You will have designed a top-class marketing email. The customer will have been captivated by your offer. They have clicked through to a landing page. Ask yourself what they will want to be presented with.
I prefer a clear and uncluttered design of marketing email and, more importantly, the landing page as well. Call me peculiar but I find distractions distract me. Stick a pretty picture, or worse still, an interesting one, on the landing page and I will spend a few moments studying it. This does not mean all marketing emails and landing pages should suit me.
I dislike a landing page design I use on my website. By my reckoning it is too fussy. There are six images, the one at the top depending on where the link came from. Yet it has the highest conversion rate of any that I’ve tested. You can appreciate why I use it.
The idea of designing for your customers and not yourself is one that has been preached by most commentators, but it could leave you floundering for ideas on which way to go. You will be presented with any number of designs on the free email marketing templates. How can you pick which will give the best ROI?
Sorry to be depressing, but you can’t.
On a more positive note, all the options will work to an extent as they are professionally designed, but one that is merely good enough is not, well, good enough. We need something that is optimum. That means testing.
Just about the only unchallenged requirement, unless you know better, is that a page loads quickly. It’s all down to user experience. Even too many pop ups do not put readers off at anything like the rate of poor load times. Beyond that, it is all open.
Many of those in email marketing ask about image size. This is probably the easiest thing to test. If the picture is being used in order to explain a feature, the hook perhaps, then you might think it should be large. However, is it clearer if smaller and in monochrome?
Images can have more than one function, although the prime one is to encourage conversions. It could do this by building on the aura you want to create, perhaps being modern and cool, or maybe trustworthy and dependable. The image can do all of this. All you have to do is test.
Another factor that can irritate is blaring headlines. The customer already knows what the product is; why use large bold type to tell them again? But what if those on your email marketing list respond to constant repetition as it maintains their excitement? Again, put it on the list for testing.
The text is another aspect that repays testing. It is not just a case of too much or too little. Most would suggest that bullet points work best. The large black dots focus the attention, almost forcing you to read. However, what you really want is for readers to click on the big bold button. That’s the one you want to grab them.
We will cover another way to test a landing page in a later article.
