Increase Landing Page Conversions with These Tips

It’s simple – Higher conversion rates means more customers, and more customers brings an increased profit potential.

Every detail of your landing page should have a deeper purpose for being there other than the need to fill space.  Everything from size and color of your CTA button to the length and voice of your copy.

There is plenty of information floating about that proves we aren’t as intelligent as we thought when it comes to conversion optimization.  Our opinions and own personal biases often get in the way of a true scientifically proven outcome.

Fortunately we have split testing to either validate or squelch our hunches.  Remember – if you have 2% conversion, going to 3% is actually a 50% uplift in results!

Below are some elements of your landing page that you can split test immediately.

Headlines

You have 10-20 seconds to make an impact with your headline.

If your landing page headline doesn’t immediately “wow” and grab the audience’s attention, you are at risk of losing a potential conversion within seconds of them landing on your page.  Without a compelling promise or at the very least some catchy verbiage, the rest of your words might as well not even exist.

On average 8 out of 10 people will read your headline copy, but only 2 out of the same 10 will bother to read the rest.  The better your headline the better your chances are at having the rest of your copy read by a larger percentage of people.

Personally when I test a headline, they are normally in a series of 10.  I then dwindle them down based on what the market dictates by their conversion rates.   Then of course, I test again with smaller tweaks against the control.

Copy Style

Try changing up the overall style and tone of your copy.  Write a completely different version, possibly with less hype if that is your original style, and then make small tweaks from there.

The length and formatting of your body copy also makes a huge difference in how your audience reads it.  Test out different formats such as :  lists, short paragraphs, formatting, etc.

Images

Darren Weik, an Atlanta-based designer has a number of good examples of image optimization on his Design Toads blog.

He takes a look at the logistics company, DHL, and found that it got a 15% lead increase just by trading out a photo of a male delivery driver for that of a female driver.

“The verbiage was exactly the same in both ads, but it was the picture of the woman that generated greater interest,” Darren wrote.

Images draw a lot of attention, and if you’re not using them correctly, you’re just wasting prime real estate on your site, and what kind of conversion ninja wants to do that?

Try these tests:

• Use photos of people – this can increase empathy in your audience

• Use photos of women, babies and attractive people

• Use of photos of objects can increase trust

Call to Action

There are three main areas that you can test surrounding your call to action.

• Text – The wording alone can have a huge impact on your conversion rate.   37signals for example did extensive testing of their call to action text, and came up with a phrase that delivered 300% more signups than other versions.

• Position – The placement of your call to action can have a huge outcome on your conversion rate.  Test a few different positions:  above body copy, besides body copy, below body copy, within body copy, etc.

• Style – Is your call to action a link or a button? How about the size and color?  Test each of these elements for the most accurate results.

Length of your Form

Your form is the epicenter of your lead conversion efforts on your website. Without forms, lead generation doesn’t happen.

Try these tests:

• Make your form headline a call to action – Encourage your audience to take that final step by including a call to action directly above the form.

• Optimize the number of fields – The advice on form length often sounds like this: “Keep your form short to get more conversions.”  This holds true in most cases but what is “short enough?”

• Move your form position – You can test the position of the form itself, always keeping in mind the golden rule to retain its position above the fold.

Whatever elements of the above you choose to test, just remember to don’t get discouraged and treat it like the science experiment that it is.  Let the market tell you what works and what doesn’t. It’s that simple.

What other elements of the sales funnel are you looking to test?  We would love to know!