3 Steps to Improving Your Lead Generation Landing Pages

Less is more when it comes to effective lead generation pages. Here are three steps to increase conversions from your landing pages.

Online lead generation is one of those things that is easy to do poorly and more complicated to do well. Sure, if you have a very compelling product or service offering and a highly motivated visitor base, collecting leads online is simple (at least, in theory). But most lead generation sites operate in a competitive environment in which website visitors have a lot of choice and probably a healthy dose of skepticism. Nobody wants to be spammed or badgered by relentless sales calls after filling out a form, and this concern makes many people think twice before giving out their contact information to a company they don't know.

With rising concerns about privacy coupled with an ever-increasing competitive environment, the deck is stacked against any company trying to collect valid, qualified leads online. If you're feeling defeated, try these three simple steps for improving the effectiveness of your lead generation landing pages.

Focus on Your Call-to-Action (CTA)

There are three common CTA-related problems that affect lead capture pages: lack of a CTA, unclear CTAs due to lack of visual prioritization, and the main CTA not getting enough attention because of competing CTAs or visual clutter.

Use these tips to overcome these problems and increase the chances of your visitor responding to your call to action:

• Use a simple page layout that places visual importance on the call to action. There should not be any competing graphics on the page unless they directly support your call to action. For example, if your call to action offers an e-book, you could have a picture of the e-book near the form to draw attention toward the call to action.
• Match the headline of the lead capture page to the call to action, creating a one-two messaging punch that leaves no doubt in the visitor's mind as to what the page is offering.
• Remove unnecessary page distractions including the navigation. The worst thing for a call to action is to have to compete with multiple other link options elsewhere on the page. Consider making your CTA the only actionable element on the page.

Affordable-Home-Insurance.org’s CTA button stands out from the rest of the page, and immediately grabs the visitor’s attention.

Remember that pictures of human faces will get attention, but that this could easily work against your call to action. If you must use a picture of a person, be sure the person's eyes are gazing toward your call to action. If the person in the photo is gazing straight out at the visitor, or off the page, the photo will cause a strong visual distraction away from your CTA.

MR Insurance Consultants' photo of a woman gazing toward the form directs the visitor's attention to the CTA area.

Reduce the Amount of Text on the Page

Very few people actually read on the Web. Most people want to arrive at a page and with a quick glimpse be able to tell whether the page is relevant to their needs. So instead of presenting a lot of text in paragraph form (which can be a visual turn-off), rewrite your content using:

• Bullet points
• Bite-size sub-headings that categorize the content
• Clickable areas like buttons and links that users can use to drilldown for deeper information

Cut back on the text by getting rid half of what you originally had and removing adjectives that can’t be substantiated factually. Most readers will disregard those words anyway.

Shorten the Form (or at Least Make It Appear Short)

The first question to ask when creating a form is this: What is the minimum amount of information I need from this visitor in order to know if he/she is an appropriate lead? If you are enticing the form-fill by offering some sort of asset (e.g. a whitepaper or buying guide), the amount of information you ask from the customer should be commensurate to what you’re giving them. Most people will not think it’s worth providing a lot of personal information just to get a whitepaper, but on the other hand if you are offering them home mortgage rates or quotes on health insurance, they will understand the need to provide pretty specific information.

U-HAUL and PODS are both in the moving and storage business, yet the former asks for very little information. U-HAUL’s form looks easier and less invasive by asking only for essential information.

In most cases, if the form is shorter, then the conversion rate is higher. But this isn't always true. If you have enough traffic, you should carefully test the addition of any field before making permanent changes to your form. If adding a field is costing you conversions, you'll need to decide if the trade-off is acceptable to your company. You may be surprised to find that the sales team that simply couldn't survive without certain information will back off from their position when they start getting more leads into their pipeline.

A good rule of thumb when designing your form is to imagine talking to the prospective customer in real life. In the real world, you wouldn’t be comfortable asking for too much information too early in the conversation, so follow that same etiquette online.

If a lot of information is necessary, experiment with staging the form in different ways. Consider dividing the form into separate screens or a lightbox pop-over sequence (e.g. one screen for contact information, another screen for personal information, and so on).

Boring and Short Work in Lead Gen

All these tips follow a single critical theme: less is more. Optimize your lead capture page by simplifying the page headline and text, clarifying and streamlining the call to action (and form), and reducing visual distractions. Remove extraneous words and graphics and focus on what's important - the offer, and the form. It may sound boring, but when it comes to lead capture forms, it works.

To view the original article Click Here

10 Unique Ways To Build Your Email List

Many of you may already be growing your email lists through sign up forms on your website, or printed sign up sheets near your register. You may even ask folks if they want to be added to your email list when you meet them at a trade show or event. So far, so good. But, you might also want to try a few out-of-the-ordinary techniques to entice even more sign ups.

Unique ways to collect email addresses:

Sign up page – Including your sign up form on multiple pages of your website is a must, but having a nicely designed landing page specifically for sign ups is also a nice touch! Don’t know how to create one? Melanie Duncan, owner of Entrepreneuress Academy highly recommends usingLeadpages to create opt-in or landing pages to gain sign ups, as it doesn’t require design or coding experience. VerticalResponse also has web hosted sign up forms available. On your landing page, make sure you include a number of reasons as to why someone should sign up for your email list and include some archived emails to give them an understanding of what to expect.

Receipts -  Have you noticed that some stores offer you the option to have your receipt emailed to you? It’s one less thing for customers to keep track of, and as a business owner, you also have the opportunity to capture an email sign up by including a link to your sign up form on the receipt. Big box retailers like Macy’s offer this service, but some local restaurants have also started offering it as well. Here are a few services that provide this technology: Transaction Tree and yReceipts. As an easy solution, you can simply include a link (if it’s too long, use a URL shortener like Bit.ly) to your sign up form on all of your printed receipts.

Videos – Videos are a great way to show off your products, service or company, give advice, and attract new visitors in various ways. At the end of every video you create, include a slide at the beginning and/or end that contains a URL to your sign up form. On every YouTube video you upload, include a note, box, speech bubble, etc. that includes a link – This can done under “Annotations.” By default, YouTube gives you the option to link to another video, playlist, YouTube channel, or Google+ profile. If you’d like to link to your sign up form or website outside of YouTube, follow these steps. In your video, ask people to subscribe to your channel and include a link to your sign up form on your YouTube page. Also, create a specific video about why your mailing list should be the list someone signs up for.

Email signature – Think about how many emails you send on a daily basis, and how many different people you interact with in those emails. Including a link to your sign up form in your personal email signature is an easy way to get the word out there to each and every one of those people, and on a consistent basis.

Pinterest – With 70 million+ users, Pinterest can help you attract new subscribers faster than you can bake a batch of brownies from a recipe found on the popular social network. Due to the visual nature of Pinterest, it’s a great place to attract potential subscribers with an enticing Pin, which then leads to your sign up form. We crafted an entire post all about how you can grow your email list using Pinterest. 

Social media profile – Your social media pages may include links to your sign up form, but do you also have it in your profile? All social accounts have a profile or “about” section, so make sure you include a sign up link to your email list along with what value people will get for joining it. And for an added boost, include a link in your personal social accounts and spread the word about your business. Just make it clear the sign up is for your business, so you don’t cause any confusion.

Transactional emails – If you send transactional emails like order information, receipts or shipping updates, include a link to your email sign up. 

Use a smart phone/tablet at events – While a sign up form is great, what happens when you’re out in the real world? This is where smart phones or tablets come in! If you attend networking events, trade shows or conferences, use a smart phone or tablet to collect email addresses, with permission of course. This way, you can easily walk around and mingle with people, yet still collect email sign ups. Instead of collecting a business card, get an email sign up right then and there.

Unique ways to promote your email sign up form:

Alert social followers to special email deals – Before you hit send on your email, share something about the email and entice social followers (as seen in the Punk Domestics example below). Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are good places to start with this kind of teaser. Let people know what they’re missing out on by not receiving your email. A couple of days before Punk Domestics send out their email, they post a link for people to sign up.

Share after the email is sent – After you’ve sent your email, let your social followers know and write a “Did you miss our email?” post. Similar to the previous suggestion, share something that only subscribers can get by signing up for the email list.

Additional tips:

Make it easy to sign up! – Using a sign up form is the best way to grow your email list, but make sure it’s easy to find and use. Don’t ask for too much information, or you’ll actually discourage sign ups. Instead, ask for an email address and maybe a first name. You can always ask for more info later if you need it. Make your sign up form easy to find by placing it prominently on each page of your website.

Send great content  – One of the easiest ways to quickly grow your email list is by creating and sending helpful content. People who already read your email are more likely to share with others if your content is on the mark. Make sure it’s relevant to your readers by segmenting your email lists to accommodate different interests your customers may have.

Survey readers – Survey your current email subscribers about what they like best about your emails, or what made them sign up in the first place. Use that data to create more effective email content and up front value propositions to join your list. 

Get more ways to grow your email list in our How to Build Your Email List guide.

To view the original article Click Here