Making mistakes is a part of life, and it’s certainly a part of optimizing your landing page marketing strategy. Although every business has to go through some trial and error to find what works for them, there are certain mistakes that aren’t worth making. Some of these missteps will only cost you time, money and conversions, and you can easily sidestep them with a few simple changes.
Let’s take a look at three common landing page mistakes that you’re probably making, and how you can make quick adjustments to turn the situation around.
1. Having No Clear Conversion Goal
No longer do marketing efforts have to be a guessing game. With endless metrics for tracking and testing, you can easily define your goals and build a landing page that will meet them. Before creating a landing page, define what the conversion goal is. Then build a page around this goal. An example: If your goal is to have visitors fill out a lead generation form, the page should be centered around a simple yet attractive form.
Usually where people go wrong is that they focus their energy on building a visually appealing landing page without addressing what they want leads to do. Instead of thinking about how great the page looks, think about how well it reflects your original intent.
2. Focusing Too Much on Personal Preferences
To expand on our first point: Don’t let your own personal taste and preferences define what the landing page should look. It’s easy to create something that you would think is great, but the truth is that landing pages don’t need a lot of creative design or development. In fact, short, simple and to the point results in better conversion rates. Leads know what they are signing up for, and they aren’t distracted by other things.
Just because landing pages are simple doesn’t mean they aren’t well executed, though. Spend time perfecting the wording, such as by using powerful verbs that encourage leads to act.
3. Using a Cookie-Cutter Approach
The good ‘ol cookie-cutter approach. It seems easy, but it generally leads to a lot of trouble. The same is true for landing page optimization. There is no ‘one fits all’ solution that works, which means you can’t just use the same layout and adjust a few words for each landing page. All products, offers and companies are different, and so are the motivations of your customers.
When reading about landing page tips or inspiration, don’t apply them to every situation. A call-to-action doesn’t always need to be in a specific spot, and asking for more than a name and email address isn’t always overbearing. While there are simple guidelines to follow, you need to find what works best for your audience and each campaign. Your mantra: test, test, test.
