Landing pages are an important tool in the marketer’s arsenal. They help warm up a customer, nudge a specific action, generate leads, have a quick turnaround, and in most instances do not need the involvement of the IT team. No wonder most marketers are actively utilizing this resource to enhance their funnels.
There are typically two types of landing pages you would come across:
- Click through Landing pages
- Lead generation Landing pages
Click through Landing pages are typically used to ‘warm up’ the customer and provide additional information that they might need to be informed of your product or brand. Lead generation Landing pages are more action oriented and push the customer to providing some personal information, in exchange of a privilege or benefit. Typical benefits or value exchange may include registration for a webinar, download of a case study or white paper, request for brand to contact the customer, a free trial, a discount coupon, or notifications of launch of the product or new feature.
So what makes a great landing page?
Clear Headline
Ensure your headline clearly communicates the purpose of the page and is compelling enough to induce the user to scroll ahead and read the rest of the content. A verbose or convoluted headline is not the best way to go about this.
Strong Call to Action
Have a clear goal in mind when you are designing your landing page. What is it exactly that you would want the user to do on your page. Create a clear and concise Call to Action (CTA) for your page and ensure the same is visible above the fold.
Above the fold design
On the topic of ‘Above the Fold’ design, there is a old saying in my country – people only buy what they see. In the limited time and mind space that you have managed to get of your customer, ensure you are providing content that is relevant to them. Ideally, if the customer/ user has landed on your landing page following an ad, the copy on the page should be in sync with the ad to ensure consistency and higher Click Through Rates (CTRs)
Grammar matters
Remember in school when your teacher would chide you for an inaccurate use of a punctuation or sentence framing? Thank her today if you are able to design better landing pages, ensuring that you are dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. Might seem basic, but you would be surprised at the number of landing pages out there with poorly written copy, which obviously reflects poorly on the brand. You are effectively asking your customer to trust your brand, and first impressions matter.
Verifiability
Ensure that the information on your landing page is clear and verifiable. While technically it may not be the case, the users would perceive the landing page to be an extension of your brand’s website and hence it is pertinent that the information provided in the new landing page is consistent with your brand messaging.
Focused messaging
Landing page is not your website, it is not a place for you or your marketing team to create tomes of information to share with your customers. Ensure that the messaging on your landing page is focused to your audience. With multiple tools and platforms at your disposal to create beautiful landing pages that convert, encourage your teams to create segment or messaging specific landing pages to ensure clear, targeted communication. Less is indeed more in some cases.
Use trust indicators
Existing client testimonials, verifiable recommendations from relevant 3rd part sites (e.g. TripAdvisor), coverage by large publications, all aid credibility of your brand. So feel free to use it on your landing pages to push your customers ahead in the funnel. But be careful that you do not overdo it.
Multimedia content
Do not rely on pure copy to make your case for you. Adding relevant videos in landing pages can boost your conversions by over 80%. Use relevant images, brand videos, basically any content form that speaks to your target audience. Ensure the buttons and call to actions stand out clearly from rest of the content. But ensure that the aids used are relevant to the topic and page.
Design and color choices
Your landing page is not part of your website. So this gives you the flexibility to pick a theme and color that may aid conversions, specific to your goals. Different colors induce different sentiments, create different mood personas in your viewers, so ensure the theme is consistent with your brand image.
Test, Test, and repeat
At the end of the day, there is no magic formula, no magic pill to create landings pages that convert. Keep testing and trying out various permutations of your landing pages, keeping an eye on the defined conversion metrics. Find the sweet spot that works for your brand.
Any tips we have missed? Feel free to share in your comments below.
