Creating a Landing Page that Converts

It’s not just enough to have a landing page; creating a landing page that converts means that it needs to be optimized to ensure potential customers are engaged with the content enough to take the next desired step, whatever that might be. People click to a landing page with certain expectations. Take our advice to not just meet－but exceed－those expectations.

But first—a landing page is where your online audience arrives after clicking on a search engine result, ad, or link from an email, social post or mobile push notification. Rather than directing people to a website’s homepage, landing pages cover a specific topic and are meant to achieve a specific objective, which could be anything from downloading a piece of content, retrieving an offer or signing up for an email list.

The main elements of a landing page include:

• Headline
• Copy that describes the purpose of the page
• Image(s) and other supporting elements (e.g. customer testimonial)
• Call-to-action (CTA)
• Submission form

Tips for Creating a Landing Page that Converts:

Be Strategic

Before starting to create your page, determine its goal with your desired customer experience in mind. What action do you want a person to take once they’ve come to the page? Start from the end and work your way backward to the layout, copy, images and form fields that will engage your audience and prompt them to take the desired outcome. Keep the goal and experience in your line of sight as you create and test your page.

In addition, consider variables to A/B test within your landing page to determine best practices for increasing conversions. From form fields, to images, to calls to action, any page element is testable. Select one item at a time to test, and take the engagement data to inform strategies moving forward. One test is not enough; continue testing to narrow down what types of content resonates most with site visitors.

Be Relevant

Whether you’re directing people to a landing page through social, email, paid ads, or any other channel, ensuring the contents of your landing page are relevant to the CTA is critical. By matching the topic being searched and the intent of the search, you prove to Google that you aren’t misleading potential customers.

Let’s say you publish a post on one of your social media pages about one of your products, with a featured link to a landing page. When a member of your social audience clicks the link, it takes them to a page that talks about subscribing to your email list. That person will likely be confused or even frustrated that they didn’t get to the information they wanted, and will either continue browsing through your website, or leave it altogether. Make sure all landing pages live up to what you promise.

Be Focused

Reduce unwanted clicks by limiting the focus of each landing page. While you might want to tell a page visitor every possible thing you can about your company, sticking to one powerful message can not only increase conversions, but also decrease spend on irrelevant ad clicks.

Remember, someone has visited your page to get information as quickly as possible, and doesn’t likely want to slog through several paragraphs to get to it. Use copy that’s short, sweet and to the point. The same goes for imagery and graphics; if you have too much going on visually, a visitor won’t know what they’re supposed to be looking at and feel overwhelmed, abandoning the page before even reading it.

Be Interesting

While copy should be short, the few words you do have on the page should excite readers. If your landing page copy isn’t relevant, compelling and attention-grabbing, you are wasting time and energy. Boring landing page copy will increase your bounce rate. Aim for an emotional appeal over straight facts to encourage visitors to stay on the page and peak further interest.

Be Current

Between fewer bounces and more engagement, design plays as important a role as copy in improving landing page performance. The design of your landing page needs to feel modern and updated, as dated designs immediately make your landing page look less trustworthy.

Fresh, current designs not only capture and keep user attention, they also ensure the page’s usability and readability are up to today’s standards. You can even add dynamic elements to your landing page that adapt for each visitor based on their individual interests and activity.

By leveraging the tactics above, you’ll be able to optimize your landing pages to get the most out of every click.

[sc name=”guide-DoingMoreWithData”]