Looking for Pies…

I live in a relatively small city in Wisconsin. On the highway outside of town, there are lots of farms.  Many of the farmers set up businesses on their property along the highway and sell fresh produce, baked goods, and of course, cheese!

This weekend, I was heading to a friend’s house for dinner and he asked me to bring dessert, so I decided to stop on the highway and get a fresh-baked pie.

A few miles out of town, I saw a family farm, so I swung off the road and pulled up outside their shop.  I ran inside, and there were about five or six people chatting around the counter. No one acknowledged me as I entered.

There was a man sitting behind the register chatting with what appeared to be his neighbors, so I quickly browsed his shop, looking for baked goods. I couldn’t find anything. Because he was so engrossed in his conversation, I did a second scan to make sure I hadn’t missed the pies.

I still couldn’t find them, so I stood to the side for a few minutes, feeling awkward and not wanting to interrupt his conversation.

Still, I was ignored. After about 2-3 minutes, I jumped back in my car and went down the road about 2 more miles and stopped at another farm.

Show Me Your Pies

Is your business website like the first farmer’s shop?  Is there a lot of activity, but the customer is ignored and feels awkward to interrupt you for your services?

Worse yet, is the customer unable to find your “pies”?

In a business with an online presence, powerful landing pages are vital!

Keys for Building Power-Packed Landing Pages

1. Be Clear!

Don’t make your customer guess what you want them to do.

I visited a site recently that was so confusing in its layout and design that I got frustrated and left. Make your user experience fool-proof.

Remember that everyone visiting your site is not as technologically versatile as you may be. They haven’t visited 100s of blog sites like you have. Put your CTA (call to action) in plain sight.

2. Create Intersections, Not Roundabouts!

You want to lead your readers down one road to an intersection and give them two calls to action: one for those ready to purchase and one for those who need more information.  (Tip: people are doing 2 things online: buying and browsing…that’s it.)

The marketing “genius” is the person who can engage his audience and convert them into a community, and then engage his community and convert them into customers.

Lead your readers clearly where you want them to go. Do not lead them into a roundabout that will give them 4-5 “exit ramps” from your website.  It is sometimes hard to do this step, because we see so many bad websites out there.(Honestly, I’m still tweaking mine to make it more clear).

I see a lot of sites that have free gifts (a whole bunch: videos, e-books, webinars, podcasts). It’s like the cyber version of “What’s behind door number one!?!”  They have a newsletter opt-in. They have blog post update opt-in. They have testimonial pages. They have “about” pages. They have “contact” pages. They have product pages.

Believe me, you need this information available on your site (for the browsers), but always remember the primary rule of online business is engagement.

Take a look at your “about” page. What about your contact page, etc? Do you re-direct the reader after they have encountered these pages or are your content pages ramps inviting them to exit (bounce) onto another road?  Make each page of your site a “landing page” with clear calls to action which will lead the reader back into engagement with your brand (you).

Keep them engaged by leading them from intersection to intersection until you have made them customers.

3. Remember Your Goal

Your goal (conversions…at least I hope that is your goal if you’re in business) is not necessarily your reader’s goal. The biggest key to building a power-packed landing page is fulfilling their goal while leading them to engagement (which will ultimately lead them to your goal).

Someone may visit your site 100 times before they purchase your product or service. I read The Middle Finger Project for a couple of months before I purchased Ash’s book, You Don’t Need a Job, You Need GUTS!

Ash kept me engaged with her brand through her killer content. She’s sarcastic, irreverent, but deeply thoughtful. I read a LOT of online content and most of it is mildly interesting, inspirational and entertaining.  There are a few authors, though, who I read religiously because their content is transformative.

You need all the cards stacked in your favor. You have to have killer content that transforms and power-packed landing pages making up an impenetrable engagement process.

The TMF Project was able to keep me engaged with the brand until I got so much value from the site that I had to have more (and I was willing to happily pay the price to get it)!

Final Key:

Lead your prospects exactly where you want them to go.  Make it clear what you want from them.  People are sheeple. Lead them where you want them and they will follow (but you gotta know where you are going and what you are doing first).

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