11 Best Practices for Optimizing Sign-Up and Landing Pages

To bring in new customers and encourage them to move through your sales funnels, you want to ensure that your company website’s sign-up and landing pages are encouraging people to take action. But with so much competition out there, it’s critical that these pages be designed in a way that discourages visitors from clicking away.

That’’s why we asked eleven entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) the following question:

Q. What is your recommended one best practice for optimizing sign-up and landing pages on my company website?

1. Minimize the Number of Data Fields

Try to minimize the number of data fields you request from prospects on your sign-up and landing pages. Typically speaking, you should stick to the most pertinent information, as having fewer fields means that there is a greater likelihood that a potential customer will complete the page, resulting in a higher number of leads being generated. —Diana Goodwin, AquaMobile Swim School

2. Be Original

Does your page have any of the standard sales page jargon? Cut it! You can’t captivate a lead with stuff they’ve heard a million times before. Top converting landing pages suck you in, get you addicted, and transform you into a conversion. A boring landing page is worse than none at all. Bottom line: If you can’t say it in a sexy way, don’t say it at all. —Vanessa Van Edwards, Science of People

3. Make Your Offer Clear

Too many offers have a generic “join now” call-to-action without explaining the benefits. What does the consumer receive by handing over his or her email? What should they expect? How often? You need to make the offer appealing so that it stands out amongst every other offer out there. Consumers are presented with opportunities every time they visit a website—make your offer clear. —Jonathan Long, Market Domination Media

4. Use Video Content

Add a sales video and/or informational snippet about who you are, what you do, and why clients need to sign up now. Remember that an easy-to-use sign-up box is equally important, as is the right headline. Carefully evaluate and/or A/B test to make sure yours are optimally effective. —Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now

5. Build for Mobile

Companies are still missing the opportunity to enable their numbers to be a click-and-dial button on mobile devices, as well as forms resizing to a mobile screen with an onscreen keyboard. Be sure to take advantage of this increasing source of traffic. —Andrew Fayad, eLearning Mind

6. Use Data to Make Them Better

Look at how your previous landing pages have performed and use data to assess which are working best and which aren’t. Then, when you create new landing pages, replicate variable items from past successful landing pages, so you can A/B test and continue to optimize. —Lindsay Mullen, Prosper Strategies

7. Simplify Your Pages

Each landing page should be conceptually simple: copy with a clearly defined goal, media to support that goal, and a strong call to action. Remove copy that doesn’t directly support the goal. Make sure that the sign-up form or button is prominent and requires as little input as possible. You don’t want to make leads do a lot of cognitive work on landing pages. —Vik Patel, Future Hosting

8. Determine What Your Customer Likes

Our sign-up form has a “10 percent off” bonus for providing information about a customer’s interests. Knowing that someone is a trail runner versus a road runner will ensure that we don’t bother them with information they don’t care about. As our database grows, it also helps to shape future designs based upon the bulk of our audiences’ interests. —Josh Sprague, Orange Mud

9. Use an Exit Intent Tool

Conventional wisdom will tell you to simplify your landing page, remove navigation links, and force someone down the funnel as much as you can. The downside is that more people will bounce because they don’t have anywhere else to go. That’s why you should use a tool like Exit Monitor, Bounce Exchange, or SumoMe. A targeted offer will pop up when someone mouses over to hit the back button or exit your page. —Fan Bi, Blank Label

10. Match Your Value Proposition With the Amount of Information You’re Asking for

One main best practice is making sure the value proposition you’re offering through sign-up and landing pages warrants the amount of information you are collecting. For example, an ebook yields the right to require more fields be filled out versus signing up for a newsletter. If you’re not being reasonable in your asks for information, then you’re likely not going to see healthy conversion rates. —Robi Ganguly, Apptentive

11. Experiment as Often as Possible

Make it simple and effective. Make sure you do not have too many form fields as that can deter someone from taking the time to fill out the form. You also need to communicate as clearly as possible about how your product/service will make people’s lives easier. And run A/B testing so you can see a difference in conversion and ultimately decide what works better. —Justin Beegel, Infographic World, Inc.

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