Building a landing page is an important and exciting part of online marketing, as it’s usually the first place your potential online customers come to. A landing page can give you the opportunity to show your sales skills and leave a good impression on your audience, but most importantly, it gives you the opportunity to turn clicks into sales. Many businesses fail when it comes to properly creating and using landing pages, and some don’t even use them at all. Other methods of marketing, such as online ads, are great as well, but those methods rely on getting the attention of people that are already busy with other activities.
With landing pages, you can take advantage of having an audience that’s already engaged with your website and have a higher chance of these visits turning into conversions. In this blog post, I cover the basics of what a landing page is and what makes a good landing page so that you can create a high-converting landing page.
What are landing pages?
The first thing you should know about landing pages is that they are not the same as home pages. A home page is the primary page on your website that’s linked to all other pages. But a landing page is a page on your website where you send your visitors to take a specific course of action.
These actions can include purchasing your products, signing up for an email newsletter, liking your social media profiles and etc. The goal of a landing page is to get visitors invested in your business. To achieve this goal, you should make sure your landing page is optimised and has a good design and a compelling marketing copy.
Let’s say you have a landing page for selling headphones, and you have ads on other websites linking to this page. You must make sure your landing page offers exactly what is shown in the ad, and that way you increase the chances of converting.
Keep your landing pages clean and simple
You should take a minimalist approach when it comes to the design of your landing page. Keep in mind that a landing page is not like your average web page, and it usually has a specific goal. The more content you have on your landing page, the less effect your page can have on your visitors.
Only keep things that are necessary and make sure nothing distracts people from your core message. Also, make sure to keep links to a minimum and only use them if they are absolutely necessary, as anything that can take potential customers away from your page is a no-no. Links such as buy or purchase buttons are fine. Think of your landing page more like a flyer. It should be brief and to the point. It’s a good idea to test out different formats and structures for your content to see which one works better.
Your landing pages must have a USP
A good USP (unique selling point) will help set you apart from the competition. This should be communicated to your audience through your landing page. You can do this by using a headline or with a value proposition. Since your USP and a picture is usually the first thing your audience see it’s important that you put lots of effort into the creation of this section. Once a user lands on your page, you have a few seconds to convince them that your products and business are worth taking a look at. Some good things to do for your USP would be including the monetary value of your product, comparing your product to a well-known brand, and the expected ROI if they make a purchase.
Use the right images and graphics
People love nice-looking visuals. Images and graphics are a very good way of showing your products. If you decide to include them in your content then make sure you use them sparingly. Normally, one would use many images and graphics to make a page look more interesting, but when it comes to landing pages, it’s a different story. Since you need your visitors to be focused on your main selling points, having too many images can distract them from the main content. Landing pages should also have fast loading times, so including too many images may slow down your page. Lastly, make sure the images and graphics you use are reinforcing the products or services that you are selling.
Implement CTA buttons
The goal of a landing page is to drive sales. Having an attention-grabbing call to action can encourage your audience to move forward with your offer and make a purchase. Whether your call to action is a form or a buy button, it should be bold and exciting. The more excited you get your audience, the higher the chances of them making a purchase. For buy buttons, it is best to make them a colour that contrasts the rest of the page because this way, your button will stand out. If you are using forms, then try to make them as simple as possible and only ask for information that is absolutely required. The less that’s required from your audience, the higher the likelihood of the purchase.
Have a shortlist of features and benefits
Once you have successfully convinced your visitors to stay on your page with your USP and design, they are going to have more questions. Here is where a features section is going to come in clutch. It’s best to write the list of your features in a way that is more impactful on your audience. Your features tell people what your products do, while your benefits will let them know the value you provide. Also, remember that you don’t have to write a book about all your features on the landing page since writing a brief summary of each one will suffice. As for the list of benefits, list some of the top-selling points and use a few of them only. Having these features as benefits as a numbered or a bullet-pointed list is crucial to avoid messiness and reduce bounce rate.
Use social proof
Social proof is the use of social signals to show that others have purchased or taken part in what you are offering. Most of us have experienced searching the internet and reading reviews, looking for the right product, and this shows us that people are more likely to pay for a product if they see that others before them have (and had a positive experience).
Research has shown that the average user reads a bunch of reviews before making a purchase. You should also include some testimonials from happy customers on your page as they show authentic people approving your products which can lead to a boost in your conversion rates.
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