How to Use Video on a Landing Page

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Your landing pages are the pages that people land on after they click on one of your ads. They serve a purpose. They are there to convert people from interest to action.

That action could be…

  • Sales,
  • Form submission,
  • Donation,
  • Newsletter signup,

…or any number of other things.

But whatever it is, you should make sure that there is one clear call to action, and one only. Too many choices are bad.

But enough about what landing pages are. This post is about video.

Using video on a landing page is good for a few reasons:

  1. People are more likely to watch a video than read copy
  2. You can say more in a short video than in one page of copy
  3. Video works better for mobile

Adding video to your landing page should serve a purpose. It should tell them who you are, what you’re offering, and why they should complete the action desired.

Make the video big and bold. If you want them to watch it, make sure it’s the first thing they see when they land on your page. But don’t force it to play automatically. That’s annoying.

A few things to watch out for:

  • The video needs to be of high enough quality that it does not turn people off. Cheaply produced videos could do more harm than good.
  • The video should be no longer than 3 minutes. If you can’t say what needs to be said in less time than that, it does not belong in a video, or it does not belong on a landing page. Most people won’t commit more time than that to learn who you are.

3 Signs that it’s Time to Update Your Landing Page

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If you’re advertising, you should be using a landing page and not sending people directly to your website. And because your landing page or pages live off of your main site, sometimes they can get ignored. You create them, set them live, and forget about them.

But perhaps now is a good time to take another look. Here are 3 signs that it’s time to update your landing page:

1.       Your Conversion Rate is Dropping

The percentage of people that complete the desired action (submit a form, purchase a product, etc.) out of the total visitors to the page is your conversion rate. This is a number that you should track religiously, but when you see it start to drop, you are missing out on potential customers. And that is a time when you want to start testing new pages to see if you can get that conversion rate number higher.

2.       Your Costs are Rising

Your conversion rate may not be dropping, but the cost of your advertising is going up. And that means that your cost per conversion is higher. That should signal to you that you either have to figure out a way to lower your advertising cost or increase your conversion rate. And to increase your conversion rate, you should try testing a new landing page.

3.       You’re Launching a New Ad

In a perfect world, you would have a different landing page for every different ad. That is because you want to design the landing page to match the ad. In test after test, a landing page designed to correspond with the ad someone came in on performed better than something more generic. So if you’re creating a new ad, it’s probably time to create a new landing page to match it.

For more help with landing pages, check out the following posts:

  1. Landing Page Handbook Part 1
  2. Landing Page Handbook Part 2
  3. Landing Page Handbook Part 3
  4. 5 Reasons Your Landing Page Isn’t Working

5 Landing Page Elements to Test Today

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Someone clicks on your ad or visits the special URL provided in your campaign and they get to your landing page. What they do next can make or break your marketing plan.

Will they take action? Will they hit the back button? Will they get bored and fall asleep?

To increase the percentage of people that take action, I recommend testing various elements of your landing page on an ongoing basis.

Here are 5 key landing page elements worth testing:

  1. Images. Change up the photos that you use on the page. Try a man instead of a woman. Try someone older or younger. Try using more or less images. A strong graphic captures a visitor’s eyes and could draw them in to read the text on the page. A weak one might turn them off right away.

  2. Headline. Change up the text in your headline. Try one that makes a special offer, or one that promotes the benefits of your product. Try one that matches the headline of the ad they likely clicked on to get here. The headline is the first thing most people will read and it should wet their appetite for the rest of the page.
  3. Call to Action. Change up the wording on the link or button you want people to click. If it’s a checkout button, try “Buy Now” instead of “Checkout”. If it’s a general form submission, try “Go” instead of “Submit”. Try an orange or a green button instead of a red one. Try a bigger button, or a different shape.
  4. Colors. You most likely match the colors of your landing page to your brand or website. But you should treat a landing page as an independent entity. Whatever you can do to increase conversion is worth trying. Test a white or grey background. Test varying the colors of form fields or text. The general color pattern on a page will give people an impression like they either want to be there or don’t.
  5. Length of Text. Generally, less is more when it comes to text on a page. But that rule does not apply 100% of the time. Test a page with more text on it, giving you room to provide more details to those people who are looking for them. If your text is already long, use bullet points and lists to shorten it.

The key is, keep testing, and keep measuring performance. When the conversion rates start to rise, you’ll be happy you did.

For more tips on creating landing pages, read my landing page handbook.

 

How to Use Design to Guide the Eyes

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I attended a fantastic little seminar last week entitled “Conversion Optimization: The Human Side of Conversion” presented by Ivan Imhoff. The entire presentation guided us through the conversion process within the context of user expectations, and went into detail on landing pages and elements of web pages that need to be tested and optimized.

One topic in the seminar that I found interesting started something like this, “Design is a tool.” The designers in the room fell silent, some deeply offended. “If you don’t have the right script, design does not matter. Design by itself does not sell.”

I like this concept, and the examples that followed. When thinking about a landing page, the page that someone lands on from an ad, think about design as a way to guide the visitor’s eyes to where you want them to look. But start with the text, and build the design around the message.

You’ll likely have a headline that presents the product you’re selling, and a sub-heading that puts it in context or presents a deal. Then you’ll likely have a product shot and description where you will present your value proposition. You might then have a call to action with an added incentive, like free shipping or a time sensitive offer.

Once you have it all spelled out, then you can think about the design of the page. Guide the eyes from the headline to the sub-head to the product info to the call to action. Make it simple, and logical. Do not add roadblocks or distractions that take the eyes away from that logical progression.

Design is a tool.

Email Marketing: Beyond the Email

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Email is and will always be an essential part of any marketing strategy. And I’ve written about email many times. But when we talk about email marketing, all we’re usually talking about is the actual email – how it’s created, who it’s sent to, when it’s sent, and what to put in it. But that’s not the whole picture. If you stop there, you’re missing a major element: the landing page!

The goal of the email is not to make a sale, it’s to get a click. The goal of the landing page, or the page they land on when they click, is to make the sale. It’s a crucial element of email marketing that most “email marketers” don’t have full control over. But you should.

Here is what the landing page should do:

  1. It should look similar to the email. The more graphic elements you can carry over from one to the other, the better you can meet the consumers’ expectations.
  2. It should use the same language as the email. Use the heading on the page to restate the value proposition from the email.
  3. It should guide them through the thought process, explaining what you’re selling and why they should buy from you.
  4. It should allow them to take the next step by providing a strong call to action or a checkout form.

Here is what the landing page should not do:

  1. It should not present an offer that was not the subject of the email.
  2. It should not be the homepage of your website.
  3. It should not have large blocks of text that scare people away.
  4. It should not look so different from the email that your consumers get confused and click off the page.

A good email will get them to the page. But only a good page will get you the sale.