Question

Topic: Website Critique

Landing Page Feedback Please.....

Posted by Anonymous on 3/24/2010 at 4:45 PM ET 500 Points
Hi Everybody!


First off, just wanted to say how much of a help this site has been. There are some really knowledgeable folks on here and the information offered is unbeatable for the price. So, many thanks to all of you :) Now on to the good stuff.....

My partner (an attorney) and I have been running a successful offline attorney marketing business for about (6) years now. We are s-l-o-w-l-y making the transition to the online world. A little bit late, however, better late than never as they say...lol.

We just finished the design process for our first landing page. Hoping all of you can take a peek at the mock-up and give us your "two cents".

The landing page itself is only the first part of a (3) step sales process. We will be advertising the page through an aggressive PPC campaign on the big three (google, yahoo & bing).

Finally, we have a few other landing pages being designed as we speak. Collectively, ALL of the landing pages will be tested against one another to see which page pulls the best response & converts better.

Please give us your honest opinions. But, do be nice :) Constructive criticism is the goal. Hey, we're people too ya know. Based on your feedback, we'll either be feeling really good about our choices, or, we'll be crying in our beers tonight.

Anyways, thanks in advance. Fire away!!!

https://www.shtuchka.net/odesk/003_blue.jpg
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by mgoodman on 3/24/2010 at 5:23 PM Accepted
    Overall, a nice job that will get you in the game.

    The key will be to make sure the headline message on the landing page matches the promise/offer in the ad that pulls people to that landing page. This "message match" is critical to conversion.

    People have to see that the offer for which they clicked is exactly what they're getting. If you test other landing pages, you'll want different ads for each one, otherwise you are not testing a "message matched" set.

    Before you go live with that site, there are a number of grammar/punctuation errors, and you'll want to fix those ... but that isn't what you're asking, is it?

    Also, you show a hardcopy book, but the offer is for an eBook. You might want to somehow minimize that dissonance. (Either offer the hardcopy book at a price, or show something that doesn't look like a hardcopy book.)

    Next, you'll improve conversion if you can do without the phone number in your form. Every additional bit of information you require up-front cuts down on the conversion.

    Finally, you may be missing an opportunity to pick up some valuable information for future offers or copy improvement by not letting your audience segment itself before asking for the eBook. You might learn, for example, that your best prospects are new lawyers going out into their own practices, not long-time practicing attorneys. Etc.

    There's a good MarketingProfs seminar that deals with landing pages. If you haven't seen/heard it, you might want to give it a shot. (It will just take an hour of your time, and it's free too!) The seminar is titled: High-Performance Landing Pages that Boost Your Bottom Line. Check out this page:
    https://www.marketingprofs.com/marketing/online-seminars/226
  • Posted on 3/24/2010 at 5:37 PM Author
    Thanks for the feedback so far guys...and gals :) Keep it coming!!!

    Just to answer the question as to why we are requesting a phone number. Our experience and skill is in sales & marketing. Specifically closing. Since we work with attorneys nationwide, the only way we close business is by phone. We have been doing this successfully for years.

    We DO realize that asking for a phone number will reduce the number of responses., however, we are interested in motivated prospects...NOT browsers. The way we see it is, we would rather have fewer committed, serious, motivated prospects versus the "shoppers". The psychology is similar to the old direct marketing technique of asking someone to pay the postage or a small fee for information. More qualified leads.

    Hope this fills ya'll in a bit more :)
  • Posted by mgoodman on 3/24/2010 at 9:41 PM Moderator
    I think Karen makes a good point. You might be better off building trust by giving your eBook to more people (by not requesting the phone number right up-front). If you make your case well enough through the eBook, they'll come back for more and you can get the phone number then.

    You can also build more trust by segmenting your market and speaking to each segment differently, or at least making the phone number optional.

    I think you may scare off perfectly good prospects by asking for too much before you've given them any reason to trust you.

    Of course this is testable too.
  • Posted on 3/24/2010 at 10:44 PM Author
    Thank you for all of the great responses so far folks!!!

    However, methinks the topic is getting a little bit "off course". The purpose of the post was to get our landing page critiqued.

    I would like to add a response to Karen & Mr. Goodman though.

    Our company provides marketing services to help attorneys grow their businesses. We happen to be VERY good at what we do. We have been very successful for a number of years by advertising in traditional media sources. Someone sees our ad, requests information & then decides whether to use our expertise after doing their due diligence. Simple.

    We are offering our FREE ebook as a way to position ourselves as authorities or experts in our line of business. Remember, we're totally new to the online world. The ebook provides a WEALTH of information to the reader. From there, we provide to them a FREE SECOND offering of marketing advice. Again, we do not charge a nickel for this. Only after this do we attempt to close the attorneys on utilizing our services.

    Just to use an example...This forum provides plenty of leads for the folks who answer questions and have a link to their website. Suppose for a second Mr. Goodman & Karen that you answered a question I had posted on here. And then, based on your fantastic advice I decided to look up your website with the possibility of hiring you for your knowledge. From there, after speaking with you, suppose that I asked you to provide me with free information /services. Well, I'm pretty sure you guys don't work for free and would hang up the phone on me. But, let's just say that you DID provide a freebie to help "sell" me on your services. If I came back again for a second round of free advice and/or services, would you give that to me too? I highly doubt it.

    The bottom line is, just like everybody else out there in business, we have to make a profit. When is giving away free information & knowledge enough?

    All our company is looking for is a warm lead. If an attorney cannot commit to utilizing our services after (2) rounds of 110% FREE, first-class practice building information from us, will they ever?!

    BTW, the attorneys who choose NOT to use our services stay in our database for future follow-up. Based on (6) years of record keeping & number crunching, after following up with additional freebies, only (4) percent of these folks use our services. The rest of the bunch? Well, we normally get calls from them every so often looking for.....you guessed it.....more FREE INFORMATION!!! We normally equate these people to the folks that already own homes but go house hunting on weekends because they have nothing better to do :) Professional information seekers...lol.

    I think both of you are highly knowledgeable people, however, IMHO I think you guys are WAY off base on this one.

    P.S. - Please do let me know when would be a convenient time to call both of you so I may take advantage of your free business services :)

    P.P.S. - I have been "trolling" on here for a few weeks now. The information on here is usually top-notch. However, that doesn't mean we always see eye-to-eye on things. But again, I do thank all of you for chiming in and being real.
  • Posted on 3/25/2010 at 12:50 AM Author
    Hi vannamenc,


    Thank you immensely for your feedback. As to your comment about adding more information on who the author is, we DID consider that, but, decided against it. The reason? Well...

    Most people don't give two craps who WE are. Rather, they are ONLY interested in what we can deliver to THEM. Especially since Ron (my attorney partner who wrote the book) isn't a "brand name" speaker or author. So, based on these factors, we decided to dedicate the space to benefits. As many as possible.

    Most consumers only care about WIIFT. What's in it for them. They couldn't give a hoot if the author is old or young, rich or poor, etc. Unless of course, to reiterate, there is a known "name" or product that carries some cache to use a selling point. And we're not at that stage yet.

    We do have several other landing pages in various stages of development however. Some of these pages DO indeed have a bit of bio information on the author. We just have to test them against each other to see which pulls the best :)

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 3/25/2010 at 8:53 AM Accepted
    What's the difference in functionality between the two buttons (Get Your eBook! and Download your FREE eBook Now!)?

    "The nations..." should be "The nation's..."

    Vincent Pari - can you add the state of his law practice? It'll make it more tangible.

    What about contact information for your business on the landing page, in case someone wants to contact YOU?

    Ensure that your landing page isn't just a picture with a form - you want your text to be visible to search engines for organic SEO purposes.

    Is your work guaranteed? If so, end your header with it: "How to Create....Budget! ...Guaranteed!)
  • Posted by Frank Hurtte on 3/25/2010 at 10:50 AM Accepted
    I reviewed the page and feel like it is nearly perfect. One very personal comment, I am not 100% sure that I like the picture of Mr Partridge.
    First of all, it looks like it was taken with a green screen and pasted over the law books.

    And, please bear with me on this, I am not sure his smile portrays the right message... there is something that just bothers me...
  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 3/25/2010 at 1:31 PM Accepted
    Joe, I disagree that the conversation has gotten away from the topic.

    You asked for a critique of the landing page, and that is what you got. If anything, I'd be thankful for the fact that people are going beyond commenting on your layout, colors, the user experience, etc., and ALSO commenting on your strategy as it relates to the landing page.

    If you are so busy with leads that you need to reduce their number, then by all means ask for more information to whittle that number down. You already know that the more data you ask for (or require), the lower your response will be. Will they be better qualified as a result? Only time will tell.

    I think it was Karen who suggested that you ensure that your free ebook also be a terrific marketing device with calls to action inside. This is key, since ideally you want people to read the free ebook and then say, "This guy's a genius -- whatever he's selling, I'm buying!"

    You seem to be very focused on not wasting time with tire-kickers and professional information gatherers. Fair enough. But your marketing/sales model is not very expensive on an incremental basis if you stick to email; it's only if you decide that you need to call everyone who gets the book where you could get bogged down.

    Perhaps if we had some insight as to the end-game for you -- the ultimate upsell that you're trying to achieve -- we could ensure that the leads you gather are actually prospects for that kind of sale.

    Oh, and as for the disconnect between it being an ebook and the hardcover art, I don't think that's a problem. Just about every ebook I see has this kind of art, much like people download software, yet there's a "box" on the order page.
  • Posted by mgoodman on 3/26/2010 at 6:49 PM Moderator
    On the subject of ebook vs hardcopy book:

    Just FWIW, I think people are starting to understand the difference between an ebook and a "real" book. Real books are worth money, they are substantial, you can put them on your bookshelf or on a coffee table, etc. Their authors are "real authors," who obviously put a lot of thought and effort into the words they write.

    Ebooks, on the other hand, are becoming so plentiful, and are written by just about everyone with a service to sell, so that their perceived value is questionable. Especially the ones that are free are hardly worth what you pay for them.

    I'm not talking about the quality of the content, just the perception of value by your target audience. People still think that "real authors" write "real books." Ebooks are seen as more promotional and worth less.

    Just my $0.02 worth.
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