SEPTEMBERS TOPIC LANDING PAGES. How to Create a Landing Page Lead Machine. What s in the packet:

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1 SEPTEMBERS TOPIC LANDING PAGES How to Create a Landing Page Lead Machine What s in the packet: 1. Exercise #1 6 Step Exercise to Creating an Attention Grabbing Landing Page Headline 2. Handout: 6 Tips to Help You Design a Landing Page that Converts 3. Handout: Marketing Segmentation Makes the Most Effective Landing Pages on the Planet 4. Handout: The Basics of a Landing Page 5. Leaders information for chapter meeting- landing page builder info

2 6 Step Exercise to Creating an Attention Grabbing Landing Page Headline Ask these questions to open up the conversation 1. What is a landing page and what is its purpose? 2. Is the intent of your page leads? Sales? 3. Who is your audience and how are you going to talk to them? Are they familiar with your product specifically? Or what you are selling in general? Or are they completely new? 4. Where are they coming from? 5. How do you know your landing page is working? 6. What type of resources do you have available to you? Design? Video? Copywriting? Take time to do the writing exercise You have, on average, less than eight seconds to capture the attention of visitors to your landing page. Once you give readers an irresistible headline, they ll be keen to read the next sentence, paragraph, etc. Create a landing page headline to capture the attention of visitors. 1. Write down the top 5 features your product or service 2. For each feature write out what the corresponding benefit 3. For each benefit write out what that actually means for your end user (ex: save time, ease frustration, etc.) 4. Write out the top 5 most common objections people have to purchasing your product/service 5. Now write out the answers to how you overcome those objections 6. Headline time consider where your audience is coming from and what level of education about your product/service they already have. Pull from the benefits, end uses and overcoming objections you already wrote to help craft your headline. (Tip: Look at the competition, but also look at some of your favorite brands that aren t directly relevant. There are often tips in the way other products are presented that can help you to create amazing outside the box ideas for your own product/ service.)

3 6 Tips to Help You Design a Landing Page that Converts There s a lot of confusion over the ideal landing page conversion rate. In reality, a good conversion rate depends a great deal on your goals, your target audience, and your industry. Search Engine Land performed a detailed study in 2014 and found that: 25 percent of the landing pages it reviewed converted at less than 1 percent The top 25 percent of companies convert at over 5 percent The top 10 percent of companies convert at an average of percent Don t get caught up in the numbers. Focus on results that drive them. The purpose of a landing page is to educate visitors and use the compelling content to transform them into customers. In the majority of cases, the landing page will be the first thing a visitor sees after clicking on an ad, so it s representative of your website and your company. As a result, you need to get it right, so keep reading for six tips on designing a landing page that actually converts. 1. Create a killer headline You have, on average, less than eight seconds to capture the attention of visitors to your landing page. Once you give readers an irresistible headline, they ll be keen to read the next sentence, paragraph, etc. Here are some quick headline writing tips: Use compelling adjectives: Use words like shocking, astounding, sensational, and more to draw readers in. Create a common enemy: You can create a shared sense of unity by creating a common enemy. Like it or not, many people have a cynical nature, so a headline like 5 Things Your Doctor Doesn t Want You To Know is likely to grab a reader s attention. Be controversial: Find a topic few people are covering and make a bold statement. Please avoid Why Content Marketing is Dead, since it s been covered a billion times already. Be honest: No matter what your headline is, the content had better match it. 2. Show your offer s benefits Think of a common problem faced by your target audience and craft your landing page copy so it appears like a solution. Like it or not, customers don t care about how awesome your product or company is. They only care about how it benefits them. As far back as 2012, a Harvard study spoke to 1,400 B2B customers and quickly reached the conclusion that "Solution Sales" is no longer an effective tactic. This is because customers already know the solution they want. Your job is now to convince them that your product/service provides the benefits they seek.

4 The modern consumer knows the features they want, the requirements a product/service must meet, and the pricing they can afford. As a result, you have to pitch the benefits. An example would be Increase Conversion Rates By 150 percent. Your target audience wants a better conversion rate, and you re telling them exactly what they can expect with your product. 3. Be specific The more specific you are, the more credibility your copy will have in the minds of readers. For instance, Boost Conversion Rates By percent in 3 Months is a much better headline than Watch Your Conversion Rates Explode. In simple terms, anyone can make blanket statements. But it takes effort to research and cite specific data. The numbers make a massive difference. The modern customer wants to be well-informed and only trusts copy that offers detailed information about the benefits seen by their fellow consumers. This means you need to provide specifics 4. Create a sense of urgency/scarcity The use of limited time (urgency) and limited supply (scarcity) are among the most common psychological tools used by top copywriters. After all, no one wants to miss out on an incredible deal. Major companies are exceedingly adept when it comes to using this tactic: Ticketmaster: After selecting your seats, Ticketmaster gives you a few minutes to purchase your tickets before you lose the opportunity and someone else gets your tickets oh no! Amazon: The online giant effectively uses a number of time sensitive tactics such as its Order before xxxx concept, which tells you to purchase your goods before the date to ensure it arrives before a certain day. It works well for Christmas, birthday, and holiday gifts. Airlines: A number of airlines cleverly use this tactic to prod consumers into action. Ryanair often has an Only 4 seats left at this price warning when you research their flights. I have discovered the aforementioned seats are actually cheaper than the original price a few days later on a number of occasions. 5. Get customers to act Your landing page s call-to-action (CTA) will make or break it. You have to ask readers to take action, or else they won t. The rest of your copy is building up to the CTA, so you need to get it right. Your landing page s CTA button must be attractive and easy to see. It should clearly tell the reader what you want them to do. Use strong and decisive wording to gain your attention. A simple Download Now or Purchase Now can be effective, but as I mentioned before, being specific helps draw more action.

5 This article was written by Camille Franc from Business2Community and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. 6. Include crucial design elements An attractive landing page is more likely to see conversions than one that s a cluttered mess. Here are a few things to consider: Color: Never underestimate the psychology of color. Do your research to determine if they re the ideal fit for your landing page. For example, soft blues offer a sense of serenity, so it would be great for selling relaxation products. In contrast, red is a stimulating and energetic color, so it could be the right choice for a sporting goods store. Whitespace: Don t make the mistake of trying to fill every square inch of your page. Top designers know the importance of whitespace and how it can effectively emphasize certain elements of the page. It makes your page easier to read, which is a big plus. Imagery: Well chosen graphics can help highlight a problem in a very clear way, as well as breaking up the text. Video: The inclusion of video on landing pages increases conversion rates by up to 86 percent yet very few companies use this extremely effectively tool. Marketing Segmentation Makes the Most Effective Landing Pages on the Planet Like an elevator pitch for your business, great landing pages work a little bit of magic for you. You provide visitors with a clear message as to what they get in exchange for giving you the information you want (usually an or a phone ). They agree, and voila! You have a new lead. But what if the magic isn t quite there? Traffic is only trickling to the landing page and few click through? What can you do to bring that magic back? A great landing page works like a corral. Traffic arrives on your landing page because they saw a call-to-action (CTA) on your website, an ad, or an , and they clicked. They show up with an expectation, and this is where you finish the transaction. The mojo starts with marketing segmentation. Three ways segmentation will make your landing pages move to the top of the class

6 By applying the principle of segmentation to your landing pages, you ll: Bring the right people to the right landing page for them Guide your lead on the best journey directly from the landing page Gain the ability to test your efforts and refine your approach Boost conversions, which means, well, you know, more dolla dolla bills What is marketing segmentation? Marketing segmentation refers to a strategy to intentionally subdivide your contacts or your target market into any number of smaller groups with common needs, interests, pains, etc. When you bundle groups of people by increasingly more specific categories (women who love soccer, drive expensive cars, and live in the Pacific Northwest) you can message to them more personally than if you treated everyone the same. Your customers are each unique, so they will respond differently to your landing pages. Using segmentation, you can build landing pages with the best combination of copy, images, and CTA that will appeal to various chunks of your audience. Implicit with this kind of marketing strategy, if you plan to use segmentation, you have to find out as much as you can about their customers, which begins with understanding the marketplace and how your small business fits in. Assuming that you ve done both of these things, let s look at just how segmentation can help you create ultra-effective landing pages that get the job done. Segmentation brings your audience to the right landing pages Your audience is made up of people with a variety of interests, and there may even be a variety of pains they feel that lead them to your brand. Instead of just one general landing page, you can have several possible landing pages targeting the differences among your audience. You drive traffic to your landing pages via calls to action on your website, s, blog, and paid advertising. This creates a journey for the visitor. For example: Let s say you run an A/C maintenance and repair business. Some clients are looking for help because their A/C unit is broken, and others are looking for an ongoing maintenance plan. You want to target clients looking for maintenance plans. You start the journey to your service by placing an ad on Google targeting this segment with a free e-book on how business owners can better improve their A/C maintenance. When they click on the ad, you direct them not to your home

7 page, which offers all your services, but to a landing page specifically designed for business owners who want the e- book. The landing page details a little bit of why maintenance is necessary and cost effective. In order to get the e-book, they have to give you their . You can safely bet that anyone who gives you their from this landing page fits into your target segment. Conversely, if you re not seeing conversions, it s a good bet you re targeting the wrong segment with your ads and need to make adjustments. Ideally, you ll want to segment your audience before they get to your landing page, and then work the design, copy, and a CTA on the page so that it best matches the needs, interests, leanings of that group. Let s look at some basic ways you can segment the traffic to specific landing pages: Demographic Segmentation Demographics are facts you can identify about a group: gender, age, occupation, etc. Certain demographics respond to content uniquely as compared to others. Sticking with our A/C maintenance company, if they know that business owners between the ages of 35 and 50 tend to be the ones that make the most calls for maintenance contracts, they might want to segment their ad campaigns on social to that demographic, and then set up their landing pages to appeal to that demographic. Psychographic Segmentation Psychographic segmentation is different from demographic in that it answers less the question who? and more the question, why? In this case, you may not be able to discern the reason for an interest in A/C maintenance from a gender point of view, but the reason that people are looking for maintenance may be because these are forward-thinking, careful budgeting types who want to avoid the short-term cost of emergency repair. When you understand why they need help, you can target them with landing page copy that fits their needs. Segment by pain point There s a good chance that as a business owner you understand better than anything else the pain points that drive your customers to your business. After all, most sales conversations revolve around how your product or service solves a specific pain point. It wouldn t hurt to sit down with sales to find out what they ve been hearing on the front lines and use that knowledge to develop some new segments.

8 The Basics of a Landing Page WHAT is a landing page? A landing page is any web page that a visitor can arrive at or land on. However, when discussing landing pages within the realm of marketing and advertising, it s more common to refer to a landing page as a standalone web page that has been designed for a single focused objective. Click Through Landing Pages have the goal of persuading the visitor to click through to another page. Typically used in ecommerce funnels, they can be used to describe a product or offer sufficient detail to warm up a visitor to the point where they are closer to making a purchasing decision. Lead Generation Landing Pages are used to capture user data, such as a name and address. The sole purpose of the page is to collect information that will allow you to market to and connect with the prospect. Most commonly used to offer someone something in return for their personal data (i.e. ebook, free download, etc) WHEN should I use a landing page? You should try to use a landing page for every inbound advertising campaign you operate. You might be selling multiple products or setting up promotional offers for different user segments and your homepage can t deal with this level of message differentiation. The style and effectiveness of your inbound marketing will also vary according to the source ( , organic, social media), so you should try and provide a relevant experience to each input to the funnel. WHERE should I use a Landing Page? Here are the Top 3 Key Places: 1. On Your Homepage But wait, I thought I shouldn t put it there?!?! That s right you shouldn t direct traffic from advertising direct to your homepage, rather straight to a landing page. What about traffic that arrives organically on your homepage in the first place? Having links to your landing pages prominently displayed is a good way to draw people in. 2. In Any Online Advertising Whether you use Facebook advertising, Twitter promoted tweets or Google Adwords, make sure that your landing page is the link that people are being directed to. It s about helping to create trust by not surprising people when they click on your ad. The next page they see should be exactly what they were expecting to see given the nature of your ad. 3. In Header or Sidebar Images Incorporate call to action buttons as part of your header image or have banners and buttons in your side bar.

9 The DO s and DON Ts Some things to aim for and those to avoid DO Make sure the design matches the ad prospects will get confused if it looks like the link they clicked doesn t take them where they expected Be transparent let them know what will happen after they fill out the form Keep it clean don t cram too much stuff in your page keep it open and organized and clean in design Provide relevant information if this if for your existing customers don t be introducing you and your products if it s for a newbie to you and your brand explain more about what you are offering and how it will help Consistent staying consistent in your message and brand from your ad to landing page to website will make you look more professional and trust worthy TEST test your page for proper engagement to your CRM and what actions are supposed to happen next also test for mobile and speed this is SUPER important DON T Long contact form the fewer items you ask for the more likely people are to fill out your box so don t ask for everything up front Ramble on when writing your content remember less is more guaranteed people will not sit and read your page, keep it to scannable points they can pick up at a glance Provide multiple links using a home page with multiple links that will distract your prospect or asking them to do more than one thing on a page will result in not taking the action you want Be gimmicky people will decide if they trust you from your page, be real and true to yourself and don t use hype Hide your CTA make it very clear what you want the prospect to do and give them an option to do so wherever they are at on your page this means multiple links Request duplicate info you will lose trust if prospects think you forgot they already provided that information

10 FAQ s Is your landing page good? Is it short and simple but gives your prospects all of the information that they need? Do you have a very clear call to action? Then yes, it s good. But remember, you want to speak to your prospect(s) so when designing think of their perspective as well. How do you know it s working? Landing pages are a work in progress, just like all other moving pieces and parts of marketing. Keep track of your statistics, most options will include them with their service. Don t be afraid to tweak your landing page until you start getting the results you want. Are you asking for too much info? Lead Generation Landing Page yes, you might be! Prospects are hesitant to give a lot of personal details because they don t want to be spammed So keep it short and simple name & . Click Through Landing Pages get the important information first (name, , billing info) before asking for more details. Is it a good idea to segment my lists and provide different Landing Pages with the same offer, just different messaging? Yes! Yes! And Yes! Your prospects and customers are each unique, so they will respond differently to your landing pages. Using segmentation, you can build landing pages with the best combination of copy, images, and CTA that will appeal to various chunks of your audience. RESOURCES Resources to help you get the most out of your next landing page! 6 Tips to Help You Design a Landing Page that Converts Marketing Segmentation Makes the Most Effective Landing Pages on the Planet 7 Best Landing Pages for

11 For Leaders: 1. Read through the handout prior to meeting, become familiar with the content 2. Ask the opening questions, have a conversation with attendees 3. Proceed with the 2 exercises: Basics of landing pages and Headline time, print out worksheets and handout to group 4. Share via after the meeting 5. These are highlights to come in the landing page builder, I would not suggest a demo until fully rolled out. The content and exercise was created by Jennifer Neal,