Recently, there have often been statements on the Internet that landing pages no longer work. This is very confusing for entrepreneurs and novice marketers.
This is only partly true. Speculation lies in the fact that one-page pages will replace quiz landing pages or some other “miraculous” advertising tools. In fact, a quiz landing is just a kind of landing page, which is not suitable for every case.
The truth is that landing pages really do not provide the off-scale profits that they brought soon after their appearance. It is ok. Everyone has long been accustomed to this advertising channel, the effect was lost a few years ago.
Now only professionally designed landing pages work. The market no longer forgives the landing page customer for those mistakes that the novelty of the advertising channel itself could have leveled earlier.
Let us analyze the most typical mistakes that can be made while creating a landing page.
The main mistakes when creating a single-page website
- Template approach. The Internet is flooded with the same type of landing pages. It is bad that they copy, but it is tragic that they copy thoughtlessly and with mistakes. It comes to the point that they change pictures in other people's landing pages and use them in completely different niches.
- Neglect of testing. When creating and launching a landing page, you should test the headers, try different types of first screens. Even with deep knowledge in advertising, it is impossible to predict the result for sure.
- Perception of the landing page as a kind of "magic pill". Often there is a situation when, after a series of failures, an Internet marketer has the idea "Why not make a landing page!". That is, the landing page is perceived as some kind of miracle medicine for Internet marketing in the company.
- Using a landing page instead of a corporate website. Some entrepreneurs are trying to simplify their lives and save money by using a landing page instead of a corporate website. This is a big mistake. A corporate, multi-page website is much more trustworthy. It contains sections that allow you to highlight the company's activities from different sides. In addition, it has much greater potential in terms of search engine promotion. In most cases, it is better to make landing pages for a specific product.
- Failure to provide information about the cost. It is clear that it is not always possible to immediately name the final cost, but the price range should be indicated.
You can beat it in a more interesting way. For example, on the landing page for Registrar LLC, we attached bright price tags to the CTA buttons, focusing the user's attention on them:
- Unsuccessful landing page structure. You need to think very carefully about the order in which the information will be placed. Some are guided by the idea of a powerful bonus at the end of the page, according to the principle of Stirlitz, who knew that the last phrase is best remembered. This is a mistake. You can't be sure that a person will scroll through your landing page to the end.
Others cram a huge number of advantages, both weighty and not so much, into a one-page website. They hope that this will have a powerful cumulative effect. In practice, weak advantages only undermine trust, casting a shadow on real bonuses.
- Decorative, not functional images. There is little information used on the landing page. Every word and image should play a role. You should be ready to explain to yourself why the picture you use contributes to solving any of the following tasks:
- attracting the user's attention to a clickable element or a key advantage of the product;
- creating the right atmosphere, mood;
- demonstration of the appearance and capabilities of the product during use.
If your picture does not perform this function, then it only creates information noise. Alas, such an error when creating a website will affect the conversion.
- Weak UTP. If you “missed” the first screen without getting the user interested, there is a high probability that he will immediately leave. You need to think very carefully about the title and the first image. If you make this mistake when creating a website, the quality of your further work no longer matters. So, if some abstract advertising stamp like "Optimal quality of price and quality" is displayed on the first screen, nothing will help.
- Outdated or unsupported by evidence advertising techniques. For example, no one believes the huge countdown counters anymore.
- Slow loading. The landing page cannot be heavy and slow, like a big turtle. For web resources of this type, fast loading is especially important.
- The wrong type of conversion. Depending on the type of product, its cost and complexity, it can be used as a direct sale directly on the landing page, as well as the capture of contact data. It is very important to offer the user a suitable type of action.
Nevertheless, it is not uncommon to see landing pages calling for buying an expensive and complex product right now. This is one of the most dramatic mistakes. It arises due to the lack of a systematic approach to work. First, you should ask yourself what kind of target action you need to achieve from a visitor to a web resource. Only after that, you can start developing a landing page or other marketing tool. In practice, landing pages are often created spontaneously, so that it would "work out".
- Underestimating the complexity of development. Landing pages are often called one-page pages. Because of this, there is a misconception about the ease of developing a web resource of this type. Yes, the development of a single-page website will take less time than the creation of a multi-page corporate website, but rather due to less technical work, rather than facilitating marketing expertise. You will not have to develop many design layouts, less work will fall to the share of the layout designer and copywriter. However, the most “expensive” employee of the company, an Internet marketer, will have to work hard!
- Irrelevant to the advertisement. A landing page usually works in conjunction with an advertising channel, for example, with contextual advertising. Therefore, the effectiveness largely depends on the consistency of an ad previously seen by a person with what is offered to him on the landing page.
- Links to third-party resources. Sometimes there is a desire to post a link to other resources out of the best intentions — to give the user the opportunity to verify the veracity of the data provided in order to show respect for any of the partners. However, it is important to understand that this creates a risk of the user leaving the site. If it goes to another web resource, you cannot be sure of its return.
- Ignoring popular objections/questions from potential customers. The landing page is partly a seller of your products on the Internet. As a sales consultant in live communication constantly has to work out the objections of customers, so your landing page will need to adequately answer the user's questions.
- Reviews that undermine trust. Those who use templates when creating a website are tempted to simply replace the text from Lorum ipsum to actual words in the reviews already available on the site. Consumers recognize deception. Either reliable, plausible reviews, or none.
To increase the credibility of reviews, you can refer to the "live profiles" of customers in social networks. Ideally, there should be influencers among them.
- Insufficiently clear result from the use of the product / service. If you sell a juicer, it would be a mistake to limit yourself to posting an emasculated photo of this device. You should also show a glass of freshly squeezed juice. Or even children who drink it with pleasure.
- Ignoring incentive actions, or restrictions in time/ quantity of goods. Nevertheless, the landing page is a direct response advertising tool that implies performing a targeted action here and now. It is necessary to push the consumer by all means to do the right thing — whether it is a subscription to a newsletter or an order with payment right now.
- Distractions. The landing page should not contain visual embellishments or lengthy lyrical digressions. Anything that distracts the user's attention lowers future sales.
- Forms that are too complicated to fill out. Firstly, the fields in such forms should be as small as possible. Secondly, storming the consumer with cumbersome feedback forms already at the first stage is quite presumptuous.
- Lack of social evidence. When the consumer is convinced that your offer meets his needs, he begins to look for confirmation that someone has already been satisfied with your product. Social proof is a very powerful tool that should not be neglected.