Landing Pages Don’t Sell
Let me ask you a question – do you ever buy things from strangers? I don’t mean old women peddling magic beans, nor men in long trench coats peddling cheap Rolex ripoffs. But don’t even legitimate salesmen of unknown brands put you off just as much? Well, if you’re anything like the average buyer, then the answer most likely is “yes”. And, keeping that in mind, you really should not expect anyone to buy anything from landing pages including yours, immediately after first stumbling upon them. Why would they trust a stranger?
Your window of opportunity to attract any web visitors attention is a measly 8 seconds. Selling anything within a period of time as short as that is nigh impossible. Does that mean landing pages are useless then? Well, no, they’re not, but you need to know how to use them properly. Go for a “try it” strategy, instead of a “buy it” pitch for maximum effectiveness. It may sound like a minor adjustment, but in fact, it will completely flip your conversion rates on their heads. Interested?
Going for a “try it first” model allows you more time to persuade your visitor to buy your product, since a lot of people will outright leave immediately when presented with a “buy or goodbye” option. Here’s how you execute this strategy in 3 simple steps:
Use Landing Pages to Catch a Lead
Use your landing page to catch a lead. Any CTA you use should lead to user registration for whatever you have on offer – demo, trial version, a video presentation. Avoid “buy” buttons at all cost. Assume your potential customer is a busy person – it is highly unlikely that he has the time and patience to go through all the features and benefits of your product RIGHT NOW. So just catch as many leads as possible, without resorting to making false promises – users that feel swindled will damage your reputations in ways beyond recovery. Use contact forms or embed the Sing Up With Facebook / Twitter features on the first screen on your landing page. There is no place for your products price here, either. Remember, your only goal is to convert a visitor into a registered user. Time for making sales will come later.
Engage
Once you’ve put yourself in a position, where you can take advantage of your users time, make the best use of it by making a great first impression and gradually push for the “wow” moment. Convert attention into engagement. Use onboarding techniques to explain your products benefits to the user, step by step. Remember, that no one cares about the specific features of what you have on offer as long as they see no value to be gained from them – therefore focus on benefits and how your product will improve the lives of those who purchase it. The goal of this stage is to stick the user to the product, or in other words – to convert a visitor into an active user.
Users who only tried your product for a couple of seconds and left right after may seem like a lost cause, but don’t need to be – don’t give up on them. Lots of things could have gone wrong along the way, but you can still regain your user’s attention. Use notifications to re-activate a churn user, send invitations for webinars, or – if all else fails – simply ask why they didn’t find the product fitting for their specific needs. Be creative and persistent. As Paul Graham said, your attention to users should be ‘insanely great’. At the end of the day, it is you who is trying to sell your product.
Monetize
When users become active it’s time to finally monetize your efforts and close the deal. In a perfect world this would happen within the trial period, but often people need more time than you were initially willing to give them. In such a case, whatever you do – don’t be mean! Pay attention to your users’ problems and feedback. Hopefully, some of them will convert into paying customers, after being swayed by the quality of your customer service.
Remember – you can only monetize users who are engaged and who had the time to build a strong relationship with your product. Otherwise, you’re just another guy in a trenchcoat trying to sell them a Rolex.
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