Landing Pages Series: Design and Messaging
by Matthew Mamet, President
01/05/2007
In our introductory article, Effectiveness of Landing Pages in Marketing Campaigns, we discussed how landing pages are designed to engage and convince your audience to take a single desired action. The objective is to convert each user in order to maximize the return on the investment of each marketing campaign. Given that visitors have arrived on your landing page from various original sources that sparked their interest, try and remain consistent with the experience as it carries them through to the landing page.
Efficiency in design and consistency in message are two key methods for achieving this successful visitor experience and therefore high conversion rates.
Messaging
In casting the widest net to draw people to your website, most companies begin with Paid Search Results. By using Google Adwords and other paid inclusion services in conjunction with landing page
s, you can track effectiveness of your paid campaigns. Consider the following fictitious paid advertisement on Google, that would be displayed when I search for "free aberdeen report."
The title of the of advertisement confirms that by clicking on the link, I will get what I'm looking for. Additionally, the message content is reinforced the description of the ad - as well as the URL itself.
Once a user clicks on the paid advertisement, it is essential to remain consistent in messaging, to co
ntinue to reinforce the message to the user that this new webpage is going to provide the same information that he or she was looking for in the first place. Consider the following image and call-to-action to the right. By prominently displaying this call-to-action on the subsequent landing page of the paid advertisement above, this landing page is explicitly telling the user that this is the place to go, to get the free report. Further, by showing a graphical image of the actual report, this call-to-action leaves no doubt in the users mind that that is the right place for his or her search and to proceed.
By positioning the messaging in a clear and concise position, free of all clutter and any other offers or advertisements, you can continually reinforce the message and draw web visitors down the lead funnel.
Design and Layout
Successful design in this context is two-fold. First, be sure to keep all creative elements in sync - web, print, tv, and radio. Ensuring a consistent brand experience across the lifecycle of the user experience, and across all marketing mediums is key. If a visitor is familiar with your brand or advertising and reaches a landing page that is not harmonized with other elements of your brand, this will increase the likelihood on abandonment. It is recommended that you create a Brand Style Guide that describes the treatment of your logo(s), taglines, and corporate palette. This can be shared with internal creative and development resources, as well as external vendors - to ensure that all creative deliverables appear similar and familiar to your target audiences.
Second, adhere to online design and experience best practices. Every landing page should focus on the principle elements of the design (Message and call-to-action). The golden rule to remember here is that each additional element of the design you introduce will diminish, dilute or reduce the importance and possible conversion rate of your primary offer. Consider the following wireframe as a standard implementation of a landing page layout:
Summary
In summary, consistent design and messaging throughout your marketing channels and into your landing pages is a vital component to increase conversion. By keeping this checklist in mind when creating an offer-based landing page, you'll have the best chance of a successful campaign:
- Template brand consistency
- Keep information viewable above the fold of the page
- Remove global navigation
- Remove any additional links of calls-to-action
