Here are some basic step to create an effective Landing Pages
Landing pages are like sales person, your product can be one of the best in the industry but if you have a poor sales man your product will not succeed.
So its always better to spend some extra time to get a Good landing page instead of coming back and correcting your landing page.
So here are some simple step to design a effective Landing page and please remember its not a Rocket Science
1. Repeat the search term on the landing page
Reinforcing the words a visitor has used in his search right on the landing page seems pretty obvious, but it’s not that simple. First, it takes custom coding, which means getting on the site technology or IT priority list.
Worse, you can’t simply grab the actual search term from Google or Yahoo!. Imagine a prospect looking for a new pet door for her German Shepherd puppy. She types “sale pet door puppy” into Google and clicks through to your webpage which says “Sale Pet Door Puppy” in the headline.
Campaigns must be mapped to normal-sounding headlines. So, for example, any search containing “pet door” might be mapped to the headline “Pet doors for all pet sizes and shapes.”
If this is not easily accomplished with your existing resources, consider focusing on only your 10 highest-volume search landing pages or look into hosted solutions that offer this capability.
2. Products should relate directly to the search term(s)
The most visible item or offering on a landing page should relate directly to the search, or the visitor feels a sense of disconnect and is likely to bail.
Consider the pet door example:
First, you have to decide if it’s better to link to a single pet door or to the existing category where pet doors are kept. Of course, if “pet doors” is its own category, the choice is simple. But if your pet doors are kept in the “other pet products” category, what then? The first product your visitor sees might be flea powder or pet insurance. If any of these are the primary image, say good-bye to your prospect.
Again, you’re required to nail down some time from IT to make a custom landing page happen. But it’s worth it — imagine the visitor’s face when he’s looking for a pet door for his Great Dane and instead finds an image of a fluffy poodle sweater. Not good.
3. Include elements of your home page
Many companies feel that if a visitor reaches your site through a targeted keyword like “pet door,” that visitor will automatically understand who your company is and what you offer.
That assumption is a mistake. In fact, by ignoring the branding elements that you instinctively include on your home page, you miss the opportunity to deepen your relationship with (perhaps) a brand new customer.
Include at least some of the elements that help visitors understand who you are and what you do.
4. Add security and returns policy
Again, think of the content on your home page. What makes new visitors feel comfortable? You might put “Our Returns Policy,” “Member of the Better Business Bureau,” “As Seen in Architectural Record,” “Company Information” and more to remove fear and build confidence.
When a visitor enters your site from a PPC advertisement, they’re essentially arriving for a visit through the back door. Make them feel at home — and willing to spend — by adding some of the feel good content.
5. Feature promotions
Even the most brand-focused company (“we’re not promotional, we’re all about brand”) engages in some sort of promotional activity.
When running promotions, you’ll get better response if you feature them on your landing pages. That’s because an advertising-sourced prospect is probably going to look at more than one ad and/or landing page. In the few seconds when they have just entered your site, you need to be especially relevant and compelling.
Giving a little more prominence to whatever promotions are currently available will draw more of the visitors in, even if you do not make the promotion the most important element on the page.
Bonus tip: Continue to use these tactics on subsequent pages.
Remember, very few visitors convert on the landing page. In some cases, a visitor will look at 10 or more pages and come back two or more times before signing up or making a purchase.
The more steps they take, the lower the impact of the landing page. If you’ve gone to the trouble to create one that’s relevant and compelling, carry some of that work through the subsequent pages as well.
Free shipping draws people into your site, but if they spend 20 minutes looking around and never see free shipping mentioned again, its impact is diminished.
Similarly, the “pet door” person may click on New Arrivals, On Sale, Advice from Our Experts or more before remembering (or forgetting) that they wanted to buy a pet door.
Try using some space on the category pages, product pages and even the checkout page to continue to show pet door-related products or information to keep the whole site feeling relevant.
Some of this may seem like black magic or high-priced solutions only available for wealthy companies. But, like good health, small steps can make a big difference. Start customizing landing pages for your 10 best-performing PPC terms or campaigns and see how it works.
You just might find that the little bit of extra work keeps your online advertising in tip-top shape for years to come
NextGen Marketing 