Chances are if you have been around marketing on any level, you’ve heard of the acronym “K-I-S-S” – “Keep It Simple Stupid.” It’s one of those cliche’d phrases that’s been around for a long time… because it holds a lot of truth.
People have always had short attention spans and even more so today where they have access to everything at the touch of a screen / push of a button. This is why it baffles us how many of our clients don’t understand the simple correlation between great advertising and a great landing page or website. Time and time again we will hear this line:
“I don’t want to spend too much on advertising because I get results, but it’s not the results we really want”
I could write a book of short stories around that theme. The guys with the software development business who were getting customer inquiries for languages they didn’t code in. The auto dealership getting inquiries for Toyota Corolla’s when they are a high end Lexus franchise. There’s the Karate instructor getting continual calls about Krav Maga / Gracie Jiu Jitsu and it goes on. All of these businesses have one thing in common – they are not properly qualifying their prospects with a great website / landing page.
If you are a Karate instructor who only teaches Karate, that should be clear on your website. If you run a development firm and only code in PHP, that’s important to let people know before they pick up the phone and call you! If you don’t let people know exactly what you do chances are good you’re going to have a lot of people contacting you about products or services you don’t provide.
There are some really simple things you can do to improve the quality of the leads you get for your line of business online, regardless of what it is. Coincidentally, these are things that also make the internet a better place for everyone.
We compiled a quick list of what we feel are the top 5 most important things to consider when developing your website or landing page. For the full list of 21, visit the kind folks at unbounce.com.
5) Be as Transparent as Possible: Have a physical address that isn’t a PO Box, have pictures and video of your employees, have your phone number, actually answer your phone, etc. In todays world it’s easy to hind behind email & text and forget that personal touch. Even something as simple as having pictures of your office, testimonials from customers, links to your socials and clear and easy ways to contact you can help separate you from competitors. This seems like basic common sense, but again… you’d be surprised how many people don’t even give it a single thought.
4) Simplify Ad Copy, Use Bullets: Even though I’m sure it’s aweosme, most people aren’t going to want to read your 10 page epic about how you created your latest product in your garage while living off cat food and donating your body to science. If what you sell or do is useful though, they want to buy it… so get to the point and let them know quickly why they need what you have to offer. If your brand is complex try to simplify your pitch by creating a bulleted list of the positives – “Keep It Simple Stupid.” (seeing a theme here?)
3) Have a Clear and Present Call to Action: When people get to your site or page, what do you want them to do? Tell them! Make it clear! If you’re collecting leads for real estate, for example, make sure there’s a quick and simple form someone can shoot you their contact info through. Very simple stuff, but also something not a lot of people take into consideration when creating an online presence for their business.
2) Use Online Video Content for Promotion: Thanks to the increased adoption of broadband and smartphones, everyone is watching video all over, all the time. Additionally, a video can more quickly familiarize a new customer with your brand and the nature of what you do than any other form of media. We always recommend that clients maintain a presence with online video however that might look. It doesn’t have to be a “salesy” infomercial type pitch video, it can be something as simple as a “video installation guide” or “video product manual.” You’d be surprised how putting out these useful little tidbits of information will bring new customers to you organically (in some cases incredibly well). In addition to the effect it has on prospects, placing useful and relevant content like this online will help you generate better organic search listings in Google, Bing and Yahoo.
1) Have a singular focus, purpose and message: One final “K-I-S-S” reference for you… The overarching point here is this: Don’t muddy the waters and complicate things for your prospects. If you have a great product or service let them know why as quickly and clearly as possible. Do your best to edit out any unnecessary details. Make sure that when that user gets to that page they know why they’re there and what they need to do. It’s shockingly simple how easy it is to improve the amount and quality of inbound leads that you are getting by keeping things as clear and simple as possible.