Landing Page Design

Alex Harris - Landing Page Best Practices

2008-11-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

I sat down with Marketbright to discuss an overview of landing page best practices.

Blurb from the article...

The most interest part of creating landing pages is that these pages really define the product being sold. Once you have a successful landing page, you can build your whole marketing plan around it. Landing pages are necessary for offline advertising, print, direct mail and PPC.

Continue to read more about landing page best practices

New GrokDotCom blog design is live!

2008-11-16T22:21:00.001-08:00

Checkout the new GrokDotCom that went live recently. This is the popular blog from Future Now, Inc. This was a follow-up project from the site redesign work we did for them a few months earlier. Let me know what you think...

NEW FutureNow Website is live!

2008-10-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

Since 2005, FutureNow, Inc has hired me as a freelance web designer for conversion rate optimization projects. FutureNow, Inc. is recognized as the leading voice for increasing online conversion rates, accountable multi-channel marketing and web analytics. It has been an honor to work on so many great projects with them.

After designing some landing pages and this microsite, FutureNow asked me (and my team) to complete a new FutureNow web design for the corporate consulting site. Now the site is live and I am very happy with the overcome. This was probably the most challenging site of 2008 that we completed. FutureNow are experts in web marketing and Persuasion Architecture®, so they "Get It" and know what they want. After many wire frames and design revisions, together, we achieved a effective yet simple design. Here are the core templates of the new site. Please let me know what you think...

New Homepage Web Design

Consulting Services Web Design

Tools & Resources Design

Smart Landing Pages Are Simple

2008-07-08T18:07:00.000-07:00

Landing pages serve many different purposes, but they all need to do one thing - DRIVE VISITORS TO A TARGET. Here is an example of a smart landing page that we designed. It uses a simple design composition to drive users to "Learn More" or "Become A Client". There is also the opportunity to listen to audio before leading them to the objectives.

This landing is focused on 401k Advice

Let me know what you think!

AB Testing Tip: Small Design Changes = Success!

2008-07-01T16:56:00.000-07:00

I have been doing Website AB Multivariate Testing for over 7 years. The consistent result is that small design changes make the biggest difference to improve your ecommerce and lead generation conversion rates. Most of the AB & Multivariate Testing is on landing pages, sales funnels and the ecommerce checkout process. In many cases, I have seen big design changes actual decrease conversion. Therefore, I suggest an optimization plan starting with a limited budget of PPC driving to landing pages, using Google website optimizer. This will help you execute a winning design strategy, plus you will learn which marketing copy to use going forward, plus apply that messaging to banners, text ads and other advertising.

SPECIAL EVENT: Join a Monthly Marketing Optimization Webinar Series devoted to providing practical tips and advice on testing the effectiveness of your marketing and usage of Google Website Optimizer, hosted by conversion expert Bryan Eisenberg of FutureNow with his Guest Tom Leung, Business Product Manager of Google Website Optimizer - Attend This Free Event.

Here is a new landing page design that just went live. This page will be used to test traffic from PPC ads, direct mail and print advertising. Please comment and let me know what you think.

Improve customer experience = more profitable website!

2008-04-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

Check out the new landing page mini-site we created for Future Now, called Benchmark My Site. This website was created to help improve your customer experience resulting in a more profitable website.

More about the site:

Over the last year, tens of millions of dollars have been spent on site redesigns, usability studies, analytics, and multivariate testing. Still overall industry conversion rates remain low while traffic costs inflate. These investments have not translated to the bottom line. Future Now, Inc., a leading voice in increasing online conversion rates, can assist in planning your website to be more persuasive using a proven systematic approach for better customer understanding.

Future Now will prepare for you, at no cost, a Benchmarking report that measures your site's customer focus. Your site will be evaluated by one of our Conversion Analysts against 69 distinct questions in four critical areas of customer focus: Product Presentation, The Checkout Process, Delivery Options and Customer Service

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Google Website Optimizer - FREE A/B Testing Software

2008-04-06T22:38:00.000-07:00

Most of the web marketers understand A/B testing to improve conversion rates on landing pages, but they do not execute this strategy. Usually they think it is very hard to setup, it is expensive or you need an Adwords to start testing. This is not the case with Google Website Optimizer. This completely FREE A/B Testing Software is very easy to set up and you do not need an Adwords campaign running to use it.

Here is a webinar discussing A/B testing on any web page and testing best practices. The webinar includes Conversion Rates Specialist, Bryan Eisenberg, from Future Now Inc. You can also down get FREE Google Website Optimizer tools from his site here.

Are you using Google Website Optimizer?

Tell us what you think! Share you success or give us your feedback.
Do you use another software, which one? Post a comment here.

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White paper downloads are great for landing pages

2008-03-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

Landing pages are a great way to monetize web traffic to your website. I recommend giving your visitors something in return for filling out a form. It can be as simple as a free white paper or ebook. Ask for your visitor's information in a lead form and then they can download a PDF on thank you page. The strategy is to create a relationship with your visitors and they can leave with something tangible - that is valuable.

Here is a landing page that we completed for Future Now, Inc - one of my favorite companies to work with. This optimized landing page offers a white paper on "10 Tips To Start Optimizing Your Site". In the design below, you can see how the copy is broken up into bullets so the text can be scanned easily. The layout will force your eyes to read the headline and then immediately move over to the lead capture form then down to the button. Plus we added a few content links and the Google logo to show credibility.

View landing page for 10 Tips To Start Optimizing Your Site

Are you using landing pages?

Do you have a landing page that is offering something for free?
What are you doing to capture leads on your landing pages?

Free landing page design review or ask a question!

2008-03-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

I have been getting a lot of emails with questions about designing landing pages to improve conversion rates and maximize ROI. So I put up this blog to help document my best practices and provide design examples. If you have a question, please add a comment on this post. I may not be able to answer everything, but I am happy to try and help you out.

Free landing page design review

If you have a landing page design, post the URL here. One rule - do not use an ANONYMOUS as your name. Then, I will comment on your landing page or I may do a blog post with my complete review and recommendations.

Why am I doing this?

I am interested to see how you are using landing pages. What design challenges are you having? Do you think your conversion rates should be higher, why? Now you don't need to email me, post your questions and examples here.

Update: 7/8/2008 - Review #1 Completed

In the Alex Designs Podcast, I reviewed the first few landing pages in video format - view them here.

Mentioning conversion rate optimization gets me excited

2008-02-27T22:25:00.000-08:00

I am addicted to HDTV. One of the channels that I love to watch is MojoHD. The show Start-Up Junkies is a documentary of an online business trying to get off the ground. I was pleasantly surprised to hear them say that they needed to improve their ecommerce sign up process. Yes, they mentioned conversion rate optimization on TV and I got all excited. So... I went ahead and reviewed their PPC advertisements and landing page strategy. Now here is my opinion on how they can improve their conversion rates.

After searching in Google for "Online PO Box" I arrived at the landing page / mini-site below. They are doing a good job by isolating the user experience so visitors stay within the sales funnel. However, I did want to offer some ideas:

The video is good, but I would recommend getting a strong testimonial with a quote about how easy it is to use and how they actually save money, plus safer for the environment.
The design flow of the page is off. Meaning, it doesn't read correctly. PPC visitors are on your web page for a very short time frame, before they leave. They skim your content. Maybe try making the Special Offer "First Month Free" more dominant and higher on the page.
"How it is works" is a very important page. The text needs to be combined with some simple imagery to make it more intuitive.
The text in Helvetica font doesn't read well on a PC, use Arial instead. Mac looks perfect.
They are using Google Analytics, so hopefully they are using Google Optimizer to do A/B testing.

The staff mentioned this in the TV show and I agree... The shopping cart checkout page needs a lot of work. When you do click sign up, you arrive at an overwhelming price list and it is hard to understand what you are going to get. Also, I recommend mentioning the "Risk Free 30-Day Money Back Guarantee" on this Checkout Page.

Do you have any recommendations for this company? Is their a site that you want me to review? Post them here...

Sales Funnel Design and Development

2008-02-24T22:09:00.000-08:00

Sales (conversion) funnel design and development is key to any online marketing strategy. Driving your website traffic to an isolated user experience will improve the amount of leads (emails) captured and optimizes your conversion rate. Here is a example of how the sales funnel should be a core part of your website.

This type of direct marketing strategy is based on customized landing pages and A/B multivariate testing to continually optimized the experience to improve ROI. The end goal is to push more qualified leads through the funnel which will lead to sales. Then if the leads do not convert, plan a follow-on marketing strategy to engage them on the long tail. More to come...

More about the sales funnel strategy in this a quick video:

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Landing Page Web Design Examples

2008-02-21T22:33:00.000-08:00

Why are web designers creating landing pages web designs that do not convert? The thing that has upsets me the most is that advertising agencies are charging a lot of money and not getting the ROI. They are flashy and too focused on branding. But don't get confused, branding campaigns can definitely be combined with a great landing page web design. The focus still remains direct response marketing and nothing is more important than the sale. Its simple, stop wasting your money...

Recently I have focus a lot of sales funnel freelance work on designing landing pages. These may seem boring to the average designer, but they are very important to a successful web business. Great landing page work can really improve your business. A lot of times it can take your site from the 1990's and into 2008. Below are three landing page web design examples from 2005. Yet, they are still converting well 3 years later.

Landing Page Web Design : Free Movie Tickets

Landing Page Web Design : Free Airline Tickets

Landing Page Web Design : Free Shopping Spree

Revisiting Landing Pages & Designs from 2006

2008-02-19T20:29:00.001-08:00

Here is a list of landing pages that were designed in 2006 by Alex Designs LLC. These landing pages were created to increase ROI from PPC, increase conversion rates of leads or acquire approval from the new advertising / landing page standards from Google. These are all copyrighted, so don't try and steal any ideas. Stay tuned for some new examples from 2008.

Design Examples: Landing Pages created in 2006
Pay Pal Landing Page
Health Care Landing Pages
Real Estate Landing Pages
Mortgage Landing Pages
Affiliate Landing Pages
Accounting Landing Page Design
Software Landing Page
Job Search Landing Page
Financial Landing Page
NetSuite Landing Pages

Landing Page Web Design Blog

2008-02-18T19:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the new landing page web design blog brought to you by Alex Designs LLC. More about Alex Designs : Conversion rate optimization and user experience focused interactive web designer to improve ROI. Plus focusing on ecommerce, direct response marketing and building SEO traffic. We specialize in optimizing website designs to improve conversion rates, banner click through rates and internet direct marketing (AKA: Sales Funnel A/B Testing). I also focus on Search Engine Optimization tactics and affiliate marketing to achieve the best possible ROI. Including landing pages, jump pages, ppc landing pages and conversion rate optimization.

Landing Page Design

Alex Harris - Landing Page Best Practices

New GrokDotCom blog design is live!

NEW FutureNow Website is live!

New Homepage Web Design

Consulting Services Web Design

Tools & Resources Design

Smart Landing Pages Are Simple

Let me know what you think!

AB Testing Tip: Small Design Changes = Success!

Improve customer experience = more profitable website!

More about the site:

Continue reading related articles::

Google Website Optimizer - FREE A/B Testing Software

Are you using Google Website Optimizer?

Continue reading related articles::

White paper downloads are great for landing pages

Are you using landing pages?

You may also enjoy these articles:

Free landing page design review or ask a question!

Free landing page design review

Why am I doing this?

Update: 7/8/2008 - Review #1 Completed

Mentioning conversion rate optimization gets me excited

Sales Funnel Design and Development

Continue reading related articles::

Landing Page Web Design Examples

Revisiting Landing Pages & Designs from 2006

Landing Page Web Design Blog