How to Make Lead Conversion pages from Landing Pages

Now that the internet lead generation practice has gained critical mass, website landing pages have become the core components of the online marketing and demand generation process. Unfortunately many online marketers, professionals and businesses treat the landing page as just that – a visitor-landing page. And they keep driving the traffic to these landing pages and losing boat loads of money in the process! Whether you are B2B or B2C lead company or an independent marketer, this holds good for everyone.

Landing Pages

The very purpose of landing pages is to convert the web visitors into leads (or prospects). While it serves as a funnel to attract the web site visitors, unless the visitors are converted to leads with contact information there is no meaning in attracting the traffic. In others words, landing pages should be treated as conversion pages.

Typically web site traffic (for lead generation) is generated via one or more of the following practices and visitors are sent to the lead capture pages:

• PPC (Pay Per Click)
• SEO / Search Engines
• Email Marketing
• Blogs and Web 2.0 sites
• Social Networking Media
• Direct Mail (with web URL)

All of these traffic sources costs money and significant efforts. While some may term traffic from social media and SEO as free, it is really not free. Search engine optimization and social media maintenance is a time taking and long term process.

Lead Conversion Pages

How to convert the money loosing sign-up pages to profitable lead-conversion pages? While every step of the page design, development and deployment is a candidate for improvement, the following key factors are to be taken into consideration.

• Layout and Design are primary components to attract and convert visitors. Make them simple, clear and precise.
• Avoid distractions and unwanted links on the page. Address the specific product or service.
• Provide Clear Call to Action. If you want them to fill up a form, tell them clearly what to do and why they should do so.
• Include a Compelling Offer. Whether it is a Whitepaper, Quote, or a Free Trial, make it compelling.
• If you are using Advertising (such as PPC) to drive traffic, make sure the Ad and the Landing Page talk about the same offer
• Page content should be relevant, short and to the point.
• If you are using Lead Capture form on the page, make it as short as possible, unless all the data fields are required to fulfill the offer.
• Let the sign-up form be above fold on the page.
• If required, make multiple lead capture pages for different  purposes and different target audience, so that the content will be relevant.
• Validate all sign-up form fields for required content and type, ideally using JavaScript (rather than separate error pages)
• Capture the meta data such as source web site, publisher, key words, etc. which will help in the sales process.
• Provide a meaningful Thank You page with relevant information. This will set the right expectation for the prospect and will help in closing the sale.
• Lastly, do not forget to use a good lead management and tracking database system in order to track the entire conversion process.