Should a landing page LOOK like a landing page? Every time I come across one, I can tell right away I'm going to have to click or pay for somethin at the bottom of the page. Usually landing pages are long, have big fonts, look like it took 1 hr to put up, and they sometimes have a yellowish color to them. Should I create landing pages that have a similar look to what I just described ? Are they usually designed like this because they work, or for other reasons? I want to start putting landing pages up but since I see alot that are similar in the way they look I don't know where to start. Can anyone give examples of a landing page that works well that looks like time put into it? It doesn't have to be your page, just curious to see what kind of other landing pages there are.
I'm glad that you asked this too, because I was wondering the same thing. Most of them are Long, with a border around the page, and a click here for more at the bottom. Do these really work??
Interesting post...I agree that all landing pages look the same. Hmmm...curious if anyone knows something.
You have about six seconds to convince a user to stay on a form. Market research has shown that landing pages that are too ornate don't convert as well as their more plain counterparts. Yellow might be used because it's the most eye-catching color (although don't put text over it, unless you want to cause eye strain). If you use a picture, make sure it directly relates to your offer--users can use up precious seconds looking at the picture, and if it doesn't relate or relay your message, those seconds are lost. The greater the commitment required to fill out the form, the more people are going to want to read up on it first. Also, women are more likely than men to read all of the content that goes along with a form.
Do you have any links to the market research about the plain pages? It just seems strange that they would convert better. I'm not suggesting a bunch of useless stuff should be added to make the landing page looks better, but just presented in a nicer way.
I heard that in several webinars. I'll look around and see if I can find it anywhere online. The forms still have to be visually intact--you can't just have a page that looks like crap--but you want the user's eye to find either the form or the content (depending on what weight the content has) within six seconds. This can change depending on how badly the user wants to fill out the form, but as a rule of thumb, you have to assume your user has the attention span of an adolescent fruitfly.
Ah shoot, I can't post links yet. Anyway, I ran a Google search for landing page, and the second result was entitled "Landing Page Tutorials and Case Studies." (It was on copyblogger dot com.) On that page, there's a list of tutorials. Find the one entitled "“Keep it Simple, Stupid†Applies to Your Landing Pages, Too!" That has some market research on it.