Ali Brown is one of the most successful female entrepreneurs of her generation. As founder and CEO of Ali International, LLC, a company which was recently named to the 2009 *Inc 500*, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies, she has created a dynamic multimillion dollar enterprise that is devoted to empowering women around the world. Through the power of entrepreneurship, Ali has helped close to 40,000 members start and grow their own businesses.

I started working with Ali in 2006 before she launched her global brands.  Ali’s main concern when I started working with her was the low opt-in rate on her landing page. The page offered a subscription to her weekly newsletter, “Straight Shooter Marketing,” in return for a visitor filling out a contact information form. There was nothing horribly wrong with the page-it had a prominent headline, didn’t confuse the visitor with a lot of irrelevant text, it made a clear offer, and it reminded the visitor a number of times to opt in and fill out the registration form. Still, Ali was only convincing 6% to 13% of her landing page visitors to actually fill out the form. I evaluated Ali’s landing page and identified a number of areas for improvement:

1. Media: Ali’s old page had a still photo of her below the headline, with a link to an audio file below the photo. We replaced the still photo and audio file with a video clip, in which Ali introduces herself, makes her offer, and reminds the visitor to fill out the registration form.

2. Registration Form: On Ali’s old page, the registration form was “below the fold,” meaning that visitors had to scroll down the page before they could see it. On the new page, the first few lines of the form appear “above the fold,” making it much easier for visitors to understand what they’re supposed to do. We added a second registration form at the very bottom of the page, too, to make it easier for visitors who read through the entire page before deciding whether or not to opt in. This may seem like overkill, but anything you can do to make your page more user-friendly will pay off.

3. Headline: Ali’s old headline was large, colorful, and in the right place, but it was a little wordy. We cut the headline down from 40 words to 18 words on the new page, giving it a stronger message, making it easier to read, and making it easier on the eyes all at the same time.

4. The Offer: We expanded the offer from one item (the subscription to “Straight Shooter Marketing”) on the old page to three items on the new page. In addition to the subscription, visitors are also offered an audio class and a special report on ezine publishing.

5. Testimonials: The testimonials on Ali’s old page were compelling and authoritative, but we made them much more eyecatching and personal by breaking up the text and adding photos of the clients who provided the testimonials. We also added several additional testimonials-if you can get ten good testimonials from your clients, put every single one of them on your landing page.

6. Unnecessary Text: We also removed a little bit of unnecessary text from the page. The text wasn’t off-topic or repetitive, but we were able to take it off the page and get a cleaner look because Ali addresses all of the points in her video presentation.

So as you can see, even on a pretty good landing page, there was a lot that could be improved. Did it make a difference? Well, since Ali started using her new landing page, her opt-in rate has increased from 6-13% to 13-28%. In other words, she’s doubled her opt-in rate and cut her cost per lead in half. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but I think this example shows that a video is worth a hundred thousand.