Improving your click-to-lead conversion rate is not easy, but the payoffs for a well-optimized landing page are huge. Here are some ideas for ways to increase conversion rates.

1. Increase the size of your Call-to-Action button. This is the easiest way to increase conversion rates for lead gen. Big buttons almost always out-perform smaller buttons. One good rule of thumb is that the Call-to-Action button should be slightly larger than the logo at the top of your page. Size really does matter here and the bigger, the better.

2. Keep your form short and sweet. Don’t ask for information your sales team doesn’t need. For B2B lead gen, we usually recommend First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone (optional), and maybe Company and/or Position (if lead quality is a real problem). Don’t ask for too much more than that. For B2C lead gen, don’t be too intrusive…especially if you’re using these leads to close a sale down the road. Consumers are smart and they don’t want to give you too much personal information until they’re ready to buy.

3. Ensure call to action is above the fold. Visitors who find themselves on your landing page should not have to scroll down (and better not EVER have to scroll right) to see your call to action. The “submit” button should be on the top portion of your page whenever possible. It’s a good idea to have additional, supporting calls-to-action below the fold, but keep your primary conversion goal attainable without scrolling.

4. Use contrasting colors to draw eyeballs to your conversion action. Light green, blue, and orange buttons typically have the highest conversion rates. Sometimes red buttons convert well, though many site visitors subconsciously associate the color red with “stop.” Whichever color you choose, make sure it pops off the page visually and can be seen easily while standing away from your computer screen.

5. Don’t be afraid of whitespace. Space around your Call-to-Action button is very important, as whitespace mixed with contrasting colors will help it pop off the page. The rest of your landing page should also use whitespace appropriately. Don’t clutter your page with text and use space to break up ideas logically.

6. Fast page loads are important. Very simply, the landing pages (and websites) that load quickly consistently have higher conversion rates than slow-loading pages. And it makes sense, who wants to wait for a slow website? Do whatever you can to make your pages load blazing fast.

7. Tell visitors what action to take. Make it painfully obvious what you what them to do on your page. Then make it easy to do. We’re talking the fewest number of clicks and least amount of info necessary. Use a headline with a strong call to action, and reinforce that in the sub-heads and body copy. Your form should repeat the call to action at the top of the form and again in the button text.

8. Use graphics appropriately. Images are important on your landing page, and they should used to draw visitors in and make them interested in reading the text. However, graphics should not be so powerful that they distract from your call to action.

9. Track, track, track. Test, test, test. Ensure tracking codes are set up correctly before launching your campaign. It’s so important to be able to compare the conversion rate of one landing page to another. Once you have tracking in place, then test your changes. Don’t assume your changes are going to help, sometimes the best ideas perform worse than the control page. Test every landing page change side-by-side your existing landing page. Make sure you run your tests long enough to get statistically significant data. You can use Google Website Optimizer to run free A/B and multivariate tests.

10. Employ the 5-foot Rule. If you’re thinking of testing a change on a landing page, look at your original and proposed test page from five feet away. If you can’t notice what’s different about them, this probably shouldn’t be your initial test. Start by testing more obvious differences, then once you’ve found a general design/layout that works, then try testing smaller, less obvious things.

It’s important to remember that these are general rules of thumb and your results may be very different. If you want help planning, executing, or analyzing a landing page test, please fill out the contact form on the right.