How to use this Page

by Karen Cioffi

What exactly is a landing page?

According to Hubspot.com, “A landing page is a web page that allows you to capture a visitor's information through a lead form.”

Copyblogger.com says, “A landing page is any page on a website where traffic is sent specifically to prompt a certain action or result.”

So, landing pages are designed for specific purposes, such as a selling page for a product or service or for an email opt-in. But, no matter what the purpose is, it must be focused.

The page itself can be a separate website or a page on an existing website. But, since you want it completely focused, without distractions, a separate website usually works better.

It’s this landing page focus that allows for better conversion.

An effective landing page is designed and focused on a target market. This means if your site pertains to a specific cancer or illness, your content, opt-in, and any products you’re selling should focus on people dealing with this particular health issue. That’s your target market. And, your keywords should also reflect the page’s purpose.

If your site is about baseball, the same holds true. The landing page design, content, and any products or services being offered must pertain to baseball.

The landing page is kind of like a path on which there’s no way to stray off or be distracted. It’s intended for visitors to read exactly what you want them to, guiding them to say YES to your offer. There are no other pages for them to click on and hopefully no sidebar to be distracted by.

While inbound marketing strategies will get the visitor to your landing page, it’s the copy or content that will motivate him to follow the path and be responsive to saying YES.

Your content needs to be conversational, effective, and provide the WIIFM (what’s in it for me). People are overwhelmed with the amount of information being bombarded at them and with all the offers for books, ebook, and products. You need to write copy that (1) quickly lets the reader know what you’re offering, (2) lets the reader know exactly what the benefits are, and (3) lets the reader know what you want her to do.

Landing pages are no place for guessing games. They need to be fine-tuned, to the point, and simple. The more hectic you make the page, the more anxiety it will cause the reader. Anxiety isn’t good for conversion. Simple always works best.

You should also create separate landing pages for different offers or purposes. In other words, you don’t want to explain why a visitor should opt into your mailing list on your book selling landing page. And, you shouldn’t sell books on your subscriber opt-in page. Focus is a key element to motivating or leading a visitor to go through the necessary steps to saying YES to whatever it is you’re offering.

Bringing traffic to landing pages is done through inbound marketing strategies, such as email campaigns, special offers, guesting posting, and press releases. Other inbound marketing techniques include pay-per-click, ad banners, social networks, and affiliates.

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Do you want to extend your marketing reach as an author? Sign up now for Karen Cioffi's class, Creating and Building Your Author Online Presence: Website Creation to Beyond Book Sales, which starts Monday, January 7, 2013.

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I'm back with Part Two of 7 Elements of an Effective Landing Page Designed to Increase Your Mailing List.

Part One covered elements one (A Specific Opt-in Landing Page) and two (The Sign-up). Now it's on to elements three and four:

3. Convey the Benefit

Simply having the sign-up wording in place isn’t enough. According to MarketingExperiments.com, you need to provide the visitor with a benefit. The benefit is the incentive to say YES to the sign-up step.

People are getting more and more gun-shy about opting into yet another newsletter or ezine. You need to give them something of value for their valuable address. Think of it as an exchange.

With the above in mind, you need to word your sign-up text to convey the benefit. You might use something like, “Sign up now for instant access to the powerful ebook, 10 Steps to Increase Your Website Traffic.”

This wording not only establishes the ‘benefit,’ it also gives a time element: “now” and “free instant access.”

The landing page should also list what’s included in the free gift and the value of the newsletter. Using bullet points is recommended.

4. Your Ethical Bribe - The Free Gift

To make the sign-up even more appealing, you should change the benefit to: “Sign up now for free instant access to 10 Steps to Increase Your Website Traffic.

This is your ‘ethical bribe.’ Obviously, you will need to make the free gift relevant to your site and valuable to your target market. And, you want the visitor to know that your offer, your opt-in, is free. You don’t want him wondering about this – make it clear.

The reason for ‘sweetening the pot’ and making the offer as irresistible as possible is because you need to build your mailing list. You need that visitor to say YES. You need conversion.

To get that YES, you’re benefit and free gift need to be valuable.

So, how do you decide if your gift is valuable enough to grab that email address?

The answer to this question is easy: you know who your target market is.

Think about it . . . what does your target market want? What would you want?

If your site and product is about writing, guess what…your visitors would probably appreciate an e-book on that topic, maybe a ‘how to write guide.’ Or, if you’re into marketing…offer an e-book of marketing tips and guidance. If your site is about cooking, offer recipes or an instructional cooking e-book.

The idea is to establish yourself as an expert, someone your reader wants to learn from. They need to want what you’re offering, whether it’s for instructional value, information, entertainment, or other.

Now for a word of caution: make sure your new subscriber is able to get his free gift. Occasionally, you may come across a site that you’ve signed up to, specifically for the free gift, and then had trouble with the link or the download itself. This isn’t a good way to start a relationship. Most subscribers will get annoyed and unsubscribe to the site.

If you haven't read Part 1, go here:

For Part 3, stop by next Monday!

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RECOMMENDED RESOURCE:

Design Your Own eBook Cover in 10 Easy Steps - it includes step-by-step directions for creating your own ebook also!

This is a great tool for creating your ethical bribe.

Check it out: http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/books-on-marketing/design-your-own-ebook-cover-in-10-easy-steps/



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MORE ON ONLINE MARKETING

Creating Images – Simple and Quick
SEO and Website Ranking – Inside Website Visit Lengths
Using Video for Marketing

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To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).

Karen Cioffi
Multi-award Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter, Editor, Online Marketer, Affiliate Marketer
Writer’s Digest Website of the Week, June 25, 2012

Karen Cioffi Professional Writing Services
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/karen-cioffi-writing-services/

Author Online Presence and Book Marketing Ecourse:
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/book-marketing-ecourses/

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This is the first part of 7 Elements of an Effective Landing Page Designed to Increase Your Mailing List. Since it's a bit long, it will be divided into three parts.

Off we go.

The nitty-gritty of your landing page is to create an effective, engaging, and appealing website that is designed with focus and that will motivate the visitor to say YES to your opt-in or other call-to-action.

Getting traffic is great, but if that traffic doesn’t convert, doesn’t take action on your site, there’s really no point to it. Your opt-in landing page should convert visitors into subscribers.

Here are seven elements to an effective opt-in landing page.

1. A Specific Opt-in Landing Page

With attention spans dwindling and competition increasing, the main goal of your
opt-in landing page is to get email addresses that will convert into sales.

You might be wondering why a separate opt-in landing page is a necessary step. The answer is: distraction.

Most visitors and readers today are scanners. There’s just too much information online for people to read everything. And, in addition to this, attention spans are shrinking.

If you bring a visitor to your blog for the purpose of having her sign-up for a newsletter, she may first glance over your interesting post and scan for more information. Maybe she’ll glance over all the gadget/widgets you have on your sidebars. This is distracting and dilutes focus.

When you drive traffic for the purpose of increasing your mailing list, your intent, your call-to-action, needs to be deliberate and clear, with NO distractions. 

This is the purpose of a specific opt-in landing page.

2. The Sign-up

According to a number of marketers, the most essential words on your site are: SIGN UP or other text prompting the visitor to subscribe to your newsletter.

Getting subscribers onto your mailing list is the first and most important element of an effective website. It should be the purpose of your opt-in landing page.

The sign-up text is the building blocks of your empire. It is the link to developing a relationship with the visitors to your site.


Stop by next Monday for elements 3 and 4.

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RECOMMENDED RESOURCE: 

To learn the ‘ins and outs’ of creating and building an Author Online Presence check out the ecourses Karen offers:
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/book-marketing-ecourses/






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MORE ON ONLINE MARKETING

Book Marketing – 9 Quick Tips for Being a Guest Blogger on Blogging Sites
Commenting on Blogs Still Works
What is an Author Platform and How Do You Create It?

~~~~~
To keep up with writing and marketing information, along with Free webinars, join us in The Writing World (top right top sidebar).

Karen Cioffi
Multi-award Winning Author, Freelance/Ghostwriter, Editor, Online Marketer, Affiliate Marketer
Writer’s Digest Website of the Week, June 25, 2012
“This site from Karen Cioffi should stand as a model for other freelance writers.”
~ Brian A. Klems, Online Editor for Writer’s Digest

Karen Cioffi Professional Writing Services
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/karen-cioffi-writing-services/

Author Online Presence and Book Marketing Ecourse:
http://karencioffifreelancewriter.com/book-marketing-ecourses/

~~~~~

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