Well-known companies have deep pockets. Thus, they can afford top-notch advertising agencies that know what they're doing.

So it's wise for one to imitate the marketing of these well-known companies, right?

Not quite.

As an experiment, we spent a significant amount of time pouring through landing pages from well-known brands and analyzing their landing pages. We found a shocking amount of these well-known brands to stray away from critical landing page fundamentals. In brief, a landing page should: clearly communicate something enticing, provide credibility, and have a clear call to action (more about landing page funadmentals here).

In this piece, we'll take a look at 7 truly awful landing pages. We'll then outline areas where the landing page falls short. And finally, we'll offer an example of a landing page that one should model.

So let's get started.

1. USC Marshall's Executive Education Landing Page

Feedback:

First, yes, this is a landing page that USC pays Google to send users to (and yes I'm dead-serious). 

As a rule of thumb, don't send people to a page that overwhelms the user with links (unless it's a specific type of e-commerce site, which we'll outline below).

Second, this page needs to sell a prospective executive education student. It should convince one that it's worth investing money in an executive education. It should use benefits like "a higher paying salary," or "more career advancement." Instead, this page assumes that the visitor has already sold themselves. Even if that were the case, this landing page would sell the user out of their decision. There's no benefits outlined and no gripping headlines. There's no message that somehow investing in education will result in you being a happier person.

Third, there's no clear call to action. Unless you call that box on the right a call to action. There needs to be a painfully clear button that says "Click me, I will make your life better!"

Fourth, there's no third party proof or form of credibility other than the USC brand name. USC's business school is a top 25 program. Why not mention that on this page? How bout including a quote from a publication about how amazing the school is?

Example of a good landing page:

This landing page displays a picture of a mom and her daughter smiling. It looks genuine, homely and appears like they are happy. Whether you're a male or female, this picture will make you feel good.

If you're a male, this communicates that your loved ones will be happy if you invest in your education.

If you're a female, it communicates that you and your daughter will be happier by investing in your education.

Those who are exploring online education typically have negative factors in their lives. Poor finances or a bad past experience with school may be on their mind when visiting a website based on higher education. The user internally wants warmth, acceptance and happiness in some form (which is why he or she may be going back to school in the first place). This landing page communicates that instantly through a picture.

Additionally, the landing page displays a sense of credibility in the bottom left.

In the top right, the call to action is placed which is an interactive step-by-step process.  

Note: this piece is important!

The call to action is a process. It's a step-by-step wizard that displays a "completion" bar at the top. Those who exploring online education may have tried higher education or taken courses in college, but never were able to complete it. For the rest of their lives this experience has lived in the back of their mind. The need for completion pains them every day. So much so that seeing that completion bar at only 10% will annoy them and lead them to get the bar to 100%.

 

2. Tazo Tea Landing Page: Don't Do Flash!

Feedback:

This lesson is pretty simple. DON'T DO FLASH.

Flash serves as a neat language, but its coolness factor wears off when you're paying money to send people to a broken page. For whatever reason, many people still don't have flash enabled and for those who do, there's a significant chance any pop-up in flash will be blocked by one's web browser.

Example of a good landing page:

Instead of a sophistaced flash website, try something simple but actionable:

The above landing page serves as a good example because the color "pops" and there's a noticable contrast between the rest of the website and the call to action button.

Take note of the call to action button in the above picture, and never forget the importance of making your call to action button stand out. In fact, as a general rule of thumb, make sure your call to action button is unique from every main color on your website.

3. Mercedes Benz Dealer: Confusing and Blended

Feedback:

If you're a local car dealer, you have one objective: get local people to your dealership.

Your landing page doesn't necessarily need to "sell." That's what car salesmen are for.  Sometimes the goal of your landing page is to get them in front of a salesemen. Thus, instead of selling, you must excite the vistior and establish the need to visit your store. Finally, you must communicate your location and how to get there in a straight-forward manner.

Instead of the website above, there should be a massive image selling the sexiness and style of owning a Mercedes. With this, there should be a nifty headline written in trendy font that reads something like, "We're not saying your life will change. Everyone else is." Top that off with a young couple driving with the top-down and you've created sizzle. You've created excitement.

To the right, you should then display a google map of your location with a link to "Get directions" and then finally a "Hurry, we're almost sold out of our new [x] model!"

Example of a good landing page:

Even though this landing page isn't a local dealership, there are two elements that stick out on this page:

First, it features the ability to customize your car (which increases engagement and time spent on your site).

Time spent on the site increases the chance of one conversing about the car. You see, what typically what happens with this landing page is that the visitor will end up spending 30-45 minutes building a neat looking car. With this type of vehicle, the advertiser is trying to target the mom of the household, or an adult with a spouse and family. If the person is at home, a certain period of time will pass which increases the chances of a loved one meandering over to his or her spouse and remarking upon the car they're customizing. What the advertiser does is something much more impressive and valuable than just showing the visitor a video. The advertiser has created an engaging activity that results in the visitor talking with his or her spouse about the car.

This type of engagement results in a conversion rate one can't necessarily measure immediately, but for car sites, instant conversion rate isn't the goal. The goal with selling a car is twofold: One, you need to get the person to visualize him or herself driving the car, and second, you need to get the partner on board. And engaging landing page accomplishes both of these.

The second call to action on the landing page above centers on getting the visitor to a local dealer.

Though it's advisable to only have one goal per landing page, the first call to action really serves as a form of engagement that increases the likelihood of clicking the second call to action (which is to find a local dealership).

4. Windows Phone 7: Close, but no cigar

Feedback:

While not god-awful, this landing page is awfully close.

It's missing a strong headline, which given the position of Windows Phone in the marketplace currently, they need to come out with something bold and powerful. Something that turns heads. The verb "Discover" is profoundly over-used, vague and simply ineffective.

Additionally, the Call to Action is hard to locate.

Last, there's too much text.

People don't want to exert effort in getting sold. Reading online takes effort. Instead of reading, people want to be hand-held through an experience.

Images, pictures, sound, animation leads to entertainment.

Entertainment leads to amusement.

Amusement leads to happiness.

And people buy happiness. Ask Disney.

Example of a good landing page:

When in doubt, go with simplicity.

The headline, "Pure Google" while a little vague, is catchy and has attitude. It's bold. The fact that there's little text trying to "sell" you on features gives off the feeling that this phone is established. It's legit.

Additionally, this page has two call to actions that stick out. And to top it off they have a link to watch a video (remember people don't want to work, they want to be entertained).

5. Bank of America: Two goals = no goals

Bank of America executes two big "No-No's" with world-class precision:

A) Big No-No Number One: Your landing page should have one goal, not two. This landing page offers a ton of text and caps it off by making the visitor think. The last thing your landing page should do is make your visitor think; instead, it should make them interact, feel an experience and take action.

B) Big No-No Number Two: Don't bring up something about your service that the human world (and likely the spiritual world) strongly detest. In the world of banks, things that people don't like are "fees." On BofA's landing page, they bring up fee's not once, but twice. Ouch.

Example of a good landing page:

Chase Bank executes the basics very well. They have two clear headlines that tell you, (i) what to do (the top one), and (ii) why you should do what they tell you to do (the secondary headline).

In addition, Chase offers a limited time $100 cash bonus for opening an account.

They also have one call to action button that is disguised as two. The goal for Chase Bank is for you to open up an account. Whether you do that immediately, or choose to have the coupon emailed to you and then do so, you're taking action and starting the process no matter what button you click. The button on the left adds the feeling of "security" with the lock icon. The one on the right gives the sense that you're getting an exclusive coupon (they're giving you value, thus you should give them your email). 

Finally, they display the badge of credibility with "FDIC" placed in the bottom left corner.

6: Windows 7 Landing Page = Nothing

Not to bag on Microsoft in this post, but if you use the latest version of Firefox, you'll find nothing on the Windows 7 landing page.

Feedback:

Make sure your landing page contains content.

Example of a good landing page:

This landing page is brief, concise and powerful. It's image-rich and bold.

The call to action sticks out in the top right (in blue).

Additionally, the sub-headline is descriptive and enticing.

If you leave with only one take-away from this post, then let it be this: "Simplicity sells."

7. Rosetta stone = burnt eyeballs and two goals

Feedback:

It's OK to use the color of your brand on your sales page, but not at the expense of burning your visitors' eyeballs out of their heads. A bright yellow background on a website miraculously accomplishes this effect.

As a general rule of thumb, aim for a background that gives off the feeling of calmness and smoothness--like blue or light green.

Example of a good landing page:

As a parting bonus, we decided to mock up how we'd redesign Rosetta Stone's landing page:

Notice in this redesign that we have a calmer background (one that doesn't make you cry tears of blood). Additionally, it includes just one call to action (email submit) and it's a personalized call to action (choose your language).

In closing

In closing we hope you've learned something from this experiment. Let us know if you come across any other truly awful landing pages by big-named brands. Best of luck, and stick to the fundamentals!