It has befuddled me many times how a simple conversion page is done incorrectly. It is not that hard and conversion page best practices are really as easy as 1-2-3:

  1. Make them trust you. are you going to spam me? are you going to sell my email address? is this an official site or page? how are you protecting my data? use any trust symbols you have. the more official looking the better. put your terms and conditions in plain english and easy to understand. don’t loose conversions because people don;t trust your site or page. #protip don’t submit a form unless the page starts with https instead of http. that’s the only way to know that the page is secure and protecting your data.
  2. Tell them what to do. as much as we have free will – humans still need to be told what to do. why does disney world have signs to tell people where to line up? simple: because we need to be told what to do. make sure you tell people, again in plain english, what to do on the page. if you want them to complete a form tell them to fill out the form below. do you want them to tell their friends? then tell them and don;t just put a share button on the page. #protip: make the conversion path as simple as possible – don’t let people “escape” or “bail” on the conversion.
  3. Tell them exactly what they are getting. this is the most critical piece. i’ve been on a form page numerous times and balked at giving my email address because it did not clearly state what will happen next. it is human nature to have questions and since you are not there to answer them in person make sure to preemptively tell people what to expect in plain english. are people signing up for a newsletter? make sure people know ahead of time who will be sending them the newsletter and how often will the will be  receiving it and when they can expect the first one to arrive. in other words, make it clear what is going on. do you need something? what will they get in return? why should they do what you need from them?

And here’s the final bonus #protip: Get to the point and keep reading to a minimum. People want to do what they came to the page for and get on with their lives – not read a romance novel.

Armed with these conversion page best practices it’s now your turn: Increase that Conversion Rate!