The Worst Advice (You Might Be Following) For Your Landing Page

If you want to build a credible website for a real business with long term, sustainable goals… you have to be skeptical of the practices used by any internet marketer that recommends any of the following.

Long Form Sales Letter

Used frequently for affiliate marketing, sales letters on the web are… actually, sales letters anywhere… predictably spammy and salesy. It’s the equivalent of a cheesy salesman who attempts to manipulate you right off the bat.

If you’re trying to be aggressive about closing a sale, you are only going to scare prospects away.

Instead, try a clean, simple, and to-the point landing page. Be professional, give visitors the chance to decide if they are interested before you try closing them.

Testimonials or Reviews

“It will build trust” they might say. In which case, they are in severe denial about the impact that testimonials actually do create when you publish them on your landing page. At best, they are ignored. At worst, they appear to be a scam.

Even if your testimonials are real, it won’t matter. To the average reader, they are fake. The reviews that do matter are user-submitted and verified on a 3rd party directory (such as Yelp or Google reviews.) That’s if they decide to research your credibility, quality of service, or customer support. In the meantime, published reviews or testimonials on your website are useless at this point.

Instead, try telling a story that illustrates the positive experience your business provided for a former customer… one that potential new customers can relate to and hope to expect from you.

Anything that Pops Up

So you want people to subscribe to get emails from you… you have to really earn their trust. If something turned them off and they decided to leave your website without subscribing then what in the world makes you think they will change their mind and trust you because you’re popping up with a needy box that begs them to reconsider.

Seriously?! Spamming somebody is not how to earn their trust that you won’t spam them.

Instead, try understanding what makes visitors leave your website and make updates as needed to earn their trust.