Whenever you have a great offer for customers or prospects, your landing page should help you identify leads who might be interested in availing your product or service. A landing page is specifically aimed at putting your product, service, or idea in front of customers and leading them toward the path to conversion or purchase. Without a proper landing page, you may be directing your leads nowhere but to a cliff, so to speak.
The question is, are you taking the time to optimize your landing pages? Creating good landing pages isn’t complicated. However, keep in mind that just because something that looks good doesn’t necessarily mean it is good. Optimization is required so that the page meets its conversion goals.
According to a report by Hubspot, creating more landing pages increase the chance of getting more conversions; additionally, 48% of marketers make new landing pages for each of their marketing campaigns. However, only 52% of companies and agencies test their pages to find ways to improve conversions.
An optimized landing page can help you hit your overall marketing goals; from lead generation to audience engagement and, finally, conversion. Setting up a landing page may not be that easy. But with help from SEO agencies, you can use a working formula that helps you identify the most essential elements of a landing page that converts.
1. Target audience
Who’s reading your content? What kind of buyer persona are you trying to engage? Answering these questions can help you write a more targeted copy for your audience.
Specifically, your landing page copy should let your prospects know how they can benefit from your offer, which is easier to do if you have a clear understanding of their pain points and other stages in the buyer’s journey.
Speak directly to your target audience in the second-person point of view since this signifies that you’re initiating a conversation and want to help them address their needs.
2. Headline
Your headline is the first thing that people see, and it is also an excellent opportunity to engage them with your USP. If it is compelling enough, your headline can keep your visitors on your website longer. In fact, more than 90% of visitors who read the headlines also read the CTA and copy, according to studies.
A compelling headline is easy to understand, concise, and not confusing to users. Make sure to focus on the last criteria, so when your visitors click on your ad, the landing page will show the same headline you used on your ad copy.
Your optimization technique should also include the use of keywords that revolve around the theme of your headline and that are relevant to your campaign.
3. Color
There is psychology behind colors, as colors are said to affect people’s perception or behavior. In marketing, you can use colors to set the mood of your landing page and to influence visitors to take action on your offer. According to Kissmetrics, 42% of consumers base their opinion on its overall design, and 52% didn’t return because of poor aesthetics.
Here are some ideas that you can use when picking your landing page’s color scheme:
-Use colors that are associated with your brand, niche, or industry.
-Pick a color that promotes positive ideas or sentiments among consumers. Make sure that your color scheme isn’t distracting visitors or driving them away from the path of conversion.
-Choose complementary colors for your landing page and your CTA buttons, and observe the right amount of contrast.
4. Layout
It can be tempting to give visitors loads of information in one go, but you need to keep this in check. Instead of overwhelming your prospects with an intricately designed landing page, you need to be wise in executing a layout that will allow visitors to explore your site, and ultimately, convert with ease.
Another aspect to take note of is layout optimization for mobile. According to Adobe Analytics, companies that have mobile-optimized sites can triple their chances of increasing their conversion rate.
One method to achieve this is by striking the right balance between text and images. Your text should contain only the most essential information that customers need to know about your product or service offering, while images should not overshadow your landing page’s copy.
Also, images can be considered as “breaks” for your site visitors. Reading huge chunks of texts will hurt your chances of eventually converting your visitors. Adding negative spaces can also help, as it can make a piece of content stand out and draws the eye of the reader to what you want them to look at.
5. Visual Cues
The right kind of visual cue can help you deliver your marketing message to consumers. It can also be used to direct them to where they should be looking on the page, so something as basic as an arrow pointing to the form can be used.
If you’re using photos, make sure to choose those that are realistic and capable of establishing a connection with audiences.
Product images are also useful in driving consumer interest, especially if they contain detailed descriptions of their uses, features, and benefits for customers. You can also get higher engagement from using interactive product images and video tutorials to cater to people who would rather scan than read.
6. Call-to-action
Your CTA button is an essential element of your landing page. When visitors click on your CTA, it means you’re one step closer in converting an actual customer or buyer. Use your CTA button to communicate precisely what the visitor will get after clicking it. Creating a clear copy can help you get this job done, and at the same time, choosing the right color and placement for your CTAs can increase conversion results.
The CTA copy is just as important as your headline, so make sure not to use vague words and express clearly what the visitor will get by clicking it. A word like “submit” falls short today; make it exciting and persuasive instead. Make sure that it also reflects your tone and style.
As for the design, make it prominent and noticeable and use a button. Visitors are used to having CTA buttons, and they know what to do when they see a button. Make it stand out even more by using contrasting colors from what the other colors are on the page.
Designing and writing your own CTAs are beneficial, as Hubspot has found that personalized CTAs convert 202% more.
7. Testimonials and social proof
Testimonials can be a valuable marketing strategy, as real people talk about first-hand, authentic experiences they have had with your business using numbers and specific data to back up their word. Consumers—around 70% of them—usually would take the word of these reviewers, even though they have never met each other.
You can also leverage other forms of social proof, such as recommendations, reviews, or case studies, on your landing pages to strengthen your brand reputation and expertise among potential customers. By all means, add images of people or logos of businesses into this section of your landing page.
8. Page loading speed
Even a one-second delay in loading speed can lower conversions by 7%. The ideal time for your landing page, or any page on your website for that matter, to load on the user’s screen is 2 to 3 seconds. Any delay in page load time can drive visitors away from your site, reducing your chance to show on top SERPs or to convert prospects.
That said, make sure that you steer clear of large image or data files, unnecessary plugins and widgets, bad coding, and the like to speed up your landing page’s load time. You can also invest in tools that let you test your website speed and identify issues that are slowing down your loading time.
9. Navigation
On the one hand, 84% of landing pages have been found to include a navigation bar, but on the other hand, it’s also been found that removing it can increase conversions by 100%.
According to Neil Patel, the best landing pages keep all their elements on a single page, and that requiring visitors to make additional clicks to get to a page may not end so well for you. At the same time, make sure that you follow a logical flow of elements to keep your visitors moving down to your CTA and hopefully convert. The standard flow is as follows:
- Explanation
- Benefits
- Testimonials
- CTA
10. Visual Content
The domination of social media has made visual content an essential factor in marketing campaigns. In landing pages, it’s been found that using videos can increase conversions by 86%. Additionally, interactive content is becoming more common due to consumers looking for better user experience.
Grab the attention of visitors through videos and images and communicate what’s on your landing page, including the benefits that your visitors can get out of it. However, make sure that they are still relevant to your content. Don’t put in too many visuals as this may redirect the attention away from the goal of conversion. Lastly, compress your images or avoid those that have very high resolutions as these may increase the site’s loading times.
11. Offer
The first rule of landing pages is you should only make one offer per page. Multiple offers can decrease conversions by up to 266%. And since you’re only discussing one proposal per landing page, there’s no excuse to not communicate it clearly to your readers.
If your prospects don’t understand what your product or service is about and how it’s going to be beneficial for them, then the page will fail to convert. A straightforward explanation is crucial. You can choose to integrate your explanation in the headline or not. What you need to take note of is to mention the benefits to the user.
Add Them Up
A perfectly optimized landing page is an opportunity to engage website visitors, so it’s vital that your marketing and creative teams work together on building a high converting landing page.
It’s worth noting that the formula to a perfectly optimized landing page includes A/B testing and metrics tracking as well. These aren’t extra steps that you should only implement when you have the time and resources to do so, but rather, they should be an integral component of your landing page optimization strategy. These steps can give you valuable insights on how to make your offers more targeted and relevant for consumers.
When done right, your landing page can make your digital strategies more effective as you succeed in converting leads into actual customers.
