52% of companies never test their landing pages
Yikes! Beyond that scary number is something far more disturbing. If more than half of businesses don't check, test or analyze their landing pages, what else are they ignoring? How is that an effective marketing strategy? The eye-opening data is courtesy of the gurus over at MarketingSherpa and their MarketingSherpa Landing Page Handbook (2nd edition, 20080.
What the Numbers Mean: Once your landing page (or pages, for that matter) are up and running, always do a split (A/B) test. And, do so regularly. How do you know if your email marketing campaigns, that contain these specialized links, reflect the information on the landing page?
45% of landing pages don't clearly reiterate the call-to-action from their emails
Or, more clearly, what this information says is that a little less than half of businesses have out-of-date landing pages. What does this mean? Well, if you intrigued and enticed a customer to click-thru a link embedded in your email, then they're excited about what you have to say. If the information doesn't match what you got them all hot and bothered over, then you'll lose them.
What the Numbers Mean: This goes hand-in-hand with the discouraging data about testing. If you regularly check, test and analyze your landing pages, you'll quickly discover the incorrect and often misleading information. Again, we say: scary, and thank the great research from Eight Seconds to Capture Attention: Silverpop's Landing Page Report (2007).
35% of landing pages are inconsistently designed
This juicy tidbit is also courtesy of the same report from Silverpop. Without a doubt, every marketer checks and double-checks their emails before sending them out. From header to footer, to links and graphics, marketers are über-careful when it comes to their baby. However, as great as an email is, if the landing page doesn't reflect the email, then, again, you've lost your customer.
What the Numbers Mean: This goes back to marketing 101: everything that you produce that promotes your company needs to have the same look and feel across the board. Though it may seem insignificant – that a landing page doesn't look like your email – it is these small things that your customers notice.
17% of emails don't send customers to a directed landing page
Instead, these links are generic, only sending customers to your main company's website. Okay, awesome. If you had some great promotion or news piece, then by not sending your customers to that specific page, you're making them do all the work. How many customers do you think will go wading through your site to find what they're looking for?
What the Numbers Mean: Though according to Silverpop's 1st Edition (2007) of the report what this sad little factoid actually means is that it doesn't matter how compelling your call-to-action or promotion is, you're failing your customer by not following through.
Watch for more tips on email marketing, Twitter, autoresponders and other online strategies in future blogs.
