Holy shit………someone should let good people at Constant Contact know that their landing page was hacked
Look:
……oh wait, it’s supposed to look like this.
I see, your page designers forgot to take their meds before going to work on this page……I guess that would explain all the distracting information on the page.
So, if we removed 99% of the links on the page, removed the self serving copy about some recent acquisition of SquirrelNut, Nutmail, Wingnut, NutNut or what ever silly company they just bought, put up a form field capture between the user and the “Getting Started With Social Media” download, you would have a well designed landing page.
Instead some designer vomited all over the page and didn’t even bother to exchange one item of value (the download) for another, the user’s contact information. Constant Contact is practically giving away money here as the PDF download really does target the social media neophyte and answers a good number of questions. They just need to use this asset properly to build another asset……………the database!!!
It is obvious that corporate resources were devoted to creating this page. The least you could do is set it up properly so that it generates a return on investment by building up the firm’s prospect database
Again, a perfect example of a company that should know better confusing brand advertising with direct marketing.
My value added advice…………………
Practically every item on that page could be broken up into its own landing page with specific keyword and PPC ad. You should be working the hell out of the PDF.
This time……….let’s take a look at another business service…………recruiting.
Say you are looking to hire a recruiter to build your sales team. How would you do it?
Well you might do a Google search for – hire a sales recruiter.
That’s how I would do it
I localized this search to the US. In fact, let’s get more specific……..Hire a Sales Recruiter in Los Angeles
And Google says………
I cropped the image so we can focus on the PPC ads to focus on the copy that gets us to the landing pages
The first three PPC ads are absolute garbage. I need a sales recruiter in Los Angeles. One of them even asks me if I want to apply for a job.
Let’s look at the 4th ad on the page. It uses some good language. It at least attempts to understand the mindset of someone who is looking to hire another person…………how do i avoid making a mistake during the hiring process…hiring the wrong person is always a mistake.
Let’s take a look at the landing page.
Top half of the page that appears in my browser
The Good
- The user gets taken to a special page with a report that attempts to address the problem highlighted in the PPC ad. It even gives you the option to down load the report.
- The page designer installed some tracking software so page performance can be tracked.
The Bad
- There are still too many links on the page that can distract the user from reading the report on the page.
The Ugly
- I am assuming this company is looking to use the page to generate some sales leads. The problem with this page is twofold.
The request for contact information is at the bottom of a very long page (see the image)
After reading this “report” the user may be less than motivated to hand over their contact information as they have already gotten their free report.
Layout aside, this page has all the components of a proper lead generation system in place, its just a matter of putting them in the right order.
The Fix
- Move the contact information capture to the top of the page and make the reader exchange their contact information for the special report. Rework the copy on the page to explain to the user the reason they should surrender their personal info in exchange for this report;
- Remove all the extraneous links.
Thoughts?
In case you missed Part II of this series, I was dissecting a PPC ad from a company that promotes lead generation services.
so let’s see how good these companies are at generating leads.
Behind door #1 we have Five9.com with this wonderful landing page
Shall we have a look…………
So this is what you see when you land on this page on my lap top?
This doesn’t really look like its attempting to generate many leads does it?
Think about your experience as a user when you hit this page.
Now think about what the company’s goal is with this page?
I am assuming that they are attempting to sell their predictive dialer technology (ack!!! more cold calling!). But how are they engaging the reader, especially if there is no place to start collecting user information and start building a database of prospective users.
Sure, I could be interested in calculating my ROI with their technology, but once I click on the image, then I am taken to a second page to capture my demographic information. The problem with this is two fold:
1.) You are asking users to make a second click;
2.) You are manipulating the user into coughing up their info. From the link on the first page, it looks like you are going to get some basic information about ROI for the product, not being sent to an information capture page.
This page builds up the user’s anticipation that they are about to see the impact of the technology on their business and then the user is asked to input his demographic information before being taken to the demonstration.
Asking users for information in exchange for information is fine. What is important is the order in which you do things.
I am assuming that this company has done some testing to determine that they get better results by using a multipage registration process rather than just having the user register on the first page that they land on. But it makes you wonder how many useful leads this page generates for the company.
Let’s take a look at the bottom of this page.
How many links is too many?
Another issue with this landing page in general is its lack of focus. The user is given way to many links to click on the landing page (there are at least 20) that would interfere with the process of funneling the user to give up their contact information. You are practically begging your customer to start surfing around your site rather than entering the sales qualification process
Additionally, this page presents 5 related, but seperate offers to the user on the same page in attempt to see if they can be slotted in to the firm’s sales funnel.
Again…….this is just too much activity on the page. Each one of these offers should be on a seperate landing page.
Making It Better
How can this page be made better
1. Focus…….One Page One Offer. Even if you have multiple offerings that all lead to the same end game, put them on different landing pages and attempt to use different keywords. Different people buy in different ways, some may want a live example, some may want some written litterature, some may want a phone call, sorry, Free Consultation………..
2. Page Design – Get rid of all extra links. Think about what the point of this page it. It is to find someone who shows a bit of interest in what you sell. At least enough to fill in some contact information. That’s all. You don’t need random surfers.
3. Get the information capture on the first page. People have short attention spans. You need to get what you want out of them fast. Use your offering as bait for an information exchange, but do it properly. Much like in mathematics, the order of operations matter.
I’d probably expect more from a company that was attempting to sell me on their lead generating products.
