15 Examples of Brilliant Homepage Design. 15 Must-Know Facts on How People View Websites. Do you know what is the first thing that your eye is drawn to on a website? And in what pattern do people scan your website? There have been many eyetracking tests on this subject and I’ll give you 15 most useful facts you should know. The picture below shows 3 different websites and where people look on them. Red indicates the area, where people looked the most, yellow areas got a bit less eye-action, blue areas got the least views and the gray areas, well, people didn’t focus on them at all. As you can see, the more people scroll down, the more they lose focus and start mainly scanning your website. Here are the 15 facts you should know on how people view websites.
Text attracts more attention than pictures. There you go. Sources: BBC News | directcreative | GoogleBlog. Using Targeted Content Marketing to Improve User Experience. UX or user experience has been emerging as a very vital channel for digital and inbound marketing, given the fact how users’ behavior and demands toward web-based content are continuously growing over the past years. This constant evolution in web usage is clearly defining the changes in the online marketing space as well, because users have to come expect continually better experiences. This means marketing professionals must now work to delight as well as inform to efficiently get the attention of their target users/audience. Evaluating the significance of UX in today’s marketing age will simply take a longer list, but here are several reasons that exemplify its impact to marketing and revenue generation processes: These reasons simply imply how great marketing/advertising experiences can result in customer loyalty (by serving as an extension of the brand).
Effective Content Marketing can improve User Experience ResearchImplementationOutreachAnalyze What should you tell them? Conclusion. 14 Real-Life Examples of CTA Copy YOU Should Copy. When marketers think about call-to-action (CTA) creation, the first thing many of them tend to focus on is design. And while CTA design is critical to initially drawing the attention of your visitors, it's the copy of your calls-to-action that has to be compelling enough to get them clicking. If the copy you craft doesn’t keep your visitors' attention, it can hurt your click-through rate, lead conversions, and ultimately, sales. “People looking for information are looking for text, not pictures,” writes copywriter Dean Rieck, analyzing the results of an Eyetrack III study.
Because visitors focus on the words in ads more than on the graphics, marketers need to first make sure their wording is clear, specific, and action-oriented. And while we're not at all suggesting that you mimic the following examples of CTA copy word for word, these 14 real-life examples of can definitely inspire you to come up with rich CTA copy that compels your visitors to click and convert. 1) Akismet 2) Amazon. 13 Little Landing Page Tweaks That Can Make a BIG Difference. It's no news flash that inbound marketers have to produce a lot of content and offers.
After all, without these valuable assets -- and plenty of 'em -- inbound lead generation would be quite a challenge. And with every new offer, marketers must also spin out a new landing page to go with it. But because landing page creation has become such a regular practice, and considering that many tools make it so quick and easy to create a new landing page in minutes, attention to landing page optimization can also easily fly out the window.
So if you've been guilty of launching landing pages left and right all willy nilly, you may be overlooking some little details that can take the performance of your landing pages from good, to great. Got 15 extra minutes on your hands? Audit one of your landing pages, and see if you can make any of the following little tweaks that can make a BIG difference in your lead-gen results. 1) Punch Up Your Headline 2) Shorten Your Copy 3) Make the Value Clearer. Website Optimization Basics. 10 best practices for your mobile website. Examples of Mobile Awesomeness How to bring awesomeness to your mobile presence Target audience: Small, mid-size and large businesses, social enterprises, mobile developers, social marketers, educators — and anyone with a mobile website. Yesterday we discussed some of the choices you have when it comes to creating your mobile website.
Regardless of the solution you choose, there are some best practices that should be applied to all mobile websites. Here are 10 important tips to get your mobile site off to a roaring start. Keep it simple and prioritize content 1In general, keeping your site simple means eliminating most images; simplifying navigation, layout, and design elements; eliminating Flash and other proprietary software; keeping your site free of clutter; and breaking up text and other content. Space is in high demand on a mobile site and site visitors are on the go, so you need to anticipate what content users will most likely want to access. Take advantage of mobile features. Why Landing Pages Are an Indispensable Part of Marketing.
Any savvy inbound marketer "gets" that once you've done all that hard work to get visitors to your website, the next big step is to convert them into leads for your business. But what's the best way to get them to convert? Landing pages , that's what! Unfortunately, there seems to be a major disconnect between the importance of landing pages and their use by marketers. According to MarketingSherpa's Landing Page Handbook (2nd edition), 44% of clicks for B2B companies are directed to the business' homepage, not a special landing page . Furthermore, of the B2B companies that are using landing pages, 62% have six or fewer total landing pages . Landing pages are the heart and soul of an inbound marketer's lead generation efforts, so why are they still so underutilized? But let's put a stop to this, shall we, marketers? What is a Landing Page?
First, let's start with a simple definition: How Landing Pages Work 6 Reasons You Need Landing Pages 1) Easily Generate Leads! We mean it! Website Testing: Move Beyond the Landing Page. Smart marketers understand the value of testing. In a relatively short period of time, website testing has evolved from changing the color of a “submit” button on one web page, to building intricate, multi-page testing campaigns with the ultimate goal of delivering an engaging online experience to customers. Our latest infographic, Website Testing: Move Beyond the Landing Page, provides ideas for testing other pages as well as tips for what you should consider when choosing a testing solution. Copy to clipboard. 10 Foolproof Ways to Earn Your Landing Page Visitors' Trust. Landing pages are a critical tool for meeting your ever-increasing lead generation goals. Actually, only 8% of marketers reported that dedicated landing pages were ineffective, according to MarketingSherpa's 2011 Landing Page Optimization Benchmark Report.
I'm not sure what those 8% are doing, but the effectiveness of landing pages for the other 92% of marketers hinges on one component that isn't often discussed -- visitors have to trust you enough to give away their personal information on your landing page forms to obtain your offers. The thing is, we've all been burned too many times by companies that don't deliver on their offers' promises, sell our personal information, and SPAM us with irrelevant emails. As such, we've all accrued some keen Spidey senses that kick in when we visit landing pages that tell us whether a company is trustworthy, or whether we should cut and run. 1) Ensure your call-to-action (CTA) offer and landing page offer align. 9) Use proper spelling and grammar.
10 Ways to Instantly Amplify the Social Proof of Your Marketing. An individual's purchasing decision can be influenced by a large number of factors. Are you considering how influential social proof can be in that mix? According to Goog le , 70% of Americans now say they look at product reviews before making a purchase. Furthermore, a CompUSA and iPerceptions study revealed that 63% of consumers indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has product ratings and reviews.
While product reviews are only one type of social proof, those are some pretty persuasive statistics to consider. Are you giving the social proof of your business the visibility it deserves? What Is Social Proof? ' Social proof ,' also referred to as 'informational social influence,' is the concept that people will conform to the actions of others under the assumption that those actions are reflective of the correct behavior. 5 Categories of Social Proof As I mentioned, reviews aren't the only marketing tool that can be classified as social proof.
Optimizing the 2012 Presidential Donation Forms. InShare30 A website optimization review for five U.S. presidential campaigns' online donation forms. Election season gets longer and longer every term, forcing presidential candidates to acquire more money than ever to run a successful campaign. While big donors are the primary focus for candidates, donations by the mass public play a vital role in the election and are not overlooked.
To maximize the contributions made by the everyday voter, candidates and their election teams need to optimize the donation forms on the presidential hopeful's website to ensure they are capturing the interest and pocketbook of all prospects. Optimizing a candidate's donation form may not seem like a high priority but improving a candidate's form can have a huge impact on their bottom line. Now let's assume that we can optimize his donation form and achieve a 10 percent increase in donation conversion rate. Barack Obama The original form: Obama has the best donation form of all the candidates. Actual Optimized. The Product Page 2012: 7 Must-Test Elements. Bryan Eisenberg | February 24, 2012 | 1 Comment inShare26 The seven must-test elements to try across your product page sections in order to convert visitors into sales this year.
All retailers have product pages. Some product pages are good in that they help you sell. Is your product page earning it's keep? When we teach people about product pages, we break them down into the five sections of the product page: Headline/titleProduct imageProduct descriptionReady-to-buy areaAdditional details There are many tests you can perform across the five product page sections. Test your product headline to be benefit oriented and keyword rich as opposed to just your ordinary product name only. There are so many different tests you could potentially experiment with on your product pages, but this list of seven should be a good start to optimizing so that you're ready for Q4 2012.
In the next column, we'll look at optimizing your product/service pages for non-e-commerce websites. Before & After: The Optimization of a Flawed Landing Page. Marketers talk a lot about advanced techniques for working with their leads: lead flow, lead management, lead nurturing. But all of that is meaningless without consistent lead generation, and landing pages are the strongest tools in a marketer's arsenal to meet that looming monthly lead goal. Because landing pages are so important to lead generation, attention to detail is in order to ensure you have the highest conversion rate possible. And as it turns out, landing page visitors are pretty darn fickle about which pages they'll convert on.
To show you how to prevent landing page abandonment, we took a HubSpot landing page and broke down what it looks like before optimization, and after. See if you can identify the mistakes and how to fix them! Subpar Landing Page Here's an example of a landing page to access HubSpot's ebook that explains how to build your Google+ business page. Optimized Landing Page 1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) 5.) 6.) 7.) 8.) 9.) 10.) 11.) 12.) 7 Ways to Lower Your Website's Bounce Rate. Bounce rate is the enemy of every website — it's the percentage of visitors that come to your page and don’t go to any others within the same site. It can be frustrating and costly, especially if you've invested time and money into SEO and paid ads to get visitors to your site — you don't want that hard work to go to waste once the person hits your page. Businesses need to make sure their first impressions reel in the visitor in order to reduce bounce rate and to keep the person engaged with your brand.
To help you combat pesky bounce rates, we've put together a list of usability considerations that can be used to lower your site's bounce rate and improve visitor retention. From optimized page layouts to faster loading, there are a number of ways to keep web surfers hooked. 1. Let's face it, no one likes looking at advertisements, but the reality is that many sites could not survive without them. 2. 3.
No one will stay on a site they can't read. 4. 5. 6. Treat your users with respect. 12 Critical Elements Every Homepage Must Have [Infographic] If you’re considering a website redesign or are wondering how to generate more leads from your website, it's a good idea to start with your homepage. Serving as your company's virtual front door, this page is generally responsible for drawing in a majority of your website's traffic. And despite its prominence, many businesses struggle to optimize it properly.
You see, your homepage needs to wear a lot of hats. Rather than treating it like a dedicated landing page built around one particular action, it should be designed to serve different audiences, from different origins. So to improve the performance of your homepage, check out the following infographic detailing 12 critical elements every homepage must have. Download our collection of website homepage design examples here to see how these elements come together. 12 Critical Elements Every Website Homepage Must Have Share this Image On Your Site <p><strong>Please include attribution to with this graphic. 1) Headline. 4 Tips to Keep Your Website Ahead of the Curve. This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Sure, having a website for your business serves a practical need: to draw net-surfing users to your product or service. However, it's also much more than slapping on a run of the mill two-column template and calling it a day. Nothing kills an online buzz like a poorly designed or drastically outdated website. Dry and boring default templates, broken assets, confusing pages and invasive widgets do nothing but harm a page's style, which in turn reflects poorly on the company. 2012 is heralding a new wave of innovative web technologies and design, and a page that stays in step with these trends is bound to pique interest and lower your bounce rate. 1.
Don't Be Afraid to be Bold Mail Chimp. A bold design can be obtained with very little money, especially for those who aren't necessarily experienced in coding. 2. 3. 4. How to Design an Ecommerce Site to Maximize Sales.