Bob Regnerus, author of “Big Ticket eCommerce,” reveals the seven deadly mistakes that marketers make with landing pages.

There are seven copywriting mistakes that can kill the conversation on your landing page, causing your visitors to lose interest in what you’re saying and leave the page without taking the action you want them to take. Hopefully, your landing page isn’t making all seven of these mistakes, but you’ll probably see one or two things that look familiar. Remember, the more you improve your landing page, the more sales leads you’ll get out of it.

Conversation Killer #1 is putting anything above the headline on your landing page. No matter how pretty your page header looks, leave it off your landing page. It will draw attention away from the headline, which will decrease your headline’s chances of pulling a visitor down the page. This may be hard to believe, but your customers do not actually care about your name, your logo, or your slogan. They’ve seen them before, and they don’t need to see them again before they decide whether or not to accept the offer you’re making on your landing page.

This probably goes without saying, but even if you’ve sold advertising space on other pages on your site, never put someone else’s banner ad at the top of your landing page.

Conversion Killer #2 is a failure to tell the whole story. When I say “whole story” here, I don’t mean your landing page should include everything you put on the rest of your site or in your sales letters. I mean that it should provide enough information to make your visitors feel comfortable about opting in and accepting the offer that you make on the page. Remember that some of your visitors may not be very familiar with you even though they’re on your landing page, so don’t take shortcuts in your copywriting—be clear, informative, and convincing.

Conversion Killer #3 is too much blank space. A cluttered or overcrowded landing page will drive visitors away, and a landing page with too much white space will do exactly the same thing. Your page should be laid out in a way that leads the visitor smoothly down from the headline to the sub-headline to the main text. Large gaps or empty spaces can interrupt the flow of ideas.

If your landing page has a lot of blank space, especially above the fold (meaning on the first screen that a visitor sees before they start scrolling down) you’re doing one of two things: either you’re leaving out information that would make your offer more appealing, or you’re using a page design which puts text in the wrong places or uses font sizes that are too small.

Conversion Killer #4 is shortcuts. I don’t mean the good kind of shortcuts, which make your site easier to navigate. I mean shortcuts that might save you a little time or effort when you’re building your landing page, but will come back to haunt you when the page is up and running. Your landing page will only meet its objective if it has everything it needs to succeed. I go into more detail on this in “11 Building Blocks For Landing Page Copy,” but I’ll give you the short list here. Your landing page MUST HAVE a good headline, good cosmetics, an air of credibility, an appealing offer, an effective closing, and it must tell your story. If you omit any one of those elements, you will not see the results you want.

Conversion Killer #5 is too much “me,” not enough “you.” Print out the text on your landing page, and circle each instance of the words “I,” “me,” and “we.” Each one of those words is a conversation killer. I can’t say this strongly enough—your sales prospects do not care about you. They want to know what they stand to gain by doing business with you, and that’s the question you need to answer. The more you can shift the focus to your prospects, the more likely it is that they’ll respond to your offer.

Conversion Killer #6 is not talking about what to do next. Your landing page might look good, and it might do a good job of capturing your prospects’ attention and getting them to read everything on the page, but if you don’t tell them, very simply, what you want them to do when they’re done reading, they probably won’t do anything at all. Tell them what they need to do to get the benefit that you’re offering, and if you can, use an arrow to point them in the right direction on the screen.

Conversion Killer #7 is being boring. Boring web pages don’t last long on anyone’s computer screen. You’ve already put a lot of effort into driving traffic to your landing page, so don’t forget to follow through and give your visitors something interesting to read. Of course, using dull copy is never a good idea, whether it’s on a web page, a sales letter, or anything else. On a landing page, though, where you’re looking to elicit immediate action, dull copy is an absolute killer.

Bob Regnerus is the creator of the Big Ticket eCommerce System™, a four-step process that helps businesses with complex or high-priced products and services maximize their sales using the internet. Utilizing the proven methods of this system, he has created thousands of websites, attracted more than 35 million website visitors and generated 2.2 million leads for clients in more than 30 industries. Visit www.bigticketecommerce.com.

Tags: Big Ticket eCommerce System, Bob Regnerus, Conversion Rate Improvements, Copywriting Mistakes, Landing Page Copy, Landing Pages, Website Design