Thanks to digital marketing, promoting your business is easier than ever.
At least, that’s what most business owners think — until they see they’ve made zero conversions on their landing page. Now, that’s a frustrating sight.
What’s more frustrating is not knowing what went wrong. Does your headline suck? Do you need to change the button colour? The possibilities are endless!
Here, you’ll learn how to optimise your landing page and boost your conversions. But before diving in, get to know how a landing page works and why you need one.
How a Landing Page Works
A landing page is not your homepage or any page on your website.
It is a separate marketing tool whose purpose is to earn conversions. When a landing page converts, this means a visitor has completed the desired goal — either to fill out a form or make a purchase.
It’s also different from an online store. A landing page is simply a means to speed up the purchasing process while promoting a certain product. Marketers use landing pages for their Google Adwords campaigns or similar ad platforms.
Turn Traffic into Leads
Landing pages do more than promote your product, it also works to capture leads.
Create a lead magnet landing page to collect prospect information such as name and email.
Lead magnets are incentives given in exchange for a visitor’s basic contact information. It may be in the form of ebooks, webinars, PDF checklist, or any piece of digital content.
A successful conversion helps you hit two birds with one stone — the visitor gets free stuff and you get to pull a prospect deeper into the customer funnel.
Pro-Tips to Creating a Lead-Generating Landing Page
1) Create a catchy headline
The headline is the first thing that visitors see in a landing page.
Eight out of 10 people will read your headline but only 2 out of 10 will get to the bottom of the page. Your headline needs to catch the reader’s attention at first sight. You have a few crucial seconds to do this.
Put your biggest proposition in your headline. It should clearly tell visitors what they get from the page. Keep it direct, but punchy and succinct.
Remember — online readers skim through content. Make your headline too long and they can easily lose interest and hit X.
Use a supporting headline if you need to further describe your offering.
Pro-tip: Adding a “power word” to your headline can make a huge difference. People are more motivated to accept offers that include words like “ultimate,” “surefire,” and “top-notch.” Just use them in moderation — don’t stuff them all in one copy.
2) Choose your hero image wisely
Your hero image should show readers what they’ll get from your landing page. Choose it wisely.
When looking for a good hero image, use one that’ll help them visualise what it’d be like if they were using it. While a photo of your product will do, a photo of your product used by a person is even better.
Pro-tip: If your offer is too complex for a single image, consider using a video. A short demo video is a more straightforward way to showcase your product.
3) List down the benefits
Now that you’ve captured the visitor’s attention through your headline, get them to stay. This is the part where you list down benefits.
Provide some more details that’ll answer your audience’s question of “what’s in it for me?”
You can write your product’s features in a brief paragraph or list them in bullets for clarity. Review and edit your copy as necessary. Speak conversational English — that is to say — speak in a language that your target audience will understand.
Pro-tip: Readability is not just about the content of your page. Make sure to choose a readable font style and colour and to test them on various devices.
4) Make an irresistible call-to-action (CTA)
The purpose of your landing page is to get visitors to click that CTA button. Make sure they don’t miss it! Give it a contrasting colour that stands out from the page.
Meanwhile, keep your CTA copy short and simple, but steer clear of boring words like Submit or Enter. Think about what the customer will get once they click your button. For example, an “Experience the benefits” button sounds more convincing than a “Buy now” one.
Pro-tip: Empathise with your visitors by personalising your CTA button. Think “Sign Me Up” over a boring “Submit” button on your CTA.
5) Get rid of distractions
Don’t clutter your landing page with links. Any gateway that directs visitors out of your page is a no-go (yes, that includes your site navigation). You’ll be surprised at how removing links from your landing page increases your conversion rate.
Consider them as more competition for your CTA button.
Pro-tip: Get rid of the sidebar, too. It’s not only a distraction; it could also ruin your landing page aesthetic.
READ: 8 Design Essentials Your Website Needs to Have
6) Add social proof
About 84 percent of people trust online reviews as much as a friend’s recommendation. If you want people to sign up for your class or get your ebook, you need all the credibility you can get. Adding social proof to your landing page will make a huge difference in getting it to convert.
You can incorporate social proof in your headline. Consider these examples:
- Join the 1,786 franchisees who learned the art of selling.
- 97% of customers recommend Stylized. Here’s why.
Or, you can add social proof within your landing page:
- Customer reviews
- Your total number of customers
- Trust seals, client/partner brand logos
- Awards from trusted organisations
- User testimonials
Pro-tip: You can connect your Facebook and other social reviews to your landing page. This adds more credibility to your reviews, as visitors will know that they are from actual people.
Begin testing
There is no one-size-fits-all formula for creating the ultimate landing page that converts.
After all, there are many factors to consider. At the end of the day, the only way to know how well your page works is through A/B testing every change made. But when you add these essential landing page elements where they should, you’re likely to receive more favourable results.
