Is your pitch page perfectly optimized for conversion?
Chances are, probably not.
Vendors often ask us what they can do to optimize conversion on their pitch pages. We recommend focusing on a few areas to find specific improvements you can make to increase sales.
Analyze your pitch page with each of the following categories in mind. We’ll cover the first four in this post and four more in part two.
1. Narrow Your Focus
The purpose of a pitch page is to sell a product. If you want to convert visitors into customers, make sure to remove all unnecessary distractions from your pitch page.
Distractions come in many forms:
- Navigation bars and sidebar links provide ways for visitors to leave your pitch page and get lost in other sections of your website.
- Social media links take visitors to external sites and they may not return.
- Advertisements also take visitors away from your site.
- Exit links in your content, even if relevant to your topic, distract visitors by taking them away from your page.
The more options visitors have to leave your page, the less focused they’ll be on purchasing your product.
TAKE ACTION:
Count how many ways a visitor can leave your pitch page and eliminate as many exit links (links that take visitors away from your page) as possible.
2. Call to Action
The call to action (CTA) is what you want someone to do after interacting with your page.
The main purpose of a pitch page is to sell a product. This means your CTA is a “Buy Now” button that directs visitors to ClickBank’s order form. A common mistake is to have too many CTAs on your page.
Are you asking visitors to sign up for an email newsletter or connect on social media before they even see a Buy Now button? Focus on getting visitors to take one action and make it as easy as possible for them to buy your product.
A few other tips for your CTA. Make sure it is…
- Easy to locate – Use visual cues to draw attention to it. Make sure the button stands out from the rest of your design so visitors know they can click on it. Use a button image, not a text link.
- Repeated – Give visitors multiple options to click on your CTA throughout the page so they don’t have to scroll to the very bottom.
- Specific – Pay attention to the text in your button. Is it clear what will happen once a visitor clicks on the button? If you require multiple steps and clicks before allowing them to buy, you may have fewer people reach the order form.
TAKE ACTION:
How many things are you asking visitors to do on your page? Is it easy to find your CTA?
3. Headline
Your headline is the first thing visitors see when they reach your site. It’s your opportunity to create enough interest to keep visitors reading. You have very little time to capture a person’s attention. Research shows that websites lose as many as 50% of their visitors within the first 8 seconds. If you don’t draw visitors in with your headline, they may not read anything else on your pitch page.
Make sure your headline is written in plain language that’s easy to understand. Remember that your visitors want to know what’s in it for them. Why should they keep reading? What benefits does your product offer?
TAKE ACTION:
Find someone who knows nothing about your product. Have them read your headline and see how well they understand the purpose of your page. Try writing 10+ headlines before picking the best.
4. Copywriting
Copywriting refers to the written content on your page including headlines, subheadlines, paragraphs and bulleted lists.
Since visitors have short attention spans, you need to make your copy easy to scan. Bullet points, lists, bold text and headlines highlight the important points so visitors can quickly get a summary of your content.
Your copywriting needs to provide enough information for visitors to make a purchase decision. Too little information and visitors won’t have enough confidence to buy. Too much information and you risk losing those who don’t have time to sort through it all.
One way to find the right balance is to focus on the features and benefits of your product.
Features describe your product and benefits tell potential customers what your product will do for them.
For example…
The iPhone has an 8MP camera, a 4 inch retina display, LTE wireless technology and 16GB of space. Those are its features.
Why should you care about the features?
The features enable you to stay connected to friends while on the go. You can capture life’s moments and easily share them. You can quickly find the answers to any question with a device that fits in your pocket.
Benefits entice you to buy a product. Features are facts about the product.
TAKE ACTION:
Make a list of the features and benefits of your product. Can visitors quickly scan your content to understand benefits and features? Do you describe why your product is unique?
In the next post, we’ll look at four more ways to optimize your pitch pages. Here are four more ways you can increase conversions on your pitch page:
5. Layout/Design
A pitch page that isn’t well thought out can lead to a page that’s confusing and difficult to navigate. There are a few common layout and design mistakes we see on pitch pages:
- Inconsistent use of fonts – Pick one or two fonts and use these consistently throughout the page. Try using a different font for headlines to make them stand out from the rest of the text, but don’t mix and match too many styles. Make sure to also be consistent with font sizes. Body text should all be the same size and it’s best to use consistent sizes for headlines, too.
- Too many colors – Overloading your page with too many colors creates visual confusion for visitors. Be consistent with the colors you use for links, headlines and text and pick colors that match. If you’re having trouble coming up with a color pallet, use a tool like Adobe’s Kuler that has hundreds of preconfigured color combinations.
- Eye tracking problems – Eye tracking studies show that users read websites in a f-shaped pattern. Organizing your content around this can help provide the right information in the right places. Make sure your text has the same alignment (don’t center one paragraph and right align the next) and leave enough white space so the content is easily readable.
TAKE ACTION:
Look through your pitch page and see if you can find any inconsistencies in the design and layout. Do your colors match your brand? Is there anything that’s hard to read? Consider making changes accordingly.
6. Visuals
Videos and images help visitors gain a better understanding of your product and add variety to the structure and content of your page.
When adding visual elements to your page, make sure they fit in with your message and add value instead of just taking up space.
Sample images, before/after photos and video demonstrations further explain the benefits and features of your product. If you use videos, make sure you also include important information in text. Not everyone wants to watch a video so include the message in text, too.
TAKE ACTION:
Can you add more visual content to your pitch page? Are your visuals relevant? Do they highlight the benefits and features of your product?
7. Social Proof
People are more likely to buy if they see believable social proof that others have purchased a product and benefited from it.
Adding testimonials to your page increases confidence and improves conversion.
Testimonials should be specific and should highlight the key benefits and features of your product. Adding names, pictures and specific details adds credibility to your testimonials.
TAKE ACTION:
Read through your testimonials and see if there are any aspects of your product that aren’t highlighted. Consider reaching out to past customers and ask for testimonials to add to your page.
8. Pricing/Offer
Visitors need to know how much your product costs before making a purchase decision. Don’t disguise or hide the price on your page. It works best to display the price clearly near your call to action button so a visitor understands what to expect on the order form.
TAKE ACTION:
Is your price clearly displayed near your call to action buttons?
Spend some time analyzing your pitch page in each of the eight categories in part one and two of this blog series. If you’re too familiar with your own site and are unable to look at it objectively, it might help to have someone else provide objective feedback. Your page will never be perfect, but if you keep looking at your page with a critical eye, you can continue to refine it and improve your conversion along the way.
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