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Ever wonder why your marketing campaign isn’t doing as well as you’d like?

You’re getting plenty of visits, but nobody is signing up, or downloading.  Your conversion rate makes you want to weep.

Maybe it’s your landing page. A landing page that’s confusing, hard to read, or hard to navigate can turn a great campaign into a hot mess.

On the other hand, a page that’s easy to read, easy to use, and compelling will turn a failed campaign into a roaring success.

Here are five common landing page mistakes  (and what you can do to fix them).

1) Not having one

The first step in a successful landing page is having one. Many companies forget to do this. Even big ones. They invest lots of money in Adwords, banners, and social media marketing – and then forget to make a landing page. Visitors get confused and discouraged, and then leave without buying anything.

2) Drinking your own Kool-aid

Sometimes we get so caught up in our products we forget what other people might think. Do they care that your widget has 1,047 different uses? Or are they mostly interested in just one or two of those? And why? Sell the holes.

3) Too many choices

I confess, I did this once, with snail mail.  I listened to my then boss and included both a cheaper book and an expensive training program in the same offer letter. Guess which one people bought? Ugh!

4) A weak guarantee

Offer a strong guarantee – and stand by it. My favorite is the backwards and forwards guarantee: if you don’t find your purchase useful, return it for a refund (just ask). Send the product to someone else you think can use it. Let me know why it didn’t work, and I’ll improve it for the next version or suggest other people or resources that may help.

5) Fancy wordplay

I love words. I do. But when you’re writing a landing page, keep it simple and direct. Not everyone may know those big words. You don’t want them stopping in the middle of reading to click on a dictionary widget (or, gasp, grab a book off the shelf). If you have to, run your text through a reading level analyzer.  Most word processors have them built in, and if you have the Yoast SEO plugin, that will check your blog posts.  You want a higher number score.  For example, this post clocks in at 81.5, which is roughly 8th or 9th grade level.