Know-How Exchange : SEO/SEM

Is it possible that your visitors don't know who the Aberdeen Group is or why reading it will dramatically improve their business? If not, then you're offering yet another thing to read without a strong ROI for their time to read it.

My friend I hope life is treating you well in your part of the town . Let me start of by saying I find it really amusing that I can come up with quick suggestions to other people's problems but find it hard to find swift solutions to my own. Just human nature I presume. I love your website BTW.

Anyways, we all hate spam (except when we do it for better SERPs ;p ) A guarantee that all information will be kept confidential and will neither be sold nor shared should help.

As a personal preference (just my thoughts I am by no means an expert) the call to action line:

Insert your information below and click the "Download Report" button.

appears too condescending for my sensibilities. Perhaps a subtle persuasive copy might do the trick .

Much respect .

1. There's no benefit in the ad or the landing page. What's in it for your target audience to download and read the report? How will they be better off? A free report is just one more thing to read, and if there's no immediate benefit, most people will just pass and move on to something that delivers a benefit.

2. You'll get a higher conversion rate if you request less information. Test just getting an email address; see what kind of response rate you get. Then you can get first name and email address; see what that does for you. You should find that there's an inverse correlation between number of fields and conversion rate.

3. Suggestion for the offering itself: Add value by creating an executive summary of your own that tells people what action they should take based on the findings in the report. That will make your offering more valuable AND establish YOU as the real expert, instead of some company that sells useless reports for $399. (If the truth be known, the free report is worth what you're charging for it -- nothing. Actionable conclusions and indicated actions are potentially worth thousands or even millions of dollars.)

The C.A.B approach can also be applied when looking for conversions:

C- Characteristic : ex. The Art of Seo book is full of useful information on SEO

A- Attribute: ex. This information will help your site be indexed for your chosen keywords.

B- Benefit : ex. This will bring your more customers , more often .

A thought: Maybe the item you've selected isn't something your audience recognizes or values. Maybe you would get more takers if you gave them a $15 certificate for lunch at a popular restaurant chain, or an Amazon.com gift certificate, or coffee and cake at the local Starbuck's.

That would tell you pretty quickly whether your target audience is buying your claim of a $399 value for the report. My guess: They'd rather have the $15 lunch voucher. If I'm right, your target audience is laughing at you for thinking they want the free report.