Practical landing page tips

Austerity rules! Landing pages with no more than two words deliver the best results. Obviously so do landing pages with (trustworthy) customer reviews. Anyway, read for yourself these very practical landing page remedies.

1. Add Logo Recognition

Conversion rates spiked when we added the logos of some of our better-known clients to our landing pages. This adds legitimacy and third-party validation that we’re a product worth looking into.
—Robert J. Moore, RJMetrics

2. Implement User Reviews

Getting reviews from real users is a quick way to boost conversion rates. User reviews give confidence to a product or service and encourage interactivity with a landing page, which increases the chance of people converting.
—Jared Christopherson, Yellowhammer

3. Increase Motivation

We have seen conversion improvements when leveraging forms of social and/or press validation. An example of this would be putting theFacebook "Facepile" widget just below the primary "submit" button on a screen. Another example would be adding a press bar with logos from all of the mainstream publications that have covered us, just below the primary "submit" button. The psychology behind both of these tactics is similar: Increasing the motivation of a user to succumb to a trigger, because either a) their friends have already done it (Facepile widget/social validation) or b) the mainstream media has endorsed it (press bar/press validation). —Danny Boice, Speek

4. Create a Mobile-Responsive Website

Changing the company website takes time, and as long as some visitors click through, it's easy to leave it untouched. This is my only excuse for waiting so long to upgrade to a mobile-responsive website. My site gets a lot of visits from mobile users, but conversions from the landing page were low. I assumed people didn't buy from mobile devices. Once my page was responsive, though, the clicks came in. It turns out, not having a mobile responsive page was hurting my bottom line more than I wanted to admit. I prefer to work on my own site, so I downloaded the free responsive theme and created my new page from scratch. This gave me control over my design, which works for me. There are plenty of free responsive themes out there, though, for those who aren't so hands-on. —Jay Wu, Best Drug Rehabilitation

5. Remove Just About Everything

By far, our most successful landing page has been one with virtually no text and just a sign-up button. We now only have 20 words on our landing page (down from about 100). The message is powerful but ambiguous.
—Adam Lieb, Duxter

6. Make It Dummy-Proof

Today, mobile access is increasing, and some things can make or break your conversion rates. We have a lot of people coming to the website to download our app. Our landing page is mobile-responsive, which is the first important step. On that page, we had a "download Tunebash" option in the menu, but the conversion rate was still not as high as we wanted. We integrated an iOS-specific badge that works on Apple devices and pops up to tell the client to install the app, when on the landing page. This increased our conversion rate by three times. So, make it responsive, and add an iOS-specific badge.
—Joseph Ricard, Tunebash Inc.

7. Use Big Images and Video

Pinterest is huge now, and a picture says a thousand words. So, instead of writing a thousand words that no one will read, put a dead simple picture of your platform, the value and maybe a comparison of your platform. Also, many sites have a short two-minute video that goes through their company, brand, value, etc., so we added one that answers all the questions that most people would want to ask. Your service makes sense to you, but someone else may have no idea what you do, so keep it simple and clear.
—Trace Cohen, Launch.it

8. Get New Voiceover Talent

We've tested voiceover talent for our video sales letter, using the voice of someone who sounds like Sean Connery. It increased our conversion rate by nearly 10% and only cost us a few hundred dollars to implement. I believe his voice was more soothing and trusted by our website visitors, and may have been a better fit for our age demographic of baby boomers.
—Joe Barton, Barton Publishing

source: http://mashable.com/2013/06/17/landing-page-tips/