Many of these University landing page designers are getting better. These days you see less spam looking microsites and landing pages for lead generation.

The following is one version of the landing page by University of  Phoenix. Obviously, we are not comparing the actual universities and their programs, but simply the design and conversion aspect of their respective landing page designs.

This landing page is brilliant to begin with. It may not look very sophisticated from design and beauty perspective, but it gets the job done! It is actually very tempting for the visitor to click on the drop down and see what options are available. As soon as you choose one, in most cases a new step 2 drop down appears. It is very engaging! It is a dream come true for any conversion analyst and landing page designer. Keeping the visitor engaged with your marketing message.

The following are screen shots of the Learn More box. This is where the primary attention of the visitor lies. It is very simple and eye-catchy and most importantly it is inviting the mouse. Anytime when you manage to invite the mouse to a particular region of the screen it is remarkable. It is like winning half the battle.

STEP 1:

In the main screenshot above, just the way the page loaded, you are tempted to see “areas of interest” and as soon as you click to see what options are there, the next step appears. Now you are engaged.

STEP 2:

STEP 3:

STEP 4:

LAST STEP:

This is where the problem begins. Up until this point the visitor is engaged, everything is kept simple, the entire page did not reload. The changes in drop-down fields are simple AJAX methods. The total number of fields where a response is collected is basically one. After such an amazing job so far, we do not understand why the last step is not well thought of.

It jumps from extremely simple form with one field to a very complex form with 12 fields. You simply cannot expect the user to respond to this drastic 12-fold increase in required input. This is where the bounce happens, unless the visitor is really looking to get information from this particular brand.

Moreover, the change in layout contributes to the bounce. They should have kept the simple “learn more” layout, on the same location on the top-right, reduced the number of fields to 5 at the most, maybe making the layout grow taller by 10 or 20%. This would reduce bounce rates and get the desired result.

Overall Score: A

Individual elements:

• Overall Professional Look - OK, Grade B
• Focus Factor - No distractions - OK, Grade A
  
• Design elements, layouts, graphics, fonts - Good, B+
• Color combination Factor - Good, A
• Trust elements (third party trust seals, conversion techniques, etc.) - None
• Leaky links - None
• Call to Action - Clear, Grade A+
• Actionable items (the less the better) - well focused, Grade A
• User experience - Good

Comments: Exceptional overall, but the last step is asking for bounce!

The above is the screenshot of Drexel University landing page.

Overall Score: C

Individual elements:

• Overall Professional Look - OK, Grade B-
• Focus Factor - No distractions - OK, Grade C
  
• Design elements, layouts, graphics, fonts - Below excellence, B
• Color combination Factor - Below excellence, B
• Trust elements (third party trust seals, conversion techniques, etc.) - None
• Leaky links - Many
• Call to Action - Not Clear, Grade C
• Actionable items (the less the better) - minimal, Grade C
• User experience - Could be much better

Comments: Decent overall

First Here are 10 proven methods for generating good quality sales leads.

Referrals

This is listed as the first method for a reason. You can get high quality leads without spending anything. Who wouldn’t want that? Using your own network and existing clients and partners to get leads is known to work for millions of businesses. However, in this day and age, the method of communication allows you to interact with the prospect via telephone, email, etc. prior to meeting in person. Having a lead management software and landing page or microsite will allow you to know how your contact is responding to your marketing collateral and fine tune your message when you have a face-face meeting.

Direct Mail

Postcards still do work, if you implement the campaign properly. You need to know who is responding to it. You simply cannot afford to send out 10,000 mails and wonder how many opened it vs how many threw it away. You need a better way to see if they in fact checked you out online. Landing5 software allows you to track direct mail campaigns using PURL and other custom landing page parameters, so you can know and see which areas or locations or type of businesses respond to your direct mail campaigns.

TV Advertising

Expensive. But gives you a mass audience. 10 times better conversion and response if tracked properly with a lead generation software.

Radio Advertising

Wide reach. Better conversion and response if tracked properly. These days people prefer to check you out online, rather than call a toll-free number for direct response.

Print Advertising

Find the right publications. Place ads. Offer special discounts or downloads and tie them to your landing page. That is the only way to get this method to work.

Search Advertising

The most cost effective advertising model at this time. You can signup with Google Adwords or Bing and target people who are searching for services or products similar to yours. Writing an effective landing page copy is the key to get them stay on your landing page and convert them to paying customers.

Email Marketing

Not every email is a spam. People still signup to receive offers and tips relevant to their needs. Sending a tailor made message in an email for a group of recipients, still can produce results. Once again, the HTML email itself can be a landing page or a lead generation page. Or you can have a call-action button taking them to a landing page, where you can capture the lead. This is a very effective way to generate sales leads.

Trade Shows

Good old fashion. Network. Meet new people. But to get them, have a unique campaign microsite. Landing5 can help you get a microsite and communicate your needs effectively to a potential audience. You can track of the 500 people you met and gave your card (with this microsite info), how many actually came, their location, IP and stats. Knowledge that you an use to gain valuable insights.

Seminars

Teach people. Talk about your service. Create a microsite purely for customer education. The better knowledge they have, the more trust you can build. Eventually you will get the sales lead. Seminars will work wonders, if you have a microsite and lead validation platform tied to your program. Landing5 can do just that!

Cold Calling

Who said cold calling wont work? Show them to us. We will show them how to make it work. Have your telemarketing rep call and give an mystery offer. Make them go to the landing page. It is much easier for your reps to send someone to a website, than to sell the product at the first shot. It is all you need. Once you get your foot through the door, you can work on slipping your body across!

Good Luck closing!

The following video shows how to setup multivariate testing using Google website optimizer. Contact your account manager or our landing page expert to get your landing page(s) integrated with Google website optimizer.

Overall Score: A

Individual elements:

• Overall Professional Look - OK, Grade A
• Focus Factor - No distractions - OK, Grade A
  
• Design elements, layouts, graphics, fonts - Below excellence, B
• Color combination Factor - Below excellence, B
• Trust elements (third party trust seals, conversion techniques, etc.) - None
• Leaky links - None
• Call to Action - Clear, Grade A
• Actionable items (the less the better) - minimal, Grade A
• User experience - Could be better

Comments: Decent overall

For a limited time all landing pages can be available for rush delivery at no additional cost!

We anticipate to constantly update this blog with useful information and tips related to landing pages, online marketing, direct-mail marketing and landing page tie-up, microsites, web analytics, CRM integration and several best practices categorized by industry.

We encourage readers to participate in our community and learn from one another.