Landing pages can be one of your most effective tools for converting inbound traffic to your website into sales leads for your business. That is, if design them properly.
In this post, we will discuss how landing pages can help you leverage your website as an effective sales tool. We then go in-depth and outline 10 tips for creating effective landing pages.
These best practices will ensure your landing pages are effective and ultimately able to generate revenue for your business.
Why are Landing Pages so Important?
Landing pages are important because they allow you to create dedicated pages focused solely on generating leads. They are great for offers such as ebooks or consultations, and are essential if you are running paid ads on Facebook or Instagram.
By building out a separate page as opposed to your website home page or other generic pages with no context, you have a much higher chance of converting people. That’s because a landing page can have a single focus –such as your offer or service that can be tailored to the audience likely to view the page.
For example, if you are an NJ Landscaping company, you could create a landing page for an ebook on how to keep your lawn looking healthy and green. The landing page would list out all the benefits and explain the value the person will receive. That person would then fill out a form in exchange for downloading the ebook. Once you get their contact info, the goal is to establish trust and authority so people will be much more likely to do business with you.
The best way to do that is to provide helpful content that makes sense to where they are in their purchasing process. From there, you can use their contact information to enroll them in an email marketing campaign or run ads to them via social media. The goal of this would be to move them down your sales funnel until they are ready to become a customer of yours.
For example, a landscaping business could target then target that lead with other offers they may be interested in, such as consultation or lawn care products you recommend. Providing them more helpful content will allow you to earn their trust and since you have already given them value and proven you know what you’re doing, they will be much more likely to do business with you.
Now, you don’t need to set up a massive marketing campaign around all your landing pages, but it is recommended if a direct call or visit doesn’t work for your sales cycle. Hopefully, you can see how it would be effective at driving new business.
Landing Page Tips
To create a great landing page, you need to stay focused on the value and direct benefits a person will receive from your offer. The design needs to fit your brand and impress, but it also needs a logical flow, so they don’t get confused.
Fortunately, designing high-quality landing pages is not rocket science. By following the below tips, you will be well on your way to creating great landing pages that produce results for your business.
1. Create an Eye-Catching Header
The top of your landing page that is immediate visibility once the page loads needs to hook your audience right away. It should encourage them to view the rest of the page and learn more about your offer, service or business.
The best way to create a compelling header is to simply state the main value proposition of your offer or service alongside an eye-catching visual. Going back to our lawn care ebook example for a landscaping company, an effective headline could be “Learn the secret behind keeping your lawn green all summer long” or “Discover how to have the greenest lawn on the block with these lawn care tips”. Then alongside it could be a graphic of someone mowing a lawn or a happy family playing in their backyard.
You get the idea.
Essentially, you need to hook your audience by getting right to the point with what you're offering with an image that helps people visualize your offer. This is one of the most important parts of your landing page, as it will decide whether or not a user continues scrolling down the page to learn more.
2. Write Compelling Copy
The design of your landing page will draw people in, but it is ultimately the copy that will get them to take action. Great landing pages have copy that is focused mainly on how your audience will benefit from your offer. Try to stay away from copy that describes why your company is so great.
We’re sure it is, but for converting cold traffic –people that haven’t interacted with your brand before, it’s just not effective. The more focused your copy is on the individual and what’s in it for them, the better chance you have at generating a lead.
3. Explain Why People Should Care
What makes your offer special? How will your audience benefit? Why should they engage with your brand? These are the types of questions you should answer in the section of your website immediately after your header.
Once you’ve gotten their attention, the next step is to explain as clearly as possible why your offer is valuable to your audience.
4. List the Core Benefits of Your Offer
People seem busier than ever and attention spans are notoriously limited. It’s likely that a majority of people will just skim the copy on your landing page. To counteract that and reiterate the value your audience will gain from your offer, we find it best to list out the benefits they will gain in a bulleted list or row with icons.
This allows people to see what they will gain from your offer with just a quick glance and if they did read the landing page copy in full, this section will effectively restate the value proposition and make them more likely to convert. It will also increase their ability to recall it down the line, which will be very helpful for word of mouth referrals.
5. Keep Forms Simple
Forms are valuable because they allow people to quickly get in touch with your business. If they had to go fumbling around your site looking for contact information, they would be much less likely to become a lead. There would be just too much opportunity for them to get distracted or lose interest.
With forms, the main piece of advice we can offer you is to make sure you only include the information you absolutely need from them at that stage. For one, people have become much more focused on their online privacy and are more hesitant to turn over their personal information. Also, we know for a fact that more form fields are directly correlated with lower conversation rates (LINK).
6. A/B Test for Optimal Results
A/B Split tests allow you to test different versions of your landing page to see which one performs best. You could test entirely different landing pages, or just change certain variables of your page - like CTA text or button colors and form placement.
A/B split tests work by sending 50% of your traffic to one landing page, and 50% of your traffic to another. Based on the tool you use, you can set it up so after a certain sample size or conversation rate is reached, all the traffic will be sent to the higher converting page.
A/B testing is essential because it can allow you to take the guesswork out of decision making. With this data, you can create informed design decisions that will allow you to convert users at a higher rate. Setting up A/B split testing can be done with tools like Optimizely.
7. Consider Adding a Video
Video on landing pages increases conversation rates by 86%. Not bad, right? Copy is still necessary, but there is no doubt that today consumers prefer video when consuming content online. How great would it be if they could just hit a button and have a senior member of your team explain directly to them what makes your offer so special?
A video like that on your landing page will make your audience feel like they are getting personalized service. It will also help them make an emotional connection with your brand and increase engagement. There’s no doubt that will increase conversion rates –and there is data to prove it.
8. Focus on Creating a Clean Design
When sitting down and trying to create a great landing page, it can feel like you need to design a flashy page with lots of animations and eye-catching visuals. But the truth is, you don’t. In fact, keeping your landing page simple and clean is one of the more important best practices on this list. This is not to say the design should be bland and boring. It should be clean, responsive and fit the look and feel of your brand. But you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
Oftentimes, a complicated design runs the risk of confusing people, not loading fast or just being plain distracting. All of those factors can easily result in a low conversion rate. This is especially true for people viewing your landing page on mobile with a smaller screen. You have plenty of space to try out innovate and flashy designs on the rest of your website. For landing pages, keep it simple. As Leonardo Da Vinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
9. Answer Questions (FAQ)
Oftentimes, one of the big reasons why someone may not convert on your landing page is because they have unanswered questions.
The best website copy is clear and concise –but that can also make it difficult to answer every potential question your audience may have. That is why we recommend including a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on your landing pages.
This will allow you to alleviate any potential concerns of someone, while also not making the entire landing page an essay. Plus, if a person doesn’t have any questions they can simply scroll past it, providing for a better user experience.
10. Include Testimonials
There’s nothing that can help you seal the deal quite like a testimonial. That’s why we recommend placing one at the bottom of your landing page right before the form.
Human beings are social creatures and utilizing social proof in the form of a testimonial can help you give someone on the fence an extra nudge towards converting.
Conclusion
Taking the time to design great landing pages for your business website is essential for generating leads. They allow you to funnel prospects on your website to dedicated sales pages with the goal of getting them to convert. This allows you to take your website to the next level.
Your website is no longer a brochure to show off your business. Rather, it is a sales tool that if used right can be a huge asset to your business for years to come.
