But that’s not always the case. More and more businesses exist virtually, in the cloud. And while you’d expect these businesses to sell digital solutions, there’s one company that has made its mark selling appliances this way.

In fact, just last week, it hit a major milestone: 1 million fans on its Facebook page.

Introducing Appliances Online, where happiness is the core value, and nothing makes them happier than making others smile.

Appliances Online stands out as a business that doesn’t just follow the rules. It creates them.

• Selling large, physical products 100% virtually
• Breaking all expectations about how to sell in its industry
• Using Facebook to build trust and change people’s search habits

How has it done this? I interviewed AO’s social gurus Yossi Erdman and his partner in crime, Kate Barton, to find out.

What’s the secret of a great Facebook page for an ecommerce site?

It’s simple, really. Find the content on your site that people will connect to, whether that’s strange things about what you have in your fridge, the food that you like to cook in your new oven, or anything else related to your area of expertise that you think people will want to engage with.

We are lucky because we sell products that everybody needs (sometimes more than you can imagine). But you have to find the “thing” about your own product line that engages people.

Your growth in Facebook fans is pretty impressive. What’s the secret?

A mix of good content with smart advertising. There is no shame in using Facebook advertising and it’s something we are very proud of doing well.

But advertising itself doesn’t work. You need to create really good content.

We chose to have competitions for products we sell — this way we can talk about and advertise our products simultaneously — and create engaging content around them.

We take time to answer every customer or fan talking to us, and we believe that level of engagement is what makes people come back to us.

If you browse our page you will see faces first (it is FACEbook after all!) and then you might see products. We believe that’s what people want to see: some behind-the-scenes images, some funny things, and our social media team embarrassing ourselves.

How have Facebook ads and sponsored stories worked for you? Can you tell us what has and hasn’t worked?

We invest a lot into Facebook advertising. The most useful method is Page Post Sponsored Stories for desktop and mobile.

(Here’s a guide for creating Page Post Sponsored Stories.)

But in order for that to work you have to create very good content on your page posts. That’s why we have a great graphic designer working on our social content, and we have a video studio that we can use when we want to create pictures with our products.

How has Facebook boosted brand search traffic? How have you measured this?

We’ve seen a 60% uplift on branded searches, and we believe Facebook has driven most of this change.

More people are now searching for “Appliances Online” instead of just “washing machine.” But this change hasn’t occurred because these people are our Facebook fans (click ‘like’ once and that’s it).

We focus a lot on engaging our fans and making sure they see some quality content from us at least once a week. If we don’t have good content we don’t bother our fans.

You can read more about this in our Facebook case study.

You promote Facebook and other social profiles prominently on the site. What was the thinking behind this and how has it performed?

As we are a relatively unknown brand, we thought it could have a really positive effect on potential buyers to see their friends’ faces on our site, particularly if they have recommended us on Facebook.

We get really good feedback from customers almost on a daily basis, so we decided to show it on our website header as well.

Now when a potential customer comes to our website, they can see our latest feedback directly from Facebook. And if they’re connected to Facebook at the time they might see some of their friends because, with more than million fans on Facebook, there is a really good chance one of this visitor’s friends already recommended us.

We see 10% uplift in conversion when people visit our site when they are connected to Facebook and can see their friend’s name.

How many people are in the social team?

We now have 4 people on our social team, but we also have a designer who works with us on a daily basis, and all of our customer service queries are handled by our correspondence team, which has 10 people.

How often do you post on FB? How have you found the best frequency?

We don’t have a set way of doing this. To be honest, we feel that makes us more like a real person, rather than just another business.

Lots of people in the business are involved in managing the Facebook page and our social media. That’s the only way you can respond to every customer personally and make sure people get an answer as fast as possible.

Every week we post things on a different frequency. In general we really don’t like to spam our fans, so we will never post more than once or twice a day.

Many retailers have struggled to make FB “sell.” What have you done differently, and how do you measure sales/conversions from FB?

As an online retailer, we decided we have to invest in this platform and make it right. That’s why we involve so many people in the process of creating content and talking to customers.

It’s also why we invest in advertising on Facebook. (I know you have already seen at least one sponsored post from us, haven’t you?)

We measure direct sales from Facebook, but we mostly focus on branded searches. We don’t believe people see our ad on Facebook and then come and buy a washing machine immediately, as it’s a purchase you need some time to consider.

However, we do see more people search for Appliances Online than ever before and believe Facebook has a lot to do with it.

Using Facebook for our brand is definitely the right thing to do. Measuring by the great feedback we get from our customers (or customers to be) and the amount of interaction we have, we’re definitely doing the right thing.

You mentioned that you want to “invest in this platform and make it right.” What do you mean by that?

As an online retailer, we have no bricks and mortar — no real “face” to the business. When people come to our site, they need to know we are a trusted brand.

By using Facebook, we’ve built up fantastic brand awareness, and even integrated it into the homepage of our site.

Now when you come to our homepage from a Google search, you will see that over 1 million people recommend us on Facebook. You may even see the faces of your friends and family!

That trust in our brand is invaluable. So “making it right” is about building trust.

I you could give me a short checklist for “the perfect Facebook post,” what would you include?

1. A good call to action. For example “Click ‘like’ to…”
2. An engaging question “Tell us…”
3. A good, emotive image. We often use real products and real people (usually the social team), or custom designs for each campaign we run.

One last question: How do you focus on branded searches? What do you do behind the scenes to do this?

The important thing to remember is that we — the social media team — don’t work alone.

The Routes To Market team is our internal team that manually deals with PPC advertising and analytics. We work closely with them to track the rise in Google searches for “Appliances Online” and “AO” and the traffic driven to our site as a result.

In analysis, we can see that the growth of our Facebook following has led directly to the growth in search for our brand name.

Of course, we also measure direct sales from Facebook, but we get more insight by focusing on branded searches.

Fantastic tips!

Yossi and Kate have given us some in-depth information about how they think about social media.

Does that answer your questions? What challenges do you face in using social media to build your business?

About the Author: Kathryn Aragon is managing editor if The Daily Egg and publisher of the C4 Report. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.

The post Facebook Marketing: From 2,500 to 1 Million Fans in Just Two Years appeared first on The Daily Egg.

The thing nobody ever tells you, though, is how you are supposed to create all this great content.

If you dread staring at a blank screen and fret about coming up with something ground-breakingly awesome, don’t worry. You’re not alone.

It’s worth noting that the resources you’re about to read aren’t the “same old, same old” lists of sites and apps almost everyone already knows about (Google Docs and Evernote, anyone?).  They also aren’t particularly suited for fiction writers, screenwriters or individuals looking for guided help to create meaningful characters, plots and other story devices.

That said, however, if you want to produce better web content faster, these apps, websites and software programs can turn a blank screen into a creative bonfire.  Let’s take a look!

Wordcounter

Wordcounter helps you spot overly used words in your writing

More than just a simple word counter, this online service will help you spot overused words in your writing, even down to the smallest “ifs,” “ands” and “buts,” if you want it to be that detailed.  As a bonus, if you’re writing with a slant toward SEO, you can also use the Wordcounter to track the number of keywords in a document.

Cliché Finder

Cliché Finder – almost the best thing since sliced bread.

If you’re at your wit’s end with clichés, you don’t need to go back to the drawing board. You just need to check it with Cliché Finder.  This neat tool will find and uncover hidden clichés in your writing — phrases that have been used so much by so many people that they’ve lost their original punch.

Creativity Portal’s Imagination Prompt

The imagination prompt is full of ideas for your next blog post or article

If you hate blogger’s block, the Imagination Prompt can help by giving you a simple writing prompt to get you started.  Prompts can be as simple as “What is truth?” to as complex as “Tomorrow, I will do it differently…here’s how.”

You can also add onto these prompts by giving them your own twist, such as “What is truth in advertising?” or “What Sets Your Product Apart from the Crowd?”

Unstuck App

Unstuck lives up to its name by combining over 50 tips and nearly a dozen tools to help you “live better every day.”

Unstuck promotes itself as an app to get “on-demand coaching whenever you need it.” It offers mind maps, to-do lists and other tools that help you break things down into manageable chunks.

Stuck moments can be anything from “I want to repair my relationship with my dad” to “should I go back to work or not?” to “How do I get my 12-year-old to eat healthier?”  Unstuck is built on the principle that all you need to reach a solution is to let everything out, clear your head, and create a workable plan with workable goals.

For writing, Unstuck can help you clarify the goal of your article or post and find your writing groove by creating different milestones that organize what you want to say while helping you avoid going off on a tangent.

Zen Writer

Zen Writer embraces the simplicity of writing – without all the distractions.

Zen Writer is a software program under $10 that minimizes distractions (like checking your email or Facebook) by encompassing the entire width and height of your screen and making you devote it solely to writing.

Therapeutic music and natural scenery show in the background (which explains the program’s 60+ MB size) and all the extra stuff you might expect to find in a writing program — such as formatting, headings and tables — are stripped away so that it’s just you and your words.

Byword

Write a document on your PC, then finish it on your iPad

Byword is a neat app available on both Windows and Mac App stores that lets you write something (whether it’s a new chapter, a blog post or any type of written content) on one device and share it with others.

You can export your writing to HTML, PDF and rich text, and the device syncs to iCloud and Dropbox as well.  This is a great way to jot down thoughts, new topic ideas or creative inspirations as they happen, then follow up with them later.

Readability

Readability simplifies and streamlines web pages for easier reading while stripping out the clutter

Readability is not so much a writing app as it is a reading one.  It removes all the clutter from web pages, giving you a simple, easy-to-read document that you can then save to read later on your iPhone, iPad or Android device.  With a clean, uncluttered view, you can finally get to reading all those articles and posts you saved for later.  Readability is also available as an extension for Firefox.

StayFocusd (Google Chrome app)

StayFocusd allows you to limit the time you spend on distracting websites and online games

True to its name, Stayfocusd is a Google Chrome app that lets you limit the time you spend on time-sapping websites.

It’s incredibly customizable in that you can temporarily block entire websites, subdomains, and even in-page content like videos and games.  You can also choose how long to block them out, so if you absolutely, positively have to water your plants on Farmville, you can do it in an hour.

Synchroedit

Synchroedit is a collaborative writing software that lets multiple users in different locations work simultaneously on the same document

Ever wish that you and your colleagues could work on the same file without passing around different versions or accidentally overwriting the other’s work?  With Synchroedit, you can. This multiuser editor  lets multiple users edit the same document at the same time, online.  Because Synchroedit is fully WYSIWYG (What You See if What You Get), you can employ common formatting styles like bold, italics, indents and list styles.

What are your favorites?

Got a writing tool you can’t live without?  Whether it’s an online service, a program or an app, share it below in the comments and tell us how it helps you!

About the Author:  Sherice Jacob helps website owners improve conversion rates through landing page design, consulting and copywriting.  Learn more and download your free conversion checklist and web copy tune-up from iElectrify.com.

The post 9 Tools that No Serious Online Writer Should Be Without appeared first on The Daily Egg.

And it’s easy to see why.

Video is engaging, fun, and a heck of a lot more interesting than a page or two of text. What’s more, it works.

According to a study by comScore, website visitors are 64% more likely to buy a product from an online retailer after watching a video. After Crazy Egg launched its explainer video, conversion rates increased 64%, generating $21,000 in extra monthly revenue.

There are plenty of stats that help make the case for online video, but don’t go out and spend your hard earned money just yet. Producing an online video can be expensive and time consuming, and you want to do it right. So let’s first take a look at the essential ingredients for producing a video that converts.

1. Write a conversion-oriented script

I’ve said it a hundred times, but I’ll say it again — a well-written script truly is the foundation of any successful video. Take almost any summer blockbuster film for example. They spend millions on talent and special effects, but the script almost never lives up to the rest.

The same can be true of online videos. You can spend $50,000 or more on Avatar-esque 3D animation, but if the script doesn’t effectively communicate your message, it’s money down the drain.

Neil Patel gives a great overview for writing an explainer video script on his blog, Quicksprout (see steps #2-3 below).

He says to start by surveying your customers and potential customers. Figure out what currently confuses them about your product or service, and try to understand what problem you’re helping them solve.

Once you have a grasp on what really matters to your future viewers, you can begin the writing process.

For more ideas, check out this article on inexpensive video marketing.

My advice

Use the same simple script-development process we use at Demo Duck:

1. Illustrate a problem or pain point that your customers can relate to

2. Introduce a solution (your product or service)

3. Explain how it works (don’t get too detailed here)

4. Close with a convincing call to action

2. Use visuals that don’t suck

Now that you have a solid foundation in place, it’s time to think about the visuals.

I believe visuals are secondary to a well converting video, but they’re still important. If you go too “low budget” it will reflect poorly on your brand and give people the wrong impression of your company.

There’s nothing worse than a great company with an awful video. By the same token, getting too fancy with the visuals can distract from the message. Sometimes simpler is better (see the Eventbrite video below). And since your video may be the first impression people have of you, it’s critical to get the balance right.

My advice

If you’re shooting a live action video, make sure you invest in proper lighting and a decent camera. If you prefer animation, try to work with an experienced designer you trust — someone who can accurately reflect your brand and personality. At the end of the day, so long as use visuals that “don’t suck,” you should be okay.

3. Have a clear call-to-action

Any veteran salesperson will probably tell you that you need to “ask for the sale.” The same concept is true with online video.

At the end of your video, you should provide a clear next step for viewers. Ask them to sign up for a trial, give you a call, or make a purchase. And don’t just ask them, show them! A lot of video hosting platforms now give you the ability to add a clickable call-to-action at the end of your video.

Here’s a nice call-to-action example from Crazy Egg.

My advice

Social proof always helps, whether it’s mentioning your thousands of satisfied customers or flashing some high-profile logos. It works on the web, so why not in a video?

Another good way to drive action is to provide a clickable link at the end of the video. This could be part of the design on the web page where you host the video, or you could embed a link directly into the video which can be done pretty easily with most third party video hosting services.

4. Don’t forget proper hosting and placement

I’m always surprised how many companies spend good money on a video, only to place it on some interior page of their website in a second-rate video player. If you’re going to make a great video, don’t drop the ball before the finish line!

For starters, choose a video host based on your business goals. A lot of B2C companies choose YouTube because they have billions of users and can serve as a platform for taking your video “viral.”

If you’re in the B2B space like us, check out a service like Wistia or Vidyard. Wistia is built with businesses in mind. It offers access to video analytics and the ability to customize your unbranded player any way you want it.

It also keeps your video on your domain, which means that if it ends up as a rich snippet in Google search results, visitors will end up on your website and not somewhere else. Like this one did…

My advice

Put your video somewhere people can find it. It doesn’t necessarily have to be front and center, but it shouldn’t be a game of Where’s Waldo either. And don’t just confine your video to your website, use it in e-newsletters, email signatures, and at company events.

Have you been leveraging online video at your business? Please share your conversion tips in the comments!

Andrew Follett is the Founder and CEO at Demo Duck and Video Brewery, where he builds handcrafted animated videos and explainer videos. He lives in Chicago, loves startups, and enjoys traveling. You can find more video tips and tricks on his blog or follow him on Twitter @demoduckvideo.

The post 4 Essential Ingredients for a Video that Converts appeared first on The Daily Egg.

Which means you likely need an eCommerce solution that works for your business model and needs.

How do you decide which one is right for you? Start by reviewing this list of the top 24 shopping cart solutions.

This infographic is Sponsored by WP Responsive Themes & Designed by Graphs.net

And now, for your linking pleasure, here are those services again (with some excerpts from their sales copy)…

ContentShelf

Fully loaded with over 50 features, Content Shelf has everything needed to sell and deliver digital products.

Shopify

Create a website store with all the bells and whistles.

• 100+ professional themes + mobile themes
• Or design a custom store
• CMS + blogging platform
• Social sharing

Volusion

Website, store and hosting combined:

• All-in-one ecommerce solution
• Mobile and Facebook store included
• Average 3x more online sales

Web.com

• Great designs
• Built-in set-up wizard
• Email marketing + analytics

1ShoppingCart

All-in-one eCommerce solution

• Fully customizable storefront design
• Online product catalogs
• Upsell and autoresponder features

CS cart

Fully customizable eCommerce platform for medium-sized businesses:

• More than 70 payment gateways
• Build-in affiliate program
• On-page checkout

WP eStore

A lightweight shopping cart plugin that integrates with membership and affiliate plugins to give you advanced features without a tech guy by your side.

• No monthly fees. You buy it, you own it
• Elegant product display
• Detailed training videos and support

King Cart

TURN-KEY solution to your e-commerce needs – featuring Domain Name registration, Page/Site Hosting, Merchant Account, Gateway and Shopping Cart in one complete package. Cost depends on your sales.

Shopping Cart Elite

Shopping Cart Elite allows you to push your products in various marketplaces including eBay, Amazon, Craigslist and many others. It uses your existing product database and allows you to create templates that resemble your product page.

ShopSite

With this e-commerce software and intuitive interface, you can have a store online in 15 minutes. Your online store won’t outgrow our shopping cart, and you will not need expensive add-ons in order to have a fully functioning store.

Tomato Cart

TomatoCart is open source ecommerce solution developed and maintained by a number of 64,000+ users from 50+ countries and regions. It’s free to download and share.

Magento

Offers flexible, feature-rich solutions that address a wide range of business sizes, needs and budgets.

OS Commerce

Provides you the tools to set up your very own complete and self-hosted online store website for free.

Prestashop

Free, fully scalable, open-source ecommerce solution. Offers enhanced features, higher speed, and an easy-to-manage back office.

Zen Cart

Zen Cart® is a free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart software. The ecommerce web site design program is being developed by a group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think ecommerce web design could be and should be done differently.

OpenCart

OpenCart is feature-rich, easy to use, search-engine friendly, with a visually appealing interface.

• Unlimited Categories and products
• Multi Currency/Language
• Product Reviews/Ratings
• Templatable
• Automatic Image Resize
• 20+ Payment Gateways
• 8+ Shipping Methods

SpreeCommerce

Spree is a 100% open source e-commerce platform powered by the popular Ruby on Rails framework. It was designed to make customization and upgrades as simple as possible.

Lite Commerce

• Free, open-source e-commerce solution (OSL 3.0)
• Can work like a Drupal 7 module and as a stand-alone web application
• Pre-built Ecommerce CMS package installing both LiteCommerce and Drupal
• Clean and smooth user interface with AJAX enhancements
• Quick and easy one-page checkout
• Highly customizable modular architecture with the automatic upgrade function
• Code optimized for high performance

GetShopped

Right out of the box you can use this WP e-Commerce Plugin to make a beautiful online shop.

• Multi-tier pricing for quantity discounts.
• Search Engine Friendly URLs
• 100% customizable
• One-page checkout

ShopperPress

ShopperPress is a Premium WordPress theme that transform WordPress into a fully functionality online store with shopping cart functionality.

Fat Free Cart

FatFreeCart is a free shopping cart developed by the team behind E-junkie shopping cart. It works inside your website or blog and will even work from your MySpace page. It is simply a copy-paste cart and does not require you to register with us or install anything.

InfusionSoft

Everything you need — CRM, e-commerce, social media and email marketing — in a single, powerful system that automatically converts leads into new customers and grows sales from existing ones.

3d Cart

Easily build, edit, and maintain your online shop, and collect orders without any programming or HTML knowledge.

• Pick a template or customize
•  Upload your logo
•  Upload your product images
• Add descriptions & pricing

FoxyCart

One of the fastest checkouts available. Its unique and innovative checkout is fast, conversion optimized, and profitable. Get reduced time to market, lower implementation costs, lower long-term costs.

You know you have a good eCommerce site when…

…it generates:

1. More trust
2. Repeat customers
3. Higher conversions
4. More engaged users
5. Higher search engine ranks
6. Word of mouth

Do you agree with our list? What have we left out? Add your favorites in the comments below.

About the Author: Kathryn Aragon is managing editor if The Daily Egg and publisher of the C4 Report. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.

The post The 24 Best Shopping Cart Solutions for Your Business [Infographic] appeared first on The Daily Egg.

Consider these facts:

• A 2011 Search Engine Land report showed that 59% of consumers look for local businesses each month and 54% of searchers use zip codes and city and town names to localize results.
• Another study cited in SEOmoz’s Beginners Guide to SEO showed that 79% of searchers are looking for local information.

That’s why it’s no longer a question of whether to optimize your business website for local search, but how soon you can do it. And to help, let’s look at some tips to help you get started with local search optimization.

1. Identify Local Search Terms

If you’re going to optimize your site, you have to know what people are looking for. To find this out:

• Use the Google AdWords keyword tool or something similar to find local keywords in your niche that are attracting search traffic.
• Check out your web analytics to see what local terms visitors have used to find your site.

Local search terms are usually a combination of the town or city where your business is located and the type of service you offer.

Finally, think about what services you offer locally that you want people to find on your site — is it optimized so that can happen? If not, the next step will address that.

Helpful resource: Keyword Research Tools For Local Markets (Search Engine People)

2. Optimize Existing Pages

If you have a business website, you already have pages that describe the services you offer, so your first step is to make it clear that you target a particular local market. You can do this by:

• including your town or city in page titles and descriptions, along with the name of the service you offer. Remember to keep page titles to 70 characters or less and descriptions to 156 characters or less.
• adding local contact details (business name, address and phone number) on appropriate pages.
• add a map to your site (don’t forget to write out location details in text too, so search engines can index the information).

You can also optimize page and post content by including local terms (without keyword stuffing, of course).

Helpful resource: Maximizing WordPress Local SEO with Yoast – Part 1 (MVestor Media)

3. Localize Your Content

If your business has multiple locations, then there are other options. These include:

• creating landing pages for each location (a combo of Unbounce for landing pages and Crazy Egg for analytics is one way to do this well). Use these pages to group your local service offerings, but be careful to avoid duplicate content.
• using a software solution to localize your content, like the Yoast Local SEO search plugin, Rio SEO or similar products.

These solutions will help improve your website’s local search engine ranking.

Helpful resource: 7 Ways to Optimize a National Site for Local Search (Geekless Tech)

4. List It So They’ll Love It

After optimizing and localizing your content, the next step is to get listed in local directories.

In addition to the obvious information (business name, address, phone number and other contact details), make sure you write a great description that includes your key local search term. Depending on the directory, you may also be able to add photos and tags. Aim for consistency, so wherever people find you, they see the same information.

It’s a good idea to use Google Webmaster Tools to ensure that your site is shown to target your chosen geographical area. In addition, Tuts+ recommends the use of structured data as another way to share local information.

Helpful resource: Local Search Optimization, It’s All About Timing (Search Engine Journal)

5. Remember Mobile Users

Mobile users are increasingly using their devices and apps to search for relevant information, as this eMarketer data shows. In the 8 months prior to December 2012, there was a 21% increase in the number of mobile searches and a 25% increase in the number of mobile users searching for local information.

A 2012 study by Localeze supports this finding. Recent developments such as the launch of Google Now show that businesses must also be ready for mobile local search.

Helpful resource: Keys to an Effective Mobile Local Search Strategy (SearchEngineWatch)

6. Get Social

Speaking of mobile, listing your business in Foursquare and letting users check-in is a good way to leverage the power of local search and build interaction via special incentives and discounts. Optimizing your Facebook business page to take advantage of Graph Search is also useful, as is  Google+ Local.

Helpful resource: Facebook Graph Search Optimization: 3 Tips for Small Businesses (ReachLocal)

7. Ask Your Customers

The last piece of the local search ranking puzzle is recommendations, reviews and general feedback from your customers. It doesn’t much matter if there are a few negative or neutral reviews — as long as customers are talking about you, you’ll be considered more relevant in local search. If you do get great reviews, use them on local search pages on your site to make both search engines and users even happier.

Helpful resource: The Most Important Element In Local SEO: Reviews And Recommendations (Business2Community)

Have you optimized your site for local and mobile search yet? What issues have you found most challenging? Additional help is available from:

• 40 Important Local Search Questions Answered (SEOMoz)
• How Local Search Will Evolve in 2013 (HubSpot)

• 3 Local SEO Tools That Are Flying Under The Radar (The Daily Egg)

• 7 Key Factors that Can Boost Local Search up to 900% (The Daily Egg)

Image credits (Flickr): Danny Sullivan/ Bob Massa/ Mint Social

The post 7 Ways to Score with Local Search Optimization appeared first on The Daily Egg.

If your answer involves fancy technology or loads of affiliate links, you’ve missed the point.

According to Steve Krug in Don’t Make Me Think, the home page has four jobs:

1. Show me what I’m looking for.
2. Show me more.
3. Show me where to start.
4. Establish credibility and trust.

Tall order, right?

So let’s look at how four usability/conversion experts have done it on their sites… to get a sense of what works for them so you can do it yourself.

Unbounce

Unbounce is a landing page tool that make it easy to build, publish and test high-performing pages without an IT guy by your side. (On a side note, this tool works beautifully with Crazy Egg’s heat map software.)

The layout

This home page has one purpose, to get you to test drive the software.

It starts with two promises:

1. Build, publish & A/B test landing pages in minutes.
2. Increase the ROI of your marketing.

Then you’re asked to respond. The orange button asks you to “build a high-converting landing page now.” At the bottom of the page, the offer is made again: “Get more clicks, leads and conversions on your landing pages. Start a 30-Day Trial.”

In case you want more information before accepting your free trial, the page also gives you:

• Social proof: 4,100 companies use Unbounce, including Intuit, Amazon and Twitter.
• Testimonials from customers at two more big-time brands, HootSuite and Kissmetrics.
• A little more information on landing pages, with links for readers who want more.

Why it works

When people visit Unbounce, it’s probably from a search for a landing page software. (As a test, I searched for “easy landing page” and found Unbounce near the top of page 1. The same with “landing page tool” and “landing page without IT.”)

As soon as I land on the page, I know I’m in the right place because of the brand promise across the top of the page. But it’s such a good promise, I suspect I’ll get even more than I expect.

And the page has a clean design with lots of white space, so I don’t have any trouble navigating the information on the page.

The page definitely measures up to Krug’s requirements for a home page:

• The promise tells searchers they’re in the right place.
• The unexpected perk is the simplicity of the product. Just three simple steps can yield a high-performing landing page.
• Social proof and testimonials convey trust and credibility.
• And where to start? Unbounce suggests a trial of the product.

One of the things I like about this page is that Unbounce doesn’t try to share the whole story on the home page. This is a sophisticated product, so there’s probably a lot to tell people. But all that’s shared on the home page is the core benefit. If you want more information, links are available.

How you can do it

No matter how exciting your product is or how big your story, don’t overwhelm your visitors the moment they click onto your page. Find the most compelling benefit and the strongest offer, and feature them.

Then take people on a journey through your website to learn the rest of the story. Think of it as a treasure hunt. One gold nugget here and another there.

Reveal your story one benefit at a time, and visitors will enjoy the hunt.

ConversionXL

Peep Laja offers website makeovers and reviews to help you improve your conversion rate. One of his tenets is “noise reduction,” or lean design, and his website is a case study in simplicity. Here’s his home page:

The layout

Against a white background, stark black and red text spells out the brand promise: websites that sell.

There’s no sidebar to distract you. No images or icons. This page is the elevator speech for Peep’s consulting business.

Below the brand promise, Peep tell you what you’ll find on the website: “advice that gets you better return on your marketing efforts,” with three bullets underneath.

Finally, you’re invited to sign up for his newsletter.

Why it works

A little-known trick among writers is to place the most important word or phrase at the end of a sentence — or, in this case, line of text.

That’s exactly what Peep does here. The last word of the first line is “websites,” and the last word of the next is “sell.” That’s his promise in two words. The fact that “sell” is in red simply adds to the energy.

While I’ve heard varying reports on wide opt-in forms — mostly that they don’t perform as well — on this page, it may work, if only because there’s nothing else to do here.

This page performs well against Krug’s requirements.

• You know what the site is about.
• The bullets hint at something more (particularly the ones that promise information no one else shares and making more money).
• You don’t worry about where to start because the options are limited.

The only thing this home page doesn’t do is overtly build trust and credibility. That’s where the clarity of this page comes into play, though. Since there’s no hint of hype, I’m inclined to trust him.

How you can do it

This style of home page is definitely worth testing. Try distilling your brand promise into one simple statement, with a few bullet points to express what people will find on your site.

Personally, I’d like to add icons to each bullet point and link them to a second-tier web page. But that’s just me.

BlueAcorn

Blue Acorn is a full service eCommerce agency that helps retailers and brands get more sales with its build/attract/optimize approach. It takes care of design, development, marketing, and optimization for clients, so everything seamlessly works together.

The layout

When you land on this page, there’s no doubt about what you’ll find. The brand promise, “We drive eCommerce growth for retailers and brands,” is front and center. Below it is BlueAcorn’s three-step process: Build, Attract, Optimize.

To the left, there’s a ribbon that floats as you scroll down. It repeats BlueAcorn’s three-step process, and adds three extra navigation links. (The screen capture isn’t exactly right, probably because the element floats. *sigh*)

This ribbon and the interactive graphic in the body of the page create a unique, eye-catching anchor for this home page. They invite play and make you want to explore to see what other treasures you might find.

Scroll down and you get a mini sales presentation:

• Differentiation: short blurbs explaining what BlueAcorn does that’s unique
• Social proof: logos from big-name brands that trust BlueAcorn.
• Introduction to the blogs

Why it works

This home page is beautifully laid out, informative, and best of all, fun.

All the marketing pieces are present. But after playing with the interactive elements, you’re already convinced. Differentiating statements are just icing at this point.

Does it line up with Krug’s requirements? Yes.

• The brand promise tells you what the website is about.
• The interactive graphic promises more good stuff inside.
• The ribbon tells you where to start exploring.
• Trust is built by clear, concise differentiation and its mention of client brands I recognize.

How you can do it

Try to break down your customer experience into three benefits… or your process into three steps. Make a landing page for each and link to them from your home page.

Of course, if you can make an interactive graphic, by all means, do that too.

MackWebSolutions

Mack Web Solutions is an organic web marketing agency dedicated to creating fresh, clean web designs that avoid ever-changing internet “fads.” It prides itself on keeping up with best practice so clients don’t have to.

The layout

This is a sleek home page with a modular design that keeps you interested without overwhelming you.

Navigation is at the top right.

Below that is a cute headline: “It’s Mack. Not Mac.” This blurb explains what the agency does (web marketing) while creating a mental connection between its brand and Mac’s.

To the right is a link to the blog. Then, in a three-column section at the bottom of the page, come the marketing elements:

• What we brag about
• How we do it
• Who we hire

Each module on the page links to an internal page that gives more information, allowing visitors to pick whatever topic they want to learn more about.

Why it works

This page is attractively designed and has the look and feel of a big-name brand, so my first impression is favorable.

While this page is a little text heavy — I can’t grasp what’s going on here unless I read — there’s enough white space to divide sections and give a sense of space, so it doesn’t feel like the page is all words.

Does the page perform Krug’s four requirements for a home page? Sort of.

• It doesn’t tell me plainly what the brand does and makes no brand promise, per se. It’s implied but not clearly stated.
• There’s no real hint of better stuff inside, unless you count the brand’s sassy personality. The first time I visited this website, I clicked through to a lot of pages, just to soak up more of this writing style. But then, I’m a writer. I do weird things like that.
• Navigation and on-page links do a good job of helping me figure out where to start.
• It doesn’t rely on numbers or brand names to build trust. Instead it uses a flash presentation of bragging rights. For brands that don’t have 100,000+ followers or big-name clients, this is a good way to go. It’s subtle, but it still builds credibility.

How you can do it

A modular design like this one makes it easy to present lots of information without creating a long stream of text that no one wants to read.

Put a brand promise in the main block of text so visitors know what you do or what they’ll gain from exploring your site. Then, like Mack, put three marketing elements underneath, each linking to an internal landing page that offers more information.

The take-aways

As you can see, great home pages don’t overload visitors with too much detail. They serve as an entry to your site, not an information dump.

1. Simpler is better: simple navigation, simple copy, simple design.
2. Drive just one action, so visitors know what to do next.
3. Lots of white space allows you to provide more information without overwhelming visitors.
4. Pare down your message to the core. One brand promise and three marketing elements may be all you need.

Then, following Krug’s advice, make sure people know at a glance what you do, what they’ll learn if they stay on your site, and where to start. Add a few credibility elements, and you’re good to go.

About the Author: Kathryn Aragon is managing editor of The Daily Egg and publisher of the C4 Report. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.

The post Home Pages that Hit the Mark (And How Yours Can Too) appeared first on The Daily Egg.

It’s a high-competition market, with Google’s Keyword Tool estimating cost-per-clicks at more than $8 for the keywords “accounting software.”

Below we dissect the AdWords ad and landing page combos of the four top competitors — who, by the way, own an impressive 66% (or higher) share of the market, according to the spy software we use — battling it out for this highly competitive keyword.

So here are the four “winners,” along with some lessons you can take away and apply to your own AdWords campaigns…

QuickBooks

The Ad:

Keyword = Search Query. The ad uses the keyword “accounting software” and, because that’s the search query that triggered the ad, it appears in a bold font. This is often a good strategy because using the keyword in the ad makes the ad more relevant and the bold font helps it stand out more.

Better headline. Note the company name in the headline. Generally you should put that space to better use. In the case of market leader QuickBooks, however, they can probably get away with it. But I’d still be testing alternative headlines.

Wrong focus? Of all the features and benefits QuickBooks could focus on in the ad, I wouldn’t think that re-downloading is one of the more powerful ones people are interested in.

I could be wrong. But after looking at their landing page, I’m all the more convinced. Let’s take a look…

The Landing Page:

Suspicion confirmed! Re-downloading isn’t mentioned anywhere on the page.  In fact, I spent a few minutes looking at some other sales pages on the QuickBooks site and didn’t notice a mention of re-downloading anywhere. If it’s that big a deal, it should be easy to find and mentioned often.

Also, one of the most important strategies in AdWords is to back up the message in your ad on your landing page. This ad-landing page combo doesn’t do that.

QuickBooks has strong benefits to choose from…Free 30 Day Trial…a guarantee (it pays for itself within 60 days or your money back)…free support and upgrades, etc. Those seem like much stronger claims and I’d definitely want to test those benefits out in their ads to try to optimize the campaign.

Landing page split into two sections. QuickBooks Online (the service it seems Intuit most wants to promote) gets the prime real estate on the left, taking up 2/3 of the space. The software/existing user side of things goes on the right and gets 1/3 of the space.

I point this out because a lot of businesses have different products/services they want to promote that speak to different audiences. However, in AdWords, you can’t always tell from the search query exactly who the searcher is and what they’re looking for. In those situations, it’s worth testing a landing page layout similar to QuickBooks’ and letting visitors segment themselves based upon their specific needs.

Quick Tip

Continue the “scent” of your ad onto your landing pages. When your messaging is in synch in both places,  your chances of conversion goes way up.

FreshBooks

The Ad:

Hit the emotions. The headline plays off the emotional side of accounting software by posing the question “Fear Accounting Software?”

Hitting the emotions can be very effective in ad copy (especially since your competitors’ ads are likely mind-numbingly boring!). And since a lot of FreshBooks’ messaging revolves around how simple and intuitive their software is to use, speaking to those who are fearful and/or intimidated by accounting software works well here.

Take advantage of the Display URL. Notice how their Display URL includes the words “Small-Business”? This makes it clear who the software is for and calls out to that audience. And it does it by taking advantage of a part of an AdWords ad most advertisers ignore.

In the Display URL, you don’t have to use the actual URL of the page your ad leads to. As long as the domain in the ad matches the domain of the landing page, you can do whatever you want with the 35 characters you have for your Display URL (including using a subdomain like “small-business.freshbooks.com”). Make the most of it!!

The Landing Page:

Clear call-to-action. There’s no question on the landing page what they want you to do…Try it Free for 30 days.

Be careful when you embed YouTube videos. The embedded YouTube video gives a nice overview of what FreshBooks does. However, notice from the screen capture (taken after I watched the video) that it’s displaying a number of related videos.

Four of them are related to FreshBooks. Two aren’t.

When generating the embed code for YouTube videos, you have the choice to show related videos or not. Don’t show them! You don’t want people to get distracted by other videos and leave your site.

Add more proof. One thing I’d test more on this landing page is adding some proof and credibility elements above the fold. FreshBooks is up against some big players in this market so it needs to strongly make the case why prospects should use it as opposed to its better known competitors.

I’d test adding some of its strongest proof elements at the top of the home page (over 5 million users; featured by The New York Times, CNN, Forbes, CPA Practice Advisor, etc.) at the top of the landing page.

(See what 14 experts had to say last year about the FreshBooks home page.)

Quick Tip:

In an AdWords ad most people focus on the 25-character Headline and the 35-character Description Line 1 and 2. But don’t forget about the 35 characters for the Display URL. It’s a great place to enhance your messaging that most advertisers don’t take full advantage of.

Netsuite

The Ad:

Use Social Proof. The Netsuite ad is heavy on the social proof (which is not a bad route to go!), featuring the fact they’re trusted by 16,000+ organizations.

They’ve also done a good job of getting +1s for their site and can show that off as an extra line below their ads, demonstrating yet more social proof.

The “Social extensions” feature in AdWords is how you get this extra line to show up.

(Note/Hint: This is NOT how many people have +1’d your ad, it’s how many have +1’d your website.)

Be Careful With Dynamic Keyword Insertion. The keyword “Accounting Software” is featured three times in the ad — Display URL, first line of copy and headline.

In the headline, Netsuite is using Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) to do this. DKI inserts the exact search term a searcher types into Google into your ad.

This can be an effective strategy…the idea being people will respond favorably to your ad when it contains the exact words they typed. But you have to be careful with DKI.

First, make sure many competitors aren’t using it because you don’t want your ad to be one of 3, 4, 5 or more with the exact same headline.

Also, think through what search queries your ad could appear for and how that might affect how your ad is displayed. eBay is notorious for messing this up (check out this great article by WordStream CEO Larry Kim for more on that). Here’s an example of the dangers of DKI from Larry’s article…

 The Landing Page:

Be consistent between your ad and landing page. The landing page does a good job of immediately backing up the ad’s claims of being the top Cloud accounting software and that it’s used by more than 16,000 organizations. Again, you want the message in your ad to be backed up on the landing page.

Be specific. It features a pretty strong list of bullets that highlight the benefits of NetSuite’s product and includes specific numbers like “Save up to 93% in IT costs” (specificity makes your claims more credible).

Clear call to action. There’s a good, clear call to action with two big red buttons on the page promoting a free product tour.

Never stop selling! When you click on the button, you go to this lead-gen page where you’re required to enter name, email address, phone, company name, etc. in order to get the tour.

First, notice how it’s not just a page with a form on it. The page reinforces benefits with a bulleted list at the top and features testimonials down the side.

Good lesson here…never stop selling!!! Just because searchers have clicked through to a page to get a product tour, download a whitepaper, contact you, etc., doesn’t mean your job is done. Reinforce WHY they should take that action as NetSuite does on this page.

Second, this form asks for A LOT of information which will greatly reduce the number of people who fill it out.

This is a situation where you have to balance how many people will actually take the time to fill out the form (likely the most serious, engaged prospects) and become customers vs. how many more quality leads/potential sales you may miss out on by putting up this kind of barrier.

Only testing can tell which strategy will result in more sales.

Quick Tip:

Even on your Contact page, never stop selling! Reinforce the action you want people to take on your site and the benefits they’ll get by taking it.

Intacct

The Ad:

Stand out from the crowd. This ad takes a different approach than the others. It offers a Free Guide to help people discover what their accounting software options are.

Be relevant. The ad includes the phrase “New for 2013” which is smart because it makes the ad seem more timely and relevant. It also lets them put numbers in the ads (top performing ads often have numbers).

The Landing Page:

Fulfill the promise of your ad. This is pure Lead Generation. Not much in the way of links or navigation (other than some tiny links at the bottom).

Intacct clearly wants you to fill out that form and get the guide. So, appropriately, the landing page isn’t selling its software, it’s selling the guide. Since that ties into what the ad is about, that’s exactly the right approach to take. Though I do think the bullets could be improved by teasing more benefits contained in the guide and be more emotionally charged.

Appropriate testimonials? The testimonials on this page caught my attention on this page because they’re all about Intacct’s software solution.

With the intent of the page to get people to download the report, I would be using testimonials (if I use them at all) about how great/helpful the report is, not the software.

Also the ad and landing page copy insinuate this is an independent guide to help people figure out which accounting software is best for their business. I didn’t download the guide, but the testimonials make it pretty clear to me that the guide is going to be heavily biased toward Intacct’s software and isn’t providing the unbiased information I was hoping for based on the ad.

That’s probably hurting conversion rates here…at least among skeptical types like me!

Quick Tip:

It’s great to have testimonials on your site. You can use them more effectively by making sure they’re relevant to the content on the page you put them on. Even better, place them strategically so they reinforce the claims made in your copy (ie. if the copy mentions costs savings, immediately follow that with testimonials from customers raving about how you saved them $3417 in 28 days).

About the Author: Adam Kreitman is a Google AdWords consultant who owns Words That Click, a firm focusing on SEM for small businesses. Follow him on Google+.

The post A Lesson in Google AdWords from 4 Accounting Software Companies appeared first on The Daily Egg.

A good blog is a community builder, a resource that users, friends, and partners turn to when they’re looking for information, advice, or even just a smile.

A great blog is one that people talk about with their friends, read on a regular basis, and wait with bated breath for the next post.

A blog is not only an opportunity to show off your authority, but it also helps keep your business top of mind. The goal? When it’s time to make a purchasing decision, readers will think of you.

With that in mind, let’s look at 7 company blogs that do it right, along with some practical tips for getting the same success in your blog.

Mint.com: Complement Services with Practical Advice

Mint doesn’t offer a glamorous service — the platform helps users manage their budgets by categorizing their transactions.  But it’s all about ease of use. Users can add their bank accounts, credit and debit cards, and Mint automatically categorizes purchases.

A blog about personal finance is a natural fit, and Mint does an exceptional job of providing practical advice that is relatable. Instead of blog posts on why saving is important, Mint offers fun, relevant posts. For instance, recent topics have included how to shop your own closet for a new summer wardrobe and a financial compatibility test for couples.

Two reasons this works:

1. Mint gives great advice without making it feel like it’s coming from Mom.

2. Posts are relevant to what Mint users care about.

The post 7 Company Blogs That Build Community (And More) appeared first on The Daily Egg.

Infographics — from large to small, simple to complex — are being created and shared by marketers every day. With great success.

If you’re ready to join this trend and impress your followers with creative, informative designs that build your brand, then grab your favorite drink, sit back and relax, and check out these resources…

First, some light reading

1. The Beginner’s Guide to Infographics

If you’re new to infographics (or even if you have some experience with them), this article by Kristi Hines gives you a good foundation in how to create a winning infographic—from concept to completion and beyond.

Realizing that Kristi’s article gives you the full monty, this infographic from graphs.net lays out the creative process pictorally, so I wanted to share it too.

How To Create An Awesome Infographic

2. The Do’s and Don’ts of Infographic Design

Smashing Magazine’s take on what it takes to make a sharable infographic.

3. 7 Infographic Topics You Should Avoid

Shell Harris gives you a designer’s perspective on the types of information that may not make the best infographic.

4. How to Strike the Elusive Balance between Data and Visualization

In this article, Babar Suleman shares 7 rules of great infographic design.

5. The ROI of Infographics

This post details the metrics you need to track to ensure you get the full return on investment from infographics. Written by Mark Smiciklas of Intersection Consulting, this is medium-to-advanced instruction in the art of promoting infographics.

Some things are better not put into words

The Infographic on Infograhpics, by Zabisco. (It’s not new, but it’s really cool. Kudos to Zabisco’s creative team.)

Think outside the box

Be creative

Simply by repurposing complex data as an infographic, you can surprise and delight your customers. For example, Visual.ly provides Google Analytics’ weekly Web metric reports as infographics.

Is there something you could do that’s similar?

Don’t worry about how simple or complex your idea

Some ideas are extremely simple. Take this “Keep Trying” graphic I found in Neil Patel’s Facebook stream in March 2013. The concept is simple, but it shares useful information in a creative way.

Other ideas are very complex, such as this one by LinchpinSEO Building Personas: How to Understand & Meet User Needs

Guide To Personas Infographic by Linchpin Digital PR

Use them in unusual ways

Be creative. Be visual. Words get glossed over, while visuals invite inspection.

Want proof? Check out Neil Patel’s About page on quicksprout.com and this page, which tells visitors about KISSMetrics.

Look at what other people are doing

Sometimes all you need to release your creativity is to see what others are doing.

• Here’s a showcase of infographic templates. The article suggests they’re available for download, but I didn’t see a link. Still, you can find a variety of layouts in one spot.
• Kissmetrics is a case study in how to use infographics for marketing. Review its infographics (and its social shares) to see a full range of uses for infographics.

Popular topics

Still having trouble coming up with ideas? This infographic from MatterNow shows which topics are popular and which get the most views, comments, and/or shares.

Resources for making your own infographics

• 9 Awesome Powerful Free Infographic Tools (InfographicsArchive)
• HubSpot’s PowerPoint templates to help you create infographics
• PictoChart’s free to premium resource for creating infographics with a WYSIWYG editor

Tweet this!

Infographic production increases 1% every day.     Tweet this

Did you know that40% of people respond better to visual information than text?     Tweet this

Fact: An infographic can reach up to 15 million people.     Tweet this

Infographics rock! Get the ultimate guide from CrazyEgg     Tweet this

About the Author: Kathryn Aragon is managing editor of The Daily Egg and publisher of the C4 Report. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.

The post The Ultimate Guide to Marketing Infographics appeared first on The Daily Egg.

Search for “best graduation getaways,” and you just might turn up this landing page. Does it make high enough marks to get people packing their bags?

Four optimization experts give a mixed review.

Here’s the landing page. (Click on the image to see an enlarged version.)

 Here’s what our conversion experts had to say about this landing page.

Naomi Niles, ShiftFWD

What do you like about the Landing Page Optimization on this page?

I like the infographic-like look. The layout makes it easy to scan the page and the amount of information is not overwhelming at first glance.

The design branding looks appropriate for the type of age visitor that this ad would attract.

What would you change or test on this landing page?

The biggest concern I have about this page is that it’s asking for too big of an obligation, too soon. Specifically where it says “talk to experts.” I think it’s important to set clear expectations about what will happen after I send in my form (beyond a checkbox at the bottom). Will I still receive sales pitches even if I don’t check the box? When will I receive the call? Will they be pushy? It’s too many decisions to make.

The other main issue I see is the mismatch between the search term and what the offer is on the page. If I search for “best graduation getaways,” I want to see immediate information about what kinds of trips are offered, not have that information hidden behind a gateway. Also, where are those “30 amazing” trips promised to me in the ad?

Finally, it would be nice to be offered a specific graduation package. I can imagine this might be structured differently than a group packages where I’m lumped into other college students. If I’m celebrating my graduation, it would be nice to celebrate it.

~ Naomi Niles, ShiftFWD

Ian Rhodes, Rhodes Consultancy

What do you like about the Landing Page Optimization on this page?

Okay, let’s put my “I’m 18 again” hat on. What am I looking for from a travel partner website to help me book my getaway? An adventurous destination and everything packaged together in one tidy bundle.

Now, let’s take a look at the landing page. I’ve got a low-price guarantee, hotels and flights, even breakfasts included and trips across Europe and beyond. That’s ticked all the boxes. Let’s go explore.

The landing page has the simple directional elements covered with the “get started” button highlighted along with an arrow ensuring I don’t miss the call to action.

Keeping the phone number as an option is also going to help lead generation — we’ve even got a tick box to receive a call regarding my travel requirements.

I also like the space-saving tab navigation highlighting popular trips, pricing and the About Us section. It retains focus and ensures we don’t lose traffic away from the intended page.

What would you change or test on this landing page?

The big question is whether there’s enough persuasive content to entice the would-be traveler to enter their personal details before accessing the trips & offers.

There has to be a strong business argument to “hide” all these offers from the browser behind a entry form. My concern would be the level of early-stage would-be travelers who are immediately turning away due to the sign-up barrier. There’s some serious split-testing required to ensure this is a correct business call.

I’m not convinced the clip-art imagery is all that appealing. What better way to demonstrate the destinations being shown than with real photography capturing students abroad? If Europe is the focus, then let’s see a shot of the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben or the Coliseum. I want to picture myself at these destinations.

Final point: The ad says I can choose from 30 amazing trips. Where is this represented on the landing page? In the entry box. This could leave your audience frustrated at not having immediate access. I’d be testing the ad copy to reflect this along with the ‘Europe and beyond’ theming to ensure we’re hitting our audience’s budgets accordingly.

~ Ian Rhodes, Rhodes Consultancy

Brian Massey, Conversion Sciences

What do you like about the Landing Page Optimization on this page?

The value proposition is pretty clear: “No Hassle Traveling.” We all imagine college kids are lazy (after all, weren’t we?) so things like hassles are frowned upon by them.

The page is brief, uses colorful icons to guide the eye in bands (a “Z” pattern), and doesn’t over-sell.

While it isn’t graduate level, this page should get a passing grade.

What would you change or test on this landing page?

The landing page doesn’t match the ad perfectly. The ad promised “Fun and Easy” with “30 amazing trips.” The landing page promises “No hassle.” Try ads that talk about “No hassle” travel for this landing page.

The 30 amazing trips don’t show up on the landing page either. You have to click away to another page. Not always good for conversion. Test listing some of the trips on the page, perhaps below the signup form.

Also, the call to action is as murky as a college calculus. What happens if I fill out the form and “get started?” Will experts email me? What kind of offers will I get — spam? What’s the specific payoff?

Test some more specific calls to action.

~ Brian Massey, Conversion Sciences

Justin Rondeau, WhichTestWon

What do you like about the Landing Page Optimization on this page?

To be honest I am not a huge fan of this page. I do like the use of the cartoon-style imagery. I have seen those test positively. However, there are a lot of issues with this page that I will outline below.

What would you change or test on this landing page?

One thing I would change is the inconsistent arrows. By having arrows going in all different directions, this is an eye-flow nightmare. If you are using arrows to get the eye to move to the call to action, do that!

I am not a fan of the form at all. Horizontal forms have consistently tested poorly from studies I have seen. My recommendation would be to use a vertical oriented form and move it up next to the relevant content. You are doing yourself no favors by hiding your form underneath content (even with arrows). If you want people to act, get the conversion activity in front of them!

This page is suffering from a lack of content prioritization. The biggest clue to this is the ‘hidden’ content that requires a user to click the other topics on the right. This is a ‘tabular’ approach that isn’t done all that well (specifically because it doesn’t look clickable).

Just like with anyone who takes the tab approach, I advise them to look at the number of clicks there to see if these tabs are being used. Likely they aren’t. If they are, the clicks will also give you insight into the most important content (another bonus of tracking your clicks).

I’m having difficulty connecting the ad to the page. There isn’t a message that resonates between the two other than ‘Travel.’ This may be due to the page’s scattered layout, but since the ad is talking about amazing trips, I would like to see them focus on the trips rather than more generic talking points.

Finally, there are competing calls to action. If you have to have the ‘Chat with us Live,’ I would recommend moving it from the main call to action.

~ Justin Rondeau, WhichTestWon

Your turn

Our experts took issue with the ad’s lack of focus. They also agreed that the promised information shouldn’t be hidden behind a form.

Those are great tips for all of us to remember. As common as these mistakes may be, they’re relatively easy to fix.

What  would you add? Share your critique of this landing page by College Break.

The post 4 Optimization Experts Critique a College Break Landing Page appeared first on The Daily Egg.