I consider myself a fairly intelligent individual, someone who if put in a locked room and given the key, would eventually find my way out after the claustrophobic panic screams subsided. Well, during the 2008 Inbound Marketing Summit I had the pleasure of sitting through a session about Optimizing Landing Pages that made me question this assumption.

The session was hosted by David Reske, managing director of Nowspeed Marketing  and he discussed several best practices on how to structure a landing page to encourage more visitors to take the desired call to action.

There were three points he talked about that left me scratching my head. Not in the “I’m confused” or “my shampoo doesn’t moisturize” kind of way, but in the “Why didn’t I think of that?” kind of way. They are genius in their simplicity and now that I’m aware of them, completely obvious.

1.  Show Pictures of the Offer

I didn’t really appreciate the impact of this tactic until I saw an example (below). The example site was promoting a white paper, and included an image of the white paper with a quick, clear call to action (Free White Paper) on a button. The image (the only one on the screen) immediately caught my attention. Within 2 seconds I knew exactly how to get to the white paper. 

[Note the white paper image in the top left.] 

2.  Remove the Internal Links to Other Pages

How often are you on a web page with a lot happening, when you get distracted from the reason you went to that page and click on an unrelated link?

Reske suggests that you take away the distraction and limit the visitors’ ability to go to another page by limiting the links on the page. On specific product or service pages, only include a link to the home page and your call to action. If they want to go to a different page, they still have the back button, or can go to the home page, which includes links to all the site’s other pages.

3.  Include Your Privacy Statement

If you’re like me, you’re a little hesitant to freely give away your information, especially credit card information, to a Website that you know relatively nothing about. The thoughts of “spam emails” and “identity theft” scamper through your brain, giggling their mischievous little giggles.

Why not put your customers at ease by including your Privacy Statement clearly on the page that asks for their information. As soon as you get their business, hopefully your customer relations and product service will keep them coming back, but that first sale is going to be the hardest. Take every step possible to help them trust you.