Top tips to creating a successful landing page

Landing pages are uniquely powerful components of an organisation's digital marketing strategy and as you browse and manoeuvre around the internet, you visit landing pages all the time. Ultimately, the success of your landing page depends on its ability to engage the visitor.

So, what is a landing page?

A landing page is a website page that is designed to convert visitors into leads. Landing pages almost always contain lead forms that ask visitors for their information in exchange for something of value, also known as a content offer; this could be a downloadable resource or a discount code for certain products. Being able to gather information from your website visitors is essential in order to build relationships and convert leads into customers. 

The typical path of conversion from landing pages looks a little something like this: 

• A visitor is browsing your website and sees a call-to-action (CTA) button which lets them know that there is a relevant or interesting offer available for them. 
  
  
• Post clicking on the CTA, the visitor would then be redirected to the offer situated on a landing page.
  
  
• This is where it gets really fascinating as landing pages are designed to promote a content offer in a more targeted, precise way than a general web page.
  
  
• This means that rather than providing CTAs that may be a distraction for some users, landing pages are built to have more of a focused approach with useful and enticing information for the visitor designed to get them to complete a certain action, usually a form submission.
  
  
• After a form is submitted the user is usually redirected to a thank you page where they are able to get access to the offer, or receive a follow-up email about the offer.
   
• This person has now become a lead for your organisation and with the information they gave you, usually at least an email address, you are able to nurture them to conversion with keep-warm marketing emails (but we won't go too much into those now as we have an event about this soon).
  
  

Why use a landing page?

Landing pages across all industries have an average conversion rate of 9.7%, given that 10% is considered a good conversion rate, it shows that landing pages are a proven way to drive conversions.

Instead of sending your social media traffic to your homepage, the use of a targeted landing page can increase the likelihood of converting your traffic. A landing page eliminates distractions by removing navigation, competing links, and alternate options so you capture your visitor’s undivided attention. Complete attention means you can guide your visitor towards the goal of your page much more easily.

The creation of pages with segmented offers will allow you to deeply understand what your audience is most interested in based on which pages have the highest conversion rate. Landing pages don't just increase your conversion, they can also increase the number of qualified leads your company gets and also scale your lead generation efforts. 

Key elements of  a Landing Page

• Headline
• Copy 
• Image
• Form
• CTA
• SEO

Now that we have identified the key features you should have on your landing page, I'm going to go through some tips on how to use these elements to make your landing page successful and engaging to visitors

Headline

Your headline should always address concisely the offer which is being given. It should be telling your visitors what they will be getting. The type of offer should be clear, i.e. whether it is an E-book or a template, or a piece of information that is ready to "download".

For example: Download your prospectus now!

Copy

If there are too many words on a page it may in fact cause the visitor to lose interest or, even worse, they end up leaving your page totally. So in order to reduce the chances of that happening, it is necessary for you to use your copy in a compelling way. Making it easy to read and digest with the use of numbers, bullet points, subheadings and paragraphs can help break up long bodies of text - not that the information on this page should be very long anyway. 

To help you write your copy it is always worth ensuring to cover the main points and to put your mind into the prospect of the reader. Ask yourself how they would feel by reading the words you write, would it sell itself to you? Or would it tell you to close the page window? 

Images

Images are a nice creative element to make landing pages more dynamic. A short video, animation, or an aesthetic image can tell a complex story much faster than words can. Don't overcomplicate your landing pages with so many image visuals that it ends up distracting the visitor from the main objective. Images are meant to supplement and not distract from the main focus. Also, it's a given that your image(s) should be related to the goal of your landing page.

To go with our prospectus example, an image of the front cover of your prospectus would work nicely; giving the prospect a sneak peek of what they will be getting.

Forms

Your lead capture form needs to be easily accessible should your prospect want to convert right away - you don’t want them searching and scanning your landing page to find your offer, so placing where they can see it almost immediately is best.

It is always important to think about the types of questions you are asking and should be asking, in return for your content offer. You don't want to ask the prospect to give too much information otherwise this might switch them off. You want to gather as much information as possible about your lead, but how much you ask for depends on several factors: how well acquainted they are with you, where they are in their buyer’s journey, and how much they trust you. 

For example, if your prospectus download is online you should only really be asking for an email address and name - maybe course interests if this is relevant for your organisation. You absolutely do not want to be asking for their mobile number or address or anything too personal for the stage of the funnel in which the customer sits. This is something very important to consider when creating your form fields. 

In addition, depending on your audience, consider how conversational and interactive your form is. Brainstorm how you can break up the flow of your form so you are able to gather the information required in order to gain potential lead conversion. 

CTAs

Be clear with the interactive buttons you use. Make your CTA stand out by using bold, contrasting brand colours that catch the attention of the visitor. Telling visitors exactly what they are getting when they click the button is super beneficial.

For example, if a visitor was going to download your free Ebook, use the words 'Download Ebook Now'. Or if they want to subscribe to your monthly newsletter, use the words 'Sign Up Now'. Following our prospectus download form the CTA would be something like 'Submit form'. 

SEO

And last but not least, your landing page of course needs to be optimised for search making it super easy for people to find you. You will be driving visitors to your landing page through email blasts, social posts and other marketing methods. Additionally, your page needs to be optimised with target keywords for your paid campaigns and organic search. When someone searches for your key phrase, they should find your landing page. Similarly, when you target a keyword with paid ads, those words should exist on your landing page.

I hope this blog has been useful and has provided you with some tips to take away and apply to your landing pages.

Want to find out more about how your organisation can excel at its marketing and lead conversion? 

Book a call with us to discuss your needs and any queries you may have!