PURLs, a convenient acronym for “personalized URLs”, might just be the essential push your business needs to increase your conversion rates.  Here’s how they work, in a nutshell (or a clamshell, to be more precise.)  Let’s say you have a new potential customer named Bob Johnson.  You send him a friendly email offering your services, and then, almost as a casual side note, you mention that you’ve set up a page on your website entirely dedicated to him. And, as if that wasn’t already blowing Bob’s mind (it is), this personalized webpage is at BobJohnson.yourwebsite.com. Whoa.

Let’s take a step back and compare this to some “real-world” situations. Having a personalized URL for a client has a similar effect as if you walked into a doctor’s office to discover that not only had they prepared a personalized room for you, dedicated for your use and no one else’s (not to mention it includes all your favorite magazines and pop-up books), but on top of all this they’ve engraved your name into the door.  Would you return to this doctor for a second visit? I sure would, assuming they didn’t kill me the first time, of course.

Here’s another one.  Imagine walking into a sandwich shop for the first time and being greeted by name by the (admittedly, slightly hairy) old man behind the counter.  Before you even have time to glance across their extensive menu he hands you a sandwich, informing you that what you’re about to eat has been personalized specially for you according to your tastes.  “One more thing”, the friendly, faintly furry shop owner says. “Check out the sandwich menu – we’ve named this one after you.”  At this point I’d be calling all my friends and distant relatives to the restaurant so I could gloat about my new found edible glory. Good for our sandwich man’s business? You bet.

Luckily for us, PURLs make individually customizing your webpages’ URLs for your prospective and current clients a cinch.  Whether you set them up individually or use a program to automatically generate them (I’d recommend the latter, unless you’re a robot), using PURLs can add that extra kick of personality to your website that might be all it takes to draw in a whole host of new clients.

The benefits of PURLs are astounding, both in their lead-capture capabilities and the fine-tuning that they add to your customer relations.  On the surface, having PURLs will instantly increase your customer response rate – who wouldn’t want to reply to a company that’s set up a webpage just for them?  It goes deeper than that, however. Using PURLs allows you to see which customers are actually clicking on the email campaigns you send out, allowing you to decide which potential customers you should be “honing in” on and which ones might be best let you.  And, perhaps most importantly, you’ll be able to deliver personalized landing pages to each of your clients, tailored to their wants and needs based on your previous interactions with them.  So what do you think? Looks to me like PURLs are back in fashion.

This all seems to make sense to most businesses. So why should it be any different for the online traffic to your website?

Of course the difference between a waitress or mechanic shooting the bull with a non-paying customer is a little more of a hindrance for their getting other work done, but the thought process should be the same. Having traffic visit your website; drawing in unique visitors and spreading your message; that’s all very well and good, but what does this traffic do for your bottom line?

The fact is that online traffic continues to grow and does more so each day. Surfing the net has become a full time occupation for many. But generating the web traffic is often not the problem for small businesses. The problem many smaller businesses face in their battle for online pounds is the frequency of conversion.

Many businesses see the issue of getting more online sales as simply a matter of getting more traffic to a website. It’s always good to have people’s eyes on your product; also true that these eyes may one day turn into pounds and pence on your balance sheet. But the goal for businesses isn’t to just get money from a consumer “one day;” the goal is to get them buying now and then becoming and staying a regular customer and continuing to endorse the product later.

Turning browsers into buyers is at the crux of the problem. It’s clear to most that businesses need to spend a lot more time and effort on optimizing their own landing pages and making conversion a top priority. Simple testing of a page can result in a huge increase in conversion rates.

For example, if your site gets 100 visits per month and converts 2 leads into further interactions or sales, that means your websites conversion rate is 2%. When your site pays for increased traffic and you’re getting now 200 page visits; doubling your page visits; that’s great! However if you’re still only getting 4 sales, that means you’re still operating at 2%. If you’re paying for and totally focused in on increased traffic only and are not worrying about conversion, your sales could stall and stagnate.

If you’ve then got a competitor who is focused in on getting those customers who visit their website to ring the virtual register, that’s a totally different story.  Say this competitor focuses in on conversion only. They get the same 100 visitors; instead of only getting 2 sales, maybe they get 8.  An 8% conversion is 4 times what the first business had. Even if you’re going with the 200 visitors/4 conversions number; that still means that your website is generating only 4 sales every month; one half of what your better optimized competitor is doing.

For many small businesses the idea of converting visitors into customers is almost an after-thought. Maybe they just think that if they can get enough people to come check out their website, the appeal of the website will sell itself. Unfortunately that is not always the way that things work.

As a small business owner you need to be singularly focused in on conversion and making sure that your traffic matters. Because no matter how much traffic your website generates, at the end of the day, what your conversion rate is still will dictate how much money you’re going to make.

You see, first dates are neutral – some go well, some don’t, but overall you run about a fifty-fifty chance of enjoying yourself. And obviously second dates are always guaranteed since they’re coming off the momentum of a stellar first outing – you can’t have a second date without hitting it off on the first!

Third dates, the scourge of the world of budding relationships. It’s pretty simple – third dates are when the “let’s get to know each other better” questions start flying, and it’s hard to look at your prospective future spouse once you find out they have a used celebrity tissues collection.

This being said, most people tend to cringe when people say, “There are a few things you don’t know about me.”  Now, I understand this may be a lot to ask, but see if you can manage not to hyperventilate when I tell you that “There are a few things you didn’t know about successful landing pages.”

Colors matter. Despite the majority of the population’s inability to match their pants with their shirt (myself included), there are few things that set the tone of landing page more than color. Take green, for instance. As you might expect, people automatically associate this with eco-friendliness and money – use this color wisely.

Blue’s always a sure bet since it instills a sense of security – ever wonder why policemen wear blue? (Also because donut stains show up less on blue fabric.) A color like orange demands attention; think about using this for a call to action.

Above all, however, make sure your page has a general color scheme that fits well with the page itself – too many colors and you’ll end up looking like more than just customers have been landing on your page.

Make every effort to prove your trustworthiness. I mean, don’t get me wrong here – I trust you. But as much as I have faith in your dependability, not all of your customers will, especially when they’re deciding whether or not to follow your call to action. There’s a simple solution, though – just show how trustable you really are! Using secure services like VeriSign and Better Business Bureau to add a stamp of approval to your website says you not only care about being dependable, but you care enough to spend money on your customers proving it. Now that’s dedication!

Spelling and Grammar still count. You might think thats one litle typo isn’t going to hurt anyon, but if so you’ve clearly never seeen a typo wielding a basebal bat. No, of course I’m joking. They’re actually very gentel creatures. But that said, having a typo or grammar error the middle of your landing page will be a shinin beacon of unprofessionalism, a lighthouse of carelesness if you will. Take Santa’s advice hear and check your list (landing page) twice – your customers will thank u!

That wasn’t so bad, was it? Sure, I know you started to shy away when I said I had some “secrets about myself to tell you”, but they seem like they went over pretty well. So… fourth date?

Text Message Notifications: Unless you’re having one of those unfortunate days where no one has felt the urge to contact you (on the bright side, this probably would mean no one close to you has suddenly died) then you’ve probably been a slave to the siren call of your text message tone. Sure, you’re not being prompted to buy anything, but you’ve been given a signal that’s hard to resist. Text message bleeps and vibrations are so effective at getting you to do something (that is, read them) because you know exactly what they’re telling you to do – do the calls to action on your web page have the same clarity?

Rail Road Crossings: Raise your hand if you’ve ever been hit by a train (you guys can just sit this one out.) For the rest of us non-flattened folk, getting hit by a train is a pretty daunting prospect. Those helpful people designing our road systems have, after many meticulous studies, reached the conclusion that being run over by any type of locomotive is probably an undesirable thing. Therefore, these kind souls have done everything in their power to make sure you notice their call to action, using lights, bells, and bright colors to signal an oncoming train. Railroads succeed when many landing pages don’t because they make their call to action the most prominent thing a passerby will see.

Delicious Bakery Smells: While a bit less obvious than the ding-ding-ding of a railroad crossing, those nearly irresistible smells wafting from the local bakery might be even more effective as a call to action. Often times signals can be too over-the-top, too in-your-face, too craaaaaazy – see what I mean? The tasty yet subtle scents from that bread shop down the street let customers know that there’s something wonderful cooking inside without making them feel like they’re being beaten over the head with it (baguettes can be surprisingly painful.)

Calls to action on your landing pages aren’t so different from the ones you see in your everyday life. Something to draw a person’s attention and invite (or command, if you’re one of those macho types) them to act. Speaking of which, have you done those dishes yet?

The world had begun move past the old tricks o’ the trade that used to work on older landing pages. Sure, it was still important to have landing pages that were easy to read, visually appealing, and that included an obvious and vibrant call to action. The thing was, by that point everybody in town was doing all that, and doing it well.

Customers now want more, and anyone who just sticks to the basics is ‘bout to be left behind! People don’t need just to trust that your site worked, they needed to trust your product and your whole company.

A good “new-age” landing page needs to make people realize that there’s a whole community centered around your site that likes your product more than Grandma lemon sponge cake. This means you’ve gotta connect yourself with that Face-Book thing, that Twitterish thang, and any other communicationizer that can show people visiting your page how popular you are. Folks like to be happy when they spend their money, and if they see other folks spending money on your wares and coming out with a big smiley grin on their jaw it’s sure as the crow flies that they’ll pay up too.

Testing is now king. When it comes to landing pages – just ‘cause something looks mighty nice to you, doesn’t mean it’s making customers want to pay ya. You’ve gotta have the floursacks to change things around on your site and see which ones really bring in the most money. I’m talkin’ bout using cold hard figures to find out the facts about what’s working for you and your landing pages.

Now comes the big fish. In todays online marketplace you’ve gotta do more than just be some trusty nobody with a shop on a street corner. People need to remember you, so this means you’ve gotta make a personal brand. You know, something that makes your whole site leave a bigger impression! Make sure your landing pages have a personality, some spark, something that’ll make a man feel like he’s talking with an old friend rather browsing across the internets like a lost water buffalo.

And that’s the whole of it – once people feel like they trust you, other people trust you, and they can remember you, you’ll be rolling in more dough than the time Old Man Johnson’s bakery exploded. Don’t be ‘fraid of changing times – you’ve just gotta change with ‘em.

Nowadays, trying to give folks that gentle push to do what you desire applies to everything from government elections to getting your spouse to take out the trash. It’s an art, really – too subtle of a message might float by unnoticed, and too strong of a suggestion (“If you don’t take out the trash I’m going to clean the toilet with your toothbrush!”) can leave you sleeping on the couch.

In our case, enticing people to act relates to a landing page’s “Call to Action”, that is, the big button they click in order to sign up for your services. A successful Call to Action is more than just a link, however – you’d be amazed at the difference in leads you get from some very simple changes to this button. Take a look at these main factors that can change the sound you hear from “click… click… click…” to “clickclickclickclick.”

Placement: So you’ve finally given in and spent all your life savings towards bringing home a snazzy new Call to Action button.

One question remains – where should you put it?

Even the most battle-hardened Feng Shui veterans will have trouble with this one. Surprisingly, putting your Call to Action smack-dab in the center of the page isn’t nearly as effective as you’d think. Recent studies (involving test tubes and lasers, I would imagine) have shown that people’s eyes tend to flock to the top-right of the screen. You can’t go wrong with the top-right – statistics don’t lie. (84% of statistics are very accurate, you know.) However, people tend to get easily bored (yes, I see you nodding off over there) and mixing up the location of your Call to Action on your landing pages can keep people on their toes. Quite literally, I’m afraid,  if they’re very short and you put your button at the top of the screen. Test several placement options based on the content of your page to see which ones yield the most leads.

Size. Does size matter? Well, maybe, but sometimes it’s hard to tell what the right. Ahem. Okay, size does have some importance. Bigger isn’t always better, though. The best Call to Action buttons mesh well with the rest of the content on the page, made big enough to easily notice but not so big that they overwhelm the reader with their monstrousness (I’m surprised that’s actually a word.) You can give yourself some leeway to make your Call to Action larger if it includes an image that you think could draw in a reader’s attention. As with cowboy hat shopping, you may have to test a few sizes to find the one that fits.

Color. I bet you thought I was going to use a different colored font here, didn’t you? Please. That’s child’s play. And our printer is out of color ink. Nevertheless, using a vibrant color for your Call to Action button is a must. Ever wonder why fast-food restaurants use so much red? To scare off food inspectors, yes, but also because people’s eyes are naturally drawn to bright colors. The best Call to Action buttons will use a flashy color that also meshes well with the color scheme of your site. Make your button the pinnacle of beauty on your landing page, not an over-bright eyesore.

Text. Dost thou wisheth thy clients to bestow upon thy squire of landing a clicky? Waseth that arduous in comprehension? Despite your ill-advised major in Shakespearean literature (just kidding, I’m an English major too) a Call to Action button is no place for poetic revelries. Keep it simple, short, and easy for the reader to understand what you’re asking them to do. On the other hand, a “Click Here!!!” button will be far less effective than one that succinctly presents your offer.

All of these options are going to require some testing on your part. Sometimes what appears to you to be the best layout for your landing page may turn out to yield far less results than the stupid little design your little sister made up (embarrassing, I know.) Trust the numbers, though, and you’ll be well on your way to more leads than you or your little sister can handle.

Only test one aspect of your landing pages at a time. Whoa there, hotshot. I know it might seem like all the “cool kids” are trying new page layouts, new email campaigns, and new web ads all at the same time, but it’s shenanigans like that that can leave you with a ruined marriage and twenty-plus years of debt. Ahem, perhaps I’m overreacting a bit, but I guess my point is that if you’re testing multiple variables at the same time it’s going to be pretty hard to judge where your improvements are coming from. Take the pace down a notch and only make one change at a time – there’s no rush! (Unless you’re being chased, of course.)

Start wide, then focus. Not only is this the advice given by my Tai Chi instructor, but this concept also applies well to improving your landing page results. In the beginning, you may want to test two pages against one another, letting them duel until one falls bleeding into the dust. This isn’t for the faint of heart, you know. Next, once a certain landing page layout has emerged as the clear victor (and after you’ve thrown a sufficiently extravagant party for it), try tweaking little things on the page such as the colors, fonts, and arrangement of your graphics. This “outside-in” process can ensures that you’re not getting too caught up in the nitty-gritty details while bigger gains could come from an entirely different setup.

Measure your results in sales, not in clicks. Unless you shop primarily at stores that accept clicks as an approved form of credit, your primarily goal from improving your landing page results will be generating more income for your company. Far too often people make the mistake of believing that more traffic and more clicks directly correlate with more money, which isn’t always the case. My old grizzled eyes have seen it all: less clicks generating more income, more clicks generating less income, less clicks generating drops in atmospheric pressure, more clicks – well, you get the idea. Trust just the bottom line and you’ll do just fine.

Use sound experimental principles. Just because your 6th form chemistry teacher, Mr. Skoog, was barely human doesn’t mean that the scientific method won’t be of help to us here. For starters, make sure that your sample groups are randomly divided. If you’re sending all your traffic from your email campaign to one landing page and all web ad traffic to another you won’t be able to tell if your results are due to effective landing page edits or just a different audience. On the same note, make sure you’re doing these tests at the same time! The results you get in August may very well be way different from the results in December (probably from cold typing fingers and such.)

Crafting the perfect landing page is more art than science, but with a little bit of luck and some smart changes your sales results will keep pointing you in the right direction. So don’t be afraid to use what your mama gave you – your ability to experiment, that is.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, the ads you see while you happily cruise through the suburbs of the internet are far more “you-specific” than you might realize. Every time you visit a website, a little tracking device, called a cookie, is placed on your web browser. Why this technology has such a delicious name, I do not know. (Personally I would have gone with “brownie”.) Baked goods aside, these cookies play a valuable part in your web experience. Whether you purchase something from that website or not, many websites will use this cookie to place one of their ads on the site you visit next, even if it’s unrelated. This sly process is called ad remarketing. In general, all your dealings with online-ads will be in some part a direct result of information that sites you’ve previously visited have gathered about you.

Wait – don’t freak out! You’re not being stalked as much as you think (cookies can be deleted at any time if you’re looking for a fresh identity.) And, for the average customer, having remarketed ads can be a great thing. Instead of randomly advertising to “Grandfather Jones” for iPods, videogames, and other things he probably isn’t interested in, our elderly friend can see ad banners for things that are more relevant to his life like suspenders or perhaps extra-double strength super-size bifocals (at least that’s what my own grandfather would shop for.)

So how does this all work? Google Adwords, the advertising program that most websites use, will take care of most everything – all you have to do is give it the specifics. Through Adwords you, as our trusty website manager, can make the decisions of who to target, how often to target them, and what type of weapon you’d like to target them with. Well, maybe not the last part – that’s a different type of targeting. Let’s say you’d like to display a certain ad for your site to every customer that leaves your site but doesn’t end up buying anything. No problemo (why yes, I do speak Spanish) – Google Adwords can make this distinction. Next, you specify how often you want your Ad to be displayed to each customer. I realize it might be tempting to shout, “All the time! Show them my ad every second of their lives! Paste it on their windshield and paint on their ceiling while they sleep!”, an outburst to which I would reply, “You should probably see a psychiatrist.” I’d also try to impress upon you that almost every study has shown that the most effective way to win yourself back these prospective customers is through subtle amounts of advertising that serve as pleasant reminders rather than in-your-face propaganda.

Short of offering your customers money (an interesting, yet perhaps counterproductive tactic), using ad remarketing may be the most effective way to give your website a leg or even an arm up on the competition. It’s cheap, user-friendly, and can make your website seem it’s going out of its way to spend millions on advertising (customers always like to feel like they’re being lavished upon). So what are you waiting for? Cast out your line and start reeling in customers (metaphorically, of course).

Have Ad to Landing Page Continuity. Let’s hop into the mind of a consumer for a sec (don’t worry, it’s very safe.) As we watch from this useful yet slightly cramped viewpoint you can see the backs of our consumer’s eyes light up as they come across your ad. Now, look closely – do their eyes stay bright and focused as they eagerly scan your landing page, or do they dim with confusion because they can’t seem to find the connection between this page and the ad they just clicked? Make sure your landing pages logically follow the ad they’re born from. You can come out of that customer’s mind now, by the way.

Tell them what they’re getting. Unlike Christmas, this is no time for surprises – your landing pages should make it abundantly clear what you’re offering and why your customer’s lives will be sorry excuses for existence until they buy your product. No one likes to be kept in the dark (except rodents, perhaps) when it comes to their benefits, so make sure to shout the value of your service loud and clear.

Make it a quick read. As much as you might be endowed with poetic flair and a knack for prose, your landing page readers are looking to buy something rather than wrestle their way through your budding career as a novelist. Landing pages should be like milk: simple, fresh, and easy to skim. (Ah. I apologize for that terrible pun. Writing jokes isn’t easy, you know.)

Put the important stuff higher up. Since the beginning of time, everyone from trapeze artists to pro football players have capitalized on the fact that people pay more attention things that are higher up than the rest. Your landing pages work on the same principles, so make sure to keep your most important information towards the top of the page.

Look good. Looks aren’t everything in life, but they sure can add a hell of a lot. And when your website is competing with hundreds of other similar sites, it can’t hurt to make your landing page look fresh, friendly, and clean-shaven. Get out a rag and start polishing – your customers will thank you.

Keep your goal obvious. So I went on a date with this landing page last week. Really nice-looking page – catchy language, bright graphics, and huge… fonts. And you should have seen the product that was advertised – wow. The only problem was, as much as I liked her, the signals she was giving me were all over the place. Was I supposed to call her? Text her? Leave my name, number, and email? I certainly didn’t want to try clicking on any buttons, so to speak. Needless to say, make sure your own landing page is very clear about what you want a visitor (or suitor, in this case) to do and how they should go about doing it.

Get rid of distractions. This one’s pretty obvious. Your goal is to – “Look! It’s James Earl Jones! Right over there, buying a coffee!” I’m sorry – what was I saying? Oh, of course. Your landing pages should really make they sure they – “Ah! He’s signing autographs! Over here, James, I mean, Mr. Jones, I mean, Darth Vader.” Ahem, I apologize – I’m trying to say that your landing pages should avoid distractions like other offers, extra links, and unnecessary pictur – “Why yes, just sign it ‘I am your father.’”

Minimize customer effort. I’m not trying to say customers are lazy, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them slept on the bathroom rug in order to minimize the distance they have to get up and walk during the night when they need to pee. Whether you support late-night bathroom jaunts or not, there’s no reason to make your customers’ lives any harder. Make sure your landing page is as efficient and easy-to-use as possible when gathering customer info or adding items to a cart.

Test how well your page works. As Dr. Frankenstein once said, “Never stop experimenting.” While this may have not worked out quite so well for him, it’s great advice for a landing page. Don’t be afraid to try out new fonts, new layouts, and new words in order to see which combinations draw in the most customers.

So there you have it – ten great tips to enhance your landing pages. “Wait!” you’re probably saying as you count on your toes/hot dogs you’re about to eat. “That was only nine!” Hmm. You make an interesting point. Well, you see, I’ve only put nine because – “James Earl Jones! You’re back!”

If you’re looking for some landing page inspiration – check out  our landing page design service.

The title of your webpage, post, or tweet is going to be the deciding factor in whether the average internet viewer clicks on your link or passes it up for the snazzy text just below it. Think about it – anyone who ventures online is going to be bombarded with graphics, words, and possibly nagging mothers while they try and sift through hundreds of links. It’s the ultimate in speed dating – you only have seconds to impress someone before they move on to the next suitor. Except, in this case, your only chance at drawing their attention is the catchy title of your page rather than your well-toned biceps. (Oh – you thought I didn’t notice? Your skin’s had a really nice glow about it lately too… we should hang out sometime.) Writing an effective title or tweet is more complex than just vaguely alluding to your content – these tips should have you well on your way towards gaining a title of your own. (Perhaps Czar? It has a nice ring to it.)

Capitalize on the curiosity of your readers. As opposed to felines, curiosity rarely kills humans. In fact, leaving your title open-ended, mysterious, or just plain odd can get people clicking on your link out of sheer inquisitiveness. Sometimes you see a title of an article that just needs to explored, something along the lines of “Save Time with Banana Peels”. Despite the fact that I’m always short on time and my diet consists almost entirely of bananas (I was raised by monkeys), the reason I and the average internet wanderer clicks on this title is simply that the reader has no idea what’s coming next and will find it hard to resist finding out.

Let people know why they’ll be better off after reading your stuff. Everyone’s always looking to make money, lose weight, get a date, learn something… you get the idea. Except for the new generation of Facebook zombies (from which I believe an attack is imminent), most people are online in order to improve something about themselves or their life. By writing titles that let people know how your content will make them smarter, richer, or happier (think “Three Easy Steps Towards Erasing Your Identity”) you’ll be pulling in self-help searchers from all over.

Size Matters. While Cosmo might try to tell you differently, going overboard on length can actually be a bad thing. Your title should fit crisply on one line – if your reader is getting bored making it through your title it’s unlikely they’ll be very gung-ho about reading your entire article. Experts (titleologists, I believe they’re called) say that the most effective titles are seven words long – I’m not making that up. Titles are like poetry – good ones pack incredible amounts of meaning into few words, and bad ones can bore readers to tears (and will most likely be studied for the next fifty years in 9^th grade English classes.)

Make sure your title agrees with your content. This applies not only to meaning, but also to tone. Even though making your title something like “Earn £200/hour by Eating Jellybeans” could get you more than a few hits, most readers aren’t going to keep reading your content once they realize your article focuses on correct bonsai care. Likewise, if you’re trying to expand your clientele through your funeral parlor’s website a humorous title such as “Just Because Grandma’s Expired Doesn’t Mean Your Credit Card Has – Get Your Discount Coffins Here!” probably won’t fly.

Don’t be afraid to get creative with your titles – after all, standing out from the crowd, just like in all aspects of business, will be the most important factor in drawing in customers. This applies to Twitter as well  – when there’s essentially an infinite amount tweets flying around the internet at any given second, making your tweets noteworthy will be your only real chance at winning legitimate followers. However, some types of creativity work better than others. Use the guidelines above as a rough outline for titling your content, release your inner poet, and watch the clicks coming rolling in.