The scenario goes something like this: you build a great website, social media profiles, start the campaigns, but – alas – no results! What may be the cause of this?
Why is there no traffic on your landing page? Clearly, something is not right.
Is it the visitor’s fault? Or is something deeply wrong with your web page?
There might be truth in the former. Maybe it has become a cliche, but the fact that, thanks to smart devices, humans now have the attention span one second shorter than a goldfish (theirs is nine seconds!) truly means a lot on the web. This means that you get only eight seconds to enchant your visitors, to offer them the best thing up your sleeve (landing page – the page on your site to which an ad or social media link leads to, with the ultimate goal of creating conversions) and finally, of course – convert.
However, the latter might hold truer in this case. So sorry, but something is wrong with your landing page.
What is wrong with my page?
There are many things that can go wrong on a page that is not optimized for conversions.
#1: CTA missing/improperly positioned
The #1 on-page problem is a missing or misplaced CTA button. If the point of your ad was to drive people to the site, and later help them convert into buyers or subscribers – you need to enable them to get to your ultimate goal in not more than 3 steps.
Solution: If your CTA button is practically invisible – you need to talk to your designer to have it fixed. Position it at the center of the page or at one side, but just make it stand out using color. That will do.
#2: No target audience
Oh, no! How did this happen? If someone says this is ‘no biggy’ – stop listening to that person immediately. This problem, actually, happens all the time because marketers want to cover as many people in their total available market (TAM) that they seem to forget that it is only within their served available market (SAM) where they will find their right target audience.
Solution: If you want to get your piece of the cake, you need to imagine your target audience. If you are selling, say, hand-made leather shoes – you cannot target all the people in the world, because the odds are that you will not get customers from across the globe knocking at your door. The beauty of defining your audience is this: if you sell premium quality high-heel shoes, your audience can be women entrepreneurs, who care about their looks and want to look glamorous. So how do you get to them? By designing the page for them and writing (talking) directly to them, via means of content marketing.
#3: Not giving out prizes
Without being judgmental, people like doing things when they are motivated. If they do not see what good can come out of them signing up for your newsletter or registering on your site – they simply will not give you their contact information.
Solution: Just like in that Pavlov’s experiment, you need to offer your visitors a prize they would get from visiting your landing page. Many smart sites today reuse the effort they have put into content creation and give out useful e-books and charts in exchange for user’s email.
#4: (Dis)trust signals
No Facebook connector? No Twitter button? No validate Google+ My Business page? No LinkedIn page? Is your brandname the author of your blog posts? These are all the signals that your brand is not working properly so you cannot even face the social media judgment.
Solution: Create business pages on social networks, validate them to send the message of being trustworthy, and have a natural person write your blog. This all indicates that nothing is fishy about your site and your visitors can relax and not worry about (God Forbid!) fraud.
#5: Create urgency
You are giving a discount, but not telling the shopper that it is not eternal? Big mistake. If they see that something is at their disposal, the odds are that people will forget about them. However…
Solution: If you create a sense of urgency, results can significantly improve. So, if you are optimizing your landing page for a discount, make sure that you clearly state a due date which create a sense of missing out.
#6: Interactive video – missing!
People are visual beings. A great portion of them will like to be persuaded by seeing, whereas others would prefer hearing. If you do not show your customers what they might get with your service/products, you are going to miss out on many new opportunities.
Solution: Create a show-and-tell video that guides people through the conversion process. They will certainly appreciate this.
#7: No updates?
Is your landing page created in 2009? Are you sure you are missing what is wrong with this picture?
Solution: You know the solution: redesign your landing page. The amount of data you obtain from the traffic that comes from social networks should be enough for A/B tests. Always make improvements and never stop redesigning your page.
And finally, remember that you can learn from new experiences every day. If you have some more pieces of advice, we would love to read them so do not hesitate to write in the comments below!
