Digital advertising is a lot like dating. Don't like your potential match (or ad)? Swipe left and move on.
Layer ad blocking on top of that and getting a customer's attention in 2016 is like trying to find the right one in a crowded bar on a Friday night. Hoping that a few customers may swipe right on your ad? Then consider the use of a landing page.
A landing page is a standalone page distinct from your website designed with a single focused objective. At its very core, a well-designed and optimized landing page should persuade the visitor to take a desired action, whether that be subscribing to a newsletter, downloading a coupon or entering into a free trial.
We've built and seen our fair share of landing pages and can share a few tips.
1. Keep it simple
Ever nervously wander up to a tall, dark and beautiful person and blurt out 3 questions in rapid succession that had nothing to do with the previous question ("what's your name...ummm, what are you drinking... and... do you like... stuff?)? How did that go?
Distraction is not your friend in dating or in online customer acquisition. A properly designed landing page should ask the visitor to do only one thing. Want the visitor to download a whitepaper? Don't district them with other e-books and webinars you may have. Get a date first (the whitepaper) before asking for the second date (the e-book).
How can you accomplish this? Stay focused and have one clear call-to-action (CTA). This means removing all extraneous links, buttons and other attention-grabbing details. The more distracted a visitor is, the less likely it is that they will complete your desired CTA.
Our internal studies show that keeping it simple and asking the visitor for only one thing can increase a desired action by 31 percent.
2. Be Direct
How much time do you think you have to persuade someone what a catch you are and that a date with you would be simply magical? Two minutes? One minute? Try eight seconds. Eight seconds is the average attention span of an average human being.
Whether in courtship or in advertising, you have a very narrow time frame to make an impression and persuade someone to take the next step. This means you have to be direct, but not too direct. In a landing page, directness takes the form of influencing and persuading the user of the problem you are solving and giving that extra nudge by utilizing concepts like scarcity (limited supply), urgency (limited time), providing credibility and a risk-free experience.
We often see this in well-designed landing pages through limiting the number of products offered, offering discounts for a limited period of time, displaying testimonials of other customers and offering some type of guarantee.
Applying direct response concepts to a landing page can increase conversions by over 100 percent in certain cases.
3. Make sure you look good in all formats
Advertising on desktop versus advertising on mobile is equivalent to dating in person versus dating online. What sometimes works in person ("let me show you my juggling skills") does not translate so well to online dating ("can you see me juggling? Let me adjust the phone slightly to the right so you can see...").
There are three concepts to keep in mind if you are designing a mobile landing page. First, you have to do it; a desktop landing page may not optimize on mobile (or a tablet) for technological reasons and non-optimized pages just look bad. Second, the amount of real estate you have is much smaller so use it wisely. Third, mobile offers functionalities, which most desktops do not have, so make use of them.
What does this look like? Well-designed mobile landing pages reinforce our first two tips. The landing page looks clean and simple and the limited real estate is utilized by placing the CTA prominently. Finally, a mobile-optimized landing page takes advantage of convenient mobile-only features such as touch screens and click to call.
In one study published by Marketing Sherpa, Ritz-Carleton's mobile-optimized landing page could result in a 40 percent jump in conversion rates for iPhone users.
Digital advertising, like dating, is a jungle. There are many distractions and it is easy to get lost and confused. However, by following these three tips to create high-performing landing pages, you can navigate through the digital foliage and create highly impactful and targeted advertising.
Alejandro Cordovi is a manager of creative services at Jumbleberry, a results-driven marketing platform.
