Creating a Landing Page Campaign: 7 Things to Avoid

Do your ads create buyers? You”re only as good as your campaign strategy. If you don”t have a strong online landing page for your print and online ads you are missing the essential ingredient that turns visitors into customers.
When you create a landing page campaign here are the seven things you should avoid:
1. Don’t Forget to Determine Your Customer Goal
Determine the most important action you want from your visitor. If you obtain this result, you can deem your landing page campaign a success. If your goal is to obtain their email address, make sure you provide an incentive for them to do so and have it be the centerpiece of your page. For example, you might offer a white paper or an online Flash tutorial that explains your service in an entertaining way.
2. Don’t Forget About “What Comes First”
In this case, “what comes first” is your originating ad. Whether it’s a Google text ad or a full color magazine page, make sure that they stand together as one cohesive message with matching graphics. To test this, simulate what the visitor will do — read your ad and then click to your landing page. If your message is inconsistent, the path to your goal will be lost.
3. Don’t Present an Unprofessional Design
Your landing page must be up to the quality of your website. The fact that your landing page functions as a single ad doesn’t mean that visitors won’t expect a well designed-page with graphics.
4. Don’t Recreate Your Home Page
Your landing page should not look like your home page. It should carry your branding, but should be created for the specific goal you want to achieve. Think about making the ‘buy path’ clear and easy to follow. You want visitors to come to your website to learn more about you, not so with your landing page. Your landing page is there to provide visitors with all the information they need to take the next step to a purchase decision.
5. Don’t Include Extraneous Links
Carefully lay out the path you want your visitors to take. Think about it like a visit to a museum. In a museum, the direction and place the visitor should walk is carefully delineated so that they get the maximum viewing effect. (Yes, it does also keep the line moving.) Your landing page should do the same. Decide the path you want them to take and narrow your text and links to follow that path. Don’t throw everything on the page in the hope that you will hit on something that interests them.
6. Don’t Forget Your “Call to Action”
Make sure the visitor knows what he needs to do next. If he is interested, you want to make it clear that he should call, type in his email address, or take some action. This is the point at which he will be the most motivated. Don’t miss this opportunity.
7. Don’t Forget to Track Your Results
To determine if your campaign is cost-effective, you’ll want to take some measurements. There are many you can take but these two are the most important:
a. Conversion rate (%):
The easiest measurement to take is your conversion rate. It is the number of visitors who performed the desired outcome/number of visitors to your landing page.
b. Marketing Cost per Sale ($):
This is the cost of your landing page/number of sales you attribute to the landing page. This will let you determine if your landing page campaign is a good investment.
In terms of refining your campaign, you can try split A/B testing and other sophisticated tests, but the most important thing to remember is that if you start with a good solid campaign plan, you will have a much higher success rate.