. Test→ you may have to delete ineffective ones.
10 different landing pages in a blink. You’re welcome. No Patreon necessary.
Landing Page Fenced In
Hold your horses.
Just because you have ten or so pages set up, you only have a few seconds to keep visitors on the page.
About 15 seconds according to some studies.
54 seconds in others. B2B website visits pulled the average up as seen below.
Do your own study. How long do you allow pop-up forms to survive? How long before you return to Google after a search results in F-bombs and eye rolls?🙄
Two musts with quickie website visitors:
- Grab their attention (image)
- Communicate your value proposition clearly / immediately
Remember. Visitors don’t trust your site yet.
They don’t know you or your team so they have reason to be skeptical.
Headlines – Time is Money
The great David Ogilvy said, “When you’ve written your headline, you’ve spent 80 cents of your ad dollar.” His copywriters had to write 100 headline options for each ad.
Sounds brutal even if exaggerated. But not when 5x as many people only read headlines.
🔗 59% of all links shared on social networks aren’t actually clicked on (people share without reading🙄)
Now, it’s one thing to write a 7-email series to finally get a subscriber to click on your sales page.
Let them land on that page with a weak or confusing headline and the reader may bounce in a blink.
The headline needs to relate to the call-to-action that sent them to the page.
Example: Your email CTA mentions “become a sponsor.” But the landing page headline fails to mention “sponsor.”
Likewise, it’s smart to have a related image from the email on the landing page.
Value > Brand
Nobody cares.
Your brand may save baby seals from golfers.
But if you can save John Q. Public 5 hours a week on accounting – shout about that!
You’ll save more seals since your sales and profits will balloon.
Clients and customers will love reading about your organization’s cool team of seal protectors… someday.
At the moment, they’re looking for a solution to a problem. Why else would they be wasting their life on this hellscape 🔥 called the internet?😬
“You aren’t advertising to a standing army; you are advertising to a moving parade.” ~ (David Ogilvy)
Marketing Insiders take: “Be specific! Tell your visitors exactly how the offer will provide value for them, whether it’s through content that will help them solve a problem or a discount offer that will save them money.”
Don’t tell them your software took 4 years to develop. Tell them what they get out of it, not what went into it.
Example: I could tell you the creators of Inbox Mailers have forgotten more about marketing than average marketers even know. True. But you care about higher open rates – because that’s what puts food on the table!
Demo Inbox Mailers for open rates up to 70%, plus higher click volume.
Less is
More from The Insiders: “You can’t include everything on one landing page and trying to do so will severely impact your page’s performance. In fact, research shows including multiple offers on one landing page decreases conversions by more than 200%!”
People are busy. Baffled too. Only give them one option on landing pages.
Other landing page facts:
- Videos on landing pages can improve conversions by 86%
- A 1-second delay in page loading reduces conversions by 7%
- Only 16% of landing pages don’t have navigation
#3 means don’t give viewers buttons to exit. They are where you want them!
My research shows linking to social media from landing pages is – utter madness!
Social Proof
Remember, visitors don’t trust you. But strangely, will trust a stranger in a review.
Insiders: “A few easy ways to incorporate social proof onto your landing page is by including a testimonial (or a few — but remember not to make your copy cluttered) prominently on your page. You can also link your social media feed or customer review page so visitors can go directly to the source to see what others are saying about your offerings.”
No social links! – glowing reviews or not. Include the review(s) on the landing page. No exit.
Make visitors go to extreme effort to leave.
Psychological Effects Related to Personalized Pages
Personalized landing pages boost conversions and here’s psychological reasoning.
- People prefer numbers in their birth date
- Hearing one’s own name grabs attention in noisy rooms
- Most everything we do, we perceive as normal (consensus effect)
Human beings are naturally focused on themselves, their families.
It’s natural. Don’t fight Nature. She’s gotta mean left hook. 🌋
*More on understanding your audience.
Test (with low expectations)
Don’t get so busy sewing kevlar vests for baby seals and forget to test landing pages.
“…look for insights from data about site speed, visitor demographics, time spent on site, click through-rates and more.”
These insights won’t usually lead to doubling sales.
Take the long view. Constant tweaks that creep your conversion rate up 2 or 3 percent matter over a year’s time. Decade, more.
- Site speed can be improved today. Give IT a shake.
- Ask 10 associates to visit the landing page and note when they get bored or have to reread unclear copy.
- For click-through rates, try a bigger, brighter button.
Conversion Tools
Lead magnets will prompt more people to hand over their email address. Create stronger magnets.
As for sales landing pages, ask for email addresses first if visitors didn’t arrive from your email list:
- They could abandon the cart
- Could lose connection
- Get distracted
Without their email, you may never see them again.
A chatbot can help get the email – 40% of millennials claim to engage with bots on a daily basis. (Mobile Marketer)
Landing Page Wrap Up
Landing pages can’t be ignored when it comes to email marketing.
Better landing pages reward you with more leads and sales.
ConvertKit says the best of the best pages convert at 11%!
Your landing pages need to be as clear as the emails bringing subscribers there.
Page load speed is vital (speed tester). As are get-to-the-point perfected headlines.
Lastly, be sure your email campaigns are working hand-in-hand with linked landing pages.
Make connecting the dots from email to landing page CTAs incredibly easy.
Knowledge Base
Knowledge is power, but first, perfect landing motivation.
Are your email campaigns draining you because you’re not maximizing what you’re best at?
Only 28% of US small businesses sell their products online and 28 other intriguing e-commerce facts.
How to know when your IP needs a warm-up.
Some of us will forget Valentine’s Day, again. But for decent folks→ 10 9 V-Day templates (Walmart doesn’t count).
Self Help
Help me help you. Actually, stand aside. I got this one.
AWeber had a great take on birthday emails (smart to send).
But the challenge? Finding out when your subscribers landed on Earth.
You don’t want 50 questions on opt-in forms.
So use these creative ways to collect this helpful slice of data.
- Email a request for their birth date. Replies get a free gift.
- Send a gift to all subscribers on the same day if you have zero birthday data. Tell them this is their new birthday as far as you’re concerned unless they tell you different.
- Hire a freelancer to comb through contacts’ social media (start w/ engaged subscribers).
- Send birthday best wishes on YOUR company’s birthday. Why not? It’ll stand out.
By the way…
🎂August has the most birthdays
🎂Birthday emails get 179% higher unique click rates than promotional emails
*Shout-out to Inbox Hacking Subscribers → Lisa @ InhHair (ponytails💇🏼♀️) and Tom @ SentinelOne (cybersecurity)
Facts and Stats
- Order confirmation emails can produce 3.8 additional sales from a customer (OmniSend)
- 16 newsletters per week had the same spam complaint rate as sending only one newsletter (GetResponse)
- Q2 2022, 12% of online shoppers arriving at an e-commerce site via email marketing campaign added products to carts
*Pre Inbox Mailers Quote Circa 1995… “The best time to send me a greeting card is the day my Social Security check arrives. I’ll open that card. The rest of the month my postal lady could shred my mail for all I care.” Stan “Golden Corral” Smith
Marketing Musings
Words are an email marketer’s best friend.
Proof? This top-10 list of words with the best and worst click rates in 2022. (RE: > Check)
Getting your email opened can come down to one word.
The best word.
Same with the lead up to a call-to-action.
There are words that work. Then there’s the perfect word.
Think of your favorite movie quotes. Or favorite book titles.
One word changed and they’re not as memorable or attention-grabbing.
Wrestle with your subject lines. Squeeze mediocre words and phrases out.
To make way for the best words.
See what I mean with these top-100 movie quotes.
See how one word changes things…
“There’s no place like Kansas. (home) – Wizard of Oz
Keep your friends close, keep your enemies close too. (closer) – The Godfather II
Get Hacking
Start planning a VIP subscriber club. Segment those subscribers. Make them feel special (they are) with a VIP welcome email. This official VIP club needs a cool name. I’m busy so slap your thinking cap on.
Make a big deal about this club. Celebrate it and the members. Do something remarkable for them 3 or 4 times a year. My reasoning? Birthday emails are a hit because people love being celebrated. It’s their special day.
Your VIP club can have a similar effect. More so since it’s not limited to one day per year.
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