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13 Shocking Mistakes Killing Your Landing Page

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Hosting

The post 13 Shocking Mistakes Killing Your Landing Page appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net Let’s face it. We’re all busy. And when it comes to digital marketing, there’s a lot to learn. But if you’re doing business online you should take a close look at your landing pages because you could be losing money. To put it bluntly, a landing page that sucks can be hazardous to your business. According to MarketingSherpa, only 52% of the companies that use landing pages test them to improve conversion. They also found that the number one reason companies don’t use or test landing pages is because their marketing department doesn’t know how to set them up or they’re too overloaded. Sound familiar? Here’s the good news: You don’t have to feel confused, overwhelmed or frustrated anymore. And you can’t use “I don’t know how” as an excuse. Because I’m going to show you how to avoid the mistakes most people make with landing pages. That way you can improve your landing page experience and your conversion rates . But before I show you how to improve your landing pages, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page here. A landing page, sometimes known as a “lead capture page”, is a webpage that has a form and exists only to capture a visitor’s information through that form. That’s it in a nutshell. A landing page is a marketing tool designed to prompt a certain action or result. In fact, they’re arguably the single most vital component of your online marketing efforts. I don’t believe in silver bullets but if I had to suggest one marketing tactic you could use to improve your bottom line, I’d suggest using landing pages on your site. Since landing pages are intended to prompt a specific action or result, if you drive a stream of traffic to a targeted landing page, you can improve your chances of converting that traffic into leads. However, the problem is most digital marketers aren’t reaping the benefits of effective landing pages. You owe it to yourself to learn how to recognize critical mistakes most people make with landing pages and how to avoid them. Do You Make These 13 Mistakes? Confusing the visitor— Landing pages should have one purpose. If your landing page has more than one objective, off-page links, presents too many choices, or doesn’t match the traffic source, you’re in trouble. Cluttered, unfocused design— Effective landing pages have only one objective—get the reader to take a specific action—and every word and element on the page should support that one action. Anything else on the page is a distraction. Weak copy— Just having a landing page isn’t enough to get you the conversion rate you want. Compelling copy is the “secret sauce” that persuades people to take action. You need a benefit-rich headline that makes the reader a promise and connects with them emotionally. Your compelling lead entices them to keep reading as you emphasize your value proposition. And through it all you should be speaking your customer’s language. Too much focus on you, your company, or your product or service —Nobody cares about you. They do care how you can help them. Your landing page copy should be all about helping the reader solve their problem. No clear call to action— Can your visitors easily identify the call to action? If your landing page doesn’t tell your visitor exactly what you want them to do next, they won’t do anything. That means you’re leaving money on the table . No credibility— You only have 2 to 3 seconds to capture your visitor’s attention and confirm that they’re in the right place. It doesn’t matter whether you’re asking people to give you their email address or part with their hard-earned cash, if they don’t trust you it’s going to be tough to seal the deal. Not using the recommended one-column format— There’s plenty of research showing that centered, single-column landing pages generally convert best. The 1-column format tends to look cleaner, have more white space, increase reading comprehension, and keep readers engaged with the message.   Not matching the look, feel and tone of the original ad, email or website— Your headline and other landing page elements should relate to the ad copy that drove the click. In other words, the page should be relevant to your ad text and keyword. Ignoring fundamental principles of landing page design— There are best practices for creating an effective landing page. They include hiding your website navigation elements, keep your form “above the fold”, and underlining your links . A well-designed landing page must include a headline, benefits, a call to action, and an opt-in form. Ineffective use of images— This is where lots of marketers drop the ball. They take the easy way out and use clip art. They have uncaptioned images that have nothing to do with the objective of the page. Or their images aren’t clickable. Not optimizing the buttons— If the buttons on your landing page don’t look like buttons or they say “submit” or “send”, you could have a problem. A Hubspot researcher studied more than 40,000 landing pages and discovered that landing pages with submit buttons labeled “submit” had lower conversion rates than those with more engaging button text. No reason for visitor to act: ethical bribe or sense of urgency— If your visitor is on the fence and your landing page doesn’t give them a reason to act…they usually won’t. Are you giving them a reason to take action? Not testing— There’s always room for improvement and absolutely no way to know what to improve unless you test. Split-testing, or “A/B testing” , is an easy way to compare the results of tweaks to your landing page like a new call to action or a different headline. Even if you’re not among the 10 percent of the U.S. population that has a fear of the number 13 , the effect those 13 mistakes can have on your conversion rates is frightening. What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You When it comes to marketing, ignorance is not bliss. Far from it. If you don’t use or test landing pages because you don’t know how you’re cheating your customer and your business. Your customer deserves the best landing page experience you can deliver. And if you can improve on the 5-15% average conversion rate for landing pages, you’ll have an advantage over your competition. AWeber recently surveyed small business owners and marketers and discovered that while 94% said online marketing was very important to the growth of their business, 29% said they were a bit overwhelmed by online marketing. If online marketing is important to your business—and I’m guessing it is—I want to let you in on a little secret. There’s never a point where you know it all. There’s never going to be a day you wake up and understand everything about marketing. You may never cross everything off your “To Do” list. But you still have a business to run so you just have to do it. Here’s how: Get Rid of Your Landing Page Problems Once and For All Now that you’re aware of the disastrous mistakes most people make with landing pages let’s talk about how to avoid them. The list of landing page mistakes offered a few clues on how to improve your landing page. Here are a few more. Grab your visitor’s attention as soon as they land on the page and keep them focused on your message and the offer you’re making. Get rid of navigation bars, visual clutter, and anything else distracting. Your goal is to lead the reader from having a problem to seeing your offer as the solution.  Write tight copy that’s clear and persuasive and write in the second person. You want to make visitors feel comfortable and confident about doing business with you. You can do this with social proof, testimonials, a strong guarantee, a BBB logo, state licenses, or other means. You also accomplish this by making claims you can prove and backing up what you say. Offer an incentive for visitors taking action. It could be a free report, webinar, audio seminar, tip sheet, or eBook. Use visual elements to draw your visitor’s attention toward your call to action. Check out other businesses’ landing pages for ideas. Conduct regular tests on your landing pages to improve conversion. There are easy-to-use tools and some of them are even free. In the end, great landing pages involve a bit of art  and  science Can you share any examples of good landing pages you’ve seen recently? Let us know about it in the comments . About the Author Anthony Sills’ work can be found at American Express OPEN Forum, Copyblogger, Infusionsoft’s Big Ideas blog, and elsewhere. He writes about HR & employment, marketing, and business. You can always reach Anthony via social media , email, or by leaving a comment below… web hosting Continue reading →

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Cybercrime: How To Keep Your Business Information Safe

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Hosting

The post Cybercrime: How To Keep Your Business Information Safe appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . As a business owner, the threat of intentional harm to your business-critical data is of great concern. With opportunistic cyber criminals profiting from the vulnerability of unsecured companies every day, making security a priority is simple dollars and cents. Fortunately, strong, time-tested security practices and a little education can help keep your business from becoming a victim. Here’s how to turn your screen door network into a bank vault of data integrity.   Establish Secure Device Practices Begin by shoring up your infrastructure. For a modern business, this can involve an array of hardware and mobile devices, each of which represents a potential liability for your network security. Computers located at your workplace should follow rudimentary security protocols both online and off. Employees should lock their computers when stepping away, even for a moment. In addition, attention should be paid to what external parties enter the workplace, when, and for how long. Anti-virus and anti-malware software should be installed and kept current on all computers and all software installed on the machines should be kept up to date as well. In addition, all banking performed by the business should be performed exclusively on one machine with no other activity on said machine permitted. Social networking, email, and downloading open specific machines up to security vulnerabilities, and when finances are conducted on a machine possessing such vulnerability, the consequences can be dire. If your company does work on mobile phones, additional accommodations should be made for them as well. Make sure that all wireless connections within the company are encrypted and secured. Whether provided or owned, employee phones should possess a passcode that changes on a regular basis, with the option selected to wipe the phone after a number of unsuccessful inputs. If your company provides mobile devices, install security software that allows for remote wiping, just to be sure.   Establish Secure Online Practices With your machines secure, the activities conducted on them must be as well. This is true particularly for business activities, but improving the security of employees’ personal browsing habits will also improve security. Institute secure access protocols that will build a strong barrier between hackers and your critical information. Require that employee passwords change on a regular basis, generally 60 to 90 days, be of a considerable length, and contain a diverse range of characters (numbers, capitals, and symbols). For businesses running email through Google’s platform, two-factor authentication can be enabled that requires a code from a mobile application. This functionality adds an additional layer to your efforts that password cracking programs can’t breach. Exercise caution when utilizing cloud services, despite their convenience. Data sent over unencrypted channels is a prime target for hackers, and the major cloud services, including DropBox and iCloud, have been compromised multiple times in the recent past. If your business must use cloud services, thoroughly investigate the security protocols of your vendor or leverage your business’ IT department to build a solution in-house.   Educate Your Staff Top-down implementation of security protocols will help build an enforcement structure, but getting employees to actually act on established policies requires training. While many threats can be lessened through automation and device policies, the real vulnerability of your critical data lies with uneducated personnel. Explaining your policies to your staff will help them understand the need for such strict enforcement. Your training should include sections on password policies, email practices, and data flows so that they understand what makes them so vulnerable. In addition, it your staff should be enlisted to help identify intrusions and report potential vulnerabilities. Your training should also include a comprehensive conversation about email phishing. While hackers do attempt to pick the digital locks of secure systems, the most efficacious form of intrusion is through elicit software installed through user admission. Inform them regarding what a trusted email/email address looks like and how to spot a fake. Encourage them to avoid downloading or installing anything unless the identity of the publisher is known. Remind them that they’re as much apart of your security system as the software and hardware you use, and that responsible browsing is an essential part of keeping critical information secure.   Invest In Failsafes While you can certainly do your best to batten down the hatches, intrusions do occur. Whether through a new method of phishing or more sophisticated network intrusion technology, your business must be prepared to deal with the consequences when they occur. Proprietary information is essential to the competitive advantage of your business so whether its stolen or lost, maintaining it is the key. Invest in localized and third-party backup systems in order to redundantly store all important information. Make sure that your third-party provider has sound security and encryption protocols as well, so that an intrusion into their system does not compromise your information integrity. To fully cover your bases, invest in data insurance. Policies exist that can help cover damages in cases of cybercrime and, even if you can’t get your data back, the compensation for your crisis will provide necessary resources to reboot and rebuild. Data security has become as essential to business operations as sales. Your information is your livelihood, and employing the right policies and protocols will help guard your precious assets from compromise. Build your infrastructure around secure usage and implement software and browsing policies that eliminate potential vulnerability. Train your staff to become a security asset and invest in backups in case things go totally awry. Guard your intellectual capital and your financial data, and your firm can feel safer conducting business as usual.   For more information on how to keep your business safe and secure, explore these additional resources . web hosting Continue reading →

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How To Build Your Online Engagement Engine

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Hosting

The post How To Build Your Online Engagement Engine appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . For all of our marketing efforts and creative handiwork, sometimes engaging customers can be a real challenge. Even when our user profiles and psychographics hit the proverbial nail on the head, our work can miss the mark. This is not because of a lack of knowledge, but simply because the paradigm of customer engagement is shifting. Online channels, the new model of constant presence, and the need for creativity to cut through the din, are all contributors in an age where customer engagement can translate into better sales, better relationships, and a better marketing strategy. In this post, we’re helping you understand how to build your online engagement engine.   Starting the Conversation Engagement comes in many forms, but perhaps the most effective means of doing so comes in the form of conversation. This doesn’t mean simply communicating with your customers; your marketing does that every day. What it means is leveraging the new rapid-response and feedback capabilities of the Internet to create a continuum of advertising and marketing that includes the customer in the process. While they certainly won’t be writing copy for you, the notion of involving your customers in the way your business presents itself allows your efforts to resonate in a way that drives both sales and return visits. With Facebook and Twitter providing ample opportunities for communication, the greatest benefit to brands in the newly interconnected age is constant presence. When store hours are over and customers are sitting at home, you can still be a part of their experience by replying to comments on social networking, presenting informational and entertaining videos, and sharing photographs that strike an emotional chord. In this way, your brand never leaves the minds of the people you need most, which translates into better sales and increased advocacy. The key to achieving this lies with owned media channels. Creating new opportunities for engagement is important when more conventional wells run dry, but using your existing social networking accounts and advertising spots to break new ground is fiscally prudent. Take a look at your social networking posts. If you don’t have any, make some. Reach out to customers with positive and helpful information and a human touch, gauging reactions and modifying activity based on what works. Doing so makes media responsive, and customers appreciate being listened to far more than sitting through an ill-conceived sales pitch.   Building Associations But in order to start a conversation, it’s necessary to know what to talk about. As a business, the topics of your discussions and social media posts can’t be listless at the risk of wasting valuable time and money on fruitless endeavors. Your goal in engaging customers should be simple: further your business. This occurs in multiple ways, but the most effective among them is building associations that paint your products, business, and presence in a positive light. What you’d like to accomplish is a perception that your brand is as much a part of a customer’s life as the products you sell. Pushing product out the door is one thing, creating repeat customers and ensuring future business is another entirely. For that reason, use your engagement to build the understanding that your business is a source of valuable information and helpful individuals. If you sell drills, talk about tool maintenance and provide DIY tips. If you offer pool-cleaning supplies, talk about safety and how pools can provide a family activity. In every breath, focus on establishing your reputation as a company who cares and wants deeply to help the customers that keep it open. Keep in mind as you do so that customer love is predicated on choice. In no way can marketers force brand perception (otherwise the art would’ve been perfected long ago). This choice lies not only with the acceptance of your presented image, but also with the content provided . When utilizing a business blog, provide a range of topics that engage your core audience without pigeonholing your reach. Even choice built into ads, such as those that allow individuals to choose a different story or product to view, give the perception of engagement and control, which translates into dividends with potential and current customers.   Innovating In doing so, however, it’s necessary to consider the law of diminishing returns. While Facebook is a fantastic vehicle for engagement and distribution, your business is not the first, or last, to utilize it. What this means is that your company will need to innovate in order to reach its audience more effectively than the competition. This can come both in the form of adjusting current campaigns, and by changing the way the game is played altogether. Social media and other modern engagement channels work for multiple reasons. As we’ve discussed, actual conversation is a big part of that. But what lies beneath this exterior is the capacity to rapidly gauge customer sentiment and reactions to particular campaigns/pieces and make adjustments on the fly. If, after months of attempting to blog unsuccessfully , you finally publish a post that goes viral, look at the topic and the method of presentation and apply that model to other content. This creates a perception of listening to consumer wishes, and means less wasted marketing dollars as content is better tailored to the desired audience. And while these tried-and-true methods of engagement certainly have their place, never rule out the possibility of throwing a curveball. Traditional channels of marketing aren’t what they used to be; television ads, print ads, and books. Now, businesses are looking for ways to incorporate digital in a world of increasingly blurred lines between media. Grocery stores with QR codes to recipes and clothing retailers with digital try-on capabilities are changing our understanding of customer engagement every day, and making hay in the process.   Recap When building your engagement engine, laying a foundation based on established methods is a great place to start. Use owned-media channels in order to listen to customers and start the conversation. Create a feeling throughout all interactions and materials that your company cares about their well-being and wants to be a part of their life through informative content. Finally, get creative and look for new ways to reach out once your foundation is established. Talking to customers is no longer a luxury in the digital age, and a little elbow grease and some Facebook comments can increase sales, perception, and market-share, all thanks to the ubiquitous interconnection that drives our lives, and now, our businesses. web hosting Continue reading →

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Infographic: Famous Gators

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Hosting

The post Infographic: Famous Gators appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . When it comes to gators that are in the public eye, it turns out that Snappy is in some pretty good company.  From video games, comic books, cartoons and more; turns out, there’s quite a few well-known gators out there.  Enjoy our new infographic, Famous Gators: web hosting Continue reading →

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A Beginner’s Guide to Using Psychographics to Improve Your Marketing Efforts

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Hosting

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Using Psychographics to Improve Your Marketing Efforts appeared first on HostGator Web Hosting Blog | Gator Crossing . In marketing practice, buzzwords are as ubiquitous as copy. Some come, and some go, but the ones that stay are of far-reaching, intrinsic value that better your efforts and customer satisfaction in some way. With this in mind, it’s a fair bet that psychographics are about to demonstrate some impressive longevity. Through a more comprehensive understanding of what drives customer actions, using research and analytics to fuel the endeavor, your materials and distribution can see greater permeation than ever before.   What They Are Despite the curious title, psychographics are not as bewildering as their name might imply, and understanding their nature, use, and acquisition can breed a great deal of success in marketing efforts. At their core, psychographics are profiles of individuals that focus on lifestyle, habits, and tendencies, reaching beyond traditional demographic information and seeking more valuable data from user behavior. For a better understanding of exactly what comprises one of these profiles, let’s look at a hypothetical user and see what we can learn from them. We’ll begin with John, a 32-year old office worker from Los Angeles, California. For the sake of thoroughness, let’s assume that he’s married with two children, has an income of approximately $60K per year, and owns his own home. While all of this information has some kind of use, it doesn’t tell us much about him outside of raw data. What we want is information about interests and habits in order to better understand his motivations. A look at John’s Facebook page shows likes on pages related to fantasy football and an application that tracks player injury status. His Twitter page shows pictures of his family in a snowy location, holding ski poles and wearing goggles. Each of these social channels has some kind of activity, but a look at his Google+ page shows that most of his time is spent there. What we have now is a wealth of information regarding John. He lives in Los Angeles and probably commutes. He enjoys fantasy football and skiing. He has a wife and two kids, all of whom are also active and athletic. He spends most of his time on Google+, and is young enough that he probably uses multiple devices to access information on the Internet through various media channels.   How They Work The power of this profile is manifold. As marketers and business owners, you want to understand where to put what information and when, so that the right people see the right things and think better of your brand or purchase product. To this end, John’s psychographic is a boon to our work. First of all, as a working commuter with multiple channels of access, we have a better understanding of John’s browsing habits. He likely checks social networks and news channels in the morning and at night, before and after work, possibly stopping during the day to check his mobile phone during breaks. He uses Facebook and Twitter but is mostly found on Google+. Therefore, assuming John is the type of customer we want to recruit, our marketing is best published across multiple social networking channels, preferably Google+, during the morning (before 8 AM), afternoon (around lunch time), and evening (after 5 PM). But logistics aren’t the only use of psychographics. A better understanding of user behavior gives us the added benefit of what kind of content should be published. As we noted, John likes to travel, ski, and play fantasy football. In terms of sales deals, airlines could offer discount tickets around wintertime, restaurants can offer deals for customers with a valid lift ticket, and sports magazines can offer price cuts on subscriptions around fantasy draft season. In terms of content, a travel magazine could create a review of the best ski slopes in Colorado, a sports website could offer insider information on sleeper picks, and an eCards website could offer templates for email postcards incorporating winter sports. The incredible thing is, all of this came from a better understanding of customer behavior. Multiple industries, multiple businesses, and multiple aspects of marketing all arose from discerning the interests and habits of a target customer. With this kind of information available from only a judicious application of research, the last question that remains is how to obtain it.   How to Get Them Start by leveraging the information you already have. Website analytics, past purchases, and social networking activity provide a sort of “back end” approach to customer research. Pay attention to what articles or offers performed well, what channel has seen the most success, and what kind of engagement your current topics are seeing. By looking at past successes and drawing some ideas from them, you can save money and build a decent bank of knowledge. But customer behavior isn’t limited to online engagement. A thorough understanding of user interests and habits requires a great deal more insight; insight straight from the source. Customer surveys are a good place to start since they offer a large sample size. The key is to ask the right questions, looking specifically for behavior and interests, offering the chance for open-ended answers where applicable. In your approach, be honest about your intent. Personal information is more guarded than ever in an increasingly privacy-aware society, but explaining your intent is an excellent way of disarming respondents through trust. Furthermore, most customers are more than happy to share this kind of information if it improves the relevance of information and product offerings. Reinforce this broad-base data collection with customer interviews and focus groups. By inviting customers to meet or offering to converse with them over the phone, you’re providing an opportunity to ask responsive questions and delve further into fruitful areas, instead of relying on rote questionnaires. In addition, putting a human face on your efforts (and including refreshments if the meetings happen in person) is an excellent way to show customers that you care, increase engagement, and build relationships in the process. Between these methods of research and an intelligent understanding of the worth of the data obtained, your business stands to expand its reach and its relevancy through psychographics. Focus on the characteristic behaviors, habits, and methods of communication that drive customers’ day-to-day lives and use that information to better craft content and logistics of publication. With an open ear and an aim toward seeing people instead of numbers, your content, relationships, and bottom-line, will all benefit. Register a cheap domain name at HostGator.com Continue reading →

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