B2B Marketing Blog

John Doe

Architect & Engineer

We love that guy

landing_page_conversions header

Introduction – Time is of the essence

Landing pages are a business’s gatekeepers to the realm of high profits. But, how do you get those gatekeepers to let you through? Does your industry matter? Does your company size matter? How do you know if the conversion rate you have now is good, bad or satisfactory?

In Short: What’s a good landing page conversion rate you want to be looking at?

Questions, questions, questions…

99% of businesses ask themselves these questions every day, over and over again, and still can’t get a satisfactory answer.

It’s time to shed some light on landing page conversion rates and help you understand where you are now, and what you should be doing to move forward.

Here we go!

Answers, answers, answers…

A few things you should know right off the bat, before we get into the actual numbers game:

First off, forget all the “conventional wisdom” non-sense you think you know about landing page conversions. This includes statements like “2-3% conversions are good enough, you shouldn’t be too hyped for more”, or “If your conversion rate is low, you need to carefully analyze your page and look for details like line spacing, repositioning CTAs, changing fonts and colors, etc.”

Stop and think for a moment: do you really think that a smart business owner, who never has enough time for all his daily tasks, will sit back and even notice the font, colors, or inaccurate spacing and be like “oh this line isn’t in the middle, I guess I should dodge this company”? Please.

Testing and optimization is, by all means, important, buts it’s the bigger stuff you need to be looking at (more on that below).

Secondly, there is no such thing as a “good conversion rate” which, when achieved, means that you need to stop optimizing landing pages for conversions and focus on other marketing tasks. Believe it or not, this is a never-ending game, and there is ALWAYS room for improvement, the tricky part is just figuring out which way you need to dig.

Thirdly, remember that almost every digital marketing benchmark (including conversion rates) depends on a LOT of things: audience, industry, organic traffic, marketing message, brand, company reputation, word of mouth, emotional aspects and a zillion other things. So, finding out that a competitor’s landing page is outperforming yours doesn’t necessarily mean that your page is bad, and vice versa.

Let’s get into the actual juicy stuff now.

Landing page conversion rate benchmarks – industries

Although conversion rates vary from industry to industry, there are a few similarities that are pretty consistent.

WordStream has recently conducted a research about different landing page conversion rates across different industries (and these guys are pretty keen on keeping their information updated, so you can be sure this is accurate data) and found out that an average conversion rate was 2.35%, with top 25% of pages converting at 5.31% and higher, and top 10% converting at 11.45% or higher. This makes 2-3% that you knew before sound pretty bad, right?

search conversion rates

Source

What’s interesting about the research is that although conversions vary from industry to industry (for example for Finance 5% is the median, whereas for eCommerce its 1.84%), for all industries, the top 10% landing pages outperform competitors by 3x-5x. This means that you shouldn’t really care about the “common average” conversion across all industries, but rather delve deeper into your industry. If you follow the conventional wisdom of 2-3% and you are in Finance (which has a median of 5%) you aren’t doing that great.

Here is a list with conversion rates by industries:

conversion rate by industry

Source

Here is another research by Marketing Sherpa, and although this regards the overall website conversions (not just landing pages), it can give you a good hunch as to where your overall conversion path is at, since landing pages make a decent part of it.

conversion by industry

 

Source

You might think that high conversion rates are all you should be after, but when you get to those high numbers, a different problem jumps into play – lead quality. You don’t want to just have tons of random conversions, you want leads that are actually interested in your business. Landing pages are aimed to, ultimately, increase your sales and profits, and junk leads aren’t exactly helping you achieve that goal.

Landing page conversions – Company size

Many people think that big companies have an edge over smaller ones, simply because they have been in the business longer – they have more experience, more budget, more content and more landing pages, which technically means that there is a higher chance for a potential customer to convert on their page.

 That’s not exactly true.

While experience and budget is important, it doesn’t mean that small and medium businesses can’t compete for a big slice of the cake. Let me show you.

Another research conducted by WordStream, which analyzed around 1000 landing pages, revealed that about 80% of traffic goes to the top 10% of landing pages. So, if you are a small business with just four landing pages instead of 1000, it doesn’t make much difference: 80% of your traffic still goes to that one well-performing landing page.

It doesn’t really matter whether you have 1, 100, or 1000 landing pages – you can still get into the top 10% of your industry with just a single page, and that means everything.

typical distribution to landing pages

 

Source

Bottom line: Conversion rates are important, but lead quality is equally so (if not more). Don’t fall for the conventional wisdom revolving around landing page conversions: compare your results within your industry, not with the whole world. Knowing that some landing page is outperforming yours, doesn’t immediately mean that it’s better, or vice versa. Finally, if you are a small business, you have just as a high chance to get visitors to convert, as a large business. Here are 5 rules of thumb for creating killer landing pages.

How to improve your conversion rates – tips you should follow

Like I mentioned before, do not fall for the conventional wisdom and go after fonts, colors, micro spacing and stuff like that. If your conversions aren’t good, it’s probably a bigger issue than orange vs red, or Helvetica vs Calibri.

Here are a few tips on which direction you should be looking at:

Change the offer – The most important part of your landing page is your offer – the value that you offer to your audience. If the landing page isn’t delivering expected results, one of the first things you may want to do is change your offer. Most companies nowadays offer a free trial, or a free consultation. That’s too mainstream, vague and boring.

Do some research/surveys and find out what your audience really needs. For example, you might find out that instead of a free trial, they would really appreciate an ROI calculator for measuring their marketing effectiveness, or a detailed industry report about a complex topic, or even a detailed walkthrough that will explain all the ins and outs of your product.

Think of the flow – Sometimes, people are reluctant to fill out a form simply because they face too many barriers: the form is too long, there is too little information, or the information provided doesn’t really answer their questions and challenges, etc. Try changing some or all of those aspects and see how it goes.

Ask your users – If there is one strategy that absolutely works when trying to find out whether your users’ needs are satisfied, is asking them. Literally.

An easy way to get feedback is to include an additional form field which asks users something like “what can we do to make your experience better on this page?” Of course, not every person will leave feedback and not each feedback will be relevant, but some will give crucial hints and ideas as to what your audience is actually looking for.

Conclusion

Optimizing your conversion rates isn’t an easy task, but it’s not impossible either. It requires a great deal of work, but that work will pay off in the end. Test as many things as you can, and create different landing pages for the same offer (assuming your offer is worthy) and keep looking for that one “unicorn” landing page that will get you to the top 10% of your industry and 5x your conversions.

unicorn image

 

keep looking for that one “unicorn”

And lastly, don’t forget that this is a long marathon: even when you have found your unicorn, never stop improving it further, and further, and further.

If you found this useful, and you’re curious to learn more and find out how to improve your lead generation, we invite you to download our 30 greatest lead generation tips tricks and ideas eBook.

Schedule a FREE consultation

 

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John Doe

Architect & Engineer

We love that guy

keep_the_ball_rolling_using_landing_pages.jpg

Introduction

Thank you pages provide a wonderful opportunity to improve your performance and to move your prospects down the buyer’s journey (the active research process a potential buyer goes through leading up to a purchase).

Using thank you pages and applying best practices can increase your leads –> customer conversion rates. Learn exactly how to seize the momentum in this post.

How to use a thank you page

A thank you page should end the conversion process:

conversion_process.png

 

If up until now you have made do with an inline thank you message, it’s important to understand what you are missing out on. Using thank you pages you leverage your marketing by providing additional content and pushing your prospect down the buyer’s journey by inviting them to take further action.

Thank you page best practices

Deliver on the expectations you’ve set

This might go without saying but, if you just promised a prospect that their guide is on its way to them – don’t forget to email them the guide (obviously this isn’t an issue for those using marketing automation tools. If you’re not yet doing so, at the very least check out automatic emailing solutions such as mailchimp). If for any reason, you can’t deliver the promised offer right away, let the lead know what to expect.

Download our 30 Greatest Lead Generation Tips, Tricks and Ideas Free eBook

Display your site’s navigation menu

If you’re already acquainted with landing page best practices, you have probably removed the navigation menu from your offer’s landing pages. This is smart, as you do not want your prospects distracted and bouncing out at the moment of truth. Thank you pages are a different story. If the prospect has come this far, you have already achieved your landing page’s goal. Why keep them trapped on your landing page? now is a legitimate time to get your navigation bar to reappear, enabling your client to explore more options.

Move your lead further down the buyer’s journey

Seize the opportunity that your prospect just became a lead, in order to push them down the buyer’s journey. Add a clear CTA to your landing page, inviting them to enjoy a relevant contextual offer.

Add social following options

Extend your social reach by inviting your leads to follow you on social media. This is a wonderful opportunity to turn your lead into a potential ambassador. If eventually they will decide to engage with the posts you share on social media, you will be exposed to their network and potentially generate more leads.

An effective thank you page example

 

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As you can see, in the above page we have re-introduced our navigation bar, we added a clear CTA aimed at pushing the lead down the buyer’s journey to the consideration stage, and we have added a social following option.

Behind the scenes we made sure to send the prospect the offer we promised (If curious, you can learn how to leverage emails in this post).

Conclusion

Thank you pages are not an afterthought. They are a crucial part of your conversion process. Applying thank you page best practices can help you deepen your relationship with your prospect and to naturaly push them down the buyer’s journey. Don’t put all your efforts on gaining your initial goals of converting your prospects into leads, only to move on to the next prospect, without paying your lead the attention they deserve.

If your found this useful, and you’re curious to learn more and find out how to improve your lead generation, we invite you to download our 30 greatest lead generation tips tricks and ideas eBook.

Schedule a FREE consultation

 

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John Doe

Architect & Engineer

We love that guy

How to create attention grabbing CTA header

Introduction – CTA

Calls-to-action (CTA) can make or break your conversion rates. They are the bottom line of your landing page effort. Effective CTAs will capture the attention of your prospective customers and should persuade them to click.

CTAs are mainly used on:

  • display ads
  • product pages
  • email marketing
  • social media
  • direct mail
  • …anywhere you market your offers.

Follow these guidelines to create persuasive, attention grabbing CTAs

 

Location, Location, Location

Make sure your CTA is visible, aim to place at least one CTA above the fold of your landing page.
When visitors need to scroll down in order to see your CTA, your conversion rates will drop. It’s pure math.

Use Contrasting Colors

At any stage of the funnel (display ad, landing page, etc) the CTA should be the first thing an observer lay eyes on, before proceeding to read your offer.

It should stand out with a contrasting color to the rest of your page/ad.

Using colors that do not contrast is a great waste – your CTA will drown out and your conversion rates will drop dramatically.

Always make sure your CTA stands out – we cannot stress this enough!

Write clear and compelling copy

Don’t be dull. If you’re offering a free eBook, don’t write something like “Download Now” or god forbid “Send” or “Submit”. Be very clear about the offer. Stress that it is free. Write FREE in capital letters. A compelling CTA for a free eBook would be for example “Claim you FREE eBook”.

Bonus Tip: Always Deliver!

Once a visitor clicks on a top of the funnel CTA and reaches your offer page, make sure the offer page is in harmony with the CTA from where the visitor arrived.

For example, if a visitor clicks on a free eBook display ad, make sure the next thing they see is a product page with the free eBook offer. Do not let your visitors down. They will not hesitate to abandon your offer page if you do not follow up on your promises and CTAs. Building trust is crucial if you’re looking for meaningful conversions.

Here are some more Landing Pages best practices:

5 Rules of thumb for killer landing pages

Conclusion 

In order to create attention grabbing, persuasive CTAs you should always:

  • Make your CTA visible
  • Use contrasting colors
  • Write clear and compelling
  • Always deliver

Have any more rocking CTA tips? Let us know…

If your found this useful, and you’re curious to learn more and find out how to improve your lead generation, we invite you to download our 30 greatest lead generation tips tricks and ideas eBook.

Schedule a FREE consultation

 

 

Read More

John Doe

Architect & Engineer

We love that guy

5 rules of thumb for creating killer landing pages

Introduction –  creating killer landing pages

Landing pages are a core element in any lead generation campaign. A good landing page will capture prospective customers and help you convert them into leads.
Time and again, we see a misuse of this tool resulting in poor conversion rates and a baffled marketing manager, not sure when things went south.
The good news is that there are 5 rules of thumb which can help you create a killer landing page and increase conversion rate:

 

Rule No.1: Follow up on your promise

Most visitors arrive on landing pages from these main sources:

  • From your website
  • Paid ads
  • Email campaign
  • Social media post

Make sure that the content of your invite to the page is in line with the content on your page. Do not take this lightly – if a person on your website reads a blog post that invites them to download an eBook, the designated landing pages must deliver on that promise and revolve around that same eBook. A different offer would damage your credibility and will result in very poor conversion rates.

Rule No.2: No distractions!

Remember: you brought visitors to your landing page for one purpose: to turn them into quality leads by filling out the form on your page.

Be sure to eliminate any distractions that tempt your visitor leave the page. Remove the navigation bar that is normally on your website.

Here is an example of a landing page on our website:

Landing page example

 

As you can see the navigation bar that would normally be at the header or our website is gone.

Do not use any links that could encourage the visitor to leave. If you must use links, make sure they will open in a new tab and not make the user leave altogether.

Rule No.3: Keep the page as simple as possible

Be brief and to the point.

The basic structure should be:

  • A clear headline
  • A brief paragraph explaining your offer
  • A few bullet points describing the benefits of the offer (check out rule No.4 to learn more about this)
  • A Form
  • A clear Call To Action (CTA)

Remember – less is more!

Rule No.4: Describe benefits not features

Every landing page should contain a brief description of your special offer. Instead of focusing on the technical details/specifications/features of your offer, tell your visitor how these features will help make his/her life better.

Be sure you understand what the value of your offer is to your visitor.

A test I always find useful is the “so what” test, which I learned about in a book called “make your words sell” by Ken Evoy.

For example, if you are offering an eBook about lead generation you could describe it as:

The mechanics of lead generation

So what? 

How to generate leads

Getting better but still, So What?

We’ve compiled the 30 greatest lead generation lessons in this brand new guide, so you can start reeling in those leads.

Can you ask So what about that? It’s pretty clear what you’re getting right?

Rule No.5: Create a follow up thank you page

Once a visitor fills out the form and converts in a lead, make it a rule to always direct them to a “thank you page”.

There are two benefits here:

  • it’s polite
  • You can use this as an opportunity to promote another offer. In the following example, when an visitor leaves their details on our website we invite them to receive a free marketing consultation:

Thank you page example

Always aim to extend your funnel.


Conclusion –  creating killer landing pages

In order to create killer landing pages you should always:

  1. Follow up on your promise
  2. Keep your visitor on your landing page – No distractions!
  3. Keep the page as simple as possible
  4. Describe benefits not features
  5. Create follow up landing pages

Have any more killer tips to share! Let us know..

If you found this useful, and you’re curious to learn more and find out how to improve your lead generation, we invite you to download our ’30 Greatest Lead Generation Tips, Tricks, & Ideas’ eBook.

Schedule a FREE consultation

 

 

Read More

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