Dedication. Persistence. Tenacity. These are traits the successful financial advisors take to heart. They know they work in an industry that rewards consistent small wins over one-off home runs.
The same philosophy applies to landing pages.
Simple landing pages that form a bigger part of the sales funnel work best. Simplicity leads to clarity, and clarity accelerates understanding and conversion. These little wins pile up over time.
When a web page tries to do everything, it usually accomplishes nothing.
So rather than a do-it-all landing page that attempts to cover all bases with overwhelming data, the wise Virtual Financial AdvisorTM implements simple yet targeted landing pages that have hyperfocused objectives — typically with a dominant CTA.
But to simplify a landing page, we need to understand what the bare essentials are. What does a landing page need? Why should advisors stay away from data-heavy, elaborate landing pages, and how can you make the message stand out?
Why Complex Landing Pages Don’t Work
The underlying psychological principles here are very much like the tenets we observe in consumer choices. Barry Schwartz explains this concept in his book, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less.
More choices often cause suboptimal results because of ‘purchasing anxiety.’When people have more to choose from, it causes an ‘analysis paralysis’ effect and they end up not choosing anything.
More is less.
The same can be said about complex and data-heavy landing pages. Information overload can overwhelm prospects, so they end up not acting on anything. To put it simply:When the landing page tries to do everything, it usually accomplishes nothing.
To be clear, this is not about avoiding presenting data. In fact, we live in a data-driven age, and every advisor should use big data to their advantage. But being strategic about the business’s funnel is key here. A landing page should have one clear goal, so try not to worry about missing some data points. The website and other marketing content serve the purpose of providing additional context and resources, should the prospect need it.
The Importance of Simplicity
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
These wise words embody the importance of simplicity. They make digesting complex ideas easier. When clients understand the idea, then they can have confidence in taking action.
Simplicity gives prospects the perceived power of selection. Most people prefer this, since their decisions don’t feel forced and are easier to justify. They know what they’re getting.
What Does a Landing Page Need
An effective landing page has one goal, and all its parts support that goal. The page is clear and compact. This also means having a dominant CTA that is obvious to the reader.
All Parts Support the Objective
What this means is every element supports the goal. The subject line supports the goal. All headings support the goal. Buttons have specific purposes. Copy backs the objective. And there is no unnecessary content. The landing page has one objective, and all its parts support it.
But how do you know which information is needed and which elements are superfluous?
One helpful way of knowing which content to eliminate is to use targeted copywriting techniques. Joseph Sugarman espouses the idea when he says, “The sole purpose of the title is to get the reader to the first sentence. The purpose of the first sentence is to get the reader to the next sentence.”
If we embraced this same concept with a landing page, then shorter, simpler messages triumph.
One Call To Action
Say the landing page’s objective is to collect emails.
It may be tempting to include links to the main website to gain traffic; have affiliate links that advance commissions; embed calendar invites that promote local events, etc.
Don’t.
That’s right – even links to your own website or events are best left out. The landing page has one goal and, in the grand scheme of things, leaving the page to view other content — any content — detracts from the main objective. Even having too many buttons detracts from the objective.
For every landing page then, you should have one CTA. Other business objectives can be for another day — or page.
Marketing Tips That Work
To know which information to add or remove, we like to focus on proven marketing techniques that eliminate fluff.
In a nutshell, the characteristics of an effective marketing campaign are: simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, and emotional, packaged in stories for maximal effect.
We touched upon simplicity in the landing page’s message. But adding social proof, specifically, is useful for landing pages.
When it comes to this mechanism, including social proof near the top helps a ton. Doing so has the potential to add credibility, surprise, and tangible confirmation that the business is legitimate — all elements of effective marketing techniques.
Funnels and Landing Pages
Of course, many advisors have multiple landing pages with different objectives.
Landing pages are an integral part to lead conversion. Naturally, we want to make sure the landing page is structured optimally.
But let’s backtrack a bit. The discerning Virtual Financial AdvisorTM will have a sales funnel, or funnels, that contain automated sequences of pages and actions. A landing page forms part of the greater funnel.
Like landing pages, funnels don’t have to be complex. No, scratch that – they should NOT be complex.
One funnel strategy that has been proven to work and help advisors generate 7-figure businesses is a quiz — we like these five quiz landing page tips.
Ultimately, simple is effective, for both funnels and landing pages.
Simple Things Work
Uncomplicated landing pages perform the best, and that’s good news for financial advisors. It is reassuring to know that action beats trying to make elaborate presentations and pages.
Simple doesn’t mean dull either. Rather, it’s a state that encourages users to take action by breaking down or eliminating complex information. If the landing page succeeds in encouraging visitors to take action, then that’s all the business needs. If it works, then it’s certainly not dull.
Consider that a landing page is not a full-scale website, so avoid overpowering the page with data. The page has one goal. Know what that goal is, and execute.
