ANTenna Blog -- Business & E-Business

A well-thought-out landing page is a great way to track marketing campaigns and improve your ROI. Here are 10 best practices for landing pages as well as a brand-new SaaS product from CrownPeak designed to make landing page management easy.

Landing pages are ideal for marketing strategies in order to find out which campaigns are being read and encouraging potential customers to click on links for more information. You can find out what about your marketing made someone act.

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But creating an effective landing page can be time-consuming, and not all smaller companies have a dedicated Web designer.

Robert Rose, vice president of marketing and strategy at CrownPeak, told me that CrownPeak Landing Page Manager -- available starting today -- was born of his own frustrations and lack of time: "In order to create and manage a CMS, I had to work with my IT department. In order to track leads, I had to pay a lot of money. And I wanted to do complex types of content targeting based on marketing campaigns." So the on-demand Web site software company was inspired to come up with a simple solution that could do all three.

CrownPeak LPM lets people create, manage, and track landing pages to drive greater return on investment from marketing campaigns -- without depending on a cumbersome technology suite. The Software-as-a-Service product includes customizable campaign templates, integration with CRM, and ongoing strategic services. CrownPeak LPM is available as of today starting at $1,250 per month with no setup fees or IT integration needed.

"Landing pages are a little more expansive than just search engine marketing," said Rose. "They're a good solution to track all your online marketing -- banner ads, e-mail campaigns, print, radio. Pointing people to a specific page is great for tracking. And you can change those things depending on what type of campaign you're doing."

As you get started or improve your landing pages, here are 10 best practices to keep in mind from Sitewire Marketplace Solutions:

1. Unify the intent. Landing pages perform best when the content is promotion based. With this type of landing page, the content is concise and focused on one appealing message.
2. Visually engage the user. Tell a story or sell a product using impactful imagery rather than simply explaining the purpose with lengthy copy.
3. Focus user experience. Feature clean navigation and succinct calls to action. Landing pages should be used as a teaser to easily point the customer to the desired action.
4. Use a direct headline. Making a good first impression is just as important online as it is in the real world. A clear and direct headline should be the first thing the user notices upon viewing the page. Make sure the headline is a direct and simple statement of what the page visitor is trying to accomplish.
5. Leave plenty of white space. Visitors don't read -- they scan the text to determine if the page is relevant to their goal. Clean use of space allows visitors to scan and understand key messages.
6. Deliver a clear value proposition. Answer any potential "whys" with value propositions. Keep them limited to three or four bullet points and don't mince words. This is no time to get cute -- if visitors can't quickly and easily understand the benefits of your product or service, they will leave.
7. Amplify buttons. Attracting attention is what the main action buttons are all about. Make users notice where the button is upon landing. Odd button shapes work well. Also, don't skimp on button size. Location matters, although button placement should be tested on each page.
8. Convey trust and security. Branding, trust/security icons and assurances, as well as testimonials provide credibility and give confidence to the visitor that can have a positive impact on conversion.
9. Provide a compelling message. Every good salesperson says something to persuade prospects who are on the fence. Think of your landing page as your online salesperson. Make sure you have one compelling message directly above the call to action. "Bandwagon messages," such as, "Join thousands of people that use ..." can also improve visitor confidence and increase conversion.
10. Soften the call to action. Direct words like, "Buy," "Add To Cart," or "Subscribe," indicate a commitment that the visitor may not be ready to make and can lower conversion rates. A softer call to action like, "Try It Now," can drive users deeper into the funnel and result in higher conversions. The best calls to action are written in plain English and are no more than seven or 12 words.

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