Would You Buy Your Website a Drink?

Ten Ways to Win the “Speed Dating” Test

Finding a mate can be a laborious process when you think about how many single people exist.  So speed dating was developed to eliminate some of the time out of this process.

If you think about it, every time you search for something you go through a sort of speed dating process.  You know what you want, but then millions of potential matches appear.  So, you speed date the landing pages on the first one-to-two pages of the search results to see if you can quickly find a website you’re are willing to give your personal information to in hopes that there might be a future there that satisfies your needs.

We’ve compiled ten tips to make sure your landing page can pass the speed dating test and get you…

Landing Page Calls-to-Action that Inspire

Tips to Increase Clicks – And Conversions

Okay, so we’ve talked about developing a landing page that keeps people on the page (versus letting them wander around your Website) and writing punchy headlines that draw people in to your page.

Now we’ll talk about calls-to-action.

When people think of a call-to-action, they hear a big beefy loud-mouth infomercial guy pitching cleaning products to consumers:

AND WHEN YOU ORDER THE PRODUCT RIGHT NOW, WE’LL SEND YOU NOT ONE, BUT TWO PRODUCTS – ALL FOR $24.95 PLUS SHIPPING AND HANDLING.

THAT’S TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE WHEN YOU PLACE YOUR ORDER RIGHT NOW THROUGH THIS SPECIAL TV OFFER!

In fact, I hear from companies that have actually removed calls-to-action from marketing collateral and Web pages because it’s “too salesy.”

In truth, a call-to-action is simply verbiage that tells people what to do next:
•   …

Add Muscle to Your Landing Page Headlines

Five Easy-to-Implement Strategies

In my last blog post, I covered how to develop a landing page that increases conversions by limiting people’s options to explore other areas of your Website.  As I discussed in the post, you have many elements on the landing page that can make or break conversion rates, and one of those elements is the headline.

In his book, Tested Advertising Methods, John Caples explains why headlines are so important:

“In most advertisements, no matter how striking the illustration, the headlines are critically important. The majority of the public reads little else when deciding whether or not they are interested.”

The same holds true for landing pages – which are basically direct response ads designed to get people to take some sort of action.

So how do you add some muscle to your flabby headlines? Whole books have…

Increase Landing Page Conversions: Limit Options to “Explore”

Four Steps Toward Better Conversion Rates

Transactional landing pages have one purpose only: to get people to take one specific action, whether it’s filling out a form for a white paper, purchasing a product, or even subscribing to an e-newsletter.

Yet many companies lower landing page conversion rates by providing opportunities to browse for related goods and services or offering all kinds of back-up information to support their offer.

In other words, if you’re trying to get people to sign up for your Webinar and on your landing page you have links to your Website, YouTube video, and white papers, you’re encouraging people to click away from your landing page – perhaps never to return.

I call this “Distraction Interaction.” Think about what happens when you go online to do something:

Initially… you open your email client to send someone…

Small Business Marketing Series: 10 Tips, Tricks and Strategies for Effective Marketing Communications

Actively Engage Your Customers

Building a sustainable program of communications with your customers and your prospects is an important strategy for continually driving traffic, leads and / or sales. But I often hear from small business owners they just don’t have the time to do the necessary legwork to foster a multidimensional program.

The good news is technology and web-based services are changing so rapidly, there are lots of great ways to create multiple outbound communications that get the results you’re looking for without a huge investment of time or money.

What follows are ten tips, tricks and strategies for effectively communicating with your prospects and customers.

#1: Produce Once, Reuse Many. Many small business owners fall into the trap of believing every form of outbound communication must be wholly unique. While it may be important to adapt headlines and…

Writing Good Copy: Ten Timeless Techniques

Being Persuasive with Your Pen

MarketingProfs is always a great resource for information, education and networking.  I also subscribe to their email newsletters, which are uniformly terrific.  In this morning’s email marketing newsletter, they point to a blog post in CopyBlogger by Brian Clark called “Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques” that I thought would be helpful to Web marketers everywhere.

He points out that all marketers — from novices to pros — are interested in attracting the attention of their target audiences, drawing them in and convincing them to buy a product or service.  There are a number of ways to do this, of course, including strong graphics, use of video and the like, but compelling copy is almost always at the core of any good marketing strategy.  Check out Brian’s blog post for his detailed advice, but here are…

Web Marketing 101 Series: 6 Steps to Creating Compelling Landing Pages

K.I.S.S.

Landing pages – the places on your site where people land after clicking on one of your sites links in the search engines – are often your first formal introduction to a new visitor to your website.  Landing pages can also have a huge impact on where you show up in natural and sponsored results on search engines like Google, Yahoo! Search, and Microsoft Live Search.

Landing pages can include your site’s homepage, but are usually pages within your website that are created specifically for people who click on links for your site that appear in sponsored or natural search results, and pertain to a specific offer, promotion or campaign.

Here at Yield Software, we often hear from our small and medium size business clients that they want better landing pages, but just don’t know what they…

Web Marketing 101 Series: Intro to Landing Page Optimization (LPO)

Landing pages are the locations on a website where people find themselves after clicking on a link, very often from a display ad in a website or a sponsored link on a search engine result page. Landing pages can be a website homepage; a specific page within your website, such as a product page; or specially-built promotional pages on your website with tailored messages or promotions for the people landing there.

When people do searches on Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft and click on links inside the search engine results page, they’re clicking on one of two kinds of links: Sponsored or Natural (also called organic).

Landing Page Optimization (LPO) is concerned with ensuring that once someone has landed on your site, they do what you hope they will do (i.e., buy your products!).

Simply put, LPO is the…