This reinforces the need for search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns so that your content can reach the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages). 

Yet, one of the biggest challenges with SEO is how often it changes. 

Thanks to constant Google algorithm updates and newly emerging search trends, SEO tactics fall in and out of favor all the time. 

If you don’t routinely optimize web content, holding onto top SERP rankings will be next to impossible.

In the current era, recent developments like the prevalence of AI chatbots, E-E-A-T, and slower indexing times are drastically changing the way SEO works – and you need to keep up with them if you want your content to continue to rank. 

However, some tried-and-true optimization tactics have yet to go out of style, like conducting targeted keyword research and creating excellent content that provides value to your audience. 

There’s a lot to know about optimizing web content, which is why we put together this comprehensive guide containing 5 steps to optimize any piece of content to perfection. 

Along the way, you’ll learn how SEO and content optimization has changed in recent years, so stay tuned to get the scoop on the latest developments. 

Why is Optimizing Web Content Necessary?

What does it mean to ‘optimize’ a blog post, video, or web page?

Optimization involves making enhancements to a piece of content with a specific goal in mind, which is usually to improve its performance on search engines like Google. 

Higher SERP rankings aren’t the only reason you may want to optimize your content, as you can also optimize for higher conversions, click-through rates, and a better overall user experience. 

It all depends on what your primary business objectives are, such as increasing revenue or improving brand awareness. 

Also, routine optimization is a necessity due to the ever-changing nature of SEO. 

Unless a piece of content is evergreen (meaning that it continues to stay fresh & relevant for readers), you’ll need to update it with new information periodically. 

Not only does this ensure that your readers always receive the most accurate, up-to-date information, it makes your content eligible to remain on Google’s SERPs. 

Since Google only wants to provide its users with the highest quality, most accurate information, its crawlers only rank content that’s relevant and recent. 

Give underperforming content a second chance

Another reason to optimize your web content is to tweak and improve an existing piece of content that isn’t as performing as well in the search results as you’d hoped. 

It takes a lot of time and money to produce high-quality content, so it’s worth doing what you can to optimize a post that doesn’t meet your expectations. 

After all, it could be something simple like an indexing error that caused your content to disappear from the SERPs. 

Once you rule out technical issues like noindex tags, indexing errors, and duplicate content – it’s time to take a cold, hard look at the content you produced. 

Ask yourself the following questions to help determine the root cause of the issue:

• Are you targeting keywords that have decent search volume and relatively low keyword difficulty scores?
• Does the piece feature a readable format with keyword-rich headings (H1, H2, H3, H4, etc.)?
• Were you able to provide unique insights about the topic derived from your own personal experience and expertise?
• Do your title tag and meta description accurately reflect the topic you explore in the content?
• Is the piece of content more than 700 words? 

If you answered no to any of these questions, then you’ve definitely got some optimization to do. 

The good news is that if you’re able to fix whatever’s holding your content back, you’ll enjoy higher SERP rankings and increased online visibility. 

How Has Content Optimization Changed in Recent Years?

In a field that’s known for constant changes, the last few years have been especially ripe with new developments affecting SEO.

AI chatbots took over the world while Google released back-to-back updates to their algorithm and Quality Rater Guidelines – just to name a few changes. 

Here’s a look at the latest SEO developments you should keep in mind when optimizing web content.

Link Spam Update 

In December 2022, Google released their latest Link Spam Update, which used a souped-up SpamBrain (their AI-based spam prevention system) to negate the effect of paid backlinks on SERP rankings. 

While paying for backlinks was always against Google’s guidelines, it was standard practice for many SEO experts – even those who favored white-hat techniques. 

The update’s effects were drastic on websites that used paid or unnatural backlinks, as many site owners reported significant ranking drops.

Going forward, website owners must focus on strictly organic link-building techniques, such as guest posting, link insertions, and relationship-building. 

E-E-A-T (Quality Rater Guidelines update)

Around the same time the Link Spam Update rolled out, Google updated its Quality Rater Guidelines. 

Most notably, they added an extra E to their famous acronym, E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness).

The additional E stands for experience, which means websites and reviews that display first-hand experience and knowledge of topics are favored by Google’s quality raters. 

To ensure your content remains at the top of the SERPs, optimize your content by including anecdotes, real stories, and first-hand accounts that reflect your knowledge on a topic. 

The AI revolution 

AI chatbots were already taking over the world at the beginning of 2023, and it’s only been gaining momentum since. 

The entire internet has long been buzzing about ChatGPT, AI image generators, and AI content creation software.

Bing famously integrated ChatGPT into its search engine, which is already changing the way users approach search engines. 

While traditional SEO still works for now, it’s bound to change quite a bit in the near future. 

In the meantime, you can use powerful AI tools to make optimizing web content a lot easier. Tools like Copymatic will enable you to automatically generate blog posts, landing pages, and even entire websites. 

Chatbots can provide quick answers to any questions you may have while creating content – saving you the need to browse multiple web pages. 

Reduced crawling and indexing 

In order to reduce their impact on the environment, Google significantly reduced the amount of crawling and indexing it does to discover new websites. 

Their thinking is that excessive crawling and indexing powered by non-renewable sources is contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. 

Not only that, but Google plans to neutralize its carbon footprint entirely by 2030, and reduced crawling/indexing is a part of that plan. 

What does this mean for SEO?

It means that crawling and indexing your new web pages will take even longer than before (it was already a lengthy process). 

While search engines like Bing and Yandex have incorporated IndexNow (an open-source protocol that enables instant indexing for participating search engines), Google has yet to implement such a solution. 

That means it’s more important than ever for site owners to publish high-quality content, seek out high-authority backlinks, and grow their social media presence to speed up the indexing process. 

Pro tip: The indexing process can be especially slow for link-building tactics like guest posting, so incorporate some link insertions into the mix. That’s because a link insertion involves adding one of your backlinks to an existing piece of content that’s already in Google’s index. 

5 Steps to Optimize Web Content 

Now that you’re up to speed on what’s new with SEO, it’s time to look at the most effective content optimization techniques to help you reach the top of the SERPs. 

Bear in mind that we’re only going to cover on-page optimizations, so if you’re interested in diagnosing and repairing technical issues, check out our in-depth technical SEO checklist instead. 

If you have a piece of content that’s underperforming due to on-page reasons (or if you’re creating a new piece from scratch), follow these 5 steps to optimize it for SEO fully. 

Step #1: Targeted keyword research 

The keywords that you target will make or break your SERP rankings, so you need to be smart about the ones you choose. 

Researching keywords is how you uncover topics relevant to your target audience, which will guide your entire content strategy. 

It’s more important than ever to find topics that are not only relevant to your audience but also cater to your expertise and first-hand experiences. 

Google’s algorithm is extremely adept at finding content that’s irrelevant or out of place, so you shouldn’t pursue a keyword simply because it has a lot of search volume. 

For example, if a website that sells car parts starts publishing trendy food recipes, it’ll stand out as irrelevant to Google. 

To find keywords to target, you can use our free keyword planner tool. 

It’ll provide essential keyword metrics like search volume, CPC, keyword difficulty, and current search trends.

Look for keywords that reflect your expertise, have high search volume, low keyword difficulty, and an upward search trend. 

Step #2: Proper keyword placement 

A mistake beginner SEOs make is to overuse their keywords, which stands out to Google as keyword spam. 

You want to use your keywords organically and in a few key locations, including:

• The title tag and meta description 
• Headings (especially H1 tag) 
• In the alt text for any images 
• Organically several times throughout the piece (including common variations) 
• In the first 100 words of the content 

If one of your blogs is underperforming on search engines, confirm that your target keyword appears in these areas. 

If they do and you still aren’t making any progress, it could be that you’re targeting the wrong keywords (in which case you’d need to refer back to step #1). 

Step #3: Use relevant and engaging visuals 

It’s been common knowledge for a while now that blogs featuring visuals perform better in the search, improve dwell time, generate more backlinks, and make posts easier to digest. 

That’s especially true if the visuals you use serve as supplementary aids to your content. 

Infographics, videos, and relevant images/illustrations are all great examples of visuals that make blogs more SEO-friendly. 

However, you should stray away from irrelevant images, even if they are visually stunning. 

Unless an image is able to add something or relate to the post’s subject matter, you shouldn’t use it. 

Also, every image that you use needs alt text (containing your target keyword) that describes what the image displays. This is helpful for users that are visually impaired, and alt text enables search engine crawler bots to know what the image shows (and how it relates to your content). 

Step #4: Use inbound and outbound links 

Your goal is to keep users engaged in your content loop for as long as possible, and the best way to do that is to interlink to related posts on your website. 

Using internal links is a great way to improve your dwell time and user experience, as you can direct readers from one post to another (or to a product/landing page) by using inbound links. 

As an added bonus, internal links help search engine crawler bots understand the structure of your website, which leads to better indexing. 

Whenever you’re creating a new post or optimizing an existing one, create a list of related content that you want to link to within it. 

Also, outbound links to authoritative sources (like research papers, government agencies, and educational institutions) will improve your SEO – so use them whenever possible. 

Step #5: Provide real value to your audience 

This last step is the most important, and it’s the least likely to go out of style. 

Above all else, you should do your very best to provide value to your target audience. 

That means publishing how-to’s and ultimate guides covering skills they want to acquire, keeping them up-to-date with the latest developments in your industry, and providing some good old-fashioned entertainment. 

As long as you do that (and ensure no technical SEO issues are holding you back), nothing can stand in your way of becoming a valued thought leader in your field. 

Concluding Thoughts: How to Optimize Web Content 

SEO has changed a lot in recent years, and it will only continue to change going forward – especially with the advent of intelligent AI chatbots. 

For now, creating as much value for your audience as you can through your content is still the way to go. 

Do you need expert help developing an airtight SEO strategy for your business?

Then don’t wait to check out HOTH X, our managed SEO services, and HOTH Web Copy, our enormously effective content creation service.

The post 5 Steps to Optimize Web Content Like an SEO Expert appeared first on The HOTH.

Without a well-designed homepage, your website will never perform as well as it should.   

The remaining article will look at what makes a great website homepage content and the best practices to ensure you take full advantage of this valuable virtual real estate. 

Ready to learn?

What Is A Website Homepage?

Think of your home page as the starting point on a potential customer‘s journey.  

When they type in your domain name, your home page is the default page that loads in their browser.   

Most homepages contain important information and facts about your business.

In fact, 64% of the website visitors want to see the company’s contact information on the homepage.

Although it’s typical to have a navigation bar to lead visitors to other pages on your website, a call to action (CTA) is also vital to success. 

Additionally, here are a few tips for improving the functionality of a killer homepage:

• Keep your website design fresh, simple, and unique
• Make it mobile-friendly
• Social media buttons for easy sharing
• Showcase your products and services
• Consider your page load speed
• Keep your homepage organized
• Content is vital to success
• Consider your color scheme
• Use relevant, targeted keywords

A well-designed homepage must hit your website visitors‘ pain points and show that you know how to help them. 

For example, 36% of customers click on logos to reach the homepage, so a well-designed website should have a clickable logo that sends users back to the homepage. 

Unless you can solve their problem, potential customers will never make a purchase. 

You solve their pain points by addressing:

• The problem or challenge your target customer is suffering from
• Asking what they need and giving it to them
• Asking questions that lead to answers
• Providing clear, simple solutions that can be digested while scrolling

What are the Benefits of Having a Homepage?

Some web experts describe your website’s homepage as the “welcome mat” of a nice home, inviting potential customers inside.  

The more inviting the mat, the more potential customers enter. 

Remember, when visitors first land on your site, they have no idea what they will find inside.  

A well-designed, bright, bold homepage with well-written web content (including testimonials) will convince them to enter because it makes a fantastic first impression.

Here are a few benefits to having a knock-out homepage:

• Online presence 
• Increased SEO efforts
• Increased credibility
• Content marketing expansion 
• Boost in advertising

Here’s the thing about most internet searchers and website visitors; they aren’t interested in what you do so much as what you can do for them. 

Putting several excellent benefits your services or products provide front-and-center is vital on your homepage.  

A short list of some of your top benefits that are easy to read, engaging, and compelling will go far in converting visitors to customers. 

What Should Your Homepage Content Contain?

Several sections are essential when crafting an engaging, inviting, and persuasive homepage. 

A digital marketing content strategy is critical for the success of any website, let alone a homepage. 

Some elements of a website’s homepage are more vital than others, but all are necessary to get the highest conversion rates, time-on-page, and CTR.  

They include:

• The Opening header
• Subheadline
• Call to Action (CTA)
• Supporting Image
• Benefits
• Social proof
• Navigation
• Content offer
• Features
• Resources
• Success Indicators such as case studies

More than anything, your homepage content makes that critical first impression on a new visitor. 

You have about 10 to 20 seconds to do this, so getting your homepage content strategy right is critical. 

If a visitor lands on your website and isn’t wowed, impressed, or intrigued by what they see, you’ve lost the race before they even fired the starting gun. 

Methods to ensure a high-quality homepage:

It’s highly unusual for a first-time visitor to a website’s home page to make a purchase. That’s why having a link to your resources is vital. 

That gives your visitors relevant information and, more importantly, improves their time on the page.. 

Here are some methods to make sure you have high-quality homepage content:

• Ensure your website can load quickly
• Use an introductory video to grab their attention
• Highlight your most engaging content to engage searchers
• Give visitors an excellent mobile experience (Google may penalize you if you don’t)
• Use a heat map tool to see exactly where searchers are looking on your website

Providing excellent resources also helps you establish credibility as an expert in your market or industry and improves your homepage user experience. 

Additionally, there’s no denying that potential customers like getting free stuff, especially when it’s something that can help them solve a problem, learn something new, or simply make them laugh. 

An e-book, white paper, how-to guide, free trial, contest, checklist, whatever. If it’s free and fits their current need, it should be on your homepage and ready to download.

How do I write my website’s homepage content?

Within moments of landing on your homepage, visitors already have a generalized first impression of your business. 

Your homepage content needs to give them a clear understanding of who you are and what you do. 

You also want to invite them to explore; if they don’t like what they see, you’ll get a high bounce rate. 

If, however, you wish to write your homepage content yourself, here are some excellent tips for doing it:

1. Star with a “Hero Message.” This bit of content is a “hook” message that gets people to pay attention. It should be short, specific, and instantly understood.
2. Write about what your potential customers want to know, learn, hear, etc. Remember, it’s not about your company; it’s about them, their wants, needs, desires, etc.,
3. Write short, concise, easy-to-digest bits of information rather than long-form info that takes too much time to digest.
4. Explain, in laymen’s terms, how you solve your customers’ problems and pain points.
5. Provide proof that what you say you can do, you can do.

Website’s Homepage Headline and Subheadline

Your homepage headline must be clear, concise, and simple. 

If a visitor needs to stop and think, your headline has failed.

For example, LifeHacker has a website headline we love; “Do Everything Better.” 

It’s short, super-easy to understand, and gets its point across instantly. 

Here are a few excellent tips to craft an excellent headline that works well:

• Make your headline unique, something that’s not been done before.
• Be very specific with the words, phrases, and terms.
• Give away something useful. People love free things. 
• Use adjectives that grab people’s attention.
• Always state the obvious. Don’t make people work to figure out what your headline is saying.
• Don’t be afraid to use emotionally-packed words.

Nearly as important as the website headline, the sub-headline should discuss a common pain point that your products or services solve. 

It should also describe how your product or service will improve a visitor’s life. 

A Primary Call to Action (CTA) is Fundamental to your Website Homepage Content

One of the primary goals of your website’s homepage is to move potential customers further down the sales funnel.    

One of the best ways to do that is with a call to action or CTA. As the name suggests, a CTA should compel a visitor to take action in a specific way. 

Ideally, a CTA  should be 4-5 words maximum, which is not a lot of word real estate. 

Some of the best homepage CTAs are used frequently, including:

• Try TheHOTH for Free
• Click to Make an Appointment
• Sign Up Today
• Download Our Free eBook
• Create Your Free Profile

Your call to action should be in a different font and color and be bold to make it stand out on your homepage. 

An Eye Catching Supporting Image Grabs Potential Customers’ Attention

Research shows that about 65% of the general population learns visually. 

That means, to retain information, 65% of people need to see it. 

It also means that a supporting image is critical on your website’s homepage. A supporting video isn’t a bad idea, either.  

Think about your supporting image as the front page of a menu at a fine dining establishment. 

When you see that picture, your mouth starts watering, and your brain starts thinking about all the yummy food you’re about to eat. 

That’s some powerful stuff, we think you’ll agree, and it’s why your homepage needs a high-quality supporting image front and center. 

Here are a few tips for picking the right images for your homepage content:

• Pick a high-quality hero image
• Keep your images relevant
• Showcase real people if you can
• Optimize for an SEO homepage design
• Choose the correct file type

Social Proof and Testimonials are Gold for a Website Homepage

Social proof is today’s “word of mouth” advertising and a necessity on every successful homepage. 

You can scream from the mountaintop how wonderful your services or products are, and some people might believe you. But, if you have several customer testimonials and include their pictures, many more people will believe what you’re saying. 

Here are a few suggestions for gathering social proof:

• Here are a few tips for getting social proof:
• Use endorsements
• Display your reviews and testimonials
• Give your customers incentives for writing reviews
• Create surveys or case studies and share the results

This last essential element for your website’s homepage is similar to social proof but even

more powerful. 

Awards, accolades, and recognition by famous people or celebrities all show web searchers that, hey, this business has it going on! 

Maido, one of the top 50 restaurants in the world, lets visitors know it right on their homepage. 

Social proof can sometimes be more powerful than testimonials, but a good mix is best.

Homepage Navigation Reduces Bounce Rate Significantly

Navigation is essential on your homepage to reduce its bounce rate, the number of people who click on your home page but never click on another page afterward. 

Like a well-drawn map, your home page should give visitors a straightforward menu they can use to go to any other page they desire. 

It should be well structured, easy to find, and even easier to use. 

Well-designed navigation will keep your bounce rate to a minimum and ensure visitors see more than just your homepage. 

Final Thoughts

Like the display window of a department store, your website homepage has a very specific purpose; draw customers inside where you can charm them with your wares and convert them into customers.

Need some expert advice? 

We got you! 

Book a call today!

The post How To Make an Unforgettable First Impression with Your Website’s Homepage Content appeared first on The HOTH.

The answer is call-to-action (CTA) buttons. These are buttons that prompt users, be they leads or customers, to take action rather than linger.

On a SaaS website, for example, an endless feature list is pointless if users can’t sign up or get a demo easily. A well-crafted CTA helps with that.

In this article, we’ve explained the 10 types of CTAs that most websites use and provided real-life examples to showcase how they’re utilized.

What is a CTA?

A call-to-action (CTA) button or link encourages users to perform desired actions on your website. This includes signing up for your newsletter, buying your products or services, and anything else that helps convert them from visitors into leads and then leads into customers.

A CTA can be as simple as a “Sign Up Here” button, a line of text offering a free demo, or a “Read more” button on content. The type of CTA you use depends on the action you want the viewer to take.

An eCommerce website, for example, wants to sell more products, so its landing page can talk about how helpful the product is or the latest sale, while the CTA can use language like “Save Money Now” and lead users to the products page.

Without a call-to-action button, users are left to their own devices after reading your landing page. Often, this leads them to click off rather than search for the sign-up, products, or services page. Consequently, conversion rates take a hit.

10 Most-Used Types Of CTAs With Examples

Brands and marketers can use multiple forms of CTAs, depending on the context and platform.

Here are the 10 main types:

#1. Lead generation

Lead generation CTAs aim to convert casual viewers or first-time readers into potential customers. These are essential for your website and a crucial avenue for lead generation.

You can use these CTAs anywhere you expect to get a high number of new visitors. For example, Sendinblue has an “Enroll” CTA button for their online courses that leads users to a detailed course syllabus breakdown and an introduction to the instructor.

(Image Source)

Other places to use this call-to-action button are in the sidebar, at the end of blog posts, atop landing pages, or on floating banners. They must be eye-catching and stand out from the rest of the text or images.

Regardless of the length of the CTA, it must tell users exactly what to expect when they click on it. In the above example, a CTA like “Get Started” or “Read More” would not have been as effective.

#2. Read more

A “Read More” call-to-action button aims to hook readers into viewing one or more pieces of content. It is most commonly used on blog home pages, along with a preview of the post. It gives users the option to read the full post or keep scrolling.

Here’s an example from The HOTH’s blog:

A “read more” CTA lets you display more pieces of content on a single page. It also enables accurate data collection since users have to click on each CTA button to view a single post.

This CTA type can also be used at the end of blog posts to lead users to the next piece and keep them on your website longer.

#3. Lead magnet CTAs

Lead-magnet-focused form submission CTAs are an effective tool to collect user information and introduce customers into the sales funnel by offering insights and research-based data in return. You’ll often see these CTAs before you can download resources from a website.

This CTA type uses lead magnets, such as eBooks, guides, case studies, or reports to gather customer information. Viewers are likely to see this as a fair exchange since they get valuable content in return.

Use actionable CTAs that showcase the content’s value rather than a generic ‘Submit” button. You can take it a step further and include an option to sign up for product updates and the company newsletter. Here’s an example from Kinsta:

(Image Source)

Forms like this can also act as a lead qualification tool. It shows that the reader is actually interested in a solution to a specific problem. Some forms are detailed and ask for the user’s profession and company name to immediately qualify them as a lead.

If a marketing manager from a major enterprise fills out a form, you can send them more info on your marketing tool. Similarly, if a student submits the same form, they aren’t a high-priority lead and don’t need to be added to the sales funnel. You can send them emails about any marketing courses you’re offering instead.

#4. Social sharing buttons

Encourage users to share your content via simple social media CTA buttons at the end of your blog posts or landing pages.

These buttons help users easily engage with your brand. All they have to do is click on a button to share the post with their peers or friends.

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Your brand benefits from social sharing since many people trust the opinions of influencers or regular professionals in their industry. So, if user A liked and shared your blog post, there’s a higher chance that one of their followers will read it and engage with your brand.

You can also display social sharing icons in the sidebar and include a counter showcasing the number of shares on each platform. This acts as social proof of how helpful the content is.

#5. Newsletter subscription

Email newsletters are a great way for brands to build relationships with their customer base by offering information, discounts, and insights. In addition, marketers can use them to capture email leads and guide users into a drip campaign.

Sure, this is a form of lead magnet, but it can be a harder sell to entice potential leads with. Most people probably already have multiple newsletters in their inbox, and they’re not exactly chomping at the bit to add another one.

So a plain “subscribe” button won’t do the trick here. Instead, your CTA should include 1 or 2 lines explaining why they should sign up — what’s in it for them. Here’s how Glossier does it:

(Image Source)

You can use email subscription CTAs on landing pages, sidebars, product pages, and at the bottom of your website. Make sure it’s easy to see and even easier to sign up.

#6. Event registration

Promote online and offline events on your website to build awareness, encourage sign-ups and gather contact information.

Event promotion or registration CTAs can be added to landing pages, like the one from Salesforce below, or in sidebars and next to blog posts.

(Image Source)

You can also use this CTA on the login page to boost ticket sales and place it all over your website to inform leads or casual readers about it.

The placement and text of your CTA also depend on the event and who it is meant for. For example, a generic webinar on marketing best practices in 2022 could interest most of your website visitors (if your blog is about marketing, that is), so it makes sense to include it throughout your website.

On the other hand, a webinar on a highly-specific topic within marketing campaigns, such as technical SEO, is only interesting to some visitors. It’s better to promote these events within blog posts related to the topic of SEO, so you can reach potential prospects who care.

#7. Lead nurturing

Once you’ve captured a lead, you need to nurture them until they complete a purchase and become a paying customer. You can do this using CTAs within your existing communication channels — emails are the most popular choice.

Lead nurturing moves a prospect from the awareness stage in the buyer lifecycle to the consideration stage and maybe even entices them to complete the purchase.

Take this offer from Calm, for example. Anyone who has signed up for the free version of the app is a prospect for their paid plans. The app uses the “40% off” CTA in its emails to nurture leads, drive click-throughs, and boost conversions.

(Image Source)

The best lead nurturing CTAs for you depend largely on the context and your goals. You can, for example, encourage users to sign up for a more in-depth course, showcase product features, or offer exclusive discounts to drive sales.

#8. Free trial/demo

One of the most common CTAs that most people have seen is the “Start free” or “Get a demo” CTA. This is a risk-free CTA, where users explore your product’s benefits and use cases without any financial commitment or credit card details.

This CTA type is built to convince users to get your product and see how useful it really is. Once a lead has the free version, you can upsell the paid plan by showcasing how it can further improve their work processes.

Most SaaS companies use this CTA. Here’s an example from HubSpot:

(Image Source)

Of course, the free trial or demo should be mind-blowing enough to make users realize they need your tool to be more proactive or efficient. Once they’ve realized this, a purchase is almost guaranteed.

#9. Related content

Marketers know that the longer a visitor stays on your site, the higher the chances are of them converting. When a user goes from one blog post to another and another, they’ll learn more about your product, learn about the value it offers, see your values as a company, and make the leap to purchase.

This is why related content CTAs are essential. They lead customers down a rabbit hole of different types of content designed to keep them on your website and push them further down the funnel.

Related content CTAs can be included within the content, such as between different sections of a blog post, or in the sidebar, via a simple link.

Kinsta improves on a generic related content CTA by integrating it with a comparison tool. This is excellent for both related reading and to help new visitors see the value of Kinsta’s products.

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Every blog post has this CTA in its sidebar. When users select a Kinsta competitor and click on “Compare,” they’re led to another blog post that compares the two platforms and explains why Kinsta is better.

This keeps readers on the site for long periods, but it also highlights how great the platform is and tells users why they should trust Kinsta instead of its competitors.

The only issue here is that it also shows up for blog posts that are completely unrelated to WordPress hosting. The more unique and relevant your CTAs (and related copy) are, the more it draws users in.

#10. Contact sales

You need a sales-focused page and CTA to close the deal at the end of your lead-generation and lead-nurturing efforts. This CTA will take customers directly to the “Contact Sales” page so they make the purchase.

But it’s not enough to write a basic CTA like “contact our sales team today.” You have to use the copy around the CTA to create urgency, show the impact or benefits of your product, and build FOMO (fear of missing out). It should make the customer want to buy the product immediately.

monday.com does this well:

(Image Source)

Notice how the copy next to the form highlights social proof of how great their software is? The message here is that it’s helped thousands of companies worldwide, and it can help you too, so why wait? Contact their sales team now.

Drive More Sales With Solid CTAs

CTAs are an essential marketing tool that drives conversions by leading users further down the sales funnel. A well-crafted CTA speeds up the journey from the home page to checkout by eliminating doubt and showing users exactly where to go.

The copy surrounding your CTA is equally important, and the copywriting experts at The HOTH can help you develop both without breaking a sweat. Give us a call today to get started!

The post The 10 Types of CTAs That Every Marketer Must Master appeared first on The HOTH.

But, unfortunately, that’s not what you’re going to get. Sorry.

To be clear: those kinds of delicious cookies aren’t going anywhere.

What we’re talking about is those little pieces of data you’re periodically told to clear by your company’s IT guy. 

Every time you visit a website a small piece of text data is saved on your computer. 

Cookies on your browser help load pages easier when you come back. They can also be used by advertisers to see what sites you’re visiting so they can target you with products or services.

If you put all of the billions and billions of cookies together you have what we call 3rd Party Data. Marketers debate the reliability of 3rd Party Data, and for users, it can slow down their computers.

In a worst-case scenario, their data can be sold to companies without their knowledge.

Google announced in January 2020 that it was getting rid of cookies on the Chrome browser. 

This may not seem like a big deal but Chrome accounts for 63% of browsers used all over the world. Scrapping cookies, therefore, would significantly impact how digital advertisers reach customers.

Marketers need to be ready for this change (slated targeted for 2023). Keep reading this blog to learn more about the switch and what you can do to market in a cookie-less world.

What’s Behind Google’s Cookie Removal? 

Google has been working on removing cookies for some time. User privacy has been its main objection to 3rd Party Data.

They started with the Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), an innovative technique for users to be sorted into cohorts based on their browsing activity (searches for local news, fashion, sports, cooking, DIY, etc.). 

Thousands of people would make up each cohort and that’s how advertisers would be able to find specific audiences.

At the beginning of 2022, Google announced it was replacing FLoC with a new Privacy Sandbox called Topics.

“Chrome has incorporated feedback from the industry to improve upon the initial FLoC proposal, and we found that we can make interest-based advertising more private with our new proposal, Topics,” read a Google announcement from February 2022.

Besides saving data on user devices and deleting it every three weeks, the benefits of Topics include:

• Reducing the risk of malicious fingerprinting
• Making advertising more relevant and transparent 
• Giving users more power to avoid sensitive topics

Keep reading the next section to understand how Topics will appear for users. 

What To Expect From Topics

Vinay Goel, product director of Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox, described in a blog how it is “one of the most ambitious, important efforts we’ve ever undertaken” 

Of course, digital advertisers aren’t happy. They claim that Google is attempting to reframe the industry for its benefit. 

And here’s how it works. 

In Chrome, Topics will note the subject matter of every site you visit. There are over 350 different topics.

These topics will determine what ads you see online and advertisers won’t need to know who you are. Users also can remove any topics they no longer want to be included in their browser.

Here’s an example from Goel’s blog:

So far the company has made it clear that they’re in the development stages of Topics and they are welcoming feedback from the internet ecosystem. 

Unless something changes this will be Chrome’s new system in 2023. 

Once this new system is up and running, marketers won’t have the same access to remarketing lists to target users who perused your content but never converted. 

They will also have to revise their campaigns to be broader. 

Now let’s dive into how you can continue running effective digital advertising campaigns in this new environment. 

How Can We Keep Winning With No Cookies

The Topics program is bad news for many digital advertisers but it’s not the end of the world. With the right campaign and strategy, you can still win. And here’s how! 

Collect 1st Party Data 

If 3rd Party Data is bad, according to Google, then you’ll have to start collecting 1st Party Data instead.

So, what’s the difference between these types of data? And which one is better?

1st Party Data is more reliable and effective because it’s information you collect directly from your customers. 

What’s great about 1st Party Data is that your customers choose to opt-in when they submit it versus having it stored as a cookie and taken secretly. 

Dealing with 1st Party Data is just good business practice. This data comes from developed relationships you have with customers.

You can ask to collect their information in emails, as part of loyalty programs, or by checking their purchase or support history.  

Start Remarketing With Email Lists

Okay, so it’s disappointing you’ll no longer be able to remarket to potential customers using cookie lists, but you have other options at your disposal. 

Using email lists will probably produce better results because they’ll include past customers or people who are already interested in your company. 

That means you aren’t hitting them cold. 

The key to doing these types of campaigns is collecting the right customer information from the start. 

How much do they spend? What pages do they look at the most? What items have they purchased in the past? Where have they clicked in your past emails?

Then, you can segment your large email list into smaller ones based on interests or behaviors (sounds familiar, right?). 

You can create different emails for each segment and schedule them as often as you want to remarket. Check out this Google support page to get started with creating a customer list for ads.

Email customers bring in 11% more revenue than others!

Don’t Buy Lists

Purchasing your email list is never a good idea. It wasn’t a good idea in the past and it’s still not a good idea today. 

Some marketers buy bulk lists of 50,000+ people. Sellers claim that these lists include users with a specific attribute (the one a marketer is seeking) but it’s usually hard to tell. 

Besides coming off as annoying or spammy, many email systems will penalize you for sending to purchased lists. 

You also haven’t developed a relationship with these people yet so it’s highly unlikely they’ll suddenly decide to buy your products or services based on one random email.

And legally, you may be violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This law out of the EU is strict about “opt-in” rules. Purchased lists won’t be GDPR compliant. 

Develop your email list instead. Later, you can upload it to Google Ads to better target customers. The same thing can be done in your Facebook Ads Manager. 

Set Up Some Pop-Ups

Does your website use pop-ups? 

They can be irritating but if set up correctly a pop-up can collect key data without being intrusive. 

The big question is: how can you optimize pop-ups for success? 

First of all, pop-ups are never set-it-and-forget-it. If visitors get used to seeing the same pop-up in the same location every time, they’ll simply get in the habit of clicking the “X” to close it. 

Be thoughtful about the design of your pop-up. Keep it simple and make sure it represents your brand. Most importantly, make it easy for the visitor to close the pop-up if they aren’t interested. 

Here are two examples we use here at The HOTH:

The pop-up above is a simple red banner across the top of the page with a link to schedule a consultation. 

In other places, we offer visitors the opportunity to download valuable SEO resources by entering their email addresses. Check out that example below.

That takes us to the second consideration. Make your pop-ups valuable by offering something your visitors want, whether it’s a free consultation or a how-to guide. 

Lastly, research has shown that you should give visitors at least 30 seconds on a page before a pop-up appears. 

Create Lead Forms

When it comes to digital marketing, conversions are your end game. You need to decide what type of conversion is most valuable to you. 

Do you want people to buy your products or book your services? Do you want them to call and schedule an appointment? Or do you want them to download your app?

Once you’ve identified the right conversion for your business goal, create “lead form” landing pages. 

Here’s an example:

Rather than force a sale on the spot, this landing page collects contact information and offers a cleaning voucher for a later date.

Our PPC team helps clients to manage their Google Ads and optimize landing pages for more conversions. 

Any information you collect in a lead form can help you to better market customers. 

You Don’t Need Cookies To Be An Effective Marketer

We hope you’ve learned a lot about marketing in a cookie-less world. At the end of the day, you don’t need cookies to connect with your target audience. 

There are other ways to collect reliable customer information (with their consent) and use it to design effective ads that reach the right people. 

Honestly, using the strategies we discussed above will bring you better results. Cookies aren’t as reliable as they sound. 

Do you need help figuring out what’s next for your digital marketing? 

All you have to do is schedule a consultation with us to discuss your goals. We can help you to implement new strategies and grow your business.

Book a call today to get started!

The post How Will Digital Marketing Change Without Browser Cookies? appeared first on The HOTH.

Or maybe you’re frustrated that your old lead nurturing tactics don’t seem to hold up in 2022 and want to update ASAP… Wherever you’re at with your marketing strategy, we’ve got the cheat sheet for a fool-proof lead nurturing campaign.

Algorithms are constantly changing. In fact, experts estimate that Google alone updates its algorithms 500 to 600 times every year. 

What’s more, people are constantly changing too, and the channels that they paid attention to last year may seem boring today. 

So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to know that the best lead nurturing strategy in 2022 isn’t the same as the best strategy in 2021. Staying on top of your leads means staying up to date with the most current lead nurturing tactics and trends. And lucky for you, this guide breaks it down into digestible and actionable steps.

Here’s what to expect:

• What is lead nurturing?
• The benefits of a good lead nurturing strategy
• Why content marketing is the ultimate way to nurture leads
• 7 steps to a successful lead nurturing campaign
• Our top 10 lead nurturing tactics

What is lead nurturing?

In its most basic sense:

Lead nurturing is the process of building relationships with your customers and adding value to your product, with the aim to increase the likelihood of a purchase. 

But for further context, think of lead nurturing campaigns as breadcrumbs leading towards a purchase. Each breadcrumb serves to keep the lead interested, build trust and authority, and assure potential customers that you can solve their problem. This can take the form of several channels working together, with email, pop-up forms, and calls-to-action that are all presented to the customer at just the right time. 

Think back to the fact we mentioned at the start of the article.

“Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads”.

When your marketing efforts generate a lead, it doesn’t mean that that lead is ready to click the checkout button and convert into a sale. Prospective buyers have questions, and lead nurturing is your opportunity to answer them and edge that lead through the buyer’s journey towards a decision. 

The benefits of a good lead nurturing strategy

Before you start shaping your lead nurturing campaign, it’s important to bear in mind the potential benefits that could be waiting for you on the other side.

A well-executed lead nurturing strategy can expect to benefit from:

• Leads that are 50% more sales-ready at a 33% lower cost.
• A 47% higher average order value.
• A 60 to 70% chance of converting repeat customers.

On top of that, it helps to further establish your brand’s authority in your industry. Consistently pushing out valuable content positions you as a thought leader, and consequently someone that customers are more likely to trust to solve their problem. 

When a customer sees you as an authority in your industry, you’re more likely to be at the top of mind for opinions and recommendations.

And with this study from Google finding that consumers are doing more research before purchases, using your marketing campaigns to position yourself as a brand authority will prevent you losing out to a competitor.

Oh, and there’s the small fact that only 35% of B2B marketers are currently implementing a lead nurturing strategy – giving you an immediate advantage.

Why content marketing is the ultimate way to nurture leads

A significant part of nurturing leads is assuring them that you have the solution they need to successfully achieve their goals. And when it comes to building trust and authority, there’s no better solution than content marketing.

Content creation places your brand in front of potential customers in a way that doesn’t feel forced. It’s not pushing a hard sale for your products and services, it’s providing them with genuinely valuable and useful information for free. The trust this instills in your authority makes conversion much easier down the line. 

Furthermore, content also promotes lasting relationships based on meaningful communications, which can prove more valuable in the long term than the immediate one-time sales from traditional ads. 

Content marketing, in many of its forms, comes into play at each and every part of a good lead nurturing campaign’s sale’s funnel. Keep reading to find out how to further incorporate content marketing and optimize your lead nurturing strategy for success.

7 steps to a successful lead nurturing campaign

Now that we’re up to speed on why a lead nurturing strategy should be a key factor in your digital marketing efforts, you’re probably wondering how to get started. 

Lead nurturing is a lengthy process that requires consistent effort. However, with these steps we hope to make building a successful lead nurturing campaign as comprehensible and attainable as possible.

1. Use multiple channels (including social media and email marketing)

A core pillar of lead nurturing strategies is to make sure you place the right content and CTAs in front of your prospective customers at exactly the right times.

In the past, lead nurturing campaigns have relied almost exclusively on an email drip campaign alone. But today, with spam filters, changing data protection laws, and a general disinterest for blatant sales emails, it’s just getting harder and harder to nurture your leads via a few emails.

Not only does this mean you have to get smarter with your email marketing (stay tuned for more tips on this later in the article!), but also taking your lead nurturing campaign to multiple channels. When you are pushing out tailored digital marketing materials across email, social media (from TikTok to LinkedIn), and even SMS, there’s more chance that you will catch the attention of your audience – while strengthening brand awareness and authority in the process. 

2. Get the help of marketing automation

Lead nurturing can be both repetitive and overwhelming.

First, you have to send out emails, social media posts, and website actions that consistently nudge your leads through the warmer and warmer ends of the buyer’s journey.

Second, you have to organize the campaigns to work together in synergy, appearing to the prospect at just the right time.

Luckily, this makes lead nurturing campaigns the perfect candidate for marketing automation. 

Marketing automation takes into account every aspect of a buyer’s persona, including what they interact with. It then compiles this data for every one of your individual leads to know exactly the kind of solutions and media that specific lead will react best to. 

In short, marketing automation understands your leads more than you will ever have the time to – so it makes sense to include it in your lead nurturing strategy from day one.

3. Follow up with your leads immediately

It may sound obvious, but not enough companies pay attention to it…

The quicker you follow up with your leads, the hotter they are. 

This tactic borrowed from sales reps can be suitable for both B2C and B2B leads, depending on the nature of your business. 

If you’re looking for an easy way to sweep up the low-hanging sales-ready leads before assessing the remaining leads that need to be nurtured with a targeted campaign, don’t underestimate the power of a timely follow-up email or phone call. 

Unlike cold outreach, quick follow-ups are more likely to catch the prospect at a time where they are considering investing in a product or service like yours. 

4. Get personal by segmenting your email list

Earlier we defined lead nurturing as relationship building, and how can you expect to grow a relationship without making personal connections?

Segmenting your email list is a key step towards sending your leads hyper-personalized emails that help them feel heard and understood. 

One popular method for segmenting an email list is to create lists of leads based on the products they were browsing when they signed up for your emails. This way, you know that you are sending them further information, deals, and CTAs based on products they are actually interested in. 

5. Use lead scoring

If you’re new to the concept of lead scoring, think of it as a way to prioritize your prospects, identifying the quality leads so that you waste less time and resources. 

Lead scoring ranks all of your leads based on how valuable they may be to your business, usually based on their browsing behavior, interactions with social media, and conversions. The lead score can then be interpreted to let you know which leads are ready for a prompt sales follow-up, and which need to be nurtured for longer.

6. Retargeting

A Retargeting strategy can often play a large part in a marketing teams’ lead generation budget, mostly due to its substantial use of paid ads. 

Retargeting is when a customer leaves your website, and is then shown an advertisement for your site on another website or on social media. It serves to remind the prospect of the products they were looking at, and hopefully nudge them back to your site and towards a decision.

7. Consider the buyer’s journey

When you consider the traditional sales funnel, marketing leads usually are positioned at the top of the sales funnel and the sales leads appear further down.

Digital marketing often segregates marketing from sales, however aligning the two in the buyer’s journey is a necessary part of both keeping a lead warm and ensuring it is sale-ready.

In terms of your workflow, this may mean identifying the key moments in the buyer’s journey where the lead changes hands between the marketing team and the sales team. Then setting shared goals and expectations across both teams.

Our top lead nurturing tactics

Now that we’ve covered the steps involved in establishing a successful lead nurturing campaign, it’s only right that we include some helpful tips that will help you truly excel in your nurturing efforts. 

Personalize emails, ads, and social media

When it comes to inbound marketing, personalization is a vastly valuable tool. When you speak directly to a prospective customer, addressing details like their name, their interests, and location, it makes them feel more like a person and less like a number. In fact, recent data has shown that email campaigns with a personalized subject line have an increased your open rate of 50%

You can do this in your email communications, whether that be in your newsletters, announcements, or follow-up emails.

And you can also add personal touches via your targeted messages on social media, retargeted ads, and strategic content on your website. All of which helps to build trust with prospects and set you apart from competitors.

Craft valuable content

Just as personalized communications help to build trust between you and your prospects, the more finely-tuned your content is to individual customers and their needs – the more you’ll see your sales rate increase.

You can do this by using data gathered through your marketing automation, segmented email list, or simply buyer personas. Crafting relevant content designed around their pain points, burning questions, needs, and demands. You can also target certain demographics on your email list with a specific tone of voice and length of content that best suits them.

Provide tactical freebies

No, we don’t mean giving away your product for free! But, it’s important to note that lead nurturing can be a long process that requires patience and endurance, and providing prospective customers with a little bit of value for free can result in a big pay off. 

A freebie like an eBook, video content, infographics, consultations, or research can all go some way to help your customer achieve their desired goal. Consequently, customers are aware that you do in fact have the answer to their problems, and further value is added to your products. Furthermore, the fact that you are willing to give away some of your valuable expertise for free only further solidifies their trust in your authority. 

Know where to put your calls-to-action

In any piece of content, whether that be on your website, webinars, a social media post, or in an email, calls-to-action serve to catch your customer’s attention with something you offer that they might be looking for. So, make sure you’re not leaving them out of your lead nurturing campaigns!

Calls-to-action should appear throughout your blog posts, social media posts, videos, captions and stories, demos, landing pages, emails – or just anywhere that you are touching base with a customer!

Use surveys to pre-qualify leads

Surveys can make for a useful tactic for new leads at the start of the buyer’s journey, helping you to customize lead nurturing and personalize communications. Just make sure that you only approach the prospect with relevant questions that allude to value rather than a hard pitch of your product. Then be certain that your follow-up actions fully reflect their answers.

This also means knowing what to do with the leads that come your way – based on their survey answers. For instance, if a lead lands on your website organically and answers the survey to say they are visiting “for research”, you should know that it is not an appropriate time to invite them to a product demo. Instead, consider inviting them to join your mailing list to get notified about future announcements and offers. 

In summary

When it comes to the lead nurturing process, the main thing to remember is that no one lead is the same. Every human has different needs, interests, browsing preferences, and behaviors. And as a consequence, every lead comes with a different requirement and budget in order to convert it into paying customers.

In 2022, lead nurturing is a multi-levelled process that requires an omnichannel presence. Your content marketing efforts need to meet the prospect at every step of their buying journey, and find them at every platform that they frequently check. Which is why marketing automation has become such a popular and effective solution for the sales cycle, with its deep understanding of personas, data, and characteristics.

Summary of effective lead nurturing tactics

To wrap up, let’s recap the main points presented in this article.

• Multi-channel targeting is essential.

It’s getting harder to convert leads by email marketing alone. Strive to meet customers in other areas of the internet that they like to browse and interact.

• Marketing automation understands your leads more than you have time to.

No team of marketers or salespeople have the time to pin down a persona for every lead on your list – but the AI involved in marketing automation does!

• Personalize as much of your content and communications as possible.

Personalization has long been a buzzword for nurturing emails, but it can extend as far as social media, retargeted ads, and strategic website content.

• Use lead scoring to identify qualified leads and structure your workflow.

Lead scoring helps you identify the leads that are ready for a follow-up and those that will require a targeted nurturing campaign.

• Understand that lead nurturing requires you to align sales and marketing in the buyer’s journey.

Despite marketing and sales having different approaches to converting and making sales, they are both required to work in synergy throughout a successful lead nurturing process.

Interested in learning more about lead nurturing, or driving in new traffic to get some leads to nurture? Give us a call. We’re here to help. 

The post Lead Nurturing 101: How To Nurture Leads appeared first on The HOTH.

Maybe you don’t have a sales page on your website. Or maybe your sales page needs some work. An incomplete or non-existent sales page is going to hurt your sales. Period.

Websites that neglect to write strong sales pages for their products or services leave customers confused, wanting more, or unsure of what to do next.

I’m going to give you the full breakdown of how to create a killer sales page that’s designed to convert customers, drive sales, and improve the user-experience of your website. It’s a win-win-WIN.

Let’s get to it!

What Is a Sales Page (And Why Should You Have One)?

A sales page is an individual page on your website for each product or service your business offers.

The point of this page is to connect with a potential customer, address everything they would want to know about the product or service you offer, remove any doubts they may have, and guide them to a sale.

A sales page has the potential to dramatically increase your conversions and rankings, but if it’s not done effectively it could hurt your business. Here are the most common mistakes I see with sales pages:

1. There is no designated page on the website that discusses the service or product
2. All of the services or products have been lumped together onto one page
3. They’ve tried to optimize the sales page for all of the keywords related to the products/services which causes the page to cannibalize itself

If done right, here’s how a killer sales page will help you.

Improved SEO

If you create an individual sales page for each product or service you offer, it will increase your ranking ability.

When you have an individual page for each service, Google will be able to index and rank each page when a customer searches for that service.

Google rankings have a direct impact on your page visits. So the higher you rank, the more visitors you’ll get to your website.

Customer Satisfaction

An individual page for your service or product will also improve the user’s experience on your website.

A page for each service makes it easier to navigate your website. Users like information right at their fingertips, so if anything is difficult to find or confusing to operate they’ll jump right off the page.

If you make it simple and easy, they’ll stay on the page longer–giving you a better chance of achieving a sale.

Now that you know why it’s useful, let’s get into how to create one.

Sales Page Template

A killer sales page highlights the following sections:

1. A Headline
2. An Overview
3. Benefits/Features
4. How it Works
5. Testimonials
6. Pricing
7. A Guarantee
8. CTA (Call to Action)

That said, each product or service can vary significantly, so some sections may not be applicable to you. It is up to you to determine which of these sections you’ll need for your sales page.

Let’s break these sections down step-by-step.

1. Grab Attention & Make An Impression With A Bold Headline

It’s not enough to get a customer to land on your website. The biggest challenge you’ll face is getting them to stay there (and better yet, buy your product or service).

The problem is that the average person spends around 10 seconds on a web page. Those first 10 seconds are meant to assess the page’s validity and usefulness to them. Users are hardwired to bounce from web page to web page because they know most web pages are useless.

If you don’t grab the attention of your customer within the first 10 seconds, they will be long gone before you can say the words “20% OFF!”

That’s where a powerful headline comes in.

Hook Them in With a Catchy Headline

Your headline should be a brief statement of the service or product you offer, and should be catchy enough to grab the interest of the customer.

If a website says “Dog Boarding in St. Pete, FL” and another says “The Most Trusted Dog Boarding Facility in St. Pete FL” which one is the customer more likely to click on? Probably the second one.

If you are creating a local service page, be sure to include the city or region in your headline as well.

Finally, make sure your headline contains your targeted keyword and is formatted with the <h1> tag.

Include a Subhead

Now you’ll need to expand on your headline and answer the question “What benefit will my customer receive?”

Customers are looking for solutions to their problems. If your customer doesn’t know how you’re going to help them right from the beginning, you’ll lose their business.

Keep your subhead short, sweet, and to the point. No more than two sentences. And then format it with the <p> tag.

2. Provide Them With a Quick Overview

When people land on a web page, they are looking to access information quickly and easily. Make sure your page is set up to help someone skim for information.

Your page will need an overview after the headline. This gives the customer a general idea of what they can expect from the page and whether or not it will be useful to them.

Create a Section Headline for the Overview

This should be a compelling headline that encompasses the main problem or solution.

If my page headline is “The Most Trusted Dog Boarding Facility in St. Pete FL” then my Overview Headline might be “Leave Your Dog With People You Can Trust”.

What’s my problem? I don’t want to leave my dog with some sketchy stranger (a valid concern).

What’s the solution? I need to choose a dog-boarding facility with trusted professionals.

Your section headline should use an <h2> tag.

Briefly Describe the Problem and the Solution

Now you need to identify the problem and offer a solution to introduce your product or service.

If my headline is “Leave Your Dog With People You Can Trust” my description might sound something like this:

Address the problem. Acknowledge the solution. Offer the service to help.

Finish Strong With a CTA

Don’t know what a CTA is? Pay attention, because you’re going to need this.

A CTA is a Call to Action. It gets the customer to do something. Do you want your customer to call you? To fill out an online form? To book an appointment?

Give them the tool to do it!

If a customer has to spend more than a couple of seconds combing through your website to find the right link, you’ll risk losing them to a competitor.

People want quick access to what they need. So make their life as easy as possible to keep them on the page.

End your Overview with a CTA like this:

[Call Us Today: 888-988-8909]

-or-

[Schedule a Free Consultation Now]

And then link your CTA accordingly.

3. Let Them Know Why Your Product or Service Is The Best

Odds are you’ve got a lot of competitors out there, and your customer will undoubtedly be weighing their options.

Why should they choose your service/product over the X amount of options out there?

You need to highlight the reasons your service is THE BEST hands down. How do you do that? By spotlighting the benefits or features of your service.

Add a Compelling Benefit or Feature Headline

Don’t get lazy here. This is your selling point. If the customer sees a section that just says “Benefits” they’ll likely keep scrolling.

Be specific and make it POP!

Try something like:

• “Fast and Reliable Service”
• “Data-Driven Strategy”

The customer should read the headline and instantly want to know more.

Don’t forget to format your headline with an <h2> tag.

Highlight the Feature or Benefit With a Quick Description

One of the biggest mistakes you can make here is drone on and on and on about why your product or service is soooo great.

Nobody is going to read a huge wall of text. It’s an eye-sore. And as previously mentioned, no one wants their time wasted.

Your description should get straight to the point about why you’re their best option.

Keep your sentences short and straightforward and add bullet points when you can. This should be as easy to read as possible.

Here’s an example:

See what I mean? Quick. Easy to read. Attention to the highlights. Done.

4. Walk Them Through Your Process

Now that the customer knows what they’re buying, you’ll want to show them the process.

If they don’t know where to start or what to expect, they might jump to a different site. So break down the process and make it fool-proof.

Create a Headline for Your Process

This Headline doesn’t need to be complicated. You can use “Our Process” or “How it Works” to start it off.

You want the customer to know exactly what this section is about.

This will use the <h2> tag.

Breakdown Your Process Steps

The worst thing you can do here is confuse or overwhelm your customer. You want them to feel like this process is going to be a walk in the park!

If your process shows a ton of complicated steps, they’re going to run in the other direction to find someone who makes it easy.

Use the <h3> tag to format your process steps, and then break down the step in a sentence or two.

It’s easier than it seems. Here’s a visual:

Sounds easy, right? Now the customer feels good getting started.

5. Give The Buyer Confidence With Social Proof

The customer will be looking for proof that they can trust YOU, so now’s your chance to convince them with some testimonials.

If you have any positive feedback from previous customers, show it off. If you don’t, you can include a snippet about your business that will help establish trust.

You want them to think, “If other people like it, I probably will too!”

Start With a Trust-Building Headline

Yeah, you could say “Customer Testimonials” but where’s the fun in that? Your headline has just as much potential to build trust as the actual proof does.

Kick it up a notch with “We Are Your Best Choice for Your Pet.”

And then add that <h2> tag.

Show off a Little

Now you can share your testimonials. If you have a lot–kudos to you–try to narrow it down to your top two or three.

A good rule of thumb is to choose testimonials that highlight the benefits or features you talked about earlier on in the page.

Remember to get the point across quickly and efficiently. Too much text and the customer will stop reading.

6. Clearly Address Pricing

If the customer has made it this far into your sales page, they’re going to be wondering about the cost.

If you don’t address the pricing upfront, or if you tiptoe around it because you’re worried about spooking the customer, you might lose the customer.

Instead, build trust with them by staying honest and direct with the pricing section.

Add a Pricing Headline

Now is not the time to get fancy. Call the pricing section what it is. “Pricing” “Packages and Pricing” or another headline that clearly introduces the pricing.

You can even pose the exact question the customer will ask, like “How Much Does It Cost To XYZ?”

Format it with the <h2> tag and you’re set.

Give a Price Breakdown

Clearly show the pricing for the service or product, or address how the pricing is calculated and where to find it.

If the pricing requires a quote or contact to the business–explain it while being as straightforward as possible.

Here’s an example:

Simple, yet informative.

7. Risk-Reversal With A Guarantee

If your company has a Guarantee, this is a great way to start wrapping up your page.

If the customer has doubts, a guarantee will help put their mind at ease. The fewer the doubts the customer has, the easier it will be to secure their business.

A Guarantee should look like this:

If you do not have a guarantee, go ahead and skip this part (or consider creating one!).

8. Finish Off Strong With A Final CTA

Wrap your page up with a killer CTA. This is the final move to lock in your customer.

Create Your Final Headline

This is the last thing the customer sees. Finish it off with a powerful headline that compels the customer to do something.

Be sure to format it with the <h2> tag.

Sum It Up

In one to two sentences, sum up your page and give them the next step to take action.

Your final CTA can look like this:

And you’re done!

Conclusion

Our sales page guide is one of many you’ll find online–but we can assure you that this template will boost sales and convince customers to buy your service or product.

If you want help creating a killer sales page for your website, you’re going to love our HOTH Web Copy product.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. We love hearing from you!

The post The Anatomy of a Killer Sales Page: Boost Traffic & Conversions! appeared first on The HOTH.

Every business goes through an ebb and flow throughout the year. But, if your sales continue to drop it may be time to examine your product pages.

The HOTH PPC and HOTH Web Copy departments teamed up and produced this blog to list the defining elements of a high-converting product page. It’s all about striking a fine balance between your paid ads, page layout, and web copy.

Ready to get started? Keep reading below and learn how to get your sales flowing again.

What Makes Product Pages Effective?

The key elements of an effective product page include product titles, media, product descriptions, and social proof. Let’s check out how each of these elements should appear on your site.

Product Titles

When it comes to product titles you want to make sure they’re unique and that your whole store has a naming scheme. Inside the naming scheme, you can include the brand, size, color, and major features of the product that someone may search for.

Luxyhair is one of our favorite examples of a store that has excellent product titles:

Media

What’s the secret to driving potential customers to your product pages from Google Shopping, Free Listings, or your homepage? You need to use “Shop Now” imagery that catches the eye.

When building out your store use the “Amazon Rule of Thumb.” This guideline states you should add high-quality images to a white background. Even better, include the product being used or worn, sizing guides, and even a video.

A great example of following this guideline is how Master Dynamic shows their headphones being used on a real person.

Product Descriptions

Once you have a potential customer’s attention, you need to provide product descriptions that will tip the scale towards a purchase.

Here are the necessary written sections for a killer product description:

1. Product Title: This section must be catchy/clickable and contain major features of the product someone would search for
2. Introduction: This is where you grab the reader’s attention, introduce the product and the main benefit in the first line. Then, explain how the product works, or why it uniquely provides that benefit
3. Features: In this section, list out the main features of the product in bullet points or sentences that flow. Consider this the “highlights” of the product that a potential customer would definitely need/want to know
4. (Optional) Additional Sections: Consider including size, fit, materials, specifications, and other product details. Include anything that could potentially help the customer gauge whether the product fits their needs
5. (Optional) FAQ: This section is great for hesitant buyers. Customers like to know what they’re getting into. This is a great place to put the reader’s mind at ease and drive them to a sale
6. Call-to-Action: Finish with a strong CTA to lock in your customer. This is where you give them the opportunity to make the purchase

Your product descriptions will be the supporting elements behind the title and imagery. You want to use unique descriptions for each product and stay away from generic descriptions for all products.

The company Poopourri does a great job of this by giving us the option to click on the “How It Works,” “What’s Inside,” and “Sizing Guide.”

Social Proof

For each store, you need to show consumers that your product actually works. Did you know 95% of people read reviews as research before making a purchase?

Text reviews are a great way to provide social proof, but video testimonials showcasing the product are even better.

To get more reviews you may want to look into a review program. Offer incentives for text or video reviews. Reviews are everywhere and this is an easy way to get more consumers to click “Add To Cart” without thinking twice.

Rocky Mountain Soap does a great job with text reviews.

Some Finer Details To Consider

Remember that good customer service is all about the finer details. Here are some additional things to consider on your product page that are helpful to customers. They’ll also show customers you care about their purchasing experience.

• Shipping Times: Many customers decide where to go shopping based on how long it’ll take to arrive. Make sure you offer easily accessible shipping time estimates
• Availability: Nothing will frustrate a customer more than finding the exact product they want and then discovering it’s not in stock. Always show if the product is currently available
• Payment Options: Checks. Debit Cards. Credit Cards. Mobile Payments. PayPal. With so many options to pay, you want to make sure they’re all listed out on your product page. And include official badges for all major credit cards or PayPal

Let’s look back at Luxyhair. This hair supply company does an excellent job of displaying its options for flex payments.

Need more inspiration? Check out how some of these online stores set up their product pages:

• Rocky Mountain Soap
• United By Blue
• Luxyhair
• Master & Dynamic
• Love Hair
• Kettle & Fire

Conclusion

The purpose of writing this blog was to help e-commerce stores to optimize their product pages for more sales. First, you need to make sure you have all of the required elements: product titles, media, product descriptions, and social proof.

Checking out how other successful businesses set up their product pages could also be helpful. Remember that you need sharp copy, a clear page layout, and effective PPC ads driving potential customers to your pages. All of these elements working together will increase conversions.

Do you need help with product pages? Our HOTH PPC and HOTH Web Copy departments can help you make these pages the best they can be.

Book a call with us today to learn more and get started. 

The post Transform Your Product Pages Into Profit Powerhouses appeared first on The HOTH.

This happens all the time, most of the time businesses have a conversion problem, not a traffic problem.

The first thing we always check is the destination and that traffic is going to a proper landing page. You can have the most beautiful website but without optimized landing pages you’re missing out on so many new opportunities for your business.

Keep reading below to learn about landing pages and what elements are needed to ensure they are converting.

Landing Page vs. Homepages

If you’re new to digital marketing you probably don’t know how a landing page differs from a homepage. The fact is they have unique roles. 

Both are visible on your website and help attract new customers, yet their purposes can’t be any different. Think of homepages like your storefront. It’s what people see when they walk through the front door. 

Homepages act like branding hubs where visitors are directed to what they seek. The homepage emphasis should be on promoting your overall brand rather than getting in the weeds on individual products. Homepages are the big picture. 

Take a look at the homepage below.

The design is fantastic but it’s hard to make a sale on one product when the visitor sees so many options. Instead, they’ll have to find exactly what they’re looking for.

A landing page, on the other hand, is a specific single page trying to get visitors to perform a certain action like making a purchase, signing up for an e-newsletter, or downloading an app.

When companies order pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, they also create strategic landing pages. Ads direct potential buyers to that landing page with a strong call-to-action. Landing pages close the deal.

How The HOTH Sets up Client Landing Pages

Landing pages can be created for products or services, and offer an array of options. But, in order for it to be effective certain marketing-based elements need to be present.

We all know that conversions can be tough. The old “Marketing Rule of Seven” states that potential customers need to interact with your brand at least seven times before taking an action.

And some conversions (like signing up for an e-newsletter) are easier to get than others (making an expensive purchase).

According to Wordstream, the industry-standard conversion rate is 6.98%. This means that for all of the money invested by carmakers, home goods retailers, or attorneys, they only get about seven percent of visitors converting.

Seems kind of low doesn’t it? It could be these companies aren’t including all of the necessary elements for conversions.

By contrast, the HOTH PPC landing page conversion rate is 19.55%.

You’re probably wondering how we do it? Our strategy is two-pronged. First, we ensure that PPC ads are fully optimized and include the very best text and imagery. This ensures more relevant visitors are directed to your landing page.

Next, we ensure every landing page has those key elements for high-performing conversions.

One of the best things you can do for a landing page is including your most important information “above the fold.”

Focus on Your Web Content ‘Above the Fold’

You’re probably wondering what “above the fold” means? Originally, it was a term describing what showed above the fold of a newspaper but today it has to do with all of the content in the upper half of your web page.

There’s clearly no “fold” on a webpage but it means everything the visitor may see before they have to start scrolling.

Here’s an “above the fold” example:

The HOTH works with over 200,000 businesses. Over that time we’ve reviewed hundreds of heatmaps and data from tens of thousands of page views.

What do you notice about each of these heatmaps below?

Example #1

Example #2

Example #3

The red portion of each page is where the most visitors look and click. We also added a line to indicate the average fold. As you can see the most valuable content is above this fold line.

When we design landing pages for clients we ensure their key information appears “above the fold.” We also incorporate the top elements for a high converting landing page.

Top Elements of a High Converting Landing Page

Below are the elements we incorporate into every landing page order. Whether we’re working with a plumbing company or a yacht broker, each of these required elements are on the page.

This consistency is what gets us a 19.55% average conversion rate. Take a look at what your page will need to be effective.

Headline

The headline is probably the most important copy on your entire landing page. It needs to hook visitors within seconds of navigating to the page. We’ll often test out multiple headlines to see which one works best.

Headlines also need to include your main keyword or phrase so the reader knows exactly what the page is about.

Your Offer

Once you have a visitor’s attention, you need to entice them with an offer. What is your customer seeking? This may take some research if you don’t already know. But here’s an important warning: what you offer can make or break a campaign.

Most of your audience will be “cold,” meaning this is their first interaction with you. Therefore, we build low barrier offers. We’ll start with discounts, free consultations, downloadable lead magnets, free videos, and more.

Whatever we do offer, we ensure it’s more valuable than the visitor’s concern about submitting their personal information.

No Navigation & No Outside URLs

This step is important! You’ve just spent all of this ad money to get a visitor to your landing page and the last thing you want to do is send them away. Never provide a navigation away or links to outside URLs.

The only two options available to visitors should be converting or bouncing off. The design of your landing page should be laser-focused. Leave nothing ambiguous.

CTA (Call To Action)

As we said above, the CTA is the heart of your landing page. That should be the only option for visitors to take.

But what is a good call-to-action? It’s typically a prominent button with a short phrase like “Order Now” or “Claim My Free Consultation.” All of the copy on your landing page should support this objective.

Social Proof

Online consumers love reviews. In fact, 68 percent of consumers will form an opinion about your business by reading only one to six reviews.

Offering reviews, testimonials, trust badges, or listing the awards you’ve won will make it easier for potential customers to trust you. Social proof is especially important for new users or cold traffic.

Client testimonials can easily be added to your landing page:

Page Speed

How long does it take for your page to load up? A slow page speed could be hurting your conversions.

Google recommends that bounce rates be less than five seconds on both mobile and desktop platforms. HOTH PPC landing pages are built for speed and often surpass Google’s guidelines.

We often have new clients who’ve never checked their page speeds before. One great resource to check speeds is GTmetrix.

Our landing pages are focused on speed. In the screenshot below you will see this page had an average load speed of 1 Second.

Mobile Optimization

More people are now using mobile phones to search the web versus a desktop computer. Mobile phones now account for more than half of all internet traffic, an increase of 222% in the last seven years.

With more potential customers shopping through their mobile phones, it’s important that your site is optimized to support this format. Nothing will drive away customers faster than a messy mobile version.

Check out how one cleaning company optimizes its mobile site:

Easy To Read Copy (No Long Paragraphs!)

When designing a landing page we always ensure the copy is easy to read, skimmable, and has no large blocks of text. This is important to do for all web copy but especially for landing pages.

One marketing study found that online visitors only read about 20% of the text on an average page. This means you need to eliminate fluff and make every word count.

The copy should be focused on the customer’s problems and how your product or service solves these problems. At The HOTH we break it down by 80% of what the visitor is looking for and 20% about the company.

Here is an effective sample of the copy and layout below the fold:

As you can see, this company incorporated graphics and headings to help skimmers. Visitors can get all of the key details within seconds.

Conclusion

You should now understand the difference between a homepage and landing page. The HOTH more than doubles the average landing page conversion rate because we include all of the elements discussed in this article.

There’s no secret sauce or proprietary information in our back pocket. We simply optimize our clients’ landing pages using these high-converting elements and we make revisions when needed.

Our company also employs the most talented copywriters, designers, and PPC ad managers on the market.

Try out our FREE SEO Checker on one of your landing pages to see how it’s optimized for a specific keyword.

Do you need help setting up your landing pages or optimizing what you currently have to increase conversions? Book a call with one of our PPC experts today and we can chat about your goals!

The post The Elements of a High-Converting Landing Page appeared first on The HOTH.

Most businesses create a site to list their products and services for potential customers. They want to turn a profit or expand their business. In their view, everything else is just window dressing. Or is it?

Why should you care about an About Us page if it’s not answering questions about your products or directly selling services?

Marketing studies have actually shown that more than half of website visitors check out the About Us page first. They want to get to know you and make an emotional connection with your brand.

Potential customers spend hours researching products, reading reviews, and comparing your prices to competitors, but it’s trust in your brand that pushes them over the edge to make a purchase.

That’s why building an effective About Us page is so important. In fact, one professor from Harvard Business School pointed out in 2017 that 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious.

In this blog, we’ll show you the importance of having a good About Us page and provide a step-by-step guide on how to create your own.

Ready to dive in?

What Is an About Us Page?

As we mentioned above, the About Us page is an opportunity to establish trust with potential customers by sharing your unique story.

There are three objectives any good About Us page tries to achieve:

1. Reflect your brand’s image (as originally seen on the Home Page)
2. Build trust with the reader
3. Share the unique story behind your company

Remember that your company is unique. Even if you’re selling the same products as hundreds of other competitors, your story is different than theirs.

You want to share the reason for founding your company in an About Us page, as well as what you provide that others don’t and your core mission or values.

Consider that 83% of millennials think it’s important to buy from companies that align with their own beliefs and values. Millennials are now the largest generational block in the United States and a majority of them shop online.

You need to engage them in order to stay competitive going into the future.

About Us pages typically include a story about the company, high-res photographs or videos of staff, and mission or value statements.

The visual elements of an About Us page are up to you as the website owner, but we’ve identified key elements that need to be there for better results.

When helping clients create their About Us page, The HOTH follows an outline approach:

1. Headline & Subhead
2. Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
3. Our Story & History
4. Social Proof
5. Contact Information & Locations
6. Call to Action (CTA)

Keep reading below and we’ll discuss each of these sections in greater detail.

Use An Attention-Grabbing Headline & Subhead

Headlines are so important because it’s the first thing visitors will see. Think about walking past the front page of a newspaper. What do you notice first?

Your page’s headline should be in the <h1> format and answer the question of what services you offer. It should also be engaging and concise.

Underneath the headline is your subhead in the <h2> format. You’ll have more room here to explain what benefits a visitor can expect from your company. Don’t write more than 1-2 short sentences.

If your web copy is effective, you’ll grab their attention and they’ll continue reading the rest of the page.

Develop a Unique Selling Proposition

A unique selling proposition is a marketing term. It describes why your company is a better choice than your competitors.

This is where you can discuss your mission and demonstrate how your values align with theirs.

You’ll want to create a section title in the <h2> format and a description of your company in <p>. Most companies will post a few short paragraphs to get their point across. Don’t make it too long or they’ll be more likely to navigate away.

Here’s an example of The HOTH’s USP:

Share Your Company Story

This next section is an opportunity to dive deeper into the history of your brand. Some people will want to know how long you’ve been open and what accomplishments you’ve made over that time.

Make a headline in <h2>. The choice is yours whether you want it to be called “Our Story,” “Our History,” or something creative your team comes up with.

If you’re creating an interactive timeline or adding multiple sections, then use the <h3> format to break up the copy.

The description of your brand will be in <p> format and include any information that you think is relevant to potential customers. This section can get long real fast, so make it easy for visitors to scan the text by using short paragraphs.

Check out our page:

See our full About Us page here.

Provide Social Proof

One of the best ways to demonstrate your company’s excellence is through social proof. This includes testimonials from happy customers or third-party recognitions.

Testimonials on your website can appear as short paragraphs or video clips. Potential customers like to see these to learn more about your company.

Have you earned any prestigious certifications or awards? This is the place to brag about it!

As with the other sections above, your headline will be in <h2>, subheadings in <h3>, and any descriptions in <p>.

At The HOTH, we decided to have a little fun with ours and created the “Trophy Room” to showcase our accomplishments:

Check our reviews page for inspiration. You can also access our SEO case studies from there.

Don’t Forget Your Contact Information & Locations

Too many companies forget to add contact information to their website. This is a bad idea. Remember that an About Us page is attempting to establish trust with a prospective customer.

You want to give the customer all the pertinent information they need about who you are, and how to reach you.

You’ll also want to list all of your locations so they can find the one closest to their home or business.

Format your Contact Information & Locations section the same as the others. Start off with a <h2> headline and write the information in <p>. Use <h3> if you need to break up the content even further.

Wrap It up With a Strong CTA

You should never skip an opportunity to get your online visitors to take what they learned on your About Us page and perform an action.

First, decide what is the most important conversion for this page. Is it asking them to sign up for an e-newsletter? Or is it booking a phone call with an expert?

Once you’ve figured that out, write a targeted call to action (CTA) and consider using a button or graphic to highlight it. Here’s an example of a strong CTA from The HOTH:

Use the <h2> format for the title and <h3> if you want to include a subheading. We didn’t add a description to this CTA, but that would be in <p>.

Do You Need Help Updating Your About Us Page?

It’s easy to disregard the About Us page of your website when you’re so focused on making optimized sales pages. But, the truth is an About Us page has the potential to get a lot of traffic.

You should be using it to reinforce your brand and establish trust with visitors.

If you need help reworking your About Us page or if you simply don’t have the time to do it, you can reach out to the HOTH Web Copy team. Our content writing team is made up of the top 1% of all applicants. They’ll provide SEO optimized web copy that is crafted with conversions in mind.

The best part is you can monitor the performance of your new page any time with our transparent reporting system.

Book a call with us now to discuss your goals and learn what we can do to help you!

The post Anatomy of a Great About Us Page appeared first on The HOTH.

We rounded up 40 experts in conversion optimization to give us their BEST tips on cranking more sales out of your pages.

Let’s get into it!

What is the best way to improve sales page conversions?

Andy Crestodina – Orbit Media

Every sales page needs two kinds of content:

• Answers the visitor is looking for
• Evidence that we want them to find

When you mix these together, the page is both satisfying and compelling. But if you leave out answers to their questions, the page won’t satisfy their information needs. Leave out evidence to support your answers and your page is filled with unsupported marketing claims.

Once you have the content gathered together, your job is to lay it out on a page in the general priority that converts the visitor. The important questions should be answered at the top and the evidence that supports those answers should appear nearby.

source: How to design a website, Orbit Media

The final step is to add a clear, compelling call to action. It can be specific to the page, rather than a generic “contact us for more information.” Remember, the visitor came to this page for a reason. When the call to action aligns with their reason for coming, you have a far better chance of converting them!

Dennis Yu

There is no magic bullet to improve sales page conversions– but here are the 3 most common issues we see that hurt conversions and are super easy to fix:

Use Google and Facebook re-marketing pixels— you spent all that money to get them there. Not even 50% of sites are doing re-marketing on both channels. And less than 10% are using Google Tag Manager to drive these pixels– it’s a free tool!

Video sales letters— tell stories, don’t just sell. Why use stock art pictures when you can have a video selling? No need for a fancy camera and videographer– your customers want to hear from you and other customers. 70%+ are on their phones, so they don’t care about 4K, anyway– plus it slows them down.

Make sure your sales pages load fast— most sites are 8-9 seconds. Test it with Google PageSpeed Insights to find out what to fix. Get Google AMP and Facebook Instant Articles going if you want to cut load times down to under a second. Ask your LP provider if they integrate.

Lilach Bullock

I don’t think there’s an ultimate solution for getting more email subscriber conversions; at the end of the day, it depends on your business and industry, your audience, and your overall marketing strategy. That said, one thing that works across the board is this: always offer value (a resource, amazing tips, great offers, and so on).

Personally, I’m a huge fan of targeted content downloads. The tactic is very simple: you create guides/listicles/etc. on your blog and you add additional resources that visitors can download while reading.

For example, it could be something simple like a PDF version of your how-to guide which they can keep forever, or it could be an additional resource, something that helps enhance the value of your blog post: a listicle with useful tools, a checklist, a swipe file, and so on.

Marcus Miller – Bowler Hat

I wish there was just a single way to improve sales page conversions but the reality is – it’s just not that simple. To improve results you have to first ensure you have a sales pages that tick’s all the right boxes for the product or service you are promoting. We want persuasive sales copy, reviews, testimonials and anything else relevant to your product or service.

Then you have to look at how you drive traffic to the page for an initial and subsequent visit. We have to think in terms of a sales and marketing funnel here and you may need to expose prospects to different forms of marketing to help build confidence and trust and get to the promised land.

Caveat aside, the following are five tactics from our conversion optimization playbook at Bowler Hat.

1. Traffic Quality – the quality of traffic sent to the page will have a strong association with the results. If your visitors all come from poorly targeted banner ads then your conversion optimization will be an uphill struggle. If your traffic is highly relevant and primed to buy then everything is so much easier.

2. Value Proposition – everything starts here. You need to understand your customer. We like the Strategyzer Value Proposition Canvas so we can really understand the pains, potential gains and jobs a potential customer can alleviate with your product or service. If we know what their problems are and clearly explain how our product helps solve these problems and help them achieve their goals then we are on the right track.

3. Bring People Back – once someone has viewed the page and left all is not lost. If that user was engaged they may well come back and buy – if you continue to convince them. Remarketing is your friend here and driving further visits and engagement with content and ads pushing the benefits (value proposition) then you will up your conversion rates over time.

4. Micro Conversions – maybe you can’t make the sale initially but maybe there is some form of download or something you can exchange for an email.

5. A/B Testing – experimenting with different headlines, copy, calls to action and design features can all have positive results. A recent client selling car finance had a scary red “apply for finance” button – simply changing this to green had a positive effect. A/B testing should be ongoing with at least a master page and one or more variations being tested to constantly test and improve results over time.

The important thing to remember is that each product, service, marketplace, and the customer is different – so you have to work with this mindset of constant iteration and improvement – that’s how winning is done.

John Rampton – Calendar

Track everything. So many people believe improving conversions starts with the best page in the world… wrong. You should first start with tracking everything on the page so you know what’s going on.

I track everything down to the color of a button and how it performs over a different color. Bright pink has been the best converting I’ve ever had on a website.

After you know what’s going on, you can start testing things!

Marie Haynes

I really feel that Google is doing all they can to algorithmically determine trust these days. As such, adding things to your sales pages to help inspire trust in potential users could possibly help you algorithmically.

For example, if you use personal information, share how you will protect that info.

Or, if you sell the same products as many other people, include a lot of information on why people should buy from you. Are you the industry leader? Have you won awards? Are people raving about your services?

If you can convince people that you are the best, then you’re likely going to increase conversions.

Dave Schneider – Less Churn

The best way to improve sale page conversions is through split testing. Of course, that assumes that you have enough traffic / conversions to do a proper test, however, if you don’t have that, then you have bigger problems

A lot of page builders have this functionality built in, for example, LeadPages. If not, you can use a tool like Google Optimize, which is free.

I recommend making big changes to the page, because the bigger the changes are, the easier it will be to have a significant test. Do a bunch of split tests, and you’ll have a good converting page!

Dominic Wells – Human Proof Designs

There’s no one way to improve a sales page’s conversions. What works for some sites isn’t going to work for others. The most important thing to do first is to get a benchmark to compare against, and then you can do some split-testing.

If you know your current conversion rate, you can test different elements to see what will improve conversions.

Make sure to leave a test running long enough to get valid results, and make sure to only test one thing at a time. Also, make sure you see the bigger picture and how the tests affect your entire funnel.

It’s possible for example, that you can make a change which gets more people to sign up, but fewer people to become customers further down the funnel. This is also why you need to leave a test running long enough before declaring it a success (or failure).

Ian Brodie

A really great way of improving sales page conversions that most marketers overlook (because they want everything to be hands-off and automated) is to have a live chat widget like Drift or Intercom on your sales page and to proactively pop-it open with a question after a couple of minutes of inactivity on the page.

The truth is that for a new sales page, many potential customers will have questions and concerns that the sales page won’t answer (yet). But they won’t take the time to proactively email or message you with them. So by opening up the chat and asking them directly if they have any questions, you do two things:

Firstly, you increase conversions by being able to answer the questions they have that are holding them back from buying and by building a personal connection with them.

And secondly, you find out what the common questions and concerns are so you can improve your sales page and make sure those concerns are answered on it for the next potential customers.

David Krauter – Websites That Sell

Believe it or not… all salesmanship aside… all the super-techy-latest-whizz-bang functionality on the market aside… making sure the core elements on a page are working and properly designed will give the biggest boost in conversions.

Doing the basics right ALWAYS delivers the biggest bang for buck.

Let me explain.

When we take on clients to increase their conversions many times their load speeds are terrible, their cart functionality is cumbersome or worse, doesn’t even work. There are no clear call to actions and no direction for what to do.

On top of that people forget how they are driving traffic. Driving traffic from Google should have a completely different landing page to that for traffic coming from social media such as Facebook ads. But this is already going a little bit advance… As mentioned above, mastering and making sure the basic functionalities work will provide the quickest boost in conversions.

These are basic elements that need to be mastered before looking at any fancy tools or conversion elements.

Here’s a quick (starter) checklist of the essentials for a converting page:

– Small logo (no one will buy based on the size of your logo, it’s the least important thing on the page)
– Phone number with a call to action.
– Easy ways to get in touch, inquiry forms buttons to contact forms.
– Calls to action where to go next, what to do.
– Fast Website Speed.
– Make sure buttons actually work and lead people to correct pages.

Steve Wiideman

The best ways we’ve found to improve conversions on lower funnel content include the following for e-commerce:

1. Be touch-free or low-touch, using fields that include the autofill attribute (when possible) and appropriate keyboard specifiers for characters versus integers
2. Always think mobile-first, using large tap targets and obvious call-to-actions
3. Don’t make the user think; if they want to think, they’ll scroll, so have everything the user needs to see above the mobile fold line
4. Remove the top navigation from the cart, but allows allow the user to “Continue Shopping”
5. SSL compatible with the latest Mozilla and Chrome requirements is a must
6. Try to get pages to load in under 2 seconds
7. Offer as much unique content as possible, including high definition images, videos, and product reviews

For lead-generation:

1. Don’t force the user straight into providing their information
2. Ask a few Boolean questions and have a very short virtual conversation with the user to address their needs and to personalize the experience.
3. Prompt for voice triggers to enable users who have Google Assistant or Alexa to take their engagement off the website to book an appointment or complete a simple action that may take more time via keyboard
4. Compare the top 10 ranking pages, looking at every element that may be helping them drive leads, go back to archive.org and pay attention to what has changed over the years
5. Use VisualPing to track changes to competing pages, why reinvent the wheel when competitors are already running the same tests you have in queue?
6. Use JumpShot to track what keywords are producing conversions for your competitors and thread those search terms into your SEO strategy.

The most important activity any business can do to improve conversions is testing and experiments. UserTesting.com is a great source, as is Mechanical Turk. Be sure to have a large enough sampling of data before deploying major changes, as correlation isn’t always causation.

Allan Pollett

One of my first successful businesses online involved creating lead generation websites for the real estate industry. As an SEO specialist, I was very focused on driving as much traffic as possible to the sites. By ranking the sites at the top of the search engines, they were successful at getting lots of traffic. The sites ranked #1 for many of the most competitive real estate related keywords.

Even though I drove traffic, I wasn’t getting many leads if any. A typical site converts about 2% of its traffic into some kind of engagement: phone call, lead form completion, newsletter sign up or sale. My sites were failing. The problem was with trust.

The sites were generic and didn’t have an actual realtor on them. They were what they were designed for, to generate leads for realtors. To make them successful. I needed to change my model. Instead of generating leads for realtors the sites were reworked to focus on a specific realtor, whom I partnered with. By adding a person’s face and business address to the sites, the sites came across as more legitimate.

The trust was built and the leads started pouring in. People want to know they have come to a website, where they are dealing with a real person.

Building trust with your users is essential. So put a face to your business and built that trust. To take it even further add a video where you show the people in your company or have them demonstrating the products or services you offer. Pages with video covert 5 times higher than those that don’t.

Jon Tromans

Answering questions. Solving problems and looking at intent.

When someone arrives at your sales page there’s some sort of intent there, they want to do something. They may have a problem that needs solving by one of your services or like me right now need a curtain pole bracket as one has broken.

Use your titles, headings, and statements on the page to instantly answer these questions so for me I need to know curtain pole diameter and color.

Think deeply about what your customer wants from you and then echo this in your content. Make sure it’s to the point, easy to read with no distractions.

Finally, don’t forget your calls to action. More than one and in different styles. One may be a big button saying, “Get in Touch”, “Buy Now” or “Download”. The other could be a simple line of text.

When creating your page think about what your customer wants from you and then what you want them to do next. Make it easy for them.

David Leonhardt – SEO-Writer

There are many great ways to improve conversions. The one I found the most useful has to do with my query form. When I first implemented a floating form, I noticed an immediate rise in queries, even though my traffic had not increased substantially.

A “floating” query form is simply one that is not fixed at a certain point on the page. In my case, it stayed (or floated) in the upper right corner of the visitor’s screen, like in this screenshot:

When I tweaked my template for better mobile performance, the form stopped floating. In its place, a red “Get my free quote” button appears in the upper right corner. It now floats there, even as a visitor scrolls to the bottom. Here’s how it looks now when you scroll:

What does this do, in practical terms?

It ensures that when an impatient visitor shows up, they can send a request immediately.

It ensures that when a cautious visitor shows up and wants to scroll a bit and read a bit, they can send a request without scrolling down or back up.

It ensures that people who like to read every last word can also send a request from the bottom of the page.

Bottom line: wherever a potential customer is, it’s easy-peasy to send a request for a quote.

And that bottom line helps my bottom line.

Chris Makara

While there are several things you can do to improve conversions, the best way is to test and make iterations of your page. Of course, you’ll need to have enough traffic to really test in order to reach significant significance.

There are tools out there that can help implement and monitor the test (some are free, some are not). Or you could also set goals and event tracking in Google Analytics to help monitor the results.

While some tests will not outperform the control, ideally you will continuously move forward to incrementally increase the overall conversion rate of the sales page which will ultimately increase your sales numbers.

Joel Klettke – Business Casual Copywriting

As much as I wish I could list off just one “super-tactic” for improving sales page conversions that worked every time, the honest-to-goodness truth is that no such thing exists, and the reality is a lot less sexy: the best way to improve sales page conversions is to do really really good research.

To improve a sales page that is underperforming, you need to diagnose why.

For example…

• Is the promise you’re making the one leads care about?
• Are you making it in a way they cannot ignore?
• Does your call to action meet them at their current state of awareness?
• Are visual elements adding or detracting from your ability to sell?
• Are you even speaking to the right audience?

And those are just a FEW of the things that could be going wrong! To lift conversions, you need to spend some time gathering qualitative and quantitative data: watch how leads currently behave on the page (what they read, ignore, skip over, revisit, etc.), look at the paths they take — and then cross-reference that with insight into their pain points, anxieties, desired outcomes, and priorities as communicated in their own words.

Whether it surveys, chat logs, analytics, recorded user sessions… the best thing you can do to improve conversions on a sales page is to consult your data!

Jose Perez – Emet Digital

Heatmaps and session recordings through tools like Hotjar or Inspectlet. Often, A/B & multivariate tests or any modifications to the page layout are implemented based on guesses and hunches.

Heatmaps and recordings show you how visitors interact with your page – clicks, hover areas, exit points, etc. – which enables you to develop a more solid hypothesis for your experiment’s implementation. This way, you’re already ahead of the game because your hypothesis is based on fact, rather than assumption.

These are some common flaws that I see in sales pages due to lack of heatmaps and session recordings:

• Focusing on tweaks above the fold when most clicks through to “See Pricing” or “Buy” happen in different areas of the page
• Copy changes in paragraphs that are barely hovered instead of focusing on the text areas that are indeed grabbing people’s attention
• Click gaps. Users hovering/clicking on some icons expecting to see tooltips, accordions or modals with more info
• Distracting secondary elements. The antithesis of the above point – people’s attention being diverted from the main CTA’s by secondary elements
• Poor experience in small devices. CTA’s being pushed down from above the fold, and oversized or barely noticeable clickable elements

While some of these points may sound intuitive for those of you who already know about sales pages’ best practices, I cannot overstate their importance. Relying on actual behavioral data can help you make the right tweaks to boost your conversion rate.

Pierre de Braux – Spiralytics

For sales pages, there are a bunch of elements (CTA, form, headline, etc.) that you need to continually test and monitor to maximize conversions. Best practices will differ depending on who your target audience is and how your business operates.

However, one thing that drives conversion rates up across the board is ‘trust’. If you can establish a significant level of trust with a prospect on or before landing on your sales page, there’s no question that conversion rates would improve.

Most of the time, when prospects are considering a purchase, they’re wondering whether or not to trust your brand as the best available option. Addressing their doubts at this stage acts to reassure them and make them feel more comfortable about making the purchase.

To build trust, your website needs to have trust signals. That means accurate contact details, verified partner and security seals, payment badges, customer testimonials, active social media accounts, and SSL certificates. Make sure you’re giving your prospects every reason to trust you and make that all-important initial purchase.

Sonja Jobson –Fresh Coast Creative

The biggest problem I see with sales pages is clutter. It’s natural to want to stuff a page with every tidbit of information you think a buyer might want to know, but information overload will kill your conversions. Simplicity will sell. Here’s a framework for deciding what belongs on your sales page, and what you need to nix:

Get their attention: write a strong, clear, and compelling headline. Make it big and bold. The job of the headline isn’t to be clever or unique, it’s job is to convince a visitor to stay on the page and learn more all within the space of a second or two.

Frame their problem: why do they need what you are selling? What will their situation look like if they DON’T solve this problem? Fear mongering tactics are no good, but framing the problem in a really tangible way so your buyer knows what’s at stake will increase their motivation to buy.

Offer the solution: present your product or service as the solution to their problem – not a just another product/service to consider. Use benefits and concrete details to help your prospect visualize how your offer can solve their problem/get them what they want.

Include Proof: Appeal to the logical side of your buyer’s brain by backing up your offer with solid proof. Customer testimonials, case studies, and reviews work great.

Calls to Action: Include bold, obvious buttons throughout your sales page (not just one at the bottom). Make your call to action descriptive “Buy Now”, “Get Started”, “Request a Proposal”. Don’t make your buyer work hard, make it easy to take action throughout your sales page.

Sotiris Sotiriadis – Realistic SEO

I was working with my team on redesigning the website of a woman offering dating advice/education. She never did any SEO to the website but she was getting a very good amount of organic traffic. So, she reached out to me to help her with the SEO.

The way that she monetized the website was by selling online courses on how girls can achieve in dating better men. While my team and were examining her analytics, we noticed that she didn’t have a good conversion rate. So, we suggested to her that instead of focusing on SEO to focus on building solid funnels to take advantage of the current traffic and then increase the traffic in order to get more leads.

We were able to come up with a custom WordPress design that offered opt-ins ins using attracting CTAs. We created site-wide header opt-in forms for her, set up a freebie so that she offers value to her users and voila! Since the day 1 of launching the website, the conversions were flowing in steady but not slowly.

My overview on this is.. In order to get more subscribers, you clearly need to offer attractive value adding freebies, such as a mini course or a real value adding eBook and make opt-ins as easy as possible.

Dai Carillo – PureB2B 

There’s always been a debate between using a long-form or a short-form sales page. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Long-form sales pages are great for explaining everything about your product so there are more chances to convince them and they are beneficial for SEO. Short-form, on the other hand, converts visitors quickly.

The solution is to create a hybrid by putting all basic information and your most irresistible CTA above the fold. You can have a longer copy and more CTAs below that to explain your product or service.

A great example of this is Muckrack.com. From the first section, you already have an idea of their service/ product and two CTAs are available to target audiences on different stages (those who are ready to start and those who want to test the platform first). Below that are social proofs and a longer explanation of the platform’s capabilities.

Scott Fish – 32 Digital

The best ways to improve Sales page conversions:

Whether you sell a service or a product, there’s one thing that the person buying needs to feel in order for them to be comfortable making a purchase: Trust. They need to trust your business, they need to trust your product or deliverables, they need to trust themselves that they have made a wise decision. There are 3 ways to build trust in a sales landing page.

Let others speak to value. Reviews, Quotes, and other 3rdparty validating factors are a top priority for improving conversion rates. Look around at the sites you shop on, they’re filled with reviews – figuring out how to weave trust data into your product pages or sales page is important.

Show the value that your product or service creates. This seems easy, but selling without selling is difficult, but in doing so, you allow people to see the value (or hidden value for them individually).

Connect the brand to a customer’s experience. Getting personal improves conversion rates and if your customer has that moment in their purchase where they feel connected to the brand, it’s story, and what the product does, you will improve conversion rates.

Tim Brown – Hook Agency

The best way I’ve found to improve sales page conversions is by placing key visual indicators of trust factors the ideal customer cares out – in the proximity of the call to action button.

Whether it be publications your company has been featured in, testimonials with photos of the reviewer and 5-stars next to them, ‘fast and free shipping’, ‘made in the U.S.A.’ or whatever your particular demographic cares about the most – make them visual, and put them right next to the next step you want them to take.

In one A/B test I conducted I was able to increase sales 10k on the variant with ‘Fast and Free Shipping’ and ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ with little expressive icons placed right next to an add to cart button. Decrease friction, and give people an excuse to buy – it just requires a little bit of understanding of what their pain points are, and how you can alleviate them.

So dig into why people aren’t buying by talking with salespeople, and people who talk directly to the customers, as much as you possibly can. The more marketing people talk to salespeople, the better we get at actually showcasing the key differentiating features, and making the right selling points visual on sales pages.

Steve Kurniawan – Nine Peaks Media

In my opinion, the most important factor in improving sales page conversion is the value proposition, because of a simple reason: people don’t actually buy your product or service, but rather the benefits tied to it. So, properly communicating this benefit is essential, which comprises several different factors:

• Your value proposition must be well-developed and interesting, but at the same time, honest
• You should be able to properly communicate the uniqueness of your brand when compared to your competitors
• Your value proposition should be represented by all elements of the sales landing page: i.e., the design should represent the value proposition, the message is consistent, and so on.

In a nutshell, when designing your sales landing page, your main focus is how you can communicate the value proposition of your product, service, or brand.

Viktoriia Pavlova – Starlight

There is no “secret trick” that will help you boost your sales page conversion. It’s all about testing and listening to your website visitors. Here are a few techniques that will help you understand your target audience and adapt your web page design and content to convert them into customers:

User tests – this is the most powerful technique. Ask people from your target demographics to test your website and tell you their opinion. You will need to test it on at least 30 people to have a clear picture of what works and what doesn’t on your site. Based on the results, you can improve your websites design and sales copy.

Install heatmap – it will help you figure out where users click and how far they scroll down the page. It will help you to figure out where you should put your “buy buttons”, links or subscription forms to increase conversion.

Readability test – your website copy is the probably the most important thing when it comes to conversion optimization. You should use simple words and short sentences that users can understand without thinking much. Ask your target audience to have a glance at your website and ask them if they can quickly explain what it is about. And if they got it right, you are one step ahead of the competition.

After that, ask your audience if they find your sales copy appealing and whether they would buy the product/ subscribe to your newsletter. If they say no, investigate further what words and sentences made them feel this way.

Olesia Korobka – Fajela

Depending on the niche, you may have more or less mobile traffic to your page. The most common mistake that adversely affects mobile traffic conversion is when the page is built for desktop and then just resized for mobiles. That is, your dev just makes it fit a smaller screen but that doesn’t automatically make it convenient for the end-user.

For some industries, a more user-friendly approach is to start building your pages for mobile users first in mind and then extending it to a desktop version if a responsive design is an objective point. It is very important to test the pages loading speed on each type of device separately.

When the user gets to your sales page they should be already hot enough and they should understand right away that this page is the right one to make the purchase. Text should be sized big enough so that one doesn’t have to use a magnifier to read it. The images around the text should not be distracting. You can add arrows or image enhancements to make the user click the button or fill in information into the contact form.

It is better to provide a user with other options if they are not ready to make a purchase right away. Talk to them through some informational content, such as reviews from your other happy customers, videos or posts where it’s clear how your product helps to solve user’s problem.

Some users may need more time to consider. You can use a lead magnet with those users. You can offer them something they might need: add-on, checklist, e-book – in return for their email so that you could send them a few emails to remind them of your offer.

Melody Spencer – Swiftly Social Digital Marketing

To improve your sales page conversions I recommend keeping it short, sweet, and to the point. Remember, a good chunk of your potential clients will be using a mobile device.

Don’t make your page too long or to fancy. The ugliest, simplest sales pages tend to be the highest converting.

Also, be sure your images and messaging in all pieces of your marketing funnel align to increase the “know, like & trust” factor of your page.

Sameer Somal – Blue Ocean Global Tech

One major difference between a landing page and sales page is that a landing page doesn’t necessarily aim to sell. It could be used to achieve multiple goals like signup up for a newsletter or register for a webinar whereas a sales page is specifically created for conversions.

Below are a few considerations to increase conversion:

1. Build Trust to be an Industry Expert

An easy way to build trust with potential clients is to demonstrate your industry expertise by creating high-quality content.

2. Compelling (use another keyword) headline

Create a headline that visitors won’t be able to resist. The headline is the most read element on your page

3. Persuasive Call to Action button

Be clear and concise in your message that what you want visitors to do. for instance, you have a headline like this on your page “Create your custom designed logo for $50”

So your CTA should read like – “Create Your Logo Now”

Explore different CTAs to evaluate which performs best for you. Expert tip: Use multiple CTAs just make sure you don’t use too much.

4. Use Live Chat

The opportunity missed to engage is business lost. Having a situation where no one is available to handle customer queries, despite an “available” status showing on the chat box, leads to total failure and major reputation loss.

Natalie Athanasiadis – Ormi Media

The best way to improve your sales page conversions is to map out the action you want users to take before you start constructing everything. It’s a simple part of the process that gets neglected and then there is no real strategy behind the page which can really diminish your conversions. Ask yourself what specific action(s) do I want my users to take on this page?

By having a clearly defined goal every move you make, each call to action, every image or video and all of the content on page will be crafted to compel users to take that action! Remove any distractions that could cause users to click away and make sure your offer is compelling.

Business owners often think they if they tell users everything about their products or services that will be enough and if anyone is interested they will buy. Resist that urge to bombard users with additional information that detracts from the core focus of that page.

A sales page that is structured well, engaging, and easy on the eyes with clear calls to action and strategically crafted content is going to convert more of your existing traffic into buyers!

Craig De Borba – OnPoint Internet Marketing

How well your sales page converts have to do with many factors, some of which are traffic source and ad copy. But assuming you’ve got your messaging, ad copy and traffic source dialed-in the landing page copy and offers are the driving factors on-page. More than design, the offer made to the right audience will win every time.

What is the biggest boldest offer you could make? Make your offer so good that they’d be crazy not to take it and if the visitor leaves the page they’ll be kicking themselves for passing it up. Then make sure your page copy validates your claim and benefits by adding testimonials, case studies, and authority badges.

Make your copy very clear and concise with emphasis on the benefits and what problems your offer solves. Your offer is taking the visitor from where they are now to where they want to be (the more desirable condition), so highlight that and describe how that is. Visitors won’t read the entire page so use bullet points and lists for easy fast scanning for the reader, and emphasize core words that describe the new and improved condition or benefit they get.

Use imagery that connects with your audience on an emotional level. You wouldn’t want to put images of a male bodybuilder or female model in her 20’s when your product is for stay-at-home moms in their 40’s, identify with your audience.

Lastly, make sure your CTA is in a different color than other colors used on the page, you want that button to stand out amongst all the other design elements and the readers’ eyes to be drawn toward it.

Leonard Ford – Design Fire

One of the best ways to improve the conversion rate on a product sales page is to ensure there are no surprises to the potential buyer when it comes to cost. This can build trust and drive repeat sales. A good way to do that is to include shipping in the price of the product.

Consumers decide to buy a product based on the initial price they see. If they can justify that cost against the perceived value of the product, they are likely to click that buy button.

After they’ve made that choice, if they are then presented with a higher price due to shipping costs, they may re-think that cost vs. value calculation they made earlier. Including shipping in the price can greatly decrease cart abandonment rates for e-commerce shops.

The difference to a consumer of $25 plus $5 shipping versus $30 and ‘free’ shipping is enough to keep them moving down the funnel toward completing their purchase. It builds their trust that you have offered a product for a certain price, and that is indeed the price they are going to pay at the end. Building trust with the consumer is one of the key components to driving repeat sales. And we all know that it is less expensive to sell to a current customer than it is to acquire new customers.

Jason Scott – SessionCam

My number one tip for those looking to improve sales page conversion rates is the put the content that is most relevant to the user’s goals at the top of the page. As humans, we’ve have become notoriously impatient, especially when browsing the web. We want answers and we want them fast.

With that said, the content at the very top of the page is often the content that grabs our attention. By placing your most transactional content at the top of your page, you’re giving it the best chance of getting read by potential customers. I’d also recommend that you bear in mind your target demographic when deciding the type of content you’re placing at the top of your page.

Men tend to be more visual, whilst women seek information. Therefore, if you’re targeting one over the other, design your page accordingly. If you’re targeting both, make sure there’s sufficient content to impact everyone.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with images, videos, but make sure they’re good quality. Users can spot stock images from a mile off, so make sure your written content is accompanied by large, well-lit, high-resolution shots.

Gábor Imre – ROI Foundry

A perfect sales page must have a clear structure, brand-consistent design, great copy and its message should match with any search result or ad directing potential customers there.

The sales copy of the page is vital. Most pages only include some incentives, product features and CTA. It is also important to include product benefits: to describe the after-state the customer would like to be in (and can be with the help of the particular product or service) and emotionally connect with the potential customer via their pain points and needs.

The page should guide the customer through various stages: describing their problem, describing the after-state after solving their problem, introducing the product (with features and benefits, even step-by-step guides about the problem solving process if necessary) and providing proof (testimonials, reviews, social proof etc.), and only than directing them to the conversion point.

Chris Hornak – Blog Hands

The best way to improve the conversions of a sales page is first to create the page using a mix of research, best practices, and intuition. Then track and collect data to help you make smart decisions that will improve conversions and sales.

Before starting any digital marketing campaign it’s important that you understand your brand, it’s goals, and clearly defined target audience(s). You’ll also want to research what appears to be working or not working for your competition and use that as data before you have collected your own.

When creating the page you’ll want to start by hiring an experienced web development team who can help you navigate current best practices for sales landing pages.

You’ll want to listen to the web developers intuition, and they’ll need to look to yours as well. Combined you should end up with a page that has a strong chance of success.

Now that the page is up here comes the most over-looked phase. Tracking not only the conversions but other important signals that the page is or isn’t working.

One recommendation I give to businesses who want to know if their website is working is to apply a value to virtually every page of your website. By simply thinking about how much you’d be willing to pay per visit to that page. Maybe a blog post read is worth $1, but a sales page read is work $50. This method helps you start thinking about your visitors and content regarding value rather than metrics.

Eman Zabi – The Scribesmith

The best way to improve sales pages conversions is to hire a real copywriter.

Here’s my process: In my experience, the best copy usually comes straight from your target audience’s mouths. The trick is to weave in that consumer research with a benefit-focused copy.

I then identify pain points, magnify them, and then present your product as the only solution. And, then to really drive the point home? Paint a picture of what life’s like with your product in your prospect’s lives. Boom, your sales page’s now a lean, mean, converting machine.

You’ve got to remember to sell without sounding too ‘salesy’ though. Consumers can smell sleaze a mile away. Sound human, make them laugh if you can and clinch the sale by grounding your copy in research.

Ed Fry – Hull.io

Web pages are being left behind in a data-driven, real-time personalization world. When email, ads, live chat, sales enablement, and other channels are able to leverage lead & customer data to deeply personalize the way they engage, most websites show the same experience to everyone.

Poor sales conversions come from creating a poor, impersonal experience for your website visitors. The context to improve it comes from your data.

By syncing valuable data about a person into the page, you can personalize elements to tailor the copy, content, design & experience to them. For instance, swapping in their company name, logo, industry (and competitor) based testimonials, and so on.

Bring the same experience you’d expect from a good sales rep, not a generic send-to-all webpage.

Dmitriy – MiroMind

Improving conversions on the page depends on your niche and industry. If you offer custom services and solutions to clients, like software development, marketing, design, or any other more hands-on services, then your sale funnel begins from the first time the customer reaches out for more information, quote or consultation.

Therefore, service pages more often than not target the ‘leads’, or users that reach out to them. To get more leads, your page needs to be well-optimized in line with the best CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) standards for service pages. Although each industry is unique, there are certain ‘golden standards’ for service page CRO approach that are beneficial for most websites offering services.

1. Appealing design. Your design needs to be intuitive and appealing to your target market. Think about your customer and consider what the people you work with would consider appropriate. Firstly, your service page is the first impression of your company, it is a ‘storefront’ of your business.

Secondly, do not overdo with design elements. Your main priority is to not only make a visually appealing design, but also the one that any user will be able to navigate without even thinking about it. A good-looking website without clear instructions of where to click next is likely to miss out on potential customers.

2. Intuitive page layout. The page needs to be well-structured and follow a certain ‘path’ to lead a customer to a decision to reach out. First, interest them by outlining the issues they might have, or their ‘pain points’. Then offer a solution that will address these. Outline the benefits of your services as well as benefits of getting these services from your company (many years of experience, famous clients, money-back guarantee). Round it up with proof that your company is a trustworthy one by offering to view the portfolio or add detailed reviews about your services.

3. Have ‘buyer persona’ in mind. Converting pages are usually the ones that ‘speak’ to potential customer, addressing their issues and offering the right solutions. Consider the people that are visiting your service page and address the issues that are important to them.

If you are offering solutions for enterprises, then your content can either target big decision makers or industry experts. Decision makers are more likely to be interested in the benefits that your services will deliver to their company overall: time savings, cost savings, increased productivity and ROI.

On the other hand, industry professionals are more likely to be interested in more technical descriptions of your service. Aside from listing the benefits of your products, you need to address the pain points that your target customer might have. To address these points you need to have a clear vision of ‘who’ you are talking to.

4. Informative structured content. A lot of the times the service page is the first point of contact of the user with your business. Therefore you should treat it as such: the content has to explain both what you are offering and provide clear instructions on what to do next as well as provide benefits of using YOUR services. The content has to be organized and concise.

By quickly scanning through the content on your service page, the takeaway for your customer should be: what you offer, why your service is good for them, why they should choose your company and what they should do to get in touch with you.

5. Additional lifehack. After hundreds of optimized service pages we have noticed that adding a contact form on the right side of the service page increases the amount of leads. It does not mean the form replaces the CTAs, however we noticed that more people fill out the form which is right there in front of them instead of clicking on the Call to Action button.

6. Get creative with CTAs. Pay close attention to allocating CTAs: do not overdo it, but add it where applicable within the page. And get creative: while simple ‘Contact Us’ can sometimes do the trick, more appealing options that are in line with the rest of the content will get your service page more conversions.

7. Add visual proof where applicable. There is no better way to demonstrate your experience and expertise than showcasing the work that you have completed. Add examples of your work or before/after photos that will take your potential customer’s breath away. Having visual proof of the good quality solution to their issues will most certainly drive more leads your way.

Harris Brown – HFB Advertising

The best way is to do A/B testing.

The most important elements are above the fold of a sales page like the headline.

A compelling headline will grab the attention of your prospect to stay on the page.

From there you have:
• sub-headlines
• body copy
• photos
• colors
• layout
• fonts
• call to action

These elements are most likely the most important on the page. You may want to do bold, italic or a reverse knockout to make your message stand it even more. You want to capture the lead and not give away everything in the body copy.

I tell my clients’ all the time there is no magic pill that works optimizing and A/B testing all the time wins. Try a couple of options to start and then go from there.  Soon you will figure out what works best.

Here is a bonus use a tactic like scarcity.

By doing this the human brain is outwitting you that once it is gone you can never have it again.  We all want something that we can not have or don’t want to miss the opportunity. With these great sales page tactics, you will be on your way to capture great leads.

Craig Smith – Trinity Insight

Even though more consumers than ever are confident in using the internet, we are seeing an increase in customers who are nervous about making purchases online. Major retailers like Amazon offer free returns and an easy return process, and more people expect that wherever they go.

As a result, one of the best things retailers, Saas companies, and other businesses can do to increase conversions is to place clear policies on cancellations and returns.

For example, a travel website will say “free cancellation until X day,” removing the risk to customers. This way the customer makes a purchase then and there, rather than bouncing to make sure their travel plans are secured or until they want that room.

Not only does this increase conversions, but it also decreases marketing costs. Now that company doesn’t have to retarget that customer or keep marketing to them in hopes that the convert. The company’s efforts go elsewhere.

Almost any brand or industry can look at their sales pages and find ways to reduce risk, which is a major barrier that keeps people from buying from your brand. Offer a free trial, share your return policy, or promise a month-to-month contract.

When you lower the risk of buying your products or services, you increase the chances of a conversion from a new customer.

Andy Drinkwater – iQSEO

A sales page is the last hurdle in getting someone to actually convert from a visitor to a customer. But so many people bomb out at the last minute, unsure of their purchase for whatever reason.

There are so many strategies that you can employ to try and correct these issues, but I want to just talk briefly about the page layout on a mobile device – a huge problem for many.

If someone is landing on a sales page, then you need to remember that they have one small screen that should carry all of the information that they need. If they have to try and find it, then it is a stumbling block that you don’t need.

Three things to remember:

• When an item is added to a cart, make sure that the cart is visible on all pages. You should do this at the footer of the page.
• A complete summary of the purchase should preferably be on 1 screen/page. Try to reduce/remove scrolling.
• Include details about shipping and delivery times. Don’t make them click off to try and find this.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but certainly a few of the issues that can prevent someone from making a purchase.

Thank you so much to all the experts that contributed to this expert roundup!

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The post How To Increase Sales Page Conversions: 40 Experts Weigh In appeared first on The HOTH.