Optimize Your Landing Page's Submit Box to Boost Conversions

The following is a sponsored post by Commune / The Content Optimization Company™.

Of all the elements on your landing page, your submit box plays one of the most important roles in making sure your audience does what you ask.

Unfortunately, it's also the element that web marketers almost always overlook.

Think about it: Regardless of the action you want your targets to take (whether it's providing a simple email address or making a purchase), it'll never happen if you confuse, harass or just plain bore them with a sub-par submit box.

So to maximize your landing page's conversion rate, use these best practices in writing, designing and testing your lead capture.

1. Don't ask for anything you can't act on. People are protective of their privacy, and they hate filling out forms. So if it isn't actionable, don't ask for it. A first name and email address will often be enough.
2. Forget the confirmation field. Sure, some people will mistype their email address. But asking readers to type it twice can drastically drain your conversions.
3. Lose the "Clear Form" function. Imagine going to the trouble of typing your information and then accidentally clicking this pointless button (which countless landing pages are still placing beside "Submit"). Would you bother to retype everything?
4. Test above the fold. Depending on your offer, prospects might not be willing to read a long sales letter. To help them make it to what matters, try placing your lead capture above the fold (so readers don't have to scroll for it) and test your results.
5. Test below the fold. Then again, an early lead capture could deter readers who don't yet know your benefits. What works for you will depend on your offering—and you won't know until you've tested both.
6. Make it more button-like. People are into images. And testing has shown that an image of a big, honking button screams "Push me!" to readers. To make your submit button more button-like, try:
   

• Adding a thick outline and rounding its corners
  
• Making it bigger—you should be able recognize it from across the room
  
• Giving it some colour (to further set it apart from the rest of your copy)

7. Mess with your button text. A button that says "Submit" is so 1997. (Besides, no one wants to be submissive.) So get creative with your commands, and tell your prospects to "Download Your Free Copy Today!" or "Send My Free Sample!"
8. Emphasize privacy. To soothe any suspicions, let your readers know you'll never spam, sell or rent their email address. And make sure you do it right before or after your lead capture, where their anxiety level is highest.
   

That's it for January's landing page optimization blitz, but there's lots more to learn.

So be ready for future landing page posts to make sure the traffic you land actually sticks.

Want to learn more about content optimization? Download our free Instant Content Optimization guide for nine proven strategies you can apply today. Want to optimize your website or a client's? Claim your complimentary content optimization analysis and learn where you're leaking traffic, leads and sales.

Comments

[Corby Fine]

Thanks for the tips, what do you think about confirmation emails instead of confirmation fields?

[Simon]

Good question, Corby.

When we're just getting people to sign up for email lists, we usually encourage clients to use a personable confirmation email that welcomes subscribers to the email list. Just a "Welcome to our list" type of email, which can also allow the recipient to unsubscribe if they received the email in error. We can always clean unsubscribes and bounces when scrubbing email lists after every send.

When we're getting people to sign up for actual accounts, which can contain sensitive information, we usually encourage a double opt-in. That ensures that people have signed up with an email address to which they have access, which can be essential for password retrieval and so forth.

One trick for ensuring (and encouraging) people to enter a correct email address and to whitelist your address is to SEND SOMETHING VALUABLE IN THE CONFIRMATION EMAIL. For example, we send our e-book by email when people request it, rather than just redirecting them to a page where they can download the book. (We send it as an attachment, but we could also just send a link.)

Hope that all made sense. And by the way, I think that lunch we postponed a few months ago is long overdue!