… as long as you answer the million-dollar question
What’s in it for me?
This is more than just a popular refrain among toddlers and politicians. This is the question you must answer with every landing page letter you write. Great landing pages will convert visitors to members, and members to subscribers or buyers, only if you can capture the audience’s attention, keep it, and finally convince them to hand over an email address or buy your product.
Mequoda has developed some great landing pages over the years. We always follow certain best practices that we’ve tested and proven.
Three of these that are critical for the copywriter are:
1. Attention-getting headlines
Identify the reader’s biggest need and also how your product meets that need … in short, what’s in it for them. Think benefits and features, and do it in that order, because the benefits are more exciting for a reader than even the most blockbuster features. Great landing pages boast headlines like these:
Workplace health statistics prove that employers can save $1.65 in health care expenses for every dollar spent on health and wellness in the workplace
Corporatewellnessadvisor.com
Face Mash!
Kelly McCann’s Essential Self-Defense Moves for Winning Real Street Fights
Blackbeltmag.com
Trainer or Groom, You Can Work with Horses and Get Paid
Myhorse.com
Whether your audience wants to save money in health care expenses, win street fights or get a horse-related job, great landing pages all start with benefits headlines!
Tip for great landing pages: When in doubt, tell readers what’s in it for them with the ever-reliable “how-to” headline, like this:
How to Make MASSIVE Amounts of Money
In Record Time With Your Own eBook
(Whether You Wrote It Or Not!)
ebooksecretsexposed.com
2. Story and content that are interesting and engaging
Great landing pages also tell the audience what’s in it for them through a believable story told by someone they can relate to and appreciate. After all, you’re asking them to spend their valuable time reading your pitch… you owe them a good narrative. Plus, a compelling story heightens interest in your product and will move them smoothly along to the purchasing decision.
Great landing pages feature compelling reads like this:
The Roadmap to Choosing Supplements
In April 1998, the National Academy of Sciences issued a statement saying that most people can no longer get all the nutrients they need, even if they eat a good diet made up of lots of fruits and vegetables. In June of 2002, a landmark study analyzing 36 years of data in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that every American needs at least a daily multivitamin regardless of age or health.
beyondhealth.com
Discover a secure approach to investing that can help you maximize your total returns and enjoy a future free of financial worries.
Dear investor,
Many investment advisors say be ready to profit when opportunity knocks.
I say opportunity is always knocking. You just have to know when to act. When you act on the right stocks, the profits can be staggering.
I have helped many investors do just that. And I can help you.
My name is Pat McKeough. And I’d like to give you just one example of the way in which I was able to help investors make profitable choices in an uncertain market.
The markets kept on rising
In the summer of 2009, the stock market had rallied off its March lows. Many cautioned that it was time to pause. I disagreed.
”This is an extremely attractive time to buy,“ I said …
tsinetwork.com
Both the National Academy of Sciences and Pat McKeough got my attention. I’m intrigued in the offered product and convinced of its credibility.
[text_ad]
Tip for great landing pages: Make sure your story provokes an emotional response, reminds the user of their pain points and why they’re looking at the product to begin with, and gives the user enough information to convince them to buy or offer up their email address, like this:
I have an effective system for dealing with tenants!
My name’s Dave Lindahl. I went from being a dead-broke landscaper, to being able to retire and never work another day in my life…all in the space of four and a half years. I did it through apartment investments.
Before you think I maybe had a rich daddy, let me set the record straight: I had no fancy education, no bankroll, no relative in the business, no “easy real estate market”, and no other “unfair advantage”.
To make a long story short, I found through long, hard study, and trial-and-error, how to buy apartments right, and how to manage them right.
Real-estate-fortune.com
3. Clear, straightforward language
I’m begging you … skip the jargon. Far too many copywriters ruin otherwise great landing pages by succumbing to the urge to sound important. Or smart. Or sophisticated. Don’t. Even if your audience is accustomed to jargon, it’s a visual roadblock. Too much of it in a single paragraph will drive the reader elsewhere, faster than you can say “new educational assessment possibilities” – a classic example of the education industry’s penchant for more syllables than it could ever need. The example below of clear language gets extra points because it comes from another industry that easily slips into jargon:
Using Supply Contracts to Leverage Rising Volume and to Protect Your Business
If you are like most auto suppliers who battled vehicle-production declines in 2008 and 2009, you dramatically cut costs and slashed capacity. In recent years, you have likely rebounded and become profitable, only to struggle to keep up and preserve margins as automakers boost production schedules.
But if the steps you took to stay afloat are now constraining you, tune into this Webinar. Dan Sharkey, a lawyer specializing in supply contracts, will spell out ways to take full advantage of the industry’s comeback by managing contracts to meet your customers’ expectations.
autonews.com
Even I understand what’s at stake for auto suppliers after reading this, and I know exactly nothing about that industry. (Though I’m not wild about “constraining.” Use “limiting” instead.)
Tip for Great landing pages: Bullet points are your friend! That way you can list all your product’s features and benefits without wandering into an interminable, unreadable, run-on paragraph. Example:
Free Teaching Guide: Preview One of the Clearinghouse’s most popular Simulations, Sally Soprano
- Develops the practice of using objective criteria
- Explores the challenge of discovering objective bias and what it means in negotiation
- How to create value in negotiation, or “expanding the pie”
- What to reveal and what to conceal in negotiations
- And how to remain persistent in the face of tough negotiator
There are many other best practices that go into creating great landing pages, but these are the most critical for the copywriter. What are some copywriting techniques you’ve used successfully to create great landing pages that have increased your conversion rates and sales?
If you’d like to discuss how we can help you create better landing pages, contact Ann-Marie Sullivan, our member services manager, and she’ll schedule a call with Don Nicholas, our CEO and lead consultant.
