WS - You Have 7 Seconds to Capture & Retain a Visitor - Are You Doing It?

According to various internet marketing studies, you have anywhere from three to seven seconds to capture and retain visitors. So your landing page is a critical part of the sales process.

Page Optimization: Common Mistakes That Say You're Stuck in the 20th Century

Unfortunately, many internet retailers haven't advanced much in the last decade or so in how they go about creating, testing and marketing their pages. Following are some common mistakes.

No Call to Action: Many landing pages will drone on and one about a product/service, but never ask for definitive action from a prospect.

Always, always ask the prospect to do something, eg, make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, subscribe to your social media account.

Call to Action "Enticement" Tip: To entice prospects, tell them exactlywhat they get in exchange for the action you want them to take. For example, if you want them to subscribe, tell them that they'll be getting "a weekly newsletter with discount coupons that offer as much as 50% off regular prices. And, it's only for newsletter subscribers."

Try to Do Too Much: Some pages are so crowded that it's hard for a prospect to figure out what action they're supposed to take.

It's understandable to want to maximize your ROI, but you shouldn't try to sell prospects your entire line on a landing page. These pages should be specific; prospects should know exactly what product/service/offer you want to them to respond to.

Go for the Immediate Sale: While there are definitely times it's appropriate to do this, many online marketers make the mistake of going for the immediate sale too often.

To give a little insight, the internet is getting more and more crowded every day. According to the article, Stop Broadcasting and Start Narrowcastingon the Summit Small Business website:

In the 1970's the average American consumer was exposed to 500 marketing messages a day. Today that number is 3,500. That's... 1.25 million marketing messages a year.

How do you connect with customers with this kind of competition?

An easy way is to build a relationship with them. But, you have to get them to allow you to contact them first. Asking them to buy the first time they hit your landing page is not likely to cultivate this.

So, take the longer sales route. Ask them to subscribe to your newsletter; dispense a useful, industry-related report; etc.

Landing page optimization in the 21st century is about building relationships first, then helping them to achieve their goals. If you do this, sales will inevitably follow.

Source: Ezine

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites