Case Study of a Successful Landing Page

Before we get into the details of this case study, one thing that every successful landing page has in common is that it delivers what it promises. That is to say that if you offer free information or bonuses toward the inducement of opting in you must deliver on that offer. Always be truthful and deliver what your offer says it is.

When a person lands on your page you are building a relationship based on trust.

Now if you are new to internet marketing, a landing page (also called a squeeze page) is the first page where prospective customers will be introduced to your offer. This case study is based on the landing page for Robert Shemin’s book, “How Come That Idiot’s Rich and I’m Not?” The page can be found here, www.claimmybonus.com, this landing page gets over a 40% opt in rate. The page was developed by my partner Scott Magers and myself.

A landing page has one function. That is to have the visitor opt in. So depending on the strategy of the site owner the opt in field may ask for email address only, or more commonly first name and email address. The reason the first name field is common is so that when the prospect receives autoresponder emails, their first name is used which personalizes the message to them.

Additionally, you will see forms that ask for first name, last name, and email. Sometimes phone numbers would be included. And what is referred to as long form opt ins that will ask for greater details (desired income, how much money to start, current profession, etc) are used in particular by home-based lead generation companies.

Know that every additional line of information you have on your form will normally reduce the percentage of people opting in. So if you ask for first name/email lets say your opt in percentage is 20% and if you had the same page except you also asked for last name/phone number your opt in percentage could drop to 12%. I’m using these numbers only as theoretical examples.

Ok, on to our landing page www.claimmybonus.com. You will notice in the header, his name, logo, tag line and media logos. Putting Robert’s name there is an obvious thing to do. He has name recognition so his core audience will see that first. The media logos add credibly. However, we only used companies that Robert has appeared on their network (he’s been on CNBC, CNN and Montel) and has been on both the USA Today and Wall Street Journal best sellers list.

Now, right below the header is something called the eyebrow. It is called that because it sits right above the headline. The eyebrow message sets up the headline. So as you read the eyebrow you’ll see how it flows to the headline. Remember back to the first paragraph and being truthful, Robert sits on the board of several charities and has been recognized around the world for his charitable work.

Now onto the headline, most experts agree that the headline is the most important aspect of the pages copy. Whether a landing page or a sales letter a great headline is imperative. Even down to the font choice (yes it gets this detailed). We mostly use Tahoma bold. To my eye the most obvious thing you see here is the use of red and black. The secret when using two colors is the color that stands out (red) must be able to read like a sentence. In this case it would read. Giving Away VIP List Absolutely Free! Instantly Claim $11,465.

This headline has what we call an “ethical bribe”. We offer a product of value in exchange for the prospect opting in. They receive the wealth-building coaching program just for taking the action of opting in. Whether or not they decide to make a purchase from our sales letter offer.

Below the headline we have the book image on the left and 5 bullet points describing additional benefits. Now I am not a believer in using flash (moving images) on landing pages. We use it on the book cover though because of space limitations. Having all of the bestseller lists the book has made on the page is important and in this case the use of flash was the best solution.

Notice the 5 bullets points, you’ll see that the text of the first one is bolded and that the next bullet point text is not bolded and that pattern continues. We do this so as your eyes scan the page the change in text makes it easier for each paragraph to stand out. If we did each paragraph as bold it makes it easy for the eye to skip over the text. We want the visitor to read about the benefits so that we get a higher opt in rate.

The next section is our testimonial from Tony Robbins. And yes, this is an actual testimonial from Tony. Testimonials are what we call social proof. If you have real testimonials for your product or service, definitely use them where appropriate. And if your testimonial happens to be from someone famous like Tony Robbins, all the better. In the case of this book, we also have testimonials from T. Harv Eker, Mark Victor Hansen, and David Bach. They are all New York Times best-selling authors and great speakers. Since on this landing page we only had room for one we chose the best-known person of the group.

Now for the all critical opt in box. The majority thinking is that the opt in box (field) should be above the fold. That means that you will see it without the need to scroll down the page. On your computer screen anything you see without scrolling down the page is above the fold and everything beneath that is below the fold. On most of the landing pages I build, the opt in box is above the fold. However on this page we put the opt in box below the fold yet www.claimmybonus.com still has an opt in percentage of over 40%. That means that out of every 10 unique visitors to the page 4 of them put in their information. If you achieve an opt in rate of 20% that is considered good. 40% is great.

So what we did here was to restate the ethical bribe from the headline. Our button copy says “VIP ACCESS”. And yes the button copy is also very important (details, details). We also say “exactly” what we want you to do (so enter your first name, primary e-mail address and click the VIP Access Button right now…). We then use the dashes to create the box, which gives it a coupon type effect.

Notice now if you would the overall look and feel of the page. Very simple, a fair amount of white space, no fancy graphics and a consistent flow from top to bottom. I am not at all opposed to the use of graphics when applied correctly but they must be used to highlight and enhance the copy on the page and not be a distraction. Also I’m a big fan of using video on landing pages. Video landing pages done correctly are very powerful. At a letter date I will review a landing page that features video. Frank Kern has certainly mastered that format. If you have not seen one of his pages please Google him.

In conclusion, a successful landing pages job is to convert your traffic to opt ins. With internet marketing it all boils down to two simple words; traffic and conversion. As you know, after the opt in occurs, the next page a potential customer sees is the sales letter and that will be my next case study. Till then, apply what you’ve learned here to your next (or first) landing page.

Best, Steven Seppinni

www.stevenseppinni.com