We’ve all heard of landing pages and it’s more than likely we’ve all landed on one. But, why do we need them? What are they? And how can we make them a success? Digital Designer George Hadfield unpacks these big questions.
Ultimately, a landing page is a lead generation tool. It’s a single web page that’s designed and optimised to convert website users into customers, or users who become actively engaged with your brand. Typical web pages generally encourage exploration and have many goals and routes with different user journeys in mind.
Landing pages tend to be the endpoint of a targeted marketing campaign – be it from a paid social media ad, PPC campaign, or offline marketing such as a specific URL from a magazine ad, whereas day-to-day acquisition to your website is most likely to come from an organic Google search, your social media profile, or directly from word of mouth.
Landing pages can be focused either on your entire service / product or on a particular feature, problem or audience segment.
So what makes a successful landing page? Our web team have built plenty over the years, so here’s some helpful tips to help you achieve better success with your next landing page.
Grab attention
You NEED to capture the attention of your users as soon as they land on the page. You want to avoid overcrowding and trying to stuff too much information at the top of the page or ‘above the fold’. Simple, catchy and inviting headlines will encourage users to want to know more, which should result in them scrolling. They’re your only chance at making a good first impression on future customers.
For increased engagement, you can also pair the engaging headline with an illustration or stock image that conveys the emotion you want to get across.
Offer value to your visitors
Offering value to your landing page visitors is an absolute must. Start by identifying the needs of your audience and ensure that what you’re offering meets those needs. Self-serving copy that doesn’t meet the needs of your audience simply won’t resonate with them.
Your average website visitors are normal and regular people like us. Before making a decision to make contact or purchase, we want to ensure that we know our needs are being met and there’s going to be something of value at the end of it. Before we make a decision, let your users know what value your product or service can bring to them.
Clear call-to-action
What do we want our landing page visitors to do? This needs to come across on the page in the form of a call-to-action. Give your calls-to-action serious thought and avoid being too generic. ‘Contact us’ or ‘Find out more’ should generally be avoided. CTAs should manage the user’s expectations by being more descriptive and personal where possible:
• Book a quick 30-minute demo
• Download our FREE whitepaper
• Book a savings review with Laura
Successful CTAs also need to be carefully designed. Big buttons with a good amount of whitespace around them will stand out among your other page content. You should also aim to provide information about what the user should expect to happen next after clicking your CTA. An indication such as ‘We can call you back at a time that suits you’ could be an excellent driver for the conversion, giving the user control of when the call would suit them.
Structured information
Trying to answer questions your visitor may have in an easily accessible and structured way gives users the ability to quickly gather information they may need before converting. A great method of doing this is by using a simple and structured FAQ area, which is best placed close to the bottom of the page near the CTA. Users are often time-short and like to scroll and skim through pages quite quickly – providing a summary near the end of the page gives users the information they may have missed higher in the page.
Build trust
Are there any other companies that use your product or service? Showing logos or testimonials of the companies that have had successful experiences with your brand can go a long way to helping getting your landing page visitors over the line at the point of making a decision to purchase or take action.
Another great way to build some trust is to show real people. As human beings we tend to trust people more than we do a product. Asking the visitor to ‘Contact Paul for a FREE demo’ with an image of Paul, is a far more attractive and engaging CTA than ‘Contact us for a FREE demo’.
I hope you’ve found these landing page tips helpful. If you’ve got any other best practices, or would like to discuss how we could help create a killer landing page for your business, either tweet me @GeorgeHadfield or get in touch with us.
