Saturday, January 05, 2008

When content design makes a difference…

My last few posts have been about landing page content, but since content strategy is a part of this blog, I’m going to discuss what strategic changes you could make to start improving conversions on your landing page.

First of all by content strategy, I’m referring to decisions regarding what kind of content, where it goes and how to say it. If you think you’ve covered everything you need to say in your landing pages, but are not getting the results you expect, consider the following:

Do the subheads tell you the story?
Face it. Your users scan, so make the content flow of the page as clear as possible.

Just by looking at your page can they “see” your product/offering?
Screenshots, pack shots, special offer… what is it? They want to see it, not ready about. And if there’s a nice, large call-to-action button right next to it, the more enticingly irresistible is your action. Warning: Don’t overdo it. A page with screenshot after screenshot of the results of your software product isn’t going to work. Use images which communicate or show the product in a visually-appealing way.

Does every page fold have a call to action?
If not try to rearrange your content or page elements so that a call to action is always visible (it can be the same “Sign up now!” button, or multiple methods of inducing the same action, or even different desired actions).

Are you using your space wisely?
Users obviously go from top to bottom, (and largely focus on the right hand side content) but that doesn’t mean they don’t come back up. So is that blank space under the left navigation necessary or could you be capturing emails addresses?

Can you communicate with more than words?
Ever read through a long list of benefits? Ha ha ha…. yeah right! So try spicing up your content by adding icons that can visually communicate your benefits, and attract eyeballs to that (most crucial) part of the page.

I’ve recently had some success with pages where the content was great, but the page itself simply needed some design improvements. The points above have helped me ensure each element on the page is working towards moving that conversion needle up.

Hope it does the same for you!