This post is part two of a five-part series on B2B landing pages.
Senior researcher Boris Grinkot reviewed this landing page, submitted by Carbis.net for our Feb. 25 live optimization web clinic.
Thanks to Carbis.net for entering our contest — in addition to being selected for this review, you’ve won a free on-demand certification course of your choice.
Analysis of channel (email)
The purpose of this ad is to emphasize the difference between Fall Protection and Fall Prevention. However, as both options are equally weighted on the page, you are asking the visitor to do some work to understand which one you are promoting. For example, even though the top headline says that Prevention is required, it’s not clear whether you are suggesting Protection is a necessary add-on.
Also, since the two round images are taking most of the attention in the ad, the headline and sub-headline are likely to be read after the visitor is already thoroughly confused. Lastly, the zig-zagged eye path further makes this ad difficult to digest.
- Test making it visually clear to visitors which option is more important. You should be able to communicate your value proposition more succinctly and clearly, preferably maintaining a vertical eye path that leads to a single call to action.
- Test removing the phone number in the ad, so that the page has a single objective. You can put the phone number on the next page. Deciding whether to have your phone number in the ad may require a better understanding of your universal lead definition (ULD).
- A few minor details: Carbis should be mentioned more prominently or inside the green box (WHO is “the world leader…”?); and black on dark gray (and especially blue links on dark gray) is painful to read. I would recommend making the background white, which consistently performs better.
Analysis of landing page
On this page, the sub-headline is the only thing that clearly and immediately tells the visitor that Fall Prevention is the way to go. The headline font sizes do imply that Fall Prevention is more important, but the message should be more explicit. The headline essentially repeats the message communicated by the two images.
We have seen consistently in testing that question format underperforms declarative statements. The question “which one would you choose?” is more prominent than any other text on the page, and even though it may appear clever, the answer is not immediately obvious and this creates friction.
The left-right switch of the two round images from the ad contributes to the confusion. While these images do help continuity, they take up a lot of real estate. Since the visitor has already seen this graphic, its net contribution (communicating or supporting your value proposition vs. added friction) may be negative.
Optimizing copy and graphics
You have great copy in the main content column, so you just need to find a better way to focus the visitor on this content. You should consider adding a few short bullet points to make scanning this content easier.
The Hierarchy of Fall Prevention graphic can be very useful, but I could not understand what “Eliminate” referred to. Perhaps 2 through 4 or 2 through 5 are things being eliminated? In that case, “Eliminate” should not be numbered.
Finally, the form lies outside of the primary eye path, maintains the even-handed “vs.” tone of the page (as opposed to stressing the option you want the visitor to understand), and the button demands, rather than offers, value.
Recommendations for testing
- Test removing the current headline and replacing it with the current sub-headline.
- Test removing the main graphic entirely and instead focusing on content that visitors came to this page for: clearly tells them why they need Fall Prevention.
- Test single-column layout (aside from the left nav), where the content flows from top to bottom, ending with the form and call-to-action button that offers value (“Get my free White Paper”).
- Test incentives (other than the white paper) that don’t appear like your sales collateral.
Audience: What do you think? Use the comments field to post your suggestions for this landing page, agree/disagree with Boris’s assessment, and let the Carbis.net folks know what you would do.
We’ll post our next landing page winner on Friday…
