Landing pages – one of the most crucial aspects of the inbound marketing equation.

No matter how many resources you put behind a marketing campaign, if the landing page isn’t optimized for conversions, the profitability of your online marketing program will suffer.

That’s the top lesson I took from Tim Ash’s (CEO of SiteTuners) session at HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Summit this week.  The session outlined the seven deadly sins of landing page design – here are my top five:

1. Unclear call to action. If the call to action isn’t obvious, you’re doing it wrong. Visitors should instantly understand what you want them to do and where you want them to look when they land on the site.
2. Too many choices. Many landing pages suffer from death by ‘and’ syndrome because they have far too many links, product choices and navigation options.  Keep it simple.
3. Asking for too much information. What’s the minimum amount of information you need to finalize this transaction?  Typically, name, company, email and phone will do.  Cut out the rest.
4. Too much text.  Limit the amount of copy on landing pages.   Some content is okay, of course, but remember that many visitors will be coming to your site via smartphones and tablets.
5. Visual distractions. This correlates with deadly sin number 1.  Page design should capture visitors’ eyes and bring them to the call to action.  Having multiple photos, advertisements and banners distracts visitors from the mission.

These may all seem small, but they are impactful.  Tim showed several examples where simple changes in landing page design increased conversions by more than 75%.

How are your landing pages performing?  If your conversion rates aren’t as high as you would like, it may be helpful to get an outsider’s opinion.  Email me here and I’ll take a look myself!