Insurance Marketing Ideas: How to Build High-Conversion Landing Pages

11 June, 2013

Recently on the Insurance Marketers’ Blog, we’ve discussed offers. As such, you now know that top-of-funnel offers (like free reports and checklists) are used for getting acquainted at the start of the buying cycle. Conversely,  bottom-of-funnel offers (like complimentary quotes or assessments) work best toward the end of the buying cycle when the prospect is making a final decision.

One thing we haven’t discussed is how to make an insurance marketing offer. To make a good offer involves three components: 

  1. A call to action – usually a callout box, button or text link on your website
  2. A landing page
  3. A delivery mechanism – either a thank you page, an email or both

The image below diagrams the insurance marketing offer process.

Insurance-Marketing-Ideas

Now that you understand the process, let’s take a moment to study landing pages. First, let’s define the term “landing page” because while talking with prospective clients, I often notice there’s some confusion. A landing page is NOT any web page that a visitor lands on. A landing page is a web page that contains a conversion form (like step 2 above). Typically a landing page has one purpose, and that purpose is to promote the offer.

Below are a few insurance website landing page best practices: 

  1. Make sure the landing page is specifically written and designed to coordinate with the offer, while also maintaining your corporate branding. If the user clicked on the offer, the landing page should feel very familiar.
  2. Make the offer the sole focus of the landing page. A visitor should not land on the home page, a “contact us” page or any other unrelated page of your insurance website.
  3. Include an engaging headline that is very similar to the call to action headline. Remember – you have less than eight seconds to engage the visitor so make the headline count. The visitor should be able to instantly ascertain what the page is about.
  4. Consider including a thumbnail image of the offer to help confirm that the visitor arrived in the correct place. The brain processes images faster than text.
  5. Stay focused on conversion. A landing page is not the place to promote your great customer service. The only thing you should promote on a landing page is the offer. In fact, according to according to Interactive Marketing Inc., keeping relevant, focused, important information on a single page can increase conversion by 55 percent.
  6. Consider removing navigation. Many landing pages use a “squeeze” technique, meaning that they do not include the website’s navigation bar, so that the visitor has only one path to consider and is more likely to complete the form.
  7. Keep the body copy short and sweet.  I like to use a two-sentence introduction followed by five bullet points about why the visit cannot live without this offer. End with a call to action directing the reader to complete the form to claim the instant download.
  8. Consider adding a statement about your privacy policy, or a link to your website’s privacy policy page to help users feel safe about completing the form.
  9. Locate the conversion form above the fold so users don’t have to scroll to see it. I prefer to place the form on the right side – where Amazon places its shopping cart information.
  10. To maximize leads, limit your form to five fields. Generally fewer fields equates to higher conversions. However, more fields can eliminate tire kickers and result in fewer, higher quality conversions. I recommend starting with five fields or less and adding more fields if you are inundated with low quality leads. At the bottom of your form, you’ll need one final call to action button. Consider using a word other than “Submit.” For example, “Download Now” is a good option.

Now that you know the 10 best practices for insurance website landing pages, keep one overarching idea in mind: Promote the offer – not your product or service. When someone arrives on your landing page, they are uniquely positioned to become a lead in a matter of seconds. Don’t fumble the opportunity.

To view a landing page in action, and to download additional information to maximize your insurance website’s effectiveness, download our free report, “Effective Insurance Websites – What You Need to Know Before Your Next Redesign.

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