When it comes to marketing, there's no end in sight. You can optimize, A/B test, and optimize some more, and there will still be something else you can improve.
The key is knowing what's worth improving first, and which improvements will garner more ROI. So if your landing pages are performing well, it might be better to focus your efforts elsewhere.
But how can you know for sure if your landing page are in good shape? Here are six signs that your landing page needs to be redesigned or optimized to get you as many high-quality leads as possible.
1) Your landing page conversion rate is low
Your first indication that your landing page needs work is that it's not converting leads! If your conversion rate (CVR) is low, it's time to look at the design and content of your landing page.
Landing page CVR = # form completions / # landing page views
But how can you know if your conversion rate is low? Conversion rates depend on many different elements outside the content of the landing page:
- Your industry
- Whether your company is B2B vs. B2C
- The page's position in your buyers' journey (for example, a top-of-the-funnel ebook landing page will have a higher CVR than a bottom-of-the-funnel demo landing page)
- What kind of traffic you're driving to your landing page (paid vs. organic)
- Seasonality
- The age of the landing page
For this reason, it's hard to find benchmark data specifically for landing pages. Your own benchmark conversion rate will be a judgment call as you compare the CVRs of the various landing pages you've created.
For example, let's say you measure the CVR of your landing pages created each month, and they usually average between 50% - 55%. Ebooks yield 65% CVR, and webinars are a bit lower, around 40%. If you create a landing page for an ebook and it only has a 35% CVR, you'd know something's wrong with that page, even if 35% would be a high CVR at another company.
2) Your website conversion rate is low
Another data point to look at is your website conversion rate.
Website CVR = # of total conversions / # of website visitors
While your landing page conversion rate is more specific, your website conversion rate will indicate whether or not your entire conversion path needs a revamp. According to MarketingSherpa, benchmark website conversion rates are anywhere from 2% to 10%, depending on industry.
This should give you a good idea of what your website conversion rate should be at a minimum -- your goal should always be above average!
3) The quality of your leads isn't that great
Your landing page might be generating leads. But are they good leads? Are your sales reps working those leads and turning them into customers? If not, you may want to:
- Rewrite the copy to be more clear about what the visitor will be receiving by signing up.
- Increase your form length to better qualify your leads. This is a good option for when you're getting too many leads for your sales team to sift through.
- Chat with your sales team to learn what obstacles high-quality leads face. It might be an issue with the offer you're giving away, not just the design of the landing page. The offer itself might not be helping your audience solve any of their problems.
4) Your landing page doesn't pass the blink test
"The blink test" is the commonly accepted 3-5 seconds during which a visitor lands on your website, judges it, and decides if they want to stay there and do something, or jump ship.
Make sure that your landing page passes the blink test. Within 3-5 seconds, a visitor should know exactly what they'll get by filling out a form on your landing page.
You can use services like UsabilityHub and their five second test to determine if anonymous, random users understand what they'd be getting on your landing pages. Or you can print out your landing page, put it under your colleague/boss/spouse/parent/child's nose for five seconds, pull it away, and ask what the page is offering. If most of your test subjects get the answer right, your landing page passed the blink test.
5) You're using a lot of text
A dead giveaway that your landing page needs work is if it includes dense paragraphs of text. Text is overwhelming. Images and white space make website visitors happy.
Take a look at variations A and B here. Which version is more enticing?
Hint: Variation A, which is live here, is what we're going for.
6) You're missing an essential landing page element
Here are all the elements any landing page should include. If you're missing one, it's a sign that you should take a look at your landing pages and make sure they're following the best practices.
- A headline - says exactly what the offer is.
- An image - shows the offer (if necessary, it's an abstract representation of the offer).
- Text conveying benefit of the offer - concise, ideally in the form of bullet points.
- A form - should be above the fold.
- A submit button - shouldn't say "submit", but instead say "download" or "save your seat," etc.
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