When driving visitors to a specific landing page of your website, it is important to ensure that the landing page is clean and professional looking, with clear and concise calls to action. You will want to make the most out of the landing page, which is especially true when there is a Pay per Click initiative in place. In other words, why spend advertising dollars to send traffic to a page that does not effectively encourage your visitors to complete some sort of actionable step?

So, what types of steps or action items should your landing page encompass? Below are a few that - in my opinion – every landing page ought to have.

• Calls to Action. I would recommend a minimum of two. A few examples include: Download Our Latest Whitepaper, Sign up For Our Monthly Newsletter. View our Portfolio, Buy Now, etc. These are all excellent forms of lead generation for your company and can be then used as a sales tool. Be sure to include any promotions or discounts you may be offering.
• Professional Looking Page. Often times, this is the first impression your visitors will have of your company. Make it count. Display the components of your website that make your company stand out above the rest. I.e. Awards, Certifications, etc.
• Relevancy to what the visitor searched on. For example, if you are a beauty supply site and the searcher typed in Volumizing Shampoo, he/she should be taken directly to the page within your website that supports this search query.
• Simplicity. The page should be concise, with a clear direction as to what you want your visitors to do.

Your landing pages are a very important part of your online marketing mix. Make the most out of them!

Lets play make believe for a moment, shall we? Claudia did a search on Google for a personalized baby gift. You are an online baby gift retailer running a Pay per Click Campaign through AdWords.  Claudia clicked on an ad (yours) found something she liked and completed her transaction successfully. That’s great, right? Wait, it gets better. She also happens to be invited to multiple baby showers in the immediate future and will be in the market for several more baby gifts. What measures can you take to get Claudia to revisit your site (instead of your competitor) and make future purchases?

There are a variety of ways a retailer can entice a first time customer to become a repeat customer.  This blog post will focus on 5 tips to test and see what kind of results you get. It is important to always remember to allow for a sufficient amount of time (minimum of 30 days) to determine the effectiveness of any new strategy and to employ an analytics tool to track your progress. We use Google Analytics internally, as do many of our clients.

1. Employ a Remarketing Strategy – Remarketing through AdWords gives advertisers the ability to reach a customer who has visited their site and exited without completing the desired action item. For example, if Claudia visited the make baby gift site, but bounced off without making a purchase, the advertiser could then serve up an ad as she browses sites within the Google Content Network. You can either use a generic branding ad or even offer an incentive to get the visitor to complete the transaction. You can also remarket differently to a visitor who did make a purchase, like Claudia. An example would be showing her a 20% off your next purchase banner.
 
2. Fresh Content - The more new, fresh and relevant content you add to your site, the better.  Doing so tells your visitors that there is always something new going on. A few examples include a blog or a newsletter article.  Keeping your site up to date with fresh content will make your visitors want to come back for more.

3. Special Offers - These can be as simple as a monthly/weekly/daily coupon, offer or promotion. The frequency of change can be based on a number of factors such as:  seasonality, inventory, etc. Be sure to keep the coupons current with expiration dates.
 
4. User Friendly Navigation - There are few things more frustrating than a site that is not easy to navigate. You want to make it seamless for visitors to check out your site and get to the page(s) they want to go to.
 
5. Social Media - Make no mistake; people are all about it. You should prominently display links to the channels you are participating in: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. and encourage your site visitors to “like” your Facebook page, follow you on Twitter and connect with you on LinkedIn. Being active on these sites allows you to communicate with your inner (social) circle. You can offer incentives geared specifically to this circle, which will then get them back to your website and maybe refer new business your way.

Imagine seeing an ad for a gorgeous high end restaurant, which compels a visit on your part. Upon arrival, the hostess is friendly, the dining room décor is exquisite and the ambiance is perfect. Everything seems great and then the food comes. As you take a bite expecting an angel choir, you’re abruptly hit with a taste that mimics the scratching of nails across a chalkboard. It’s no wonder that this restaurant is quickly crossed off your list, and friends and family are warned to never step foot in this deceiving place.  It’s sad, but it happens all the time across the web. Many companies are missing the key ingredient of good service which affects their cost per click campaign.

Good service is the key to maintaining an effective cost per click campaign because it causes people to return to your site and share kind words with friends and others. When people are satisfied with your product or service they’ll come back. Many companies try to go after the new customer, but there’s a lot to be said for a business that keeps their current customers happy. Happy customers actually help to improve the success of cost per click campaigns.

Within a cost per click campaign, branding is normally one of, if not the most successful campaign. Why? People trust the name and want to do business with that company. In fact, they’ll even tell complete strangers that Company A provided them with a great product or service. Then that stranger will go look for Company A to provide them with the same product or service.  Analytics backs this theory. Many companies who are running a cost per click campaign receive a good deal of revenue and return visitors through searches on their name. Here’s an example. A company may sell cup holders, and their campaign for cup holders does well. Now, add the company name before cup holders, such as “company A’s” cup holders and the success of the campaign doubles or possibly triples. Many companies like cost per click campaigns because they get some of their best ROI, from their name, especially if there reputable. Now let’s look at the flip side.

In the opening paragraph, the high end restaurant had everything going for it until the food came. It is imperative for companies to effectively deliver on the product or service that was promised. In fact, not following through can hurt a cost per click campaign. Some businesses think they can treat a customer any kind of way and still be successful because there’s always new customers out there. However, that’s not the case. Your business can start out with a strong cost per click campaign, but if the service or product isn’t up to par, the cost per click campaign will falter. It’s not because the campaign isn’t good, it’s because eventually people catch on and stop coming back. In fact, they’ll even warn others not to visit your site.  This can hurt a campaign in the short or long term. If your cost per click campaign isn’t producing like it used too and all of the metrics and competitors didn’t change, check your service.

Good service is the key ingredient to a successful business and also to a cost per click campaign. The best cost per click campaign in the world can drive millions of visitors to your site, but if your company fails to deliver, that campaign will be of no avail. Any way you slice it, good service helps to propel a quality cost per click campaign to new heights, which benefits your business.