A landing page is the first page that a visitor sees after clicking on your banner advertisement, PPC advertisement, or promotional email. The purpose of a landing page is to persuade a visitor to take a specific action, like subscribe to your email list, purchase a product, register for an account or set up a meeting.
It can be a page that is part of your website or a separate page created solely for search engines.
Landing pages are designed to receive campaign traffic, targeting one action from the visitor, thus simplifying testing, analytics and reporting.
An effective landing page draws the attention of the visitor by presenting a solution with relevant information according to their requirement. The page needs to highlight your product’s benefits and its key features. If at first glance you give them what they are looking for, their search ends there, prompting them to take immediate action resulting in your battle half won.
Statistics say that conversion rates can increase by more than 85% when you use an optimized landing page, while only 48% of marketers use landing pages for every campaign they launch.
If you want to use these statistics to your advantage and increase your brand’s conversion rates, here are some ideas to optimise your landing pages;
1. Identify the purpose of landing page: Keep one clear goal to accomplish, and do not let it be vague. The goal can be to increase sales or email subscriptions, generate profits, pick new leads or multiply premium users, keeping in mind the reason of the demand for your brand. Doing this will give you a clear Call To Action (CTA) for the page.
2. Search Engine Optimization:
Users need to find your product when they type a query into their search engine. Unless they have a predetermined product in mind, they will search for one using a few keywords. Identify these keywords and focus on them to optimize your page.
3. A captivating headline: The headline is the first and most decisive part of your page for the visitor. It should grab their attention, interest and understanding and inform them about the product or service. Try to complement your headline and image with each other, keeping it short and to the point.
Accompany it with a powerful subheadline, pushing the concept of the headline further, persuading the visitor to stay and explore further.
4. Propose value and benefit:
This feature’s purpose is to make your product or service attractive to customers. This segment of your page tells the user the benefits they will receive on purchasing your products and services. Stay focused on the benefits for the user and do not stray away and start talking about your brand. Make an offer they cannot refuse, using coupons, discounts, free trials, gifts, etc. in exchange for what you want them to do.
5. Design a clear CTA: Give your visitors only one option for where to go next, and design it to lead them to take action. Your aim should be clear within few of seconds of arriving at your page, or you might lose the visitor to a distraction. Keep your CTA direct, easy to spot, and tell them exactly what you want them to do. The aim is to get them to take one specific action – whether it is subscribing to emails, registering, making a purchase or something else.
Try using a simple yet creative, persuasive and effective CTA. Use a contrasting color in line with theme colors of your brand. Contrasting colors attract the eye, and compel the click, and thus you need to make the color of your CTA stand out against the theme colors.
For example, whether the user tries to log in or sign up on the Facebook login page, its purpose and CTA is very clear – get the user to enter the site.
6. Use visually engaging tools: Design a visually appealing path with one objective in mind, ultimately leading your user to the CTA. Use visual elements like color, structure, whitespace, videos, gifs, images etc. It should be stimulating and easy to share. They present a memorable edge for the message and purpose you want to send across to the user.
If you are doing a voiceover for a video, ensure clarity of voice and use visuals that complement your words. Also keep it professional and the length acceptable.
7. Stick to your brand’s promotional themes: When a visitor ends up on your landing page, they need to recognise it belongs to you, giving them an assurance to trust the page. However, be careful not to focus on your brand, but the expectation need of the visitor by presenting them with a solution based on an interaction with your business, whether they clicked an advertisement, visited a social media pag or any other channel.
Keep the same theme, colors, font, language and the overall look and feel of your main site for your landing page.
8. Keep it light: Landing pages are supposed to be quick CTA to a specific goal. do not clutter it with text, or images. Keep the content on simple, light, easy to understand and user friendly.
Ensure that page loads fast so that visitors do not lose patience and leave the page.
9. Add testimonials and feedback: Statistics say that adding reviews on a landing page increases conversions to more than 35%. Highlight key customer experiences and benefits gained to establish credibility.
10. Ask for appropriate information: Do not try to gather more data than a visitor is comfortable to give. Be content with their email address and name for a subscription to your newsletter. Asking for physical address to send them newsletters or e-promotions may drive them away.
11. Use analytics: Observe what visitors are responding to that increases conversions, and use this data to tweak and design landing pages that appeal to them.
Designing a successful landing page is one of the most powerful ways to increase leads, subscriptions, sign-ups, sales and profits. Your brand might offer high-quality products or services, and generate a high Click-Through-Rate, but if your visitors are not converting, your landing page requires optimization. You can easily implement the tips mentioned above to fine-tune your landing page, or to design a fresh one.