Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Marketing. Web-to-Print. Warehouse Management.
Do’s and Dont’s For Your Next Landing Page
Posted by Jason Pinto 
on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 
at 9:31 AM 
in Business, Design, Marketing, Technology | Simple changes to help make your landing pages more effective. |
Tip #1: Less Reading, More Intriguing!
The dreaded scrollbar! Okay, that’s not always the case. There are certainly some topics that require web pages with reams of information. But when it comes to designing a landing page that will be used in a marketing campaign, it’s important to make sure that you cut down on the clutter. This is not always easy. Most likely, you (or your customer) is very excited to share the world with exciting information about their company or a product. But, a sale doesn’t happen overnight.
You have already hooked them a bit by getting them to travel to your web page. Make sure you tell them the important details, and then get them to provide you with some information. Perhaps a link to a survey form, where they will enter their contact information.
If that happens, you will have plenty of other opportunities to share more information with them later.
Tip #2: Sit. Stay. Good reader!
Some of the best looking landing pages (both in style and content) have fallen short when it comes to “response rates”. The reason why: the landing page had great content, but it had too many links to other sources with great content. If you have a flashy button leading to your homepage, there is a good chance that your visitors will click that link… and most likely, they will not make it back to your landing page. So, use the landing page for what it’s for – to provide specific information on what you are offering.
You can always put those great links on the Thank You page!
Tip #3: Scary Forms!
A lot of online registration forms can be “scary”. People can quickly become intimidated by lengthy forms that require data entry. Keep your registration forms short by only asking for the essentials (name, address, e-mail, phone, etc.). For example, if you are trying to get people to subscribe to your e-newsletter, do you really need their mailing address? It would be great to have, but there is time to collect that. Ask them for what you really need for this purpose… most likely, just their email address.
People can also be afraid of what happens to their information once they’ve registered. Try adding some text to reassure visitors about what will happen with their contact data.
Tags Just Wait Until My Friend Sees This…
| Hear how a simple “Tell A Friend” button delivered a ROI of over 200% |
At my place of employment, I have the privilege of being able to work with a number of great, creative customers. From time to time, a customer runs a campaign that experiences tremendous results. And, even if I only had to answer a simple question about the campaign setup, or help them debug a landing page issue, I always feel a sense of satisfaction when a customer is pleased with the results of a campaign.
A couple of months ago, a customer delivered a ROI of over 200%. From day 1 of the campaign, things were interesting, and very exciting. The responses came in a dramatic page over the first couple of days, and we all were very excited. But then a funny thing happened… The response rate not only stayed steady over the following weeks, but it actually grew from day to day! When you think of a typical direct mail or email campaign, you can almost chart out when the responses will come. But this customer took advantage of one tremendous marketing avenue: viral marketing. On the landing page that all users were presented with, they had the ability to enter the information of a friend that might be interested as well. Nearly 85% of visitors entered a friend! Their friends were sent a personalized email, with a link to the landing page. While they were responding, they also entered the names and addresses of other friends. And so the story went…
With a campaign like this, you certainly may face some unique challenges. (Oh my! How are we going to handle this many leads). For example, with an increase of data, you certainly have to do a bit more work to ensure that you have qualified leads. But with an integrated marketing software solution, you can launch follow-up mailers or emails that seek to gain that qualification data easily. While not every campaign may call for a Tell-a-Friend component, there certainly are not enough that are using this marketing component today. So, the next time you have something that you’re excited to share about your company (or that your customer is looking to share), just keep in mind: They may have a friend that will be just as happy to receive that material as well.
How hot is our newsletter?
The above chart is a report from our January 2009 e-Newsletter. Basically, it tells us how many people clicked the links to each of the four articles in the newsletter. Yes, it helps us to tell us which areas of the e-mail provided the most heat, or attracted the most attention.
When it comes to e-mail blasts, the most common statistics that may be bantered about are the “Open Rate” and the “# of Bounces”.
Another piece of data that can be very helpful though involves which links people are clicking on in your e-mail. With that data, you can then analyze your design, your layout, wording and more. Also, that data helps provide insight into ideas for future articles.
Are you interested in how you can gain valuable reporting data for your e-mail blasts?
Feel free to contact us to find out how. 1.888.872.4608 or Sales@interlinkONE.com
Close the Sales Loop: Auto-Response Emails
When looking at the success of the campaigns that we are involved in, a major statistic that we normally always look at is the response rate. How many people typed in their Personalized URL? Or clicked on the link? And then, how many people filled out the survey?
Those are great items to look at…
But, when it comes to the big picture, we also need to look at items such as this: how many people responded to this campaign, and then went to become a customer?
Now, depending on your CRM system, or your customer’s CRM system (if it’s not interlinkONE’s ilinkSALES product 
), it may be tough to map a response through the pipeline to a completed sale.
But, with our system, you have tools to help ensure that a responder is more likely to move down the path of becoming a customer.
One feature is the “Auto-Response E-Mail”. Basically, here is how it works:
- After someone responds to a landing page, the system can automatically send an HTML or Text email to their address.
- The email can be a simple Thank You…. But it can also contain links to other sites that the prospect might find interesting.
- Also, the email can be personalized… It can take advantage of the data they just provided on the response page, and present a custom message based on their answers.
For example, perhaps a campaign is inviting someone to an open house. If they say Yes, perhaps you send them an email containing a MapQuest link, more detailed information on the Open House agenda, etc. If they answered No, perhaps you send them a “regrets” message, but with links to access more information on what your company can provide to them now.
Certainly, you can put this type of information on a Thank You page. But the e-mail can help you in two ways:
- You can display personalized messages on the Thank You page, without cluttering it with other links and information
- You can put something in their Inbox that they can retrieve at any time (at least, until they really, really delete it from their mailbox)
An auto-response email can help save a step for your sales staff, or your customer’s sales staff, depending on who the campaign is for. We are not trying to discourage the sales staff from placing a follow-up phone call. But the email can help ensure that an immediate follow-up has happened, and that information that appeals to the prospect was provided.
Setting up a Marketing Plan
Alright, it’s time for a question! Now, please be truthful… The question is – do you have a marketing plan for the next 12 months? How about the next 6 months? 3 months? Next week?
If you have answered yes to any of those questions, that is great.
But I am guessing a lot of you may take the approach of “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” marketing. When inspiration hits, or you receive bad news from your finance and accounting team, you put the wheels in motion to do a direct mailer.
In business, you absolutely need to be flexible. You need to be willing to make adjustments to your priorities and marketing activities when circumstances call for it.
However, by laying out a marketing plan ahead of time, we can avoid a lot of the crashes and emergencies that arise every year. Along with that, we can avoid the trouble that some of us fall into – doing hardly any marketing at all!
I’m sure we all have the best intentions when it comes to promoting our business. We all want to do the right things to create a buzz about our product and services. But obstacles arise – maybe it’s time and resources… maybe we have a mental block on what the creative should be, or what the message should say. Or we feel that we don’t have the tools to execute it.
A marketing plan can help us prepare for and overcome those types of obstacles.
A marketing plan should be simple. It certainly involves a bit of thought and planning, as well as some honesty. But there is no need to make it complicated. Let’s take a minute to discuss what to put in your marketing plan.
The first step is to define the right marketing mix. Have you heard of the 4 P’s? Here they are:
- Product – define exactly what it is that you have to offer. Outline the brand, the appearance, and what challenges your product helps to solve.
- Price – How much are you willing to sell your product for? How much are your prospective customers willing to pay? Are there times throughout the year where Discounts might help increase sales?
- Placement – It’s all about getting the right message to the right people at the right time. When the customer is ready to buy, will you be in there?
- Promotion – How will your prospective customers hear about your product? This is where we really start to look at the channels that are available to us. Advertising, Direct Mail, Email, Websites, Social Media, etc.
Filling in the 4P’s on a blank piece of paper may seem challenging. But, it doesn’t have to be. Start by thinking of what you’ve done in the past… How did you market your company last year? Or 3 years ago? Pay attention to how other people are marketing their business. A little bit of inspiration can go a long way.
After you’ve taken the step of defining your mix of marketing activities, the next step is to get out the calendar. Yes, you need to set goals for your business, and then set the actual dates for when you will execute the activities that you will reach those goals.
For example, here are a few possible activities that you should put dates on:
- Send out an e-Newsletter to my current customers on the 1st of every month
- Send out a promotional direct mailer 4 times a year (Jan., April, July, Oct.)
- Run Holiday promotions (July and Dec)
- Place advertisements in March, May, and November
- Open House in June
There are certainly other items that you could identify on your marketing plan… But starting with the 4P’s and your calendar can really help you to succeed. Once you have it all filled out, don’t file it away! Make sure that it is visible to you over the months to come. This will help serve as a reminder for the activities that you have planned out…. it will help keep fresh in mind the priority and urgency that we all strive to have in regards to promoting our business.
