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Some of us here at Whereoware recently had the good fortune to attend MarketingSherpa’s B2B Summit 2012. At this conference, MarketingSherpa put out a great checklist meant to help marketers optimize their landing pages. Over the course of a few blog posts, we’ll be enacting some of these recommendations on our own site, revamping the Whereoware “Contact Us” landing page – and we’ll walk you through it every step of the way. In the end, we’ll share the results of what we’ve learned; feel free to do the same!

Let’s get started

In this first post, we’ll be optimizing the headline. Why is this important?

The headline

After years of reading newspapers, articles, magazines, and emails, our brains are conditioned to process titles first.

Regardless of whether your website is meant to distribute information or to sell goods, visitors will still follow their instincts, seeking out headlines to tell them what the page is about and whether or not they should care. This means that it’s very important that your headline and sub-headline are correct on the first go ‘round, so that you can capture visitors and keep them on the page long enough to let the rest of your content grab them.

Now, let’s take a look at Whereoware’s Contact Us page, in light of MarketingSherpa’s checklist for optimizing page headlines:

• Tip #1 – do you have a headline? Is it distinguished enough to be the first thing visitors see?

Yes. On this page, the headline is written in a larger font and is bolded, making it stand out from the other text.

• Tip #2 – does your headline grab the visitor’s attention? How does it convert attention into interest?

While the Whereoware headline is very clear in its message, it’s also a little boring (guilty as charged!). One of the crucial things about headlines is that they should be telling the visitor the benefit of the page – in this case, the benefit of filling out our form. 

We think a big benefit of this is that you’ll be able to talk to one of our employees – but how can we convey that? “Contact Us,” while straightforward, is not very inspiring or attention-grabbing. Try to jazz it up! For example, here, we’ll change the title from “Contact Us” to something more fun: “Hear from a Human”.

• Tip #3 – is it clear, transparent, and comprised of quantitative language?

If ‘quantitative language’ sounds scary, it’s not. It simply means language without bias, which is exactly what “Hear from a Human” is. Do you get a negative vibe from your title? If so, you’ll need to rethink how you’re describing it.

• Tip #4 – does it give the visitor a reason to stay on the page?

The Contact Us page is different than many pages in that it has a specific action in mind. Visitors usually won’t stumble upon this page by accident, so if they’re here, the reason is generally that they want to contact Whereoware. This headline tells visitors that this page is exactly what they are looking for.

• Tip #5 – do you have a sub-headline? Does it link the headline to the first paragraph?

Previously, there was no sub-headline on the Contact Us page, so we’re switching that up. Since our headline uses the same fun wording that we brand our company with across platforms, we’re going to add a sub-headline to match. In this case, it will be “Fill out the form + a Whereoware employee will contact you within a couple of days.”

This sub-headline serves as an effective go between from the title and the form, explaining how one will impact the other. It quantifies the amount of time it will take for an employee to make contact, removing any questions the potential lead may have about timing. Equally importantly, it carries the jovial tone of the headline over into the sub-headline, tying the whole page together. It’s important to maintain the same tone when branding, particularly on the same web page.

There you have it! We’ve fine-tuned our title, but there’s still a ways to go before this landing page is complete. Stay tuned for future posts in this series, where we’ll be walking through MarketingSherpa’s recommendations to help you optimize the rest of the page. Got any tips of your own for landing page optimization? Share them in the comments!

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