Building an inbound marketing campaign and high conversion landing page.
First impressions matter. If you’re looking to build a high conversion landing page, first impressions really matter. For your business, a landing page is the first impression that a visitor has of your website, which makes it a crucial part of your marketing strategy. To move your visitor through to funnel towards taking action, it’s vital that they are not redirected to your homepage. Homepages sometimes offer an overwhelming amount of information that can scare potential customers away as they bounce from your site. A landing page should be short and sweet and embody a single goal: to entice users to respond to a CTA (call to action).
Every landing page is different because each business, campaign or piece of content has a different CTA; some try to get visitors to subscribe to a service, purchase a product or fill out a survey. However, the central goal of any landing page is to deliver increased conversion rates. Conversion is the process of converting someone who is merely browsing your site into a paying customer. Average conversion rates typically range between 2-3%, but if you follow these simple steps, you can create a high conversion landing page that will increase user engagement on your site and generate more potential leads.
Before you create your landing page.
Before you jump in and begin brainstorming for your landing page, there are some critical factors to keep in mind if you want to build a successful landing page that drives conversion.
Understand your audience
It is impossible to create a landing page if you don’t know your target audience. Who are you trying to influence? What are your audience’s interests? If you can’t answer these questions, you will be unable to design a landing page that will catch their attention, much less drive them to action and conversion. The first step in any marketing strategy is understanding your target audience (we’ve prepared a separate blog on this here). Target Market research often requires some extensive research, but always pays off in the end. Once you analyze the data and know who your landing page is supposed to attract, then you can proceed with brainstorming how to attract them.
Know your Most Wanted Action (MWA)
What is the goal of your landing page? Do you want users to sign up for a monthly newsletter? Do you want them to buy a specific product? Maybe you want them to complete an online survey? Or perhaps its a follow-up call from a salesperson? Before you can begin designing your landing page, you need to know your MWA. Because the primary goal of a landing page is to convince visitors to complete a specific CTA, you need to know what precisely the result of that call to action. When you have figured this part out, you can create a high conversion landing page.
Be patient
One of the most important, albeit frustrating, things to remember when creating a landing page is to be patient. Often, a high conversion landing page is the product of trial and error. To know what your audience responds to best, you will most likely need to try something, then adjust your strategy, try again and repeat until your conversion rates have increased. Before embarking on this journey, you should be aware that the process can be lengthy. You need to test every aspect of your landing page from the heading to the pictures to find what works best. If you know this ahead of time, the process of creating a high conversion landing page will go much more smoothly.
Characteristics of High Conversion Landing Pages
As mentioned earlier, every business has a different desired CTA, which means that no two landing pages are the same. However, while there are several different ways to construct a landing page, all high conversion landing pages have a few essential characteristics in common.
Attention-grabbing headline
While the landing page is usually a user’s first encounter with your website, the headline is the first thing that they should notice on the landing page itself. The headline should immediately grab users’ attention and make them interested in reading more about what your company offers.
Engaging subheading
Although the headline initially grabs users’ attention, it is the subheading that keeps them interested. If you have an exciting headline and lackluster subheading, users will quickly leave your site, and you will not increase your conversion rates whatsoever. A subheading should follow the heading and provide a bit more detail about your company without giving everything away. Remember that your subtitle should be kept short- one sentence will do. It should be long enough to engage users, but not so long that they lose interest. The goal to increase conversion is to keep them on the landing page for as long as possible.
Thorough description of your services
Following your subheading should be a short paragraph describing your services. This item should flow with your heading and subheading, so your whole landing page seems like one cohesive piece of writing. Although this section should obviously include more detail than in your title or subtitle, once again, make sure that you don’t over-explain. Your entire landing page should be kept short and concise to keep users’ attention. A useful strategy is to play on your users’ emotions. Rather than describing your service or product in detail, explain what it does.
For example, if the goal of your landing page is to get users to sign up for a monthly newsletter that features tips on boosting confidence, rather than list examples of these confidence-boosting suggestions, tell your readers how they will feel after reading the newsletter each month. You could say, “Do you struggle with feeling left out? Has your lack of confidence prevented you from making friends? Are you tired of being lonely? Sign up for our monthly newsletter, and you will receive new tips every month that will boost your confidence and completely turn your life around. By focusing on users’ emotions, they are more likely to feel a strong attachment to your product or services. It’s crucial to emphasize how the user will benefit from following your CTA.
Clear CTA
Since the primary goal of any landing page is to entice users to follow a specific CTA, it’s imperative that you state what this CTA is if you want to create a high conversion landing page. Include colorful buttons that users can click, which will allow them to complete the call to action. While the first three steps teach you how to structure your landing page, none of them will matter if you don’t explicitly advertise your CTA because you won’t see a difference in conversion rates otherwise. Some landing pages even offer several CTA buttons with sayings like “Sign up now! It’s free” or “Let’s get started!” to emphasize the page’s purpose.
Intriguing pictures
Your landing page must be aesthetically pleasing if you want to keep the attention of users. A brilliant way to grab user’s attention is through the use of images. Did you know that our brains process pictures 60,000 times quicker than it processes words? Ensuring that you have enticing pictures that coincide with your text is key to building a successful, high conversion landing page.
Proof that your company is trustworthy
While the internet can be a fantastic resource, it can also provide a platform for scammers. Unfortunately, in this day and age, many internet users are skeptical of websites that try to sell them something- whether it be a product or service. Some users will even refuse to give away any personal information unless they are confident that the site is reputable. This means that if you want to increase conversion, you have to put in extra effort to prove to users that you are legit. Some ways to do this include keeping a running tally of orders or installing a message to pop up every time a customer makes a purchase. This shows users that others have bought your services or products, which insinuates that you are a trustworthy company. You can also include customer testimonials on your site or install a live chat feature. When you are more accessible to customers, you seem more real.
Remember…Be Consistent
Reuse phrases on your landing page to remind users of what your company provides and how they can benefit from it. Consistency inspires comfort and trust. Make sure that all of the text including your heading, subheading, and description flow together. Also, keep the look of your landing page similar to your homepage. If your landing page is successful and results in higher conversion rates, users will likely thoroughly investigate your website. Make sure that the font, theme, and style you use throughout your entire site is similar and consistent. Hubspot have some pretty great examples of optmised landing pages.
Keep it Simple
Don’t overwhelm users with a cluttered landing page that has too much text, redundant links or excessive pictures. Keep your copy short and concise and make sure that there is only one action that users can take. If you give them too many options, they may not choose your MWA, and the call to action could be unsuccessful. High conversion landing pages rely on simplicity and straightforward design,
Know your target audience
Know your target audience, understand them and make sure you that you market specifically to them. By engaging your target audience, you can increase engagement along with your conversion rates.
Make your CTA evident
Emphasize your call to action multiple times on your landing page. Make it clear to users what you want them to do so there is no confusion. Craft a clear goal for your CTA- whether it’s adding them to your mailing list or enticing them to purchase your new product- and then use an attractive headline, engaging subheading, and informative landing page to encourage users to complete the desired call to action.
If you follow this guide, you will be on your way to creating a high conversion landing page in no time! Although the task may seem overwhelming at first, remember that it’s simple if you know what steps to follow.