In that popular comedy, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, comedian Simon Pegg bungles his way throughout the movie and almost severs relationships with his company’s top clients. While this is funny on screen, real life may not be nearly as forgiving.
Like Simon Peg, our online sales page may not be the ideal closer. When was the last time you checked for performance metrics? Were you pleased with the results? What corrective measures have you applied to your sales page since then?
According to Neil Patel, digital marketing guru, “With your landing page, you can grow leads, and with your sales funnel, you can convert web visitors into paying customers.”
So, essentially, you can turn website visitors into money- which is the goal of every sales page. But when this page is poorly optimised, it could be costing you money instead. Without further ado, here are some ways you unknowingly lose potential customers.
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Your Sales Page Is Too Busy
When potential customers arrive on your sales page, they are hoping to find something of value. Typically, their behaviour at that point is information-seeking. Therefore, the goal is to help them find what they are searching for, not distract them. Some sales pages have so many things going on, they add to the complexity. For example, more ads, fast-sliding images or loud music.
If there is a video on your landing page, stop automatic play so visitors have the choice to play if they want. Simplicity adds to a better user experience (UX). Busy sales pages have poor UX and will surely put off visitors.
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Poor Content Structure
The content structure can make or mar your sales page’s conversion potential. While streamlined content guides users through the page; from title to subheadings, paragraphs and bulleted points, a messy page can bounce them off seconds after arriving.
Brendan, digital marketing specialist at Domain4Less says, “A continuously high bounce rate is proof that your sales page is attracting visitors but failing to keep them for some reason.”
Work with your designer to develop a theme that matches your proposed content layout. Make room for sufficient white space so readers can ‘breathe’. Use short blocks of paragraphs and bullet points to make scanning easier. This way, your web visitors won’t be quick to alienate themselves from your site.
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Slow Page Loading Time
Perhaps, this should come first because it is the first problem encountered. We have often encountered certain websites guilty of slow page loading. The instinct is to click the ‘back’ button immediately. Similarly, web visitors are bound to do the same if your sales page is just as guilty. According to a study, 40% of people abandon a website that takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
Slow page loading time could be the result of a number of factors. For one, your images may not be well optimised for the page and the large size will take time to open. If you are using outdated scripts such as flash, you’ll be setting up your page for poor performance. Other possible reasons include poor web hosting features and multiple 301 directs.
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Unrelated Information
Some websites get it right with persuasive ad copies and catchy meta-description tags. But when customers land on the ensuing sales page, they are disappointed. The information they expected to find isn’t the content they see. Classic spammy move that can blacklist a page, not only by unhappy visitor but Google itself.
When you point an ad copy link and or a description tag to a sales page, make sure the content is what is promised the visitor. Nothing can be more annoying than the feeling of deception. This isn’t restricted to sales pages alone, but blog posts, articles and other web content.
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No Clear Call to Action
Say, you have attracted a potential customer and impressed them with your content, it is time to proceed to the next step. Unfortunately, there is no clear ‘next step’. After reading your content, what should they do? Are they to call a direct line for more information, or sign up to your email listing?
Having no clear call to action or an invisible one is enough to send a sales-ready lead to your competitor. You can’t afford to leave your customers stuck in landing page limbo. Use a clear call to action to guide your visitors along the customer journey until they convert. There is an actual science to creating effective CTAs.
Your sales page should win and retain customers if it is well-optimised. Like an online sales person, its job is to close deals just as you would offline. Always test to make sure it is doing its job.
