Landing pages have excellent ROI (only if designed thoughtfully). There is always a catch: A landing page that engages with your target customer on a deeper level – to an extent where they want to take an action – most importantly, want to open their wallets, is a landing page that you want to design. Any other landing page is simply (probably) bringing traffic to your website, but are these the landing pages that sell?
1 in every 10 people who come across a landing page will become a potential lead or even a customer.
The 2021 Conversion Benchmark Report, Unbounce
No matter what industry you are working in, what is the context of your landing page, or what stage of career/business you are at, there are always a few proven things that you can do to design a landing page that converts.
Before we dive into these, let us get rid of the roadblocks (a.k.a landing page flaws to avoid).
Mistakes You Do Not Want to Make While Designing Your Landing Page
Almost every marketing professional and brand has been in a situation where you work on every aspect of your landing page (from targeting the audience to being consistent) but it just does not bring any conversions.
Statistically speaking, around 96% of visitors on your website do not end up buying. It is certainly a head-scratcher, even ironic, given the time and efforts companies are putting into designing landing pages.
Where are we going wrong with designing landing pages?
Common Mistake: Load Speed
“Every second we improved in load time, our conversions went up 6 percent,” says Neil Patel, the founder of Crazy Egg.
If your landing page loads slowly, that gives your customers a chance to doubt your company’s efficiency. Though this is one of the very common landing page mistakes, at times, development and design teams miss ensuring that your landing pages are prompt.
Repeated Mistake: CTA Placement
Your call to action is one of the most important and the only actionable elements of landing pages; It is important for your landing pages, and for customers’ convenience as well.
You must have noticed this in your website analytics and statistics, not many users scroll through the entire landing page. Does that mean that the CTA should only be placed on a screen that is there without the need for scrolling? No, because that could seem like false promises; if a customer scrolls and finds no CTA buttons there, then they might not take extra effort to go to the top of the page and use the first CTA.
Thus, you have to keep a balance and distribute CTA evenly throughout your landing pages.
Unknown Mistake: Multiple Targets
Landing pages are created to reach and encourage users to take an action: providing you with their contact details, registering for a webinar, and so on. We know that we use one landing page for one product, service, or any goal for that matter.
Nonetheless, we do not consider our traffic source specifics here. Every traffic source is different; though you have a target audience, you will get different target customers from Facebook advertising and different from a LinkedIn post; the same applies to landing pages. Mostly, you only target a very specific group of your target audience through a specific traffic source.
To do this, you must understand the working of every traffic source. For example, on Google, people are searching (looking for solutions), whereas, Facebook is used mostly for browsing. Thus, if your landing page will reach your target audience via Google, it needs to be very specific. On the other hand, if you are using Facebook for landing page posts, then you could benefit from telling a story or giving social examples.
By keeping the above-mentioned three mistakes in mind, it is more likely that you will notice your conversion rates boosting.
Now, let us walk to the end of the bridge, from what not to do while designing a landing page to what to do to design a landing page that sells.
Step-by-Step Process to Create Well-Designed Landing Pages
While a landing page might not necessarily be the first impression of your brand on your users, I believe its value is no less important than your brand’s first impression. By having the power to convert a visitor into a lead – or even a customer in most cases, your landing page is what gets you very close to your end goal: sales.
Knowing what not to do is not enough; here are a few factors you could follow to design a flawless landing page that increases conversions.
Tell it with a Clear Headline and Subheadings
Studies show that people have an F-shaped reading pattern where they scan a page starting from the top (left to right) and reach the middle (left to right) – this is where subheadings play a role, and that is how they decide if the page is worth reading.
Thus, you need to let your headline and subheadings speak for your landing page. The best way to do this is by including your value proposition in headlines and/or subheadings. As different landing pages have different goals, your value proposition will differ as well. The best way to incorporate value propositions into your headline in a way that encourages readers to read the rest of your landing page content is by making your headline statement-like, to the point, and short (ideally 6 to 8 words).
Express it with a Visual Focus Element
Because we consume images more and faster than text, a strong headline and subheading are not enough. People need assurance regarding your value proposition; not mere assurance, but also a quick grasp of what they are going to get out of a landing page. Using visual focus (it could be a headshot, a product shot, a video, or an animation, you can keep people focused on your landing page and strengthen your credibility.
Make Content a Path to Conversion
Even though the entire purpose of a landing page is to encourage your target customers to take an action, your landing page should not call for guesswork. In other words, keep your value proposition, benefits, features, and CTA all very clear and crisp; do not make your target customers guess what the content means or what they will get out of engaging with your business or even landing page for that matter.
For instance, a landing page with a dull CTA will not convert as much as a landing page that has negative space around the CTA button that attracts its viewers. You can also highlight your CTA by using contrasting colors.
To achieve your end goal, it is important to guide your target customers through your landing page and avoid any roadblocks in their journey; you can do this by keeping CTA in check, using arrows to give directional cues, including anchor text that brings people back to focal content (or form).
Bonus: A Conversion Factor Most of the Landing Pages Miss
A good landing page can account for most of your leads and conversions. It is an indispensable asset for marketing departments.
Though a landing page is designed for the benefit of companies, it is crucial to understand that it all goes two ways; unless your target customer finds your value proposition to be truly worthy of taking the desired action (providing email, buying a demo, making a purchase, referring a product on social media, etc), you will not see any conversions – regardless of how much traffic you derive from landing pages.
Thus, it is important – yet, an underrated tip – to keep the buyer’s journey in mind. Based on your website and other landing page traffic, know what your customers are looking for; is it a solution, information, etc. Also, evaluate where they are in this journey of ‘looking for something,’ are they just exploring or looking to close a purchase quickly.
Based on your customers’ buyer journey, you can meet your visitors exactly where they are and leave no room for roadblocks.
Business Development Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the Media and Digital marketing sector, Passionate about innovation and bringing the future into new business solutions.
