8 Seconds to Capture Attention:



Similar documents
Capture Leads With Effective Call To Action Buttons

testing EFFECTIVE TESTS FOR EVERY METRIC OF AN CAMPAIGN

MASSIVE Differences to Sales Revenues in their Specific Markets GUARANTEED!

Guidelines for Effective Creative

HOW TO OPTIMIZE your LEAD GENERATION STRATEGY

Creative That Works:

8 Tips for Maximizing Survey Response Potential

Revenue Generating Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Strategies

Five Steps to Inbound Marketing Bliss. Presented by

THE ECOMMERCE MARKETING GUIDE TO FACEBOOK

GREATEST LEAD GENERATION TIPS, TRICKS & IDEAS PART 2

Lead Generation. An Introduction to. How to Use the Internet to Drive Leads and Revenue. A publication of. Share This Ebook!

Creating a Landing Page to Achieve Maximum Results

Designing Your Landing Pages! Setting Up Your Marketing

MARKETING TIPS. From Our InfoUSA Experts

The Guide to: Marketing Analytics"

Inbound Marketing: Best Practices

HOW TO USE LANDING PAGES FOR BUSINESS.

TOP TIPS TO A TIP TOP

Marketing integration and automation tactics that lift conversions and boost ROI.

Building Effective Landing Pages. Get more conversions with lower bids in your online marketing campaigns

Profitable vs. Profit-Draining Local Business Websites

Marketing for Hoteliers: A Step-by-Step Guide

Website Strategy. Once filled out, this document should be faxed or ed to us as a PDF document using one of the following contact methods:

Growing Your Business Through Marketing

Words By Wendy. Small Business Marketing Tips How to make your promotional dollars work harder

WEBSITE & DIGITAL MARKETING MUST HAVES NOVEMBER 9 TH, 2015 What They Are, Why You Need Them & How They Will Make Your Business Succeed Online

The Ultimate Guide to Online Lead Generation for Home Care, Assisted Living and Senior Service Businesses

Landing Pages 101. Specifically, a landing page allows for greater testing, enabling you to:

Marketing Content Creation

5 Keys to Exceptional Marketing. Delivra 2012

A Business Owner s Guide to: Landing Pages

The Lukens Company Turning Clicks into Conversions: How to Evaluate & Optimize Online Marketing Channels

Five Steps to Successful Prospecting With Permission Marketing. By Karen Talavera President, Synchronicity Marketing

Search Engine Optimization

Table of Contents. Copyright 2011 Synchronous Technologies Inc / GreenRope, All Rights Reserved

BEST PRACTICES DESIGN

Get on the Fast Track with RSS-Driven Automation.

LANDING PAGE OPTIMIZATION

8 Ways to Generate More Leads From Online Marketing

2014 MedData Group, LLC WHITE PAPER: Ten Tips for More Effective Physician Marketing

B2C Marketing Automation Action Plan. 10 Steps to Help You Make the Move from Outdated Marketing to Advanced Marketing Automation

Search Engine Marketing and SEO

20 tried and tested tips to help you generate more leads

wishpond GUIDE Wishpond s Complete Guide to Marketing your Auto Dealership Online wishpond.com

LEAD NURTURING STRATEGY WHITE PAPER. November 2013

3 KEYS To Successful Online LEAD GENERATION For Local Businesses

Optimizing Landing Pages

Lead Generation Blueprint for Effective Inbound Marketing

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL LEAD GENERATION By Steve Stepinoff President/Partner

The Performance Marketer s Guide to Marketing: Engaging Your Subscribers

Optimizing Landing Pages for Lead Generation and Conversion

MARKETING REFRESHES

CONTENT + CONTEXT = INBOUND MARKETING

Make your website work. Ten ways to convert visitors into buyers

How to Get Started with Marketing

Checkout Conversion Optimization Best Practices

LEAD GENERATION CAMPAIGN TESTING AND OPTIMIZATION

Better Marketing: Making Sure Your Messages Get Read & Acted On

A Whitepaper of Questions and Answers from our Webinar: Generating Leads with Whitepapers (w/bob Bly)

To Successful Online LEAD GENERATION For RV Dealerships

Overcoming the Challenges of B-to-B Marketing: Using Testing and Optimization to Increase Lead Generation and Conversion

Inbound Marketing Methodology

The A-Star Event Guide will provide you with some top tips for creating outstanding events.

Designing an Effective Landing Page

Website Planning Questionnaire. Introduction. Thank you for your interest in the services of The Ultimate Answer!

Marketing Tactics Through Which Marketers and Ad Agencies Worldwide Create a Personalized Customer Experience 72.20% 58.40% 56.00% 53.

Inbound Marketing The ultimate guide

It is clear the postal mail is still very relevant in today's marketing environment.

branding guide for tax pros

Is your business reaching its digital marketing potential?

Inbound Marketing Driving Results

enhanced landing page groups and meetings template guidelines

How an Innovative Marketing Strategy Can Pave the Way to New Customers

Five Ways to Turn Your Website into a Powerhouse Lead Generation Machine

BEST PRACTICES FOR MORE EFFECTIVE E-NEWSLETTER ADVERTISING PRACTICAL TIPS FOR MAXIMIZING THIS MARKETING CHANNEL IHS ENGINEERING360 WHITE PAPER

10 Step Campaign Planner

How To: Engineer A Direct Mail Campaign, One That Really Works! Developing Your Mailing List

Ecommerce Customer Acquisition:

starting your website project

How Airlines Can Use To Promote New Routes and Services Case studies and notes for airlines

A/B SPLIT TESTING GUIDE How to Best Test for Conversion Success

Marketing works

AN INTRODUCTION TO LEAD GENERATION.

7 Things Your Competitors Can Teach You about Marketing Your Cloud Backup Services

A Beginner's Guide to E-Commerce Personalization

Marketing Best Practices. How To Grow Your List, Ensure Deliverability & Increase Engagement

A quick guide to... Effective HTML Messages

Five Ways to Turn Your Website into a Powerhouse Lead Generation Machine

7 Things. Marketing Playbook. Every small business can fix on their website in the next week to increase leads and sales.

The Truth About Direct Mail and Marketing

Marketing Best Practices in a Mobile World. Ruth Presslaff President ruth@presslaff.com

Have Success From Direct Mail

3 Keys to a Successful Lead Generation Campaign

17 of the Internet s Best Banner Ads. Love em or Hate em They Do Work!

WHITE PAPER: Ten Tips for More Effective Physician Marketing. Bill Reinstein President & CEO of MedData Group MedData Group, LLC

Guidelines. The following guidelines are for companies who develop HTML design/creative and copy.

Don t Leak Leads. Insert Copy Here. How To Identify Leaks & Get More Customers. Insert Copy Here

How To Generate Qualified Leads With Display Ads

Transcription:

8 Seconds to Capture Attention: Silverpop s Landing Page Report Prepared by Silverpop www.silverpop.com

8 Seconds to Capture Attention: Silverpop s Landing Page Report It s estimated that up to 50 percent of visitors to landing pages will bail in the first eight seconds. 1 And while that amount of time can feel like an eternity to a bull rider in the rodeo, it s a mere blink of an eye to an email marketer hoping for strong conversions and a positive return-on-investment. Email marketers spend countless hours and untold millions trying to make recipients click on a link leading to a landing page. But delivering only clicks is short-changing the company. Marketers need to convert prospects to customers; clicks need to result in purchases. And with online marketing, the bridge between the click and the credit card is generally a landing page. As online competition intensifies, greater efforts are being placed on maximizing revenues from each and every opportunity. And few opportunities are as rich with possibilities as when an email recipient clicks a link within a message and comes knocking at your online door. A MarketingSherpa reader survey found that average landing page conversion rates for email campaigns ranged from 5.67 percent to 11.31 percent for free offers, and from 5.67 percent to 7.63 percent for e-commerce campaigns. 1 If your conversion rates are running near the bottom or below those ranges, consider making changes to your landing page program. A new evaluation by Silverpop of landing pages from 150 companies finds that placing a little more effort on nurturing recipients once they hit those landing pages would be time and money well spent. This report, evaluating landing pages from companies throughout North America and the United Kingdom, can serve as a valuable guide. Key Findings Landing pages that pass the eight-second test successfully feature a number of important attributes. Unfortunately, many of those reviewed in this study failed to grab the attention of customers and prospects, leading them down a clear path to conversion. Silverpop found that: Successful landing pages grab attention quickly by matching the promotional copy in the email s call-to-action that yielded the click. Yet 45 percent of the landing pages evaluated failed to repeat the email s promotional copy in the headline. Catapulting a clicker to a Web site s home page generally fails to deliver on the promise inherent in the email s call-to-action. Yet 17 percent of email campaigns dumped recipients there. Recipients can be taken aback when they click on a link and end up on a landing page without the same look and feel as the email that captured their attention. But three out of 10 marketers risked confusing customers and prospects by sending them to landing pages not matching the email. Asking too many questions can lead prospective customers to become wary and frustrated enough that they abandon the process. Nevertheless, 45 percent of landing pages that included forms required more than 10 fields to be completed. While the presence of a navigation bar on a landing page can be a distraction that pulls visitors away from the primary conversion goal, nearly seven out of 10 landing pages included them. Professional writers know it s a lot harder to write short copy than long. Apparently some marketers are taking the easy way out, since 25 percent of the landing pages reviewed by Silverpop required scrolling through more than two screens of text. Study Methodology In order to optimize landing pages, you must evaluate them from the perspective of the visitor. That s what Silverpop has done for this report. Members of Silverpop s Strategic Research Team first registered to receive emails from 150 companies throughout North America and the United Kingdom 40 BtoB companies and 110 BtoC. The team then evaluated landing pages reached after clicking on the main call-to-action in received emails. Landing pages were evaluated for their connection to the email, the company s Web site, ease of navigation and much more. The study, 8 Seconds to Capture Attention: Silverpop s Landing Page Report, found that some landing pages quickly grabbed attention and kept readers interested, while others were easily dismissed and quickly discarded.

The following aspects of landing pages were evaluated: 1. Use of readable URLs 2. Repetition of email promotional copy 3. Primary conversion goals 4. Location of the landing page 5. Whether the look matches the email and/or Web site 6. Landing page design 7. Placement of the primary call-to-action 8. Inclusion of navigation bars 9. Use of forms 10. Copy length and need for scrolling 11. Use of subheads within the copy 12. Types and number of links 13. Inclusion of hero shots and animation 14. Email opt-in requests The value of strong landing pages is not inconsequential Success on the landing page is critical. Improving return-on-investment in today s highly competitive online marketing landscape requires a focus not just on generating more email clicks but on maximizing the returns of those clicks. Optimized landing pages can go a long way toward improving email marketing campaign results. Not taking the time to create landing pages with stickiness is akin to ignoring a customer standing in your place of business and asking for assistance. A click represents the raise of a hand. A customer or prospect is saying, I m interested. Tell me more. In some cases, they re ready to buy. In others, they re simply curious and willing to give you the benefit of the doubt by briefly taking a look to see if you ve got what they re seeking. Whatever their reasons for moving to your landing page, you must grab their attention in order to have any chance at success. Landing pages have to be clear and easy to understand and navigate. Highly successful landing pages are also amazingly clever, stylish and targeted to respond to the original call-to-action that led visitors to the page. When a prospect decides to take up your offer, the ease with which that process unfolds can lead to success or failure. Complex or malfunctioning forms, distractions with too many calls-to-action or competing product offerings can lead to site abandonment. By taking a look at what Silverpop discovered when reviewing 150 different landing pages, you can determine how your own attempts to lead customers and prospects to conversions compares with other marketers. And throughout this report, Silverpop s Strategic Research Team offers key insights into how you can improve your landing pages. 1. Use of readable URLs A readable URL reinforces branding. The absence of dashes, slashes and numbers when possible can help improve visitors recognition that the landing page is related to the product or company it represents, adding to the trustworthiness of the content it contains. And landing page URLs with easy-to-read and easy-to-type addresses are important to marketers interested in encouraging prospects to check out online offerings through offline channels like direct mail or print advertising. Silverpop found, however, that few companies create readable URLs for their landing pages. Just three out of 10 landing pages evaluated in the study had simple, easy-to-read and well-branded URLs. For example, the URL for a Georgia Tech landing page (www.matchinggifts.com/gatech) is pretty easy to understand and even remember. BtoC companies were more likely to use readable URLs than were BtoB companies. While less than one-fourth of the BtoB companies (23 percent) used easily recognized and well-branded URLs for landing pages, one-third (33 percent) of BtoC companies did. 2

2. Repetition of email promotional copy To reinforce the call-to-action that generated the email recipient to click a link in the first place, best practice is to repeat the offer on the landing page. For example, Crisco sent recipients eager to try recipes for St. Patrick s Day to a special landing page with a matching headline, rather that to the company s home page. Example 1: Crisco Crisco email Crisco landing page While it helps reinforce the conversion goal by repeating the call-to-action from the email on the landing page, a surprising number of marketers fail to do so. In fact, 45 percent of landing pages didn t repeat the strong promotional copy found in the email. BtoB companies were more likely to repeat the email call-to-action on the landing page than were BtoC companies. KEY FINDING: Nearly half of the landing pages failed to repeat the email s call-to-action. FIGURE 1: Email Promotional Copy Repeated on Landing Page All landing pages BtoC 52% 55% BtoB 63% 3. Primary conversion goals 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Landing pages and the email campaigns that lead to them are best when crafted with the end in mind. There are a number of ways to measure success when it comes to marketing programs; not every one is designed to lead to a sale. Common conversion goals of online marketing programs supported by email and landing pages include the following: E-commerce: in most cases, making the sale when recipients click on a link on the landing page that leads to a form requesting credit card information. Lead generation: used by many BtoB companies that gather prospect information by offering white papers or reports that visitors must register to receive. Branding: both BtoB and BtoC companies find value in promoting their brands online. Educational: not only do BtoB e-newsletter landing pages seek to educate target audiences, many BtoC companies use educational information to support product usage. 3

Example 2: K&L Wine Merchants e-commerce landing page Example 3: KnowledgeStorm lead generation landing page Example 4: Keppra branding landing page Example 5: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation educational landing page The importance of a strong landing page is underscored by the fact that six out of 10 companies use them to sell products or services, while 19 percent attempt to gather important customer or prospect data. FIGURE 2: Primary Conversion Goals 19% 8% 11% 61% E-commerce Lead generation Branding Educational 4

Not surprisingly, the goals for BtoB landing pages appeared to be far more focused on generating leads than were those of BtoC companies. The primary conversion goal of landing pages evaluated for 48 percent of BtoB companies was lead generation, compared to only 9 percent of BtoC companies. For BtoC companies, the name of the game is sales, with more than seven out of 10 (72 percent) sending emails that lead to landing pages with an e-commerce conversion goal. Educational Branding Lead generation FIGURE 3: BtoB and BtoC Conversion Goals 15% 10% 5% 9% 48% 9% BtoB BtoC 4. Location of the landing page E-commerce No matter what the ultimate goal of an email program might be, it s generally considered best practice to avoid dumping 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% clickers at the home page of a Web site. Home pages are most often created to appeal to the broadest spectrum of prospects possible, while truly successful email campaigns should be focused to segmented groups based on their relationship to the company or product. Using the home page as a landing page, therefore, can be confusing. 33% 72% FIGURE 4: Location of Landing Pages 17% 33% 50% Within Web site but relevant Homepage Special to email Most companies evaluated by Silverpop (83 percent) led email recipients to landing pages that were specific to the email content. Some appeared to be unique pages created specifically for the email campaign, while others were pages found within the company s Web site with content relevant to the email offer. In reviewing landing page locales, Silverpop found that BtoC companies were much more likely to send email recipients to a home page. One in five emails targeting consumers linked to home pages, compared to just 8 percent of BtoB emails. Creating landing pages unique to the email campaign is an important approach to improve results. Because you have established a relationship with your email recipients one of trust exhibited by their willingness to click a link it s essential to keep the focus laser sharp by taking them directly to information that captured their interest. Don t make them wander your site in search of answers. FIGURE 5: BtoB and BtoC Landing Page Locales 8% BtoB 59% 33% Home page From Web site but relevant Special to email 5. Whether the look matches the email and/or Web site BtoC 20% 48% 32% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% Strong brand messaging is carried across multiple communications channels. The same look and feel permeates each important customer touch point. Landing pages are an important branding opportunity. Not only should you repeat the main call-to-action or promotional headline from the email that generated the click, the overall look should also match the email. The confusion of arriving at a Web page that doesn t match the email can lead visitors to abandon the site. Yet 35 percent of the landing pages reviewed by Silverpop didn t have the same look, feel or tone of the email. Those companies that did create landing pages with a consistent image and message are better able to reinforce the brand and move email recipients from clicking to converting. Creating strong messaging and imagery is a key part of developing a strong brand. A carefully crafted landing page serves as the bridge between email marketing and conversions. Carrying consistent images and copy from email to landing page is a concept that BtoC marketers appear to have taken to heart much more than BtoB marketers. More than seven out of 10 companies selling to consumers (71 percent) posted landing pages that matched the email compared to 59 percent of BtoB companies. 5

Example 6: Charles Tyrwhitt Email Web site Landing page KEY FINDING: Thirty-five percent of landing pages failed to match the email that generated the click. FIGURE 6: Landing Page Matches of BtoB and BtoC Companies BtoB BtoC 8% Email, not Web site 41% Web site, not email 51% Email and Web site 9% 29% 62% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 6

6. Landing page design Strong landing pages control the flow of information and the path customers take to conversion. They represent the difference between a warehouse store, where customers wander around looking on their own, and a fine boutique in which customers are assisted by a highly trained sales associate from the minute they walk in the door. Finely crafted landing pages deliver email recipients the kind of information that will resonate with them. They walk customers step-by-step through the buying decision. They expand upon the original call-to-action that the email recipient clicked on. Unlike email designs, where postcard formats are most popular with BtoC marketers and one-column designs are frequently used by BtoB marketers 2, landing pages represented a fairly even distribution of various layout styles. Example 7: Tulane University two-column format Example 8: AllAboardToys.com box format Example 9: American Health Lawyers Association one-column format Example 10: Fossil postcard format 7

FIGURE 7: Landing Page Design Layout FIGURE 8: BtoB Landing Page Designs 14% 36% 1% 25% 2% 22% 1 Column 2 Columns 3 Columns Boxes Other Postcard 3% 14% 50% 25% 8% Boxes Other Postcard 1 Column 2 Columns FIGURE 9: BtoC Landing Page Designs 1% 16% 15% 40% 26% Example 11: K. Hovnanian Homes 2% 1 Column 2 Columns 3 Columns Boxes Other Postcard While half of BtoB marketers were likely to divide landing page content into a number of sections defined by boxes, four out of 10 BtoC landing pages present text and images in one column. The postcard design popular among BtoC emailers was used by them in just one out of five landing pages. When grappling with design elements, it can be productive to first develop landing page templates that allow you to tailor the message while maintaining the kind of consistency that elicits customer trust. Many email marketers don t have the time or expertise to struggle with complicated content management systems in order to develop special landing pages for each email send. And those marketers who must line up outside the IT department s door seeking new landing pages will often determine it s just easier to send prospects to the home page. 7. Placement of the primary call-to-action Call-to-action Landing pages must grab attention quickly and keep it focused. The first impression a visitor must receive is a promise that his or her time won t be wasted by reviewing what you have to offer. To achieve that goal, short and punchy copy that is easy to read and immediately relevant to the original call-to-action is critical. There must be a logical progression of information leading from the email to the landing page to avoid confusing the customer, who is likely to leave the site rather than work to find the relevance. Relevant content must be organized in such a way that it naturally leads the reader to quickly see the value presented and how to act on the offer. In this regard, clarity of message is essential. Verbose copy detracts from moving a reader cleanly and quickly along the path to conversion. Fold line In general, landing pages reviewed by Silverpop kept critical elements up top. And nearly all (nine out of 10) placed the primary call-to-action above the fold. While most marketers kept copy to a minimum on landing pages, many found the need to offer screen-upon-screen of reasons to buy. Yet only 11 percent of the landing pages that had content spread down more 8

Example 12: SuperFoodsRX than one screen repeated the call-to-action both above and below the fold. When the goal is to make the ability to buy as easy as possible, keeping the call-to-action visible at all times is an excellent approach. Call-to-action KEY FINDING: One out of 10 savvy landing page designers repeated the call-to-action both above and below the fold. Marketers often wonder how many links or calls-to-action they can place in front of customers and prospects. Most landing pages reviewed by Silverpop focused on one primary call to action, but a few typically retail landing pages offering a number of products to consider for purchase included more than five links. FIGURE 10: Number of Links Fold line Call-to-action 12% 13% 7% 3% 1 link 2 links 49% 16% 3 links 4 links 5 links More than 5 links 8. Inclusion of navigation bars Ideally, landing pages should focus readers attention on the offer-at-hand, and the primary call-to-action should be front and center to encourage response. Most marketers also allow those who expressed interest in their offer to view what else the company can provide by including links to the entire Web site from the landing page. Nearly seven out of 10 landing pages included navigation bars. Certainly retailers sending email campaigns offering discounts for all purchases are wise to give readers the ability to see the entire site. But marketers sending a targeted campaign to a select audience should consider the use of a landing page with limited links to other pages. If a campaign requires more information to move a conversion forward than practicable to place on one landing page, the development of a microsite should be considered. Micro-sites are, in effect, mini Web sites that focus on a unique offer or product category. Example 13: IOS navigation bar 9

9. Use of forms It s a mistake to think that once you ve lured a customer or prospect to your landing page that you can treat them differently than you did while coaxing them to check out your offer. Just as is recommended when creating opt-in forms for email registrations, if you must ask for information on the landing page, be clear about why you re asking. Don t ask for customer data unless you must have it in order to fulfill an order or provide highly relevant information and follow-up. Each answer a respondent must make gives them an option to desert the process. Assure respondents that the information they provide will be respected and protected by including a link to your privacy and anti-spam policies. Of the landing pages reviewed by Silverpop, 24 percent included some type of form. While you might assume that BtoB email campaigns seeking to generate leads would be most likely to deliver click-throughs to landing pages with forms, e-commerce campaigns were nearly equally represented among landing pages with forms to complete. FIGURE 11: Landing Page Includes Form All landing pages 24% BtoB 27% BtoC 23% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% FIGURE 12: Landing Pages with Forms / Primary Conversion Goal Lead generation E-commerce 42% 42% Branding 11% Educational 5% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% When companies used forms to gather information from email recipients, they typically attempted to collect as much data as possible. More than four out of 10 forms (42 percent) included more than 10 fields to complete, while 32 percent had between six and 10 fields. Example 14: Five News form FIGURE 13: Number of Fields Within Forms 26% 32% 42% 1 to 5 fields 6 to 10 fields More than 10 fields 10

10. Copy length and need for scrolling Example 15: InfoPOEMS bulleted copy When thinking about writing copy for a landing page, think about what you can read in just eight seconds. While you may have a bit more time to snatch the attention of the prospect truly interested in your product or service, grabbing interest quickly never hurt and likely helped most marketing campaigns. What prospects and customers see at the top of the screen should clearly communicate your strongest reason for conversion. KEY FINDING: Eight out of 10 landing page designers placed copy over white or very light-colored backgrounds. Basic design principles should be followed with landing page design. For example, if you have a list of bulleted items or key product attributes that you want to draw attention to in the midst of a copy block, you can offset it with a colored background. The key is to keep the background color light enough to not interfere with readability. Also, don t make the mistake of underlining text that you want to stand out. People will think it s a link. Most companies evaluated in Silverpop s study of landing pages kept copy fairly short, with nearly three-quarters of the landing pages (74 percent) featuring fewer than 250 words. There was little difference in copy length between BtoB and BtoC companies. FIGURE 14: Amount of Text 38% 36% 15% 6% 5% < 100 words 100-250 words 251-500 words 501-1000 words > 1000 words KEY FINDING: Landing page creators keep text to a minimum, with three-quarters limiting copy to under 250 words. EXAMPLE 16: Simple Shoes FIGURE 15: Conversion Goal / Amount of Text < 250 Educational 22% 34% 44% 251-500 > 500 Branding 10% 20% 70% Lead Generation 10% 20% 70% E-commerce 78% 13% 9% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 11

Naturally, when the purpose of the landing page was primarily educational, the page tended to be more text-heavy, with 33 percent of educational landing pages containing more than 500 words. E-commerce landing pages most often offered the least amount of copy. Seventy-eight percent of e-commerce landing pages featured less than 250 words of text. Not only did companies keep text to a minimum, most kept the need for scrolling to a minimum as well. In fact, nearly four out of 10 landing pages (38 percent) required no scrolling at all. BtoC companies were less likely to require scrolling than BtoB landing pages. All landing pages When spreading content down multiple screens, certain design elements should be taken into consideration to avoid confusion. For example, avoid graphics or text that would imply the reader has reached the end of the landing page, despite the fact that they re only mid-way through. A gaping expanse of white space or lines running across the bottom of the first screen can make people think they ve seen it all. BtoB BtoC FIGURE 16: Number of Screens to Scroll 25% 24% 33% 38% 37% 43% Short (no scroll) Medium (< 2 screens) Long (> 2 screens) 43% 35% 22% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% FIGURE 17: Text Amounts That Included Subheads < 100 20% 100-250 49% 251-500 44% 501-1000 88% > 1000 67% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 11. Use of subheads within copy Although only four out of 10 landing pages included subheads to divide up body copy and improve readability, those with more text were more likely to include them. Nearly nine out of 10 landing pages with text from 500 to 1,000 words incorporated subheads to break up copy and improve readability. Unfortunately, marketers with a lot to say apparently didn t consider the strain on eyes when readers are presented with a large block of gray type. One-third of text-heavy landing pages with more than 1,000 words didn t use subheads to break up copy blocks. As with other forms of written communications, concise and easy-to-understand text includes bullet points, highlighted copy, call-outs and more. It s not only what you say but how you say it that can lead to a sale. 12. Types and number of links FIGURE 18: Link Types Links contained in landing pages were most often text. BtoC marketers were more likely to include both text and image links on landing pages than were BtoB marketers. Whether using images or text, consider making it visually clear that a reader has clicked on a link. Text should change color; a button should change shape or appear indented. All landing pages BtoB 28% 33% 28% 25% 39% Text Image Both 47% 13. Inclusion of hero shots and animation As Silverpop has found in previous studies 2, the presence of photography can have an impact on click rates within emails. The images that accompany a call-to-action on landing pages can grab attention and keep it, or when inconsistent with the overall message of the email and landing page, cause confusion and ultimately site abandonment. BtoC 36% 28% 36% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 12

EXAMPLE 17: U.S. Marines hero shot EXAMPLE 18: Volvo hero shot Hero shots are photos that clearly promote the product or service being offered. If there are other photographs on the page, the hero shot is in a prominent position and generally larger than the others. Hero shots set the tone of the page just as strongly as do persuasive headlines. Photographs that stand out grab attention. But a strong photo in an email should be repeated on the landing page and right at the top so clickers are quickly assured they arrived at the right spot. Use photography as more than just eye-candy. Photography should entice viewers to read the surrounding copy. All landing pages BtoB BtoC FIGURE 19: Presence of a Hero Shot 39% 20% 45% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Only 39 percent of landing pages included a hero shot. Not surprisingly, product-oriented BtoC companies were more than twice as likely to include hero shots in their landing page designs than were BtoB marketers. No matter where above the fold you place a hero shot, it will grab the eye s attention. Use it wisely and place it near important copy and your callto-action. When the photo is of the product you re selling, make the image clickable as well. When hero shots were included in the landing pages evaluated by Silverpop, only 38 percent were clickable. KEY FINDING: Less than four out of 10 hero shots on landing pages were clickable. The use of animation can also grab attention and keep landing page visitors on the site long enough to capture their interest. Additionally, email marketers who are cautious about including animation in their messages have no reason to avoid this attention-grabbing technique on landing pages. Yet only 23 percent of the landing pages reviewed included any sort of animation. 14. Email opt-in requests Customers and prospects can end up at a landing page via a variety of routes. In fact, many email marketers work hard to generate viral campaigns, recognizing the value of having customers pass along product and brand information to others. But to capture the email addresses of those who have arrived at your landing page without being in your database, its essential to ask them to register. Yet 35 percent of the landing pages failed to include a request for the visitor to opt-in to receive emails. 13

EXAMPLE 19: AccuCut with opt-in request KEY FINDING: While half of BtoB landing pages included opt-in requests, only 30 percent of BtoC pages did. Conclusions Online marketing must be smooth. It can t require a great deal of effort on the part of prospects. You can t expect Web surfers to dig down into the depths of your site to locate the products, services or information they re seeking. You have to deliver exactly what they want in a streamlined, targeted manner. That s the power of landing pages. When properly developed, they deliver a user experience devoid of snags that generates higher conversions and better returns. Just as you test email subject lines and calls-to-action, testing the power of your landing page copy and design should not be ignored. In fact, MarketingSherpa found that marketers rate landing page testing as highly productive and beneficial. 3 One-quarter of marketers who test landing page results say they achieve significant improvement in conversion rates. 4 Evaluate various elements of the landing page in A/B tests. Which headline copy works best? Which call-to-action generates better results? Does longer or shorter copy lead to higher conversions? Use Web analytics to see where on the page people click and if visitors are clicking in areas you didn t expect. It could mean that while you ve piqued their interest, they want more information. Landing page optimization can have a tremendous impact on your success rate. But it takes attention to detail and commitment. The time and effort taken to optimize landing pages will be returned many times in customer loyalty, improved conversion rates and higher return-on-investment. By developing the right look and feel of your landing pages, you can dramatically impact conversion results. Begin by looking at landing pages from your recipients perspectives. Footnotes 1. Landing Page Handbook: How To Raise Conversions Data and Design Guidelines, MarketingSherpa, 2005 2. Email Creative That Works, Silverpop, 2006 3. Email Marketing Benchmark Guide, MarketingSherpa, 2007 4. MarketingSherpa Survey, 2004 14

Figures: 1. Email Promotional Copy Repeated on Landing Page 2. Primary Conversion Goals 3. BtoB and BtoC Conversion Goals 4. Location of Landing Pages 5. BtoB and BtoC Landing Page Locales 6. Landing Page Matches of BtoB and BtoC Companies 7. Landing Page Design Layout 8. BtoB Landing Page Designs 9. BtoC Landing Page Designs 10. Number of Links 11. Landing Page Includes Form 12. Landing Pages with Forms / Primary Conversion Goal 13. Number of Fields Within Forms 14. Amount of Text 15. Primary Conversion Goal / Amount of Text 16. Number of Screens to Scroll 17. Text Amounts That Included Subheads 18. Link Types 19. Presence of a Hero Shot Landing Page Examples: 1. Crisco 2. K&L Wine Merchants 3. KnowledgeStorm 4. Keppra 5. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 6. Charles Tyrwhitt 7. Tulane University 8. AllAboardToys.com 9. American Health Lawyers Association 10. Fossil 11. K. Hovnanian Homes 12. SuperFoodsRX 13. IOS 14. Five News 15. InfoPOEMS 16. Simple Shoes 17. U.S. Marines 18. Volvo 19. AccuCut For more information about Silverpop s email marketing products and services, please contact us at: 866-SILVPOP (745-8767) or info@silverpop.com Visit us at www.silverpop.com Silverpop Your Partner for Email Marketing Success 15