by Alan Gladish

So, you've done a great job creating a permission marketing list, with potentially thousands of prospects who could be tempted to do business with you if the timing and the offer were right. And you've established a very compelling newsletter or direct marketing program to entice those people to click to your landing page. Now you're getting lots of clickthroughs, but the problem is you're not getting as many conversions as you'd like. What to do?

Landing page design

Landing page strategies are just as important as the direct marketing campaign itself. If people see something they like in your newsletter or email but the landing page is confusing or doesn't offer the appropriate types of action steps, the prospect will lose interest immediately. It's often a best practice to create special landing pages that only contain content and call-to-action links relevant to the subject itself, with no other site navigation links to distract the visitor away from the primary goal. There are exceptions, of course. You could offer a single prominent link to your regular website in case the landing page contents just don't do the trick.

The biggest mistake you can make is taking people to your website's home page. You may make a brand impression, but the fact that you've overlooked the primary reason for the visit will disappoint or confuse the prospect, and you'll likely loose him immediately.

Give prospects multiple ways to engage (convert)

Once on the landing page, a judicious use of web tools can go a long way to helping people take the next step. First, decide what you'd like the visitor to do. Choices vary according to the type of product or service, but often include the following possibilities:

  • Download a white paper, brochure, spec sheet or video
  • Fill out and submit request for quote
  • Locate a rep, distributor or store for local assistance
  • Filter your offerings to find exactly the right size, color, capacity, etc.
  • Select a product and drop it in an inquiry form
  • Compare specifications of similar products side-by-side
  • Search for equivalent products from a competitive database
  • Ask a no-obligation technical or commercial question
  • Register for an event, such as an online training or webinar

The more helpful links you offer, the more likely prospects will find some method to take a next step that fits with their comfort zone. And just as with the newsletter, whose intention is to be helpful, not pushy, the calls-to-action should reflect that attitude. If a prospect feels that he or she is going to be dragged into a high-pressure sales pitch, he's less likely to engage.

Evaluating and retooling

If you have Google Analytics or other tracking software installed on your site, including your special landing pages, you will be able to see what happened to the people who clicked on your page, how many converted using one of your goals, and how many abandoned the page (and at what point in the process). Everything you learn from this type of user behavior will help you design better, more effective landing pages in the future.

Also, if you're deploying your newsletter or email using one of the commercially available email deployment services, such as Constant Contact, the delivery dashboard will show you the email addresses who clicked on which links to see more details on your landing page. This will tell you who's interested and who's reading your stuff, and can give you further insight to tailor specific offers or follow-up emails to those individuals.

By the way, if you have developed an exceptionally brilliant conversion strategy for your business, I'd love to hear about it. No reason we can't share our successes with each other, right?

Next month: Techniques to convert those clickthroughs to your website into real leads.

Contact Alan at agladish@praxisagency.com.