Tips for Crafting Sexy, Effective Landing Pages

February 14, 2016

Red-Little-Hearts-Wallpaper-1920x1080With it being Valentine’s Day, we’re all naturally thinking of how to create a sexy, effective landing page. As marketers, we know how vital these landing pages are to successful online marketing. The section of your website that is accessed by clicking a hyperlink on another web page should have as perfect of a layout as you can get it for your specific brand.

SEO landing pages especially, are meant for two specific things: to persuade users to take a desired action and to drive organic traffic. Landing pages are wanted to not just get clicks but to successfully generate conversions. The following are some tips to help get the most effective landing pages for your brand:

Have the most creative copy for persuasive landing pages

Your landing page is where you get to tell the story of what your brand is all about. The story you tell has to be enticing and unique. Before getting started, it is helpful to break down the different aspects of the features that your product(s) or service’s encompass. Think about the way that this will impact your customers in terms of results, opportunities, problems solved and emotional benefits. Once you have the exact ideas of what you can provide your customers to it is a lot easier to get started on writing the unique elements to highlight in your landing page. The end result should be hyper-targeted copy that is mindful of your end goal with what you want users to see, feel, and do when clicking.

Keep your design clean and organized

Landing_Page_Examples_From_Companies_That_Just_Get_ItThe actual structure of your landing page plays a direct role in the effectiveness of how well your landing page lands conversions. The main goal of a landing page should be to make it easy for users to convert so the look and feel of the page should only help with this process. Whether that is filling out a form, making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, etc, the elements of the overall structure should work well together. This includes things such as appealing and impactful images, colors, fonts, placements, and sizing that can all be altered and tested to see which combinations are most effective with your specific target audience and goal.

Use a specific structure for solutions-oriented SEO landing pages

The foundation for a solutions-oriented landing page includes the following five components:

  1. The headline – The attention grabbing line, this is where some sort of implication or promise is made to the audience.
  2. The set-up – This introductory copy is where you engage the audience by trying to build trust and define the topic while also basically explaining the benefits for the intended audience.
  3. The problem – Here, a user’s problem or question is addressed. You can use subheadings to break up the copy into easy to read chunks that further show the user’s why they landed (or clicked) on your page.
  4. The solution – This component offers a solution to the user’s problem or question, which is your product or service. Mention your unique value recommendation, and what makes you special or set your apart from other sites with similar products or services.
  5. The Call to Action – Often referred to as the CTA, One of the most important aspects of your landing page is the call to action where you prompt a user to take a desired action.

The most important thing to remember about landing pages is that they are ever changing and can always be altered. The trick is to keep testing them. By constantly testing the structure, copy, offers, and other methods used, you can keep getting a better picture of what is working best in effectively converting users.

Ready to get started? Contact the Van West Media team today!

Google Analytics – Granting User Permissions

February 8, 2016

Google Analytics is one of the most widely used (and free) tools for tracking website activity and traffic. One of the most common questions VWM gets from new clients or prospects is how they can grant access to review Google Analytics data and see what kind of trends or issues might exist. This is easier than it sounds and we detailed this with some screenshots and instructions below.

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For the purposes of this article, it is assumed your website already has Google Analytics and you simply want to know how to add users or let others see your account data. Keep in mind you can grant permission to view your Google Analytics to multiple users, assign different levels of permission (read only vs admin etc), and revoke access.

How NOT to grant permission to Google Analytics?

Before we get started, here is what NOT to do – don’t give someone your login and password. This is never a good idea and only opens the door to future problems or issues down the line.
Granting Access the right way:

  1. Get the person’s email address
  2. Login to your existing Google Analytics account
  3. Grant permission to the email address
  4. Done!

1. Get the Email Address you want to add:
Ask the person you are granting permission for their email address. This email address must be linked to a Google Account (it doesn’t necessarily need to be a Gmail address). Most agencies and users will already be aware of this and might have a specific address they prefer you use that is different than their regular address – it’s good to check with them first on this. If for some reason they need to Create a Google Account, the process only take a few minutes and is free.

2. Login to your Analytics Account:
Even if it has been awhile (or maybe never), it is relatively easy to login to your existing analytics account and grant a new user permission. Go to the main Google Analytics page and select the Sign In screen at top right.

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Once you are logged in, select the website you want to grant permissions for. For many users there might only be one website listed but some businesses or individuals have multiple websites. It is possible to use Google Analytics on many websites and manage them under one account, but each site will have it’s own unique tracking code.
Updated August 2017: Google is constantly changing the user interface and see below for a screenshot on what should be the most recent look and feel user our account as an example. On the bottom left, there is an ‘Admin’ link that will take you to the administration page. Depending on your account setup, there are different levels of permission (left to right) and you can grant new users access to these levels depending on how comfortable you are. In most cases, VMW prefers you add us at the ‘Account’ level on the left and grant us full priviledges (see second screenshot)

3. Grant Permission to your new user:

Click on the link to ‘User Management’ to add a new user. You do this by entering an email address (must be a google approved or gmail address)

 

After selecting ‘User Management’, you will be able to see all the addresses that currently have access to the website as well as add permissions for new users. Enter the new email address for the person you are granting permission for in the box where it says “Add Permissions For:” You will be able to select the level of permission you want to grant this person as well as check a box that will notify them via email. Once you have entered all the information, simply click the ‘Add’ button.

4. Done!
Let the person know they should now have permission and verify they can see your account. The information should be available almost immediately.