Increase sales with a twitter landing page

Tuesday, 21st April , 2009

I got the idea to write this post after reading ProBlogger and Pistachio’s article on twitter landing pages.
If you’re using twitter as a marketing tool, you may be overlooking a simple and effective way to convert more traffic into sales; a properly optimized landing page. Landing pages are web pages that users reach after clicking on an ad. In this case the landing page is the address listed in the “more info URL” displayed on your twitter profile.

Why is this important?
Any marketer will tell you, a poor landing page can kill your campaign. What good is sending traffic to a website if the user is simply going to leave once they get there? Open rates and CTR’s are good metrics but conversion rates are the real metric of success.

You may only have one chance to convert.
I normally only visit individual profile pages the first time I meet someone on twitter. After that I receive their updates on the twitter homepage and have no real need to view their profile page. However, the first time I meet someone, I click on their profile, read their bio and often visit their website.

What you should do?

1. Define your goals.
Before creating your landing page, define your goals. Are you looking to get more people to subscribe to your blog? Than why not present them with your most popular posts and a big orange RSS icon. Are you looking to sell more copies of your book – why not send them directly to Amazon. Define what a conversion looks like to you and you’ll know what content needs to be on your landing page. If you’re interested in learning more about landing page optimization, I suggest you check out the landing page resources at Copy Blogger as well as reading landing page optimization by Tim Ash.

2. Offer exclusive deals for tweeple
Everyone loves getting a bargain and who better deserving than your loyal twitter followers? Considering adding a promotional aspect of your landing page that is exclusively for your peeps.

NAPP offers specials for tweeple

3. Test and optimize your landing page.
If you employ web analytics tracking the success of your landing page should be fairly easy. In many cases this page is only accessible through the direct link from your twitter profile. If your measuring visitors and conversions, you’ll know what your conversion rate is. Establish a baseline and try to beat it. Modify your headlines, images and various content on the page and try to increase your conversion rate.

Examples of twitter landing pages.
Here are several examples of twitter landing pages to inspire you.

Whole Foods Market
Dell Computers
National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP)
Darren Rowse
Rich Angstadt – me

I’m interested to hear what you think. Why don’t more companies create twitter landing pages?

About the Author

Rich is the president and founder of Radium, an enterprise digital marketing agency specializing in search and social media. He is a Google AdWords qualified professional and splits his time between Austin Texas & Charlotte NC. Follow Rich on twitter.