Behind every click and form fill, there’s a person waiting to be persuaded.
The only way to get these real people to opt in is to deliver a delightful experience with a compelling lead generation landing page.
In our recent #CROchat, we asked Oli Gardner and our community members how they appeal to prospects on their lead gen landing pages.
The highlights?
Some pretty sharp optimization tips… and some pretty funny memes.
@unbounce Okay, this is just too good not to share with you all. #CROchat pic.twitter.com/rVG2Pa88w9
— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) February 25, 2015
If you missed it, not to worry. We’ve rounded up the biggest knowledge bombs that were dropped.
Read on.
Q1: What are the most common mistakes you see people making on their lead generation landing pages?
We kicked off the chat by asking about common lead gen landing page mistakes. This one kept cropping up:
A1: The most common mistake I think I see is people not having a dedicated landing page for each campaign! #crochat
— Stephanie Casstevens (@stephcasstevens) February 25, 2015
Another common blunder?
#CROChat Q1: Multiple CTAs and outbound links on one page. #ConfusingMuch @unbounce
— Grace Lau (@gracemlau) February 25, 2015
If you haven’t yet heard of the concept of attention ratio, allow yourself to be schooled:
Some other form woes that were mentioned?
A1: Not presenting the form as a standalone entity that can communicate its purpose without the help of the rest of the page. #CROChat
— Oli Gardner (@oligardner) February 25, 2015
A1 Too many form fields that the Sales Team “Needs” along with “Submit” buttons. :) #crochat
— James Svoboda (@Realicity) February 25, 2015
@unbounce A1: Not telling me what happens when I click the CTA #CROChat
— Dustin John Bromley (@DustinJBromley) February 25, 2015
And there were tons of copywriting pet peeves, too:
A1: Loading way too much information and text onto the landing page. Think “ease of reading.” Do the thinking for your page visitor #CROChat
— Guiding Type (@guidingtype) February 25, 2015
A1: Unintentionally adding negative “stop” words in close proximity to the CTA. Words that make you stop and think before clicking. #CROChat
— Oli Gardner (@oligardner) February 25, 2015
A1: Crappy USPs that say something vague instead of a specific benefit. Like “This is great and everyone loves it.” #CROchat
— Grace Lau (@gracemlau) February 25, 2015
Q2: What’s the first thing to consider before starting your lead generation landing page design?
Next, we asked participants about the first thing they do when they set out to create a lead gen landing page.
Here’s what Oli had to say:
A2: Your campaign goal. Don’t put pen to paper, or mouse to screen until you know the problem you’re trying to solve. #CROChat
— Oli Gardner (@oligardner) February 25, 2015
While others always start with a healthy dose of research:
A2: The user. Period. If you don’t have the analytical insight to design off of this, you’re not ready to design yet. #CROchat
— John Bonini (@Bonini84) February 25, 2015
#CROchat A2: Content and audience go hand-in-hand for design. One informs the next, informs the next.
— Guiding Type (@guidingtype) February 25, 2015
But every answer had a common theme: start with your copy.
A2: Never design before you write. Your campaign copy should inform your landing page design. Not vice versa. #CROChat
— Oli Gardner (@oligardner) February 25, 2015
Q3: How can I tell which content should be gated for lead gen and which to give away “for free”?
When we asked participants when it was appropriate to gate content, some thought it should be based on length…
A3. I think things that are really long (as in, can’t read in a quick sitting) should be gated for ease of download #CROchat
— Brittany Berger (@bberg1010) February 25, 2015
…while others take into account how advanced the tactics are.
A3 Small content/general content should be free. Large, indepth, really practical problem solving content as lead gen. #CROChat
— Krystian Szastok (@krystianszastok) February 25, 2015
One participant gates content based on how hot the lead is:
A3: Depends on targeted lifecycle stage. Free content for anyone in Awareness, gated for anyone in Consideration. #CROChat @unbounce
— Siddharth Bharath (@Siddharth87) February 25, 2015
Some other great rules of thumb that were mentioned:
A3: Don’t gate content that peeps can find elsewhere for free. People’s BS filters are stronger than you think! #CROChat
— Matt Diederichs (@mattddrchs) February 25, 2015
@unbounce A3: Rule of thumb, you should be able to have multiple blog posts etc. about a topic, to one piece of gated content on it #crochat
— Jim Gray (@grayj_) February 25, 2015
When in doubt, put yourself in their shoes and ask:
A3: “Would I give my precious email away to read this?” #CROchat
— Grace Lau (@gracemlau) February 25, 2015
Q4: How do you weigh the importance of quality over quantity of leads?
Sometimes what’s good for your conversion rate won’t necessarily bring in the highest quality leads.
@unbounce A4: If your leads are garbage & unmarketable, what’s the point? #CROChat pic.twitter.com/gQYVtIm38q
— Dustin John Bromley (@DustinJBromley) February 25, 2015
Marketers everywhere struggle to find that happy medium: the secret formula that will bring in hordes of the right kind of customers.
What did the #CROchat participants have to say about it?
@unbounce A4 Depends on where they’re at in the conversion funnel for me. I expect lower quality, higher quantity for early stage. #CROchat
— Kirk Williams (@PPCKirk) February 25, 2015
A4: Each stage in your customer lifecycle has an associated value. Measure leads in terms of how far you anticipate they’ll get. #CROChat
— Oli Gardner (@oligardner) February 25, 2015
For early-stage leads, would rather inconvenience (paid) sales staff w/ lower qual leads then (paying) future-cust with long forms #CROchat
— Kirk Williams (@PPCKirk) February 25, 2015
This about sums it up:
@unbounce A4: Quality > quantity always. With lead generation, with anything. #CROchat
— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) February 25, 2015
Q5: What would you consider a successful conversion rate?
For Oli, a successful conversion rate = one that pays the bills:
A5: One that produces a positive ROI. If 1% makes you profitable, you’re on target. Spend the rest of yr waking hours to get to 2%. #CROChat
— Oli Gardner (@oligardner) February 25, 2015
And what’s a positive ROI?
@unbounce A5: Depends on lead type, business model. Maybe you see 0.1% on AdWords, 20% on email list, and both end up worth doing. #crochat
— Jim Gray (@grayj_) February 25, 2015
And for Peep Laja and John Bonini, a successful conversion rate is one that is always on the rise:
A5: One that’s always increasing. “Success” suggests finality. Conversion rates should be dynamic. Don’t stop until 100% ; ) #CROchat
— John Bonini (@Bonini84) February 25, 2015
#CROChat A5: Better than what you had last month
— Peep Laja (@peeplaja) February 25, 2015
@unbounce A5: There’s always room to improve through testing! #CROChat #alwaysbetesting pic.twitter.com/E05vWJJZPM
— Dustin John Bromley (@DustinJBromley) February 25, 2015
Q6: What are some good things to A/B test on lead gen landing pages?
Here’s a smorgasbord of A/B testing ideas pulled from the chat:
A6: Headlines! CTAs! Level of detail required on forms! #TestAllTheThings #CROchat
— Grace Lau (@gracemlau) February 25, 2015
A6 Testing photos and messaging that can have an emotional impact can produce huge returns. #crochat
— James Svoboda (@Realicity) February 25, 2015
A6: With/without a Closer: a statement in close proximity to your CTA that reduces a known anxiety. #CROchat & wait for 250 conv per variant
— Oli Gardner (@oligardner) February 25, 2015
But don’t get too trigger happy. Peep cautioned against jumping into a test just for the heck of it:
#CROChat A6: You should not test random crap you read from a blog post. Identify a source of friction or motivational lever first. Research
— Peep Laja (@peeplaja) February 25, 2015
A6: Nothing. Until you have a hypothesis for a test. cc @peeplaja @ContentVerve #CROChat
— Oli Gardner (@oligardner) February 25, 2015
Q7: What are the best alternatives to PPC to drive traffic for lead generation?
Everyone would like a little more traffic to their landing pages – but not everyone has the resources or knowhow to set up PPC campaigns.
Our participants shared some alternatives to getting your lead gen page out there:
A7: Blog is prolly best place to grab top of the funnel people. Either end-of-post CTA, or delightful exit popups #ironic #alanis. #CROChat
— Oli Gardner (@oligardner) February 25, 2015
A7: social listening #CROChat
— Luiz Centenaro (@LuizCent) February 25, 2015
A7: I’d say SEO, but it seems to depend on industry. For some SEO works, for others not. Looking forward to others answers on this. #CROchat
— Matt Carter (@mcartertweets) February 25, 2015
A7: It could be video. Infographics. Webinars. Searchable, utilitarian content wins over paid ads every time. #CROchat
— John Bonini (@Bonini84) February 25, 2015
Got anything to add?
Did you miss the chat and have an awesome tactic to contribute? Share it with us in the comments or on Twitter!
And be sure to tune in for our next #CROChat on March 25th at 11:00am PST/2:00pm EST. We’re welcoming special guest Aaron Orendorff of iconiContent to dig into optimizing content for conversion. See you there!
