Top Strategies for Landing Page Optimization

Landing pages are the turnstiles of your Internet presence. They don't necessarily collect money from your visitors, but they do something even more important. They collect commitments. When people sign up for your stuff, they commit themselves to your care, and they trust that you won't abuse the relationship. Like it or not, visitors now become leads, and it's up to you to nurture the relationship and help it grow into something more meaningful. Ideally, your visitors become loyal customers or at least loyal subscribers to your ideas and updates. That's a lot to ask from a single page. Here are my top tips for landing page optimization.

1. Offer your visitors something they want. Seems simple enough, but do you really know what they want? Try asking them. Best approach - get some of them together and buy them lunch. Ask them what you can do for them and what they would like to see offered on your website.
2. Keep it Simple and Social. Don't put Chapter 1 on the page, just tell them what your offer's about, why they will want it and how to get it. That's all.
3. No distractions. No menu items. No external links. Put one good graphic on the page that helps to explain the "what, why and how" of the offer.
4. Keep the form short. Name and e-mail is all you really need. You'll get the rest later. The more stuff you require, the faster they will bail out.
5. Keep it visible, i.e. above the fold in a typical web browser.
6. Don't assume it's perfect. Try different approaches, layouts, text and titles. Try different colors and graphics. Try publishing them in different places and at different times. Try different offers. Don't assume that people really want any of them. You'll find out. Make sure you track each landing page separately and analyze the results. Go with the approaches that work the best.
7. Build in some way to nurture leads when you get them. It could be as simple as responding via e-mail and asking to set up a call or an online chat. HubSpot has some nice built-in tools for lead nurturing. Here are some more lead nurturing tools available for small businesses.
8. Celebrate your success! When you contact your leads thank them and let them know you appreciate their interest. Even if no business ever materializes, you now have a resource that can prove invaluable as you work your inbound marketing magic.