Ok, maybe this is something the general consumer won't notice - being out of the marketing loop and all - but honestly... those meticulous landing pages I see all over the place? Has anyone succeeded in making a sale through one of those, over the turn of the century? You know the ones... with wide borders, endless rants, overtly manipulative text, provocative headlines and meticulos lists of reasons why the reader simply can't go on living without buying whatever they're selling? Come on, it takes little more than a glance before I can tell they're trying to talk me into buying a terrible and/or ineffective product! I cannot help but wonder if Internet shoppers are still dumb, or if otherwise it's many Internet marketers who grossly underestimate their potential customers and failing miserably in their commercial goals as direct consequence of their short-sightedness. Any thoughts on this one? In your opinion, what makes a good landing page? Care to show some examples? I cannot help but to think that a great product does not require too much advertisement. I've been applying this principle with my own little sales pitches (I'm a freelance writer), and it seems the less I elaborate on praising my skills, the more impressed the customer gets. As far as I can see, genuine enticement takes a proper measure of persuasion: too little will not make the prospects get curious and as such will lose their attention, and too much will make them nauseous and push him away.
I know exactly what you mean. I've always been repulsed by those sites; once you see the huge red text at the top and your scroll bar is thin because the page is so long, you know what it is. However, these pages are quite successful. Basically every program on Clickbank uses a page like that, and Clickbank pays out millions each month, so that means people have to be buying in large quantities.
I agree, and prefer less is more approach. Images and widgets can pack more impact and less bounce when it comes to content presented to your audience for those that require it to take action.
Some landing pages work well for some niches, while some work well for other niches. Only one way to find out : Split test!
Here are lots of landing page examples - for a wide variety of products. They are free templates too so you can use them. 70 Free Landing Page Templates ENJOY!
I generally myself follow the KISS principle. People are easily confused and keeping things simple is often very effective. Too much and they don't read and are more likely to cancel, refund, etc...
A good amount of text with a few pictures spread around will convince most people. But there are landing pages that can be converted into a full 49 page ebook lol
Those long lengthy sales pages that are all over the net are there for one reason. Because they work. If they are written correctly, they are killers. If you don't know how to write one or can't afford to pay a professional a couple of grand to write one, then I think you are better off going with a simple site.
Those long sales pages will always exist because people buy into it. The reason for this is because most people have no concept of what looks good. Big text must make something important... right? The ironic thing is that it's mostly so-called "marketeers" that buy into this crap, and they sure as hell should know better. Personally I don't care if you're selling me a book that tells me the meaning of life; if it's on a massive page with horrible red and yellow text in the impact font and packed with fake testimonials, you've lost me immediately.
Or maybe because so many webmasters copy off of one another, because they think it works? Next thing you know, there are crap sites all over the place.