Components of a Landing Page

Introduction to Landing Pages

First of all, before we start describing how to effectively use landing pages, you will need an understanding of exactly what this “landing page” thing is. Some people try to make the definition of a landing page more complicated than it actually is, but in essence a landing page is a single page on your website that your traffic is sent to upon clicking on your ad. This page usually has only outgoing links to the merchant web pages through your affiliate URL’s. A landing page differs from a website because it is simply a page within a website.

A landing page can be very beneficial in achieving a greater ROI from the products you are promoting. It allows you the opportunity to pre-sell and offer reviews of a product, as well as offer highly relevant information. This enables you to help remove any “Guess Work” that your visitors may have to do in order to make an informed purchase decision. With direct linking (linking straight from your ad to the merchant), you are relying strictly on the sales page of the merchant to convert your traffic into a sale, sometimes not the best idea as many merchant pages are unable to do this effectively.

There are two different types of landing pages, both of which can work well. Review Style landing pages are exactly how they sound. They consist of a page containing product/service reviews, industry information, product comparisons, and outgoing links to the merchant sites. Testimonial Style landing pages consist of long copy (long, drawn out text) that focuses on promoting one particular product from a first person point-of-view. These pages are similar to those of the merchant sales pages that are used for Clickbank products.

Review Style Landing Pages

Review Pages are most common, and are the most effective style of landing pages. The reason for this is simple. People are information hungry, and prior to purchasing anything (especially online), they want to find out information about all competing products. If you can provide them with quality reviews and comparisons on your site, then you will save the time they would have spent on research and they are much more likely to make a purchase.

An effective review is composed of many components. Each one of these components is very important and adds additional value to a review. They are outlined below:

Captivating and Relevant Header

The first thing that catches a visitor's attention, is usually what determines whether they will spend time on your website or not. If a visitor comes to your page, sees nothing but a sea of text, no images, no highlighted text, chances are they are going to leave your page. Keep them interested with a highly relevant header that contains the keywords they used to get to your site. This will instantly draw their attention and will increase your chances of a click-through to the merchant page, thus increasing your chances of a sale.

3-7 Product Reviews

We have tested several different combinations of reviews, and depending on the industry, a page that contains between 3-7 reviews is proven to generate the highest conversions. Today’s consumer is smarter than ever and does research prior to purchasing something online. If you do this research for them, they will be much more likely to purchase a product through your affiliate links

Components of a Product Review

1 - Brief Product Descriptions

A brief description will provide an outline of the product, what it offers, why it is better or worse than other products, and potentially your personal recommendation. Do not copy and paste this information from another person's website or the merchant page. Put this in your own words.

2 - Attribute Rankings

Rank the products based on their attributes. This could include components such as overall rank, effectiveness, guarantee, support, risk, and other related attributes (will differ for all products). It is also beneficial to rank the products overall as the #1, #2, #3, etc. as it allows the visitor to easily define a clear winner, increasing their chances of purchasing the “best” product. If there is any ambiguity as to which product is the "best", you will lose the sale (as the visitor will continue their research elsewhere). The key is to help them make the purchasing decision.

3 - Product Images and/or Screenshots

Many people are visual learners, so include some images of the product and/or screenshots of the website. This will add appeal to your landing page and acts as a “break” from the text. You may want to also include images that pertain to the particular industry you are promoting. For example, if you are promoting “make money” products, you could include pictures of money or expensive items such as yachts, cars, or houses...or even better, a picture of you with your first affiliate check!

4 - Visible Exit Points

Allow for a lot of different types of exit points for the visitor to go from your page to the merchant page. Often times new marketers will only allow a single exit point on their page to their #1 product. Include 2-3 exit points for each product that you review (title, buy now, image linking). The more visitors you can get to click on your links, the more conversions you will get. An effective way to provide an exit point is to create links or buttons that read "Click Here to Buy Now" or "Click Here to Learn More". These kind of exit points can greatly improve the rate at which people click your links because you are asking them to perform an action.

It is very important that you make as many reviews visible without the need to scroll the page, as possible. As soon as a visitor comes to your page they should see that there are product reviews available to them. Do not overwhelm your visitors with text that is too long, and never bury your reviews below the first visible frame of your website!

Below are some landing pages that will help you to visualize what a "Good" review-style landing page looks like. Templates for these landing pages can be downloaded from the resources area, modified, and used to promote products of your choice.

Review Style Landing Pages: Click Here To View

Testimonial Style Landing Pages

A testimonial-style landing page is a comprehensive outline of a product or services that is written in first person tense. It will usually outline experiences one has with these products and generates product interest through personal promotions. One important aspect is having the ability to connect with the customer on the emotional level. Here are some questions that you can ask yourself and answer within your testimonial:

• What would this person be thinking if they were interested in this product?
• Why would they be reluctant to purchase the product?
• How will this product improve their life?
• What are selling features to this product, and how do these apply to the customer's “wants”?
• Is there any risk involved with purchasing this product?

If you can answer the previous questions from your perspective, you have just written a very effective landing page. You should also include unbiased product information that outlines the product, the creators, price, guarantee, support, and other relative features.

A good testimonial-style landing page captivates the person's interest, answers all of the questions they could potentially have, and builds them to a comfort level where they feel good about purchasing the product. One good thing is that most products/services available online have a full 100% money back guarantee. So really, there is nothing to lose for a customer if they are interested in trying a product. If they don’t like, they simply ask for a refund and get their money back. This is a good point to emphasize through a testimonial based landing page

Conclusion

If you are not using landing pages already, this should be the next step taken to improve your PPC campaign performance and overall conversion ratios. Switching from direct linking, to a unique landing page can turn a suffering campaign into one that generates continual profits. And there is no longer any excuse as we offer Site Rubix to all members and you do not need to know an ounce of HTML to use this tool. Additionally, you have access to free website hosting, so there really are no excuses as to why you cannot start building your own sites and landing pages today!

If you can apply the techniques outlined in this tutorial, you will see many more sales and increase the amount of profits that you take home at the end of the day.