Landing Page Optimization

What is a landing page?

Some say “it’s the first page someone sees on your site”. Others say “it’s a webpage viewed after clicking a link in an email.”

We’ve also heard it referred to as “a specific page a visitor reaches after clicking a search engine listing” or “a location a user is directed to or ends up at after clicking on a link or typing in a command.”

All of these definitions are true. … Continue Reading »

At this week’s Mequoda Summit, Robert W. Bly, the man McGraw Hill calls “America’s best copywriter” will deliver a presentation titled “World’s Best Kept Copywriting Secrets”. He also has a book by the same name.

In his presentation on Friday afternoon, Bob will reveal tips for writing great headlines, great outer envelope messages and will demonstrate how to deliver a complete and compelling message. … Continue Reading »

Landing Page Design Tips: Want to know a secret? Of course, you do. Everyone loves secrets. As Homo sapiens we always want what we can’t have and that includes desiring an edge over our competitors or discovering some nugget of information that’ll add value to all facets of our lives; whether its business, financial, personal or dealing with our health. … Continue Reading »

An effective technique in information marketing is “self-liquidating premiums”—having the value of the premiums exceed the entire purchase price.

For example, let’s assume you have a product, perhaps a downloadable ebook, with a list price of $49.95. You’re selling it online at a discounted purchase price of $29.95. … Continue Reading »

People use formulas for a reason, and the reason is that they work. An example is the “who else” formula for writing headlines—”Who Else Wants to Speak French Confidently and Fluently in the Shortest Possible Time”.

The headline, while not brilliant, shocking or hypnotically compelling, is relevant and attention-getting to those interested in learning French. … Continue Reading »

The Mequoda Landing Page Scorecard outlines the 12 characteristics a landing page needs to successfully close sales online. And to incorporate all 12 characteristics typically, at least for a consumer product, requires medium-to-long copy on that landing page.

But should you send your traffic directly to that long-copy landing page? Or will visitors be put off by its length? … Continue Reading »

A bulleted list of “secrets” that your product or service promise to reveal can sometimes be the strongest element of your online sales letter. In fact, the words copywriters most often use are practically a textbook lesson in how to create interest in a product. … Continue Reading »

When we review landing pages, it’s common for us to come across letter copy that’s competent but average, and there are many things in the copy that our copywriters would change.

For example, on www.26-Feng-Shui-Secrets.com, a landing page dedicated to selling a Feng Shui book, there is no bio of the book’s author. So we don’t know his credentials or qualifications as a Feng Shui expert, except for some mention of learning Feng Shui from his grandmother. If that’s his only credential, more should be made of that story; maybe grandma should be positioned as the Feng Shui master. … Continue Reading »

Offer a Benefit in Your Landing Page Headline

We love it when we find a headline on a landing page that actually offers a benefit and a subhead that backs up the claim. For example, this headline from the Videos by Darrell Crow Landing Page offers a clear benefit:

“Learn to Oil Paint Even if You’ve Never Held a Paint Brush Before. No Talent Required”.

The message is very clear and it jumps right to the point of the landing page. … Continue Reading »

Landing Page Design: Always Test Graphics

The Taguchi method of landing page testing identifies the following factors or variables that are worth testing on any given landing page: … Continue Reading »

One of the Internet’s leading online publishers tested a simple technique for increasing his email newsletter signups and saw a very impressive lift as a result.

The leading publisher is Andrew Palmer, Director of Ecommerce and Web Marketing for Agora Financial. Andrew calls this technique the “Free on Free” offer. He shared the details of his test and the results with us at the Landing Page Driven Internet Marketing pre-conference workshop we hosted at SiPA conference in DC earlier this month. … Continue Reading »

Internet Explorer, the pundits tell us, accounts for up to 95 percent of all Web browser traffic. So why should we care about that small minority of surfers who prefer alternative browsers such as Netscape, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari? … Continue Reading »

Landing Page Optimization Tips from ThePowerofPositiveHabits.com

Perhaps you think self-help gurus such as Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura, Tony Robbins and John Gray are a godsend to troubled Americans. Alternatively, you may believe that many motivational speakers and their how-to books and other quick fixes often eradicate personal responsibility and do more harm than good. Either way, there is no denying that the self-help actualization movement represents a huge—$8 billion annually!!— market for information products. One entrant in the self-help actualization movement market niche is The Power of Positive Habits, an eBook by author Dan Robey. … Continue Reading »

We are back now with another offer from her highness, Alexandria Brown, “The Ezine Queen.” “The Queen” has brought you into her kingdom earlier by selling you her ezine course. This is good. This is how you get folks into your funnel. NOW, Ali is joining other Internet Marketers and upselling them to a hands-on business marketing seminar.

By the time we got to this landing page, there was a cute Post-It note to inform people that it’s sold out. … Continue Reading »

s there any married person reading this who has not, at one time or another, had a huge fight with his or her spouse? Of course not.

And with half of all marriages ending in divorce, the market for the marriage advice Amy Waterman is selling on her SaveMyMarriage.com landing page is enormous.

In this landing page review, Robert W. Bly looks at whether the copy and graphics Waterman has placed on the landing page are strong enough to get visitors to shell out $29.95 for her eBook, Save My Marriage Today! … Continue Reading »

Perry Marshall is something of a Renaissance man—engineer, advertising copywriter, technical writer, marketer and philosopher.

Among Internet marketers, he has ascended to the rank of high priest of Google AdWords. As one of the world’s leading specialists on buying search engine traffic, he has published a very popular how-to book, conducted high-ticket seminars and is a much-sought-after personal coach.

Prior to his consulting career, he helped grow a Chicago tech company from $200,000 to $4 million in sales in four years, then sell it to a public company for $18 million. … Continue Reading »

With the demand for information about illness and health, it’s not surprising that many physicians and traditional publishers have teamed up to begin online newsletters that address these issues. Many of these publications are highly specialized and focus on a single topic or ailment.

Others take a shotgun approach and attempt to address the public’s infolust across a wide spectrum of disease prevention, physical ailments and medical remedies. The wider editorial focus that targets a greater number of potential subscribers at a relatively lower price point has a different revenue model from the smaller niche, higher price newsletter. And it creates a special problem for the newsletter marketer and copywriter. … Continue Reading »

In business it’s location, location, location. And of course online, it’s your list, list, list. Back when there was no Internet, the only way to communicate with your prospects or loyal customers was to contact them through mail, fax or phone.

Today, anyone with an online presence that has an in-demand product or service can set up an ezine list of thirsty customers. Another way to grab market share is to grow rich within your niche.

And that’s what the very telegenic “Ezine Queen,” Alexandria K. Brown, has done. The beauty of the ezine is that it’s probably one of the most cost-effective marketing tools ever created. Just think: with the click of your mouse you can contact your customer in nano seconds with valuable information or a viable offer. And because they have opted in, you know you have an interested party as a subscriber. … Continue Reading »

The fundamental mistake made by many entrepreneurs is the classic chicken-and-egg scenario in which the inventor first creates a new product and then seeks a market for it.

Experienced product developers do the opposite. They anticipate the changes in society. They assess the evolving problems, requirements and desires of consumers, and look for opportunities that have not yet been addressed by the market. Then they forecast demand and create new products that fill the gap. … Continue Reading »

Posting a landing page with a confusing or inadequate order mechanism is like opening a new Wal-Mart, but forgetting to install cash registers. What’s the point?

In direct mail advertising, one of the two most important elements of the package is the order form (the other being the outer envelope). If you get everything else right and blow the order mechanism, your sales letter landing page will almost certainly fail. … Continue Reading »

With gardening season upon us, it seemed like a good idea to have John Clausen do a landing page review of GardeningSecretsandTips.com.

John points out that there are few hobbies or avocations that rival gardening when it comes to the need for secret methods and helpful tips. And there are few activities that attract more avid practitioners.

So, with that in mind, he took a long, Mequoda Landing Page Scorecard look at GardeningSecretsandTips.com and what he found was a few mistakes you should avoid when writing and designing your landing page. … Continue Reading »

How can you decide on the right design for your landing page?

Beauty is relative, cultural, genetic and ever-changing. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and aesthetic judgments are subjective.

The answer is to know your target market and create an appearance that conforms to your visitors’ expectations. We call it the “user’s mental model.” … Continue Reading »

n our Motley Fool Media Network Case Study, we chronicled the company’s admirable history from its humble beginnings as an America Online discussion forum in 1994. And we cited the Gardner brothers’ remarkable business model change in 2001 after the dot-com bust, which enabled the publishing company to rise like a phoenix to do $23 million in gross revenues in 2005.

Our Motley Fool Website Design Review gave them high marks in nearly every category, and we have mentioned the Motley Fool’s exemplary online business practices in numerous Mequoda books, articles and seminars. … Continue Reading »

In a recent landing page review in the Mequoda Daily, John Clausen asks: is there any subject more mulled over and carefully considered than our health and appearance? If you can do something to make the population more slender and likely to live longer, you should be able to make a fortune—shouldn’t you? … Continue Reading »

Few things destroy the credibility of a landing page sales letter more quickly and effectively than content that’s out of date.

How can you expect the prospect to take your message seriously if you’re not even interested enough in the content to keep it current?

It’s also important to remember that some of your potential customers may only visit your landing page once. If they don’t buy immediately, they may never return. … Continue Reading »

For decades, direct marketers have been using personalization to increase direct mail response rates. When you send out a laser-printed sales letter with the prospect’s name in it, you gain his or her attention.

In a recent Mequoda Daily landing page review, expert copywriter and contributing editor Bob Bly points out that personalization works equally well online, yet your name doesn’t appear within the copy of most of the landing pages you click on. Glen Hopkins wants to change all that with Page Personalizer. … Continue Reading »

f a landing page is comfortable and easy to read, your prospects are more likely to keep reading and respond to your sales message. Much of this is the responsibility of the copywriter, whose job it is to keep the message flowing in interesting and easily assimilated (bite-sized) chunks, but there are other factors that contribute to making a website comfortable and easy to read—notably, the choice of typeface. … Continue Reading »

It wasn’t long ago that Mequoda Daily contributing editor and copywriter John Clausen reviewed the landing page for the Internet Marketing Center, a very long and very well done sales letter developed by late Internet marketing guru Corey Rudl. When John had heard of Rudl’s tragic death in an automobile racing accident, he figured he’d probably seen the last of Internet Marketing Center and their landing page optimization efforts. … Continue Reading »

Now that more than half of all Internet users block pop-ups and Google has banned them from use by PPC buyers, there are two more good reasons to drop this once effective website design technique and look for a better way to increase landing page conversion rates. … Continue Reading »

What criteria would four of America’s most successful copywriters use to create better sales letter landing pages? And how would 26 landing pages from a variety of large and small publishers and authors hold up under their intense scrutiny?

Over the past 12 months, John Clausen, Peter A. Schaible, Robert W. Bly and Peter J. Fogel have used a list of 12 guidelines designed to increase landing page conversion rates to critique 26 successful (and a few not-so-successful) sales letter landing pages for a variety of books, magazines and newsletters for Mequoda’s Creating Landing Pages That Sell. … Continue Reading »

After years of using light copy landing pages to sell subscriptions, one health newsletter publisher increases his landing page conversion rate by 31 percent with a long copy sales letter landing page. … Continue Reading »

As PPC advertising costs continue to increase, more and more savvy publishers and authors turn to Name Squeeze eCommerce Conversion Architecture to hold onto PPC profits and keep PPC as a cornerstone of their 2006 Internet Marketing Strategy. … Continue Reading »

Discuss how landing page order button design can depress or increase landing page conversion rates for information marketers like Agora’s Early to Rise. … Continue Reading »

Learn how one publisher added simple user testimonials and increased landing page conversion rates by 23 percent. … Continue Reading »

An eBook author and publisher I met at a recent Internet marketing conference is a big fan of a simple $97 software program called eCover Generator that makes eBook covers, software boxes, CD covers and covers for just about any other information product you can name. … Continue Reading »

Discover how one publisher was able to increase landing page conversion rates 23 and 27 percent by re-purposing his direct mail sales letter copy. … Continue Reading »

My brother-in-law, Randy, is always amazed at the website design elements I test when creating new sales letter landing pages. He thinks, that after running the test once or twice or a 100 times, I should just know the answer. When I’m trying to increase landing page conversion rates, there are times when I conclude that I know fewer absolute answers the more landing page tests I run. … Continue Reading »

he Mequoda Landing Page Scorecard™ encourages you to score your own landing page using each of the 12 Mequoda Best Practice Guidelines, add them together and arrive at a cumulative score. The goal is to emphasize the importance of effective landing pages that sell. Your landing page should achieve respectable scores in all areas, rather than over-emphasizing a single area or two, or omitting other areas completely. … Continue Reading »

Capturing Your Visitor’s Email Address on Your Landing Page Allows Opportunity for Follow Up, Significantly Increases your Conversion Rate and Gives You a Chance to Grow Your List … Continue Reading »

There are a Few Common Factors that Contribute to Improving Landing Page Readability—Notably, the Choice of Typeface … Continue Reading »

Few Things Destroy the Credibility of a Landing Page More Quickly than Content that’s Out of Date. Remember to Keep Things Fresh and Always Offer an Urgent Reason for Visitors to Buy Now … Continue Reading »

Far Too Many Landing Pages Fail Almost Immediately by Offering Up Lack-Luster Headlines and Subheads; Learn How To Deliver a Compelling Headline for a Single Product or Service … Continue Reading »