Landing pages are undoubtedly one of the most powerful features of your entire website. We’re willing to bet that, regardless of the purpose of your website, you have at least one landing page to filter your web traffic towards a purchase decision or other desired action. You don’t want to let your prospective customers slip away because your landing pages are ineffective, do you?
This got us thinking, “How effective are our own landing pages at driving action?” Further exploration of this question revealed our landing pages could, indeed, be better.
What makes an effective landing page?
Each landing page only serves a single purpose.
It should be stripped of the full range of information available on the rest of the website in order to focus the visitor. Having additional content on the page only distracts the visitor from the reason they arrived there and, thus, decreases the likelihood of a successful conversion.
Your landing page should also be able to accurately measure where your traffic is coming from and where they go next. Having too many variables on the page creates unnecessary complications in your analytics and reduces the effectiveness of the page.
Our old landing pages were visually outdated and cluttered with a stack of information that did not show clear actions.
How did we improve them?
The solution came in the form of Unbounce, a tool that specifically builds quality landing pages which drive results. We have dedicated an entire blog post to explaining the advantages of Unbounce – subscribe to our blog to catch future posts and to stay up to date on other marketing tips for business.
We redesigned the landing pages for our 3 core offerings as a business – Marketing Services, Training and Free Marketing Advice.
Aside from an enhanced aesthetic make-over, which fits in perfectly with our branding and design, the pages now have a much clearer and appealing interface, outline the purpose of the page and make it even easier for visitors to find exactly what they need to take further action.
We compare the old and new versions of the same page:
Old vs. New Landing Page Designs
Marketing Advice
Marketing Training
Marketing Services
Which looks more appealing to you?
Do you need help improving your landing pages?
Get in touch!
The Landing Page: Is Yours Performing?
/0 Comments/in Case Studies, Marketing, Sales /by Creative Agency Secrets TeamLanding pages are undoubtedly one of the most powerful features of your entire website. We’re willing to bet that, regardless of the purpose of your website, you have at least one landing page to filter your web traffic towards a purchase decision or other desired action. You don’t want to let your prospective customers slip away because your landing pages are ineffective, do you?
This got us thinking, “How effective are our own landing pages at driving action?” Further exploration of this question revealed our landing pages could, indeed, be better.
What makes an effective landing page?
Each landing page only serves a single purpose.
It should be stripped of the full range of information available on the rest of the website in order to focus the visitor. Having additional content on the page only distracts the visitor from the reason they arrived there and, thus, decreases the likelihood of a successful conversion.
Your landing page should also be able to accurately measure where your traffic is coming from and where they go next. Having too many variables on the page creates unnecessary complications in your analytics and reduces the effectiveness of the page.
Our old landing pages were visually outdated and cluttered with a stack of information that did not show clear actions.
How did we improve them?
The solution came in the form of Unbounce, a tool that specifically builds quality landing pages which drive results. We have dedicated an entire blog post to explaining the advantages of Unbounce – subscribe to our blog to catch future posts and to stay up to date on other marketing tips for business.
We redesigned the landing pages for our 3 core offerings as a business – Marketing Services, Training and Free Marketing Advice.
Aside from an enhanced aesthetic make-over, which fits in perfectly with our branding and design, the pages now have a much clearer and appealing interface, outline the purpose of the page and make it even easier for visitors to find exactly what they need to take further action.
We compare the old and new versions of the same page:
Old vs. New Landing Page Designs
Marketing Advice
OLD
NEW
Marketing Training
OLD
NEW
Marketing Services
OLD
NEW
Which looks more appealing to you?
Do you need help improving your landing pages?
Get in touch!
No related posts.
My Internship at CAS- James Halpin
/0 Comments/in Marketing /by Creative Agency Secrets TeamJames Halpin marketing intern
Hi, I’m James Halpin and I’ve been lucky to have an internship at CAS over the past month and boy, has it been a crash course. Being at CAS was my first exposure to the professional working world and it is certainly different to my previous work experience. I’ve had to adapt my skill set to this environment and learn brand new skills. Here are a few of the things I’ve had to improve on.
Independence
There is far less micro-managing in the professional environment which was different to previous jobs I had had. I’ve had to import my independence skills that I had learnt at university and apply them to the real world. Figuring out stuff on my own is difficult but rewarding. It is tempting to take the easy route and do a cheap job of something, but doing something properly with quality is far more rewarding.
Research
Surprisingly to me research was a large part of my internship. Not only from within the company (looking at previous work to decide what to do) but also for software and companies that were new to me. Fortunately for me, there was a wealth of material already on the internet that I was able to call upon when I didn’t understand something. Rebecca also sent me a textbook, Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Sharma. This book tied all the method to the madness. I also could rely on the team here at CAS to explain something if I couldn’t solve it.
Writing Skills
My writing style over the past month has had to change. University is very formal and stringent about their writing criteria, no personal pronouns and certainly no language that could be considered colloquial. The internship has taught me to be more flexible and put a little flare into my writing. This is a list that I’ve added to every time I have received consistent criticism of my writing:
Software
Before I started at CAS I had never used any marketing software. On my first day here I was given the task of learning how to use Google Analytics which is the foundation of CAS and their client Rowperfect. I’ve discovered not using GA or another equivalent would be suicide for an online business. WordPress has also been a revelation to me. Seeing the backend of a website has given me insight into the online world. I’m now able to criticise websites where I know people have been lazy. Equally however, that means for the websites I work on – everything must be on purpose. Formatting is essential, spelling and grammar, even more so.
I would like to thank the all the team at CAS; Rebecca, Jeremy and Laura. Working here has been a complete learning curve and I couldn’t have developed without your guidance. I wish you all luck for 2016! A special thanks to Rebecca for giving me this opportunity and I know it will propel me forward on my career path.
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FAIL Ontraport subscribes complainers
/0 Comments/in Direct Marketing, Email /by Rebecca CaroeFollowing up on my post, here’s the latest…. I get an email from Ontraport promoting their WordPress plugin.
I definitely did not subscribe to this. If you read the earlier post, you’ll see I was complaining about their service as I suspect they support spammers.
So I click through to unsubscribe from this newsletter and see that they’ve subscribed me to their weekly newsletter BECAUSE I clicked on their Spam / Abuse complaint website link.
Do not do business with these guys.
Ontraport confirms Abuse website sign up
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Does Ontraport allow a spam by-pass?
/0 Comments/in Direct Marketing, Email /by Rebecca CaroeI just tried to unsubscribe from an email list. It was sent to my personal (non-work) account and I don’t remember subscribing – not to say I didn’t o it sometime.
But click the unsubscribe link and something went a bit wacky.
Take a look at this – no data in my subscribe forms, plus it thinks I subscribed at a date before email was invented!
Ontraport unsubscribe form #fail
So I’m asking for your help
Is this a spammers work-around? Use someone’s email but fail to allow them to unsubscribe? Is it a genuine Ontraport web page?
The URL string seems to have genuine subscriber data but it implies I clicked “abuse” but actually I clicked “Unsubscribe”.
http://REMOVEURL.ontraport.com/u/MjU4MDYvMC80MDc3OS8wLzI4OC8wL2Y5ODc5Y2M5MmViOTRhNmQ2ODhkZjQ4YjdmMzViOTcxLzQwMDY5Ng==?aid=25806&item_id=288&email=&action=abuse&cid=40779&aaid=2&drip_id=0&stn=0
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The Art and Science of Generating Leads
/0 Comments/in B2B, Lead Generation, Marketing /by Rebecca CaroeMany business owners tell us that they want more inbound leads and enquiries for new business. We know exactly how to do it AND we’ve been practicing what we preach for years. Here is the proof – our own data month by month of enquiries to buy Creative Agency Secrets’ services.
Leads tracking spreadsheet sample
Today we’re announcing a webinar that shows you exactly HOW we do it, so you can learn to do this for yourself. February 10th 2016.
The art and science of generating leads Event Sign up
The art and science of generating leads results in a new business development plan. That’s a month by month chart of activities, all oriented around starting conversations that lead to paying clients. And on this 90 minute webinar I am going to show you HOW to do it and then how to MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Creative Agency Secrets are experts in proactive execution marketing. This is the technique that builds up your business profile which creates leads which become enquiries which become sales. It’s a continuous cycle.
Sounds simple – but most business owners do not know HOW to do it.
This workshop is for business owners and managers who are responsible for finding new clients and growing revenues. It will show you the practical, tried and tested techniques that the Creative Agency Secrets team uses.
Here’s a sneak preview of what you will learn:
Don’t take our word for it…
Register for the event by clicking any of the links to The Art and Science of Generating Leads
Tickets are Free
And we are offering two different tickets – Attend Live and Watch Later. Both require you to sign up for February 10th 2016 event.
Event timings
10th February 2016 times in different country / locations
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Quality website developers – time to up your game
/0 Comments/in B2B, B2C, Digital media, Marketing /by Rebecca CaroeI get really mad when low quality website developers over-specify for marketing websites. Is this
Quality Website Developers
something you have seen?
Part of the expertise of a high quality web developer is to recommend the right tool for the job and I find it ridiculously easy to spot website developers who are not skilful. But it still makes me angry.
Marketing suppliers like Creative Agency Secrets lead the industry because we “decode” marketing for our clients, we find high quality suppliers and engage them for our clients as sub-contractors with us managing the job. Trust is essential to maintain reputation and high quality marketing services delivery.
I cannot hire you if you set out to exploit the ill-informed client.
Which CMS is right for you?
We are handling a small website for a client which needs to become responsive. It’s a brochure-ware site and needs to rank well in local search. That’s it.
So why, oh why does their existing developer recommend a CMS that scores highly for:
I did some research comparing two CMS products and found this and Quora answers. Which confirmed my own views of mis-alignment between client need and tools proposed.
Quality website developers don’t do this
It’s lazy and over-engineered for the requirements and will be costly for the client.
Game over for that potential relationship.
I do not see it as my job to specify the website build and design – that is what an expert web developer should be doing. As marketing experts, we specify the functionality and features needed and let the experts propose appropriate solutions.
If you know a good web developer who would like to quote on this job – send them this link to the job description.
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How to compare my website with a competitors’
/0 Comments/in B2B, B2C /by Rebecca CaroeSitting with a client, he brought up a competitors website and asked me how much traffic they got in comparison to his site.
Top 3 ways to compare websites
There are several free tools you can use to compare your public website statistics with other websites. Remember things like Google Analytics only work if you are authorised to see them – so they’re no good for competitors.
Alexa
The top non-Google site for appraising the popularity of websites on a worldwide scale. I use the Chrome Alexa extension to get this screen grab for our website showing incoming links, global ranking and local country ranking. We are the 405, 597th most popular website on the planet.
Alexa rank for Creative Agency Secrets
SimilarWeb
A cute comparison for two sites that shows more information than Alexa. This gets different data from Alexa but adds in some nice additional features like traffic volumes (in thousands), bounce rate, time on site, page views, countries, traffic sources (direct, referrals, social, email, display), Audience interests and similar sites. Then you can add in a competitor site URL and get a direct comparison. Very cute.
Similarweb for Creative Agency Secrets
SEMRush
The digital marketers best friend for detailed data comparison, SEM Rush is the big daddy here. It dives deeper than the others into keywords, comparing paid and organic traffic, main competitors, branded search vs non-branded (helpful for marketing). Plus you can choose from 26 country search engines to use (Google.com or your local google.com.au for example).
SEM Rush for Creative Agency Secrets
This article first published in Marketing Online Magazine Issue 4
Doing a comparison of your website with your competitors is a useful exercise. It’s all part of Getting your website working hard for your business [there’s a free ebook telling you how].
That’s what Creative Agency Secrets specialises in. Give us a call or email for an appraisal of your site, your business marketing and how to improve.
Read more blog posts about Analysis and Profile Raising by clicking the icons below. Each is a step in our 8 Step Methodology
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The best approach to get leads for a B2B solution
/0 Comments/in B2B, Lead Generation, Marketing /by Rebecca CaroeI got this question on Clarity.fm where I’m a registered consultant and so decided to share my answer here as well.
In order to do these things you will need the following marketing assets: Website, brochure collateral, marketing automation software, CRM database, SEO and strong copywriting.
Happy to help with more detail if you arrange a 20 minute phone call with me personally. I can either tutor you in how to do it yourself, or my team can do it with/for you.
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Business not working effectively? Have you considered a business relaunch?
/0 Comments/in B2B, Marketing /by Creative Agency Secrets TeamIf your business isn’t working as effectively as it once was, a business relaunch might be for you. Relaunching a business is a proactive decision taken to ensure that your business stays relevant and engaging in this new fast-paced, dog eat dog world. If a business is relaunched successfully, it can shed its old, ineffective face – and usher in it’s new, more successful era. Here are our tips for business relaunch, to make sure you nail it.
Our Tips for a Successful Business Relaunch
Do Your Homework
The first step of any major change is to work out what isn’t working. Analyse your business, and work out what was effective, and what wasn’t. Recruit someone to give you a hand with this; preferably someone unbiased who won’t sugar coat the truth. From here, go deeper and work out why your business wasn’t working; have your customers changed? Has your market changed? Is your product still what it once was? This is the defining moment of a relaunch decision – carry it out accordingly! Having extensive knowledge of both your own business and the wider market is key to a successful relaunch.
Learn from your Mistakes
Now that you know what wasn’t working and why, it is time to make some changes. In front of you there are two ‘piles’: the good things and the bad. Keep the good things – be it your software, product, or even your business cards, and take the lessons from the bad things. These lessons are the most important part of a relaunch – learn from, and don’t forget them. Make positive decisions based on what you learned – this is where your business has its grand rebirth – it is a landmark moment. You have an effective business again – go you.
Spread the Good Word
Now you effectively have a new business – but no one knows about it. This is your time to share your business with the world (again). If you can signal the relaunch of your business with an event, and promote it in such way as to get people talking about it, you’ll put yourself in a strong position to start well. Your main aim here is not only to promote your business, but also to differentiate it and shed the image of the old one. If you can express the fact that your business is leaner, meaner, (maybe cleaner and greener), and here to stay – then you might be onto a winner.
Want to read more?
This article focuses on business relaunch options, and introduces the concept of pivoting your business
While slightly older, this article shares some fantastic war stories of businesses that have relaunched.
Look here for a quick relaunching guide from Marketing Donut.
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