Landing page “how to” inquiries come in daily here at The IStudio. Clients want to know what they need to consider, how to create effective landing pages or even if this is something they should hire a pro to do. One client stating “I just can’t wrap my head around what makes a good landing page!”

You know me, I’m all about empowering you with the tools and information to do as much as possible on your own. The more knowledgeable and involved you are the better the chance that you will meet your goals. With that in mind I dug out an old post from 2008 that had a free eBook that is still relevant and can help you to wrap your head around what good landing pages entail. 2008? But that was years ago! Guess what? The information still applies — so I thought I would share it again with you today. In a nutshell…

You need to have customers land on a page that caters to their
specific queries with a call to action to close the sale!

Dr. Ralph F. Wilson is one of the guys who has been online from the start that I have followed over the years. He offers down-to-earth real-world information based on the fact and reality of what you need to know and do to thrive online. My kinda guy!

Back in 2008, Dr. Wilson allowed me to offer his absolutely unique 83-point checklist to remind you of all the elements you should be considering when developing a landing page so that you can boost your conversion rate as high as possible. I’m offering this eBook again to give you a quick overview “checklist” of the things you need to consider.

WordPress Landing Page Checklist from How to Develop a Landing Page (2008) by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

I know you’ll find this comprehensive checklist extremely useful when planning your landing page development and integration. (Check out my recent article WordPress Landing Pages Made Easy about a plugin that helps you to create great landing pages too.)

At your service,

Your WordPress Consultant

WordPress Landing Page Checklist is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

For the second year in a row, the highest percentage of sales dollars (40%) was generated from visitors who arrived at a site via direct access or bookmarks. Engine Ready, an Internet marketing company, analyzed 18.7 million visits over two years to Web sites run by 27 of the company’s roughly 500 clients.

These figures once again prove out the importance of networking, relationship management and engagement with those visitors who you come in contact with!

• Organic listings – 12%
• Paid listings – 20%
• Direct Access/Bookmarks – 40%
• Other referrers – 28%

This could very likely be an indication of repeat visitors, despite the study showing that only 25% of the visitors were repeat visitors. Therefore one can surmise that the 25% repeat visitor value would have been closer to the 40% level had visitors not deleted their cookies.

Such visitors, who tend to be repeat customers, linger the longest, spend the most money, and are the most likely to “convert” to buyers, doing so on 3.3 percent of their visits. On average, their visits are worth $5.69 apiece.

Inbound links to a site from other domains are both beneficial for SEO as well as driving additional quality traffic. And it was found that visitors arriving from other domains and emails took top honors for the highest value per visitor at $7.19, beating out last studies victor, direct access/bookmark by $0.16.

“Ever since the pay per click model became a channel for marketers, there has been an ongoing debate whether an investment in search engine optimization generates a higher ROI than paying for clicks using a PPC advertising model.

On an individual basis, there’s a multitude of factors that determine how well your visitors will convert when arriving from a search engine. Looking at the big picture across our entire sample size, though, did show that visitors from PPC ads outperformed those from organic listings in every category except average number of page views per visit. This was consistent with our study results from 2007. Overall, we found that the average sales dollar value per visitor arriving from a PPC ad was $2.38, or 76% higher than that of a visitor from an organic listing.

Additionally, paid traffic converted at a 54% higher rate and experienced an average order value 10% above that of traffic from organic listings.”

What this study confirms to me is something I’ve thought myself for years. When I’m ready to buy, I don’t trust organics. I assume (right or wrong) that those paying for PPCs and sending out professional marketing e-mails are those who take their business and therefore their customers more seriously.

If your online “advertising” model is solely about fretting over the natural/organic rankings you have or don’t have — you don’t get it. You need to have a healthy mix of marketing activities to attract your target customer. And clearly once they do visit, it is your site, your service and your product quality that can only keep them coming back for more.

At your service,
Judith

The Winner Is … SEO or PPC? is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

What this survey indicates is “sticky” features that allow visitors to do something at your site works.

91% Encouraging E-mail Forwarding
80% Tell-A-Friend Boxes on Sites

I can attest to the two above which are used quite frequently on all my sites but most of all on my Email Etiquette and Business Email Etiquette sites.

69% Online Games, Quizzes and Polls

As far as polls, last I check over 56,000 folks used the polling feature on my site where they could take The Email Etiquette Pledge.

54% Cool Microsites

Have one of those as well that does well: 101 Free Email Etiquette Tips where folks can download my PDF for free — of course chock full of all the other products and services I offer.

47% Offering e-Cards
46% Video Clips
29% Audio Clips

I did the eCard thing back in the day and while folks did use them, I didn’t see any results as far as conversions or sales because I did offer this free service.

As far as video and audio — I’m convinced that video is a great way to connect for seminars and sale pitches — if that is your style. The clients I work with who use video do very well and see quantifiable results.

Source: MarketingSherpa

This is interactive technology folks — use it!

At your service,
Judith

Are You Viral? is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...