Optimizing an offer page to maximize the number of people who make a purchase or pay for a subscription is a delicate process.
You need to get the balance just right.
And one of the most difficult aspects of achieving that balance is the use and placement of graphics on the page.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself about the use and placement of photos and images on any page where your primary purpose is to close the sale.
1. Does the photo or image help communicate the value of what you are selling in ways that text alone cannot achieve?
In other words, if every element on a sales page should be working towards securing a sale, do the photos and images play an important part?
Or are some of them merely decorative?
Sometimes you have to be hard on yourself when deciding. A particular image may make the page look nice but, unless it supports the core sales message, it may be doing you more harm than good when it comes to conversion rates.
Why?
Because strong, but largely irrelevant image can be distracting.
To maximize conversions you need people to read your sales text from top to bottom, without distractions or interruptions.
If an image truly contributes to that sales message, that’s fine. But if it doesn’t, then it’s a distraction and should be removed.
2. Is the photo or image in the best position on the page?
There are a couple of issues to address when it comes to the position of images on a sales page.
You need to make sure it does not disrupt the natural eyepath of the page. That is to say, if you design the page to encourage visitors to start with the headline and then move down the center column, reading your sales text sentence by sentence, right through to the end, then you need to keep this eyepath undisturbed.
What can go wrong? Perhaps you have a strong image over in the right side column, half way down the page. So a prospect gets half way through the sale text and then stops to look at the image on the right. Maybe he or she even clicks it, if it is linked – and you just lost your sale.
However, there are some graphics which can contribute significantly to conversion rates, simply by being placed in the right location.
As an example, let’s say you have a subscription sign-up form at the end of the page, including a request for credit card information. The request for the credit card information is a barrier. People will hesitate and ask themselves if they are quite sure about making this commitment.
In this circumstance you may want to place a graphic just next to the form, and include words like, “Risk Free. 30-Day Money Back Guarantee”.
That’s the right graphic, with the right message, placed in exactly the right place.
Concluding thoughts…
It is a mistake to think that the inclusion and positioning of graphic elements on a sales page can be either random, or for the purpose of simply making the design look nice.
If your purpose is to close sales on that page, you need to make sure that every graphic supports that purpose.
Choose only those images and graphics that will contribute to increasing conversions, and be sure never to position these elements in such a way that they might disturb the natural eyepath of your readers.
To close the sale, you depend on your readers paying close attention to your sales message, from beginning to end, from top to bottom.