When you think of a landing page, what comes to mind? Most likely you think of your company homepage or a product sales page. In truth, a landing page can be anything, but its purpose is the same: to steer visitors towards a sale, subscription, or future contact. A good landing page is not judged by its appearance (although sleek and smooth designs do help), but rather by its conversion rate. So how do you boost your conversion rate?
While it would be nice if there was an amazing formula or template that you could use to create a high-converting landing page, it’s just not that simple. Every landing page needs to be carefully customized to meet the needs of its audience and its specific call to action (CTA). That means you have to approach the process with an open mind, a clear vision, and a lot of flexibility and creativity. The good news is that there are a few recurring elements that can help provide a basic framework to guide the process.
Determine Your Goal
Remember a landing page can be anything; it doesn’t have to be your homepage. Before creating your landing page you need to clearly define your goal. Do you want it to encourage people to browse products on your website? Check out a specific new product? Join your email list? Sign up for your newsletter? Define your goal and then make sure every single person that ends up on your landing page knows it too.
Put It In Your Headline
Your headline is easily the most important part of your landing page. Conversion rates can grow and die by the headline. The headline is your chance to make a first impression. No pressure, but you need to use your headline to grab the interest of your target audience, offer them something worthwhile, and compel them to stick around for your CTA. Oh yeah, and you need to accomplish this in about ten words. Short and sweet almost always wins when it comes to landing pages.
Reiterate it In Your Subheadings
Now that you have the visitor’s attention, you need to act on it. Subheadings should be persuasive, detailed, and add depth to your goal. You have a few more words to work with now, so use them wisely to sell visitors on your goal.
Support Your CTA with Powerful Imagery
Visitors have a habit of skipping text. Sadly, a large majority of visitors won’t read more than your headline and possibly first subhead, so you need to make sure you appeal to all of their senses. Creating a visually captivating landing page is one way to keep them focused on what you are offering. Support your final CTA with powerful imagery that grabs their attention and makes it impossible to click away.
Bring it Home
A lot of businesses spend so much time on their landing page design that the CTA becomes an afterthought. Your CTA is not just a sentence you pop on at the bottom of the page; it is the very heart of your landing page. Every single thing on your page should lead the visitor towards it. This is your chance to close the deal. Make sure your CTA is very clear and easily accessible on the landing page. Create an easily identifiable button, limit redirects, and make it as simple as possible to convert.
Think of your visitors like water: water will always take the path of least resistance. Offer this path to your visitors and your conversion rates will rise naturally.
Need some help building a high-converting landing page? We’re always happy to chat.
