8 seconds is all you have to impress a potential customer once they’ve clicked a link in your marketing email and arrived on your landing page; according to Silverpop’s recently released Landing Page Report.

8 seconds mightn’t sound all that long, but count it out to yourself - it is quite a lengthy period and plenty can be done to grab the customer during that time.

Other key findings in the report:

- Good landing pages capture attention quickly by matching the email copy call to action and wording that promises the recipient’s time won’t be wasted by reviewing what you have to offer.

- Using a home page as a landing page usually fails in getting the recipient to take a desired course of action.

- Recipients may become confused if the general look and feel of the landing page is different to the marketing email.

- If the landing page uses a form that the recipient needs to complete in order to access information, discounts, coupons or bonuses, asking too many questions can lead recipients to become suspicious.

- Site menus and navigation bars can distract recipients from the primary conversion goal

- The meat of the message should be within the first 8 seconds of reading time and the majority of leading retailers evaluated in the study used landing page text of up to 250 words.

Silverpop seems to favor short landing pages, but personally I think the key is to get the main message and call to action happening quickly for those who couldn’t be bothered with reading a lot of text, but then offering detailed information (within reason) for those who are more discerning.

Silverpop’s Landing page Report is an interesting read and can be downloaded free here (registration required).

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