Digital Marketing Insider (160): 5-31-24

Howdy Digital Marketing Insiders!

As always, these Friday newsletters are penned by the talented members of our marketing agency.

This week, we're giving a big shout out to our Director of Strategy, Alex Swope. Alex has worn so many hats over the years that it’s hard to think of something he hasn’t touched, and we are so grateful to have him!

Prepare to revolutionize your landing page design process with our latest blog post: "Landing Page Best Practices + A Free Template!" 🌟

We've previously laid the groundwork, discussing the pivotal role of content in invigorating your online presence. But now, it's time to delve deeper and tackle the nitty-gritty details.

Join us as we explore the science and art of landing page creation, revealing strategies to streamline the process and ensure your landing pages shine brighter than ever. From designing engaging layouts to implementing conversion best practices, we've got you covered every step of the way.

Don't miss this chance to boost your website's performance and user engagement. Stay tuned for expert insights, practical tips, and real-world case studies that will take your landing page design to new heights!

Prepare to transform your online presence and make a lasting impression. Let's embark on this exciting journey together! 🚀

Landing Page ‘Best Practices’ Builder Honed By Performance Marketers

After running thousands of landing page tests across dozens of industries, WebMechanix has built a free, landing page mockup tool (that follows all our best practices) to help marketers like us create rock-solid landing pages.

We originally developed this landing page tool for internal use at our agency in order to mock up prototypes and get a minimum viable product launched as quickly as possible for our clients.

Now we’re letting our favorite digital marketers (you) use it for free! + we’ve created a walkthrough video on how to use it.

Access the FREE Landing Page Builder

Our landing page builder has tooltips for each element on the page with detailed information and recommendations on landing page best practices, but I wanted to take this chance to dive deeper into those tips..

Agency-Tested Landing Page Best Practices For Core Elements

These core elements of a landing page are the first things the user will see when landing on your site, and they have the biggest impact on whether or not your landing page drives the sale. Below, we’ll take a look at each element and how you can apply landing page best practices.

Headline

It’s not an exaggeration to say the headline is the second most important part of your landing page—(more on the most important part later).

The number one thing the user needs to learn from the headline is that they are in EXACTLY the right place to solve their problem. One of the reasons dynamic keyword insertion is so effective in headlines is the immediate confirmation that we have what the user was searching for.

Don’t use crafty lines - they will confuse and bewilder your user into bouncing right back to the SERP.

I like the old formula of “Finally! A [product category users are searching for] that [fixes the user’s problem]”

For example:

• “Finally! A pair of wool socks that don’t shrink when you wash them!”

• “Finally! An ERP that can be implemented in weeks, not months.”

You can remove the “Finally!” for launch, but I find it gets me in the right mindset to brainstorm headlines.

Hero Text

A/B testing consistently shows that copy on a landing page is our biggest leverage point for conversion. While people often skip videos and demos, we can immediately draw their eyes with simple and compelling copy.

This means that H1, H2, and hero body copy are extremely important to get right.

There are two things we generally want the hero copy to do

1. Make the benefits clear to the user

2. Describe what to expect after the form fill (how will we get in contact with you and what will be discussed at the meeting)

• For example: “You will learn ___ , and ___ over a 30-minute call with one of our implementation specialists. We will ask questions about your business, tell you how [product] can help [solve problem], and talk about different packages with customized pricing.”

Short and descriptive copy wins. If you wish to include over a few sentences, use bullet points.

• Bullet points tend to perform well. Keep it to 3 or 4 max

• Keep paragraphs in hero to 2 simple sentences.

• As an alternative to bullet points, icons work well to visually reinforce benefits

Double-check yourself by asking these questions:

• Does the hero copy direct the user to take action?

• Is the hero copy compelling?

• Are there paragraphs of text in the hero?

• Does the hero use large text in the hero and sans-serif font?

Hero Imagery

We typically see images of the product converting best on landing pages. For a B2B SASS company, this would be an image of the software mocked up on a computer screen. Similarly, for a manufacturer, this would be an image of their product coming off the line or being used on a house. Hero imagery should always be relevant to the product and the biggest pain point of the potential customer.

If you’re using a background image in the hero area, make sure the copy is still readable over the image. A distracting hero image is much worse than no hero image.

Landing Page Forms

If you guessed the form was the most important part of the landing page, you’re right!

To read the rest of this article and other great ones like it, go check out our WebMechanix Blog. See you there!

This newsletter is sponsored by WebMechanix, the digital marketing agency that makes you smarter. 💡

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