How to Optimize Landing Pages to

Capture More Leads

Inbound Marketing Summit: September 8, 2008David Reske, Managing Director

dreske@nowspeed.com

508 616-0111 x202

Demand Generation Programs

Agenda

• What are they and who uses them where?

• The value of landing page optimization

• Optimization Best Practices

– Offer & Content Architecture

– Landing Page Design

– Testing Techniques – A/B, Multivariate

– Metrics & Measurement

– Case Study & Examples

• Key Take-Aways

Landing Page Defined

• A “Landing Page” is where people land when

they click on an online ad, organic search

result, email link or special URL from an offline

media ad.

You want the user to:

• Read the information

• Get what you are offering

• Type in their contact info

• Give you their email

address

• Buy something and give

you a credit card number

• Trust You!

Where are Landing Pages Used?

Who Uses Dedicated Landing Pages?Landing pages specifically designed for a campaign

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Client Agency

Landing Page Use

Source: Marketing Sherpa

• Better Landing Pages can bring significant

leverage to any campaign.

• Do the math…

Cost/Click X Conversion Rate = Cost/Conversion

Why is Landing Page Optimization so

Important?

Impressions CTR Clicks

Cost/

Click Cost

Conversion

Rate Conversions

Cost/

Conversion

Website - Old 10000 4% 400 0 -$ 2% 8 -$

Website - New LP 10000 4% 400 0 -$ 8% 32 -$

PPC - Old 100000 2% 2000 2.5 5,000$ 1% 20 250$

PPC - New LP 100000 2% 2000 2.33 4,660$ 8% 160 29$

Email - Old 50000 0.5% 250 5 1,250$ 1% 3 500$

Email - New LP 50000 0.5% 250 5 1,250$ 8% 20 63$

Home Page vs. Landing Page

Home Page Landing Page

Landing page best practices

• Clear headline and

compelling copy

• Picture of the offer

• Minimal navigation

• Privacy statement

• Minimum number

of fields

• Urgent statement

on button

Offer Strategy & Content

Architecture

• Analyze current

offers to understand

effectiveness

• Evaluate current

offers of competition

• Determine most

effective offer per

media

• Content Architecture

Example

Need to Optimize Interior Web

Pages as Landing Pages

Organic Traffic

To Home Page

To Interior Page

Source: Marketing Sherpa

Organic Search

Landing Pages

Home Page as Landing Page

Landing Page Examples

LP Assessment Questions

• Is the landing page headline / copy / imagery focused on selling the offer over selling the product / company?

• Is the offer aligned with the keywords / ads it is trying to capture leads from?

• Is the offer blatantly self-serving, or is it focused on the pain of the target audience first and foremost?

• Are there less than 8 fields to fill out, and are those fields relevant to someone early in the buying cycle?

• Is there an image of the offer with callouts and examples of the important information it contains?

• Are the headline / copy / graphics of high quality and persuasive?

• Are the critical elements of the page (form, offer image, Key Value of the Offer Copy) above the fold?

• Is the copy written so it is easy to scan (bullets and call-outs) with the most important, offer-focused copy on top?

• Is there a clear and legible Privacy statement?

Website Optimization: Drive Landing Page Click Through Rate

Designed to

Drive Landing

Page Clicks

Case Study

Pay Per Click Landing Page

Optimization

• Build comprehensive

keyword list

• Create Adword groups

for similar words

• Select offers

• Create ads for each

offer tailored to each

group

• Link to landing pages

• Analyze Results

Landing Page for Search

Paid

Organic

AdWords Example & Optimization

Landing page example

• Clear headline and

compelling copy

• Picture of the offer

• Minimal navigation

• Privacy statement

• Minimum number of

fields

• Urgent statement on

button

Call to

action

Clear

headline

Limited

fieldsCompelling,

keyword-rich

copy

Best Practices

Old Landing Page

• 25992 Impressions

• 65 clicks

• 4.4 average

position

• 1 conversion

• CPL: $329.60!!!

Budget used up quickly, resulted in poor conversions, little ability to be promoted throughout the day.

Generic New Landing Page

Drastically improves conversion rate and CPL

• 10419 Impressions

• 55 clicks

• 6.6 average position

• 7 conversions

• CPL: $40.37

Custom New Landing Page

• UMOL brand

• Copy specific to program (example above)

• Leads funneled directly to this program

• 13662 Impressions

• 19 clicks

• 3.3 average position

• 15 conversions

• CPL: $22.74

Multivariate Testing

• Multivariate testing:

– Evaluation of

multiple variables

simultaneously

• Users may see:

– Headline A, Image

B, Copy C

– Headline B, Image

C, Copy A

– And on and on…

PPC Lead Gen Objectives

Increase Lead Flow / Decrease CPL

Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar

Conversions

Cost Per Conversion

Web Analytics

• Setup

– Code implementation

– Conversion Goals

• Benchmarking

– Unique Visitors

– Top Referring URLs

– Top Content

– Top referring search words

– Best offers and content

Web Site Optimization

• Make offers more

prominent on home page

and each sub page using

heat map analysis and

click data.

• Create areas for each

phase of buying cycle with

stronger content and offers

• Understand Web Analytics

– Path Analysis, Content

Analysis & Site Overlay

Testing

• Evaluate in-market performance of:

– Key messages

– Value proposition

– Offers

– Headlines

– Images

• Leverage best test approach:

– Multivariate

– A vs. B

– A vs. B vs. C

• Determine best positioning and

messaging strategy; leverage

throughout program

Reporting & Optimization

• Utilize dashboard to report findings and recommendations

on all program metrics on a monthly basis

Key Take-Aways

• Evaluate your own landing pages using the

landing page assessment tool.

• Build and use campaign specific landing pages

• Optimize internal web pages as landing pages

• Leverage landing page design best practices

• Think about the landing page from the user’s

perspective.

• Measure landing page results and make

changes using the test data

• The ROI is very large, so do it NOW.

Thank you

• David Reske,

Nowspeed Managing Partner

dreske@nowspeed.com

http://www.nowspeed.com/resources.html

Visit us in the exhibit area to learn more!

Email David for a copy of this PPT.