If you’re launching a new product or service, running an ad, or starting an extensive email campaign, chances are you’ve been told that you need to create a landing page. But what does that mean? Essentially, a landing page is a specific section of your website accessed through a hyperlink from somewhere else—this can be from your website, an advertisement on a social platform or Google, from your monthly newsletter, or anywhere else you can link to a webpage. The goal of landing pages is to convert visitors into subscribers, customers, leads, or clients. In marketing terms, an effective landing page will guide visitors to and through your purchasing funnel. Here’s how you can make that happen.
Create Relevant Content
When creating a landing page, you want to align the offer with the audience you’re targeting. If you’re finding that your landing pages have high bounce rates, look at what you’re offering. A high bounce rate usually means you’re offering something your audience something they probably don’t want or don’t find useful.
It’s important to have relevant headlines as well. If your landing page headline says one thing and the ad or email says another thing, people will feel misled and will likely not feel safe in giving their information.
The Copy
The headline will be the first thing visitors see, so grab their attention! When it comes to the headline and copy, you need to find a sweet spot — too much text will leave visitors bored, while too little text could confuse or mislead them. In a general sense, complex or expensive products should have a decent amount of explanation while descriptions of small purchases and anything free can be short and sweet. The copy on a landing page is a great time to address any possible concerns with the product or give useful tips to the visitor.
The Offer
Make the offer very visible: for example, include a big button that says “Get X% off here!” If you’re exchanging information for the offer (which you should be!), be sure to ask for the minimum amount of information. Don’t make people fill out an entire form — keep it to just a name and email address.
The Trust Elements
Testimonials, customer reviews, third party certifications, success stories, the number of customers, and the number of subscribers are all useful elements of trust to help provide value to what you have to offer. Value creates customers!
The CTA
While you don’t want a million links, you don’t want visitors to leave the page without making a conversion. This is where the CTA comes into play. The only link you should have on a landing page is the CTA, whether that directs visitors to a particular product or service. Here’s a tip: use images that point to the CTA or naturally guide the eye there to make it even more apparent.
Design and Test Your Landing Page
A successful landing page will have a responsive design, meaning your page will be viewable by anyone who comes across it. If someone is looking at the offer on their mobile phone, but the landing page is only optimized on desktop, you will lose out on all mobile phone visitors. Not good! In addition to the copy, the design elements can make a huge difference on a landing page. Things like colors, fonts, image sizes, whitespace, and other design elements are so important on a landing page.
After you have a good landing page, test it. It can be tempting to skip this step, but testing can make a huge difference. Test, test, test to see what works. With landing pages, you can easily change variables to see how different things (like a headline or image) change your conversion rates. This might be the only time a visitor will come into contact with your company, so you want it to be the best version possible.
Landing pages are fairly easy to create, but this doesn’t mean you should rush through the process. Pay extra close attention to spelling and grammar. With less copy, these mistakes will be glaring. If you need help creating a landing page for your business today, contact us. We make it easy for your visitors to convert by creating simple, seamless landing pages to match your brand and help you achieve your goals.
Ashleigh Bowling
