How to Kill the Deal: 5 Big Errors in Landing Page Design
Today, I wanted to share with you what I consider the biggest errors in landing page design.
These are errors that will drain you of money as visitors arrive at your landing page and flee, leaving you with nothing to show for your hard work.
The thing is, these are simple, easy to avoid mistakes.
But I see these most often with real estate agent sites, and I know from our own experience that these goofs can waste huge opportunities to connect with willing, paying clients.
And you don’t want to lose willing, paying clients, do you?
So, before we dive into good landing page design in the next post, here’s what you need to avoid.
Landing Page Error 1 | Hard-to-Read Type
Make sure your headline is big enough, that it stands out.
But also, what about your body copy? Is it large enough to read on screen?
You don’t want to use font size smaller than 10 points, cause that’s a definite turn off.
As Jakob Neilson said: Tiny text tyrannizes users by dramatically reducing task throughput.
Also, stay away from fancy font styles. One big reason is because fancy formatting and font styles are ignored.
Landing Page Error 2 | Home Page Navigation Bar
Your landing page has one purpose: conversion.
If you put links or a navigation bar on your landing page, invariably people will click on them.
You have to remember this about advertising: people are looking for any excuse to ignore you, to put off their decision you are asking them to make.
You might think “Well, I don’t mind so much if they work their way through my site. They’ll probably come across some useful stuff.”
The problem with that is they may come across some useful stuff, and then go away.
You don’t want that.
Create your landing page like a funnel that people slide into, and convert.
Read Seth Godin’s blog post on the funnel to learn more.
Landing Page Error 3 | Click Here to Start the Conversion Process
You’ve got them to your landing page. Now you want to close them. That means you place everything you need to convert them on your landing page.
Don’t stick a link on there that says, “Click here to Begin.”
If you want subscribers to your blog, then insert a fat feed icon on the page with copy that says, “Click here to subscribe.”
If you want a name and an email address, include the entry boxes on the page AND a voluptuous “Subscribe Now” or “Get Free Report Now” button under the forms.
Rule of thumb: Make it simple and quick. Web users have the attention span of fruit flies.
Landing Page Error 4 | Scary Forms
Speaking of forms, don’t frighten people away by asking more information from them than necessary.
If you want to give someone a free report, all you really need is an email address. So that’s all you need to ask for. [Of course it’s polite to ask for a first name so you can personal the return email.]
Don’t forget: when creating forms, imagine the minimal amount of info you need, and stick to that.
Landing Page Error 5 | Bad Copy and Graphics
This is the daddy of mistakes.
Anything that serves to distract a visitor is the kiss of death. This includes self-centered messages about how important or successful you are.
Avoid that like the plague.
Use emotionally-charged copy to attract attention, create desire, boost interest and motivate to action.
And the copy should be linear and simple. It should be written with one clear, unrelenting purpose: conversion.
If you can’t do that, hire a copywriter to do it for you. Trust me, it WILL pay off for you in the end.
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