What are some of the latest trends and tools for landing page design and optimization?

1 Know your audience

Before you start designing your landing page, you need to understand who your target audience is, what their pain points are, and what they are looking for. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or surveys to gather data about your visitors, such as their demographics, behavior, preferences, and feedback. This will help you create a landing page that speaks to their needs, interests, and emotions, and that matches their expectations.

2 Craft a clear and compelling headline

The headline is the first thing visitors see when they land on your page, and it can make or break their decision to stay or bounce. Therefore, you should craft a headline that captures their attention, communicates your value proposition, and entices them to read more. You can use tools such as CoSchedule Headline Analyzer, A/B Tasty, or Unbounce to test different headlines and see which ones perform better. Some of the best practices for writing headlines include using numbers, questions, or power words to spark curiosity, keeping it short and simple while highlighting the benefits rather than features, and using keywords that match your ad and your audience's search intent.

3 Use engaging and relevant visuals

Visuals are a key element of any landing page, as they can help you communicate your message, demonstrate your product or service, and generate an emotional connection with your visitors. Images, videos, icons, or animations can be used to improve your landing page, however they must be of high-quality and professional standard, relevant and consistent with your brand and offer, optimized for speed and responsiveness, and in line with your headline and copy. Canva, Adobe Spark, or Lumen5 are useful tools for creating or editing visuals while TinyPNG, Cloudinary, or Optimizely can be used to optimize them.

4 Write persuasive and concise copy

The copy should be clear, concise, and compelling, and guide visitors through the conversion funnel. To improve your writing style, grammar, and readability, you can use tools like Hemingway, Grammarly, or ProWritingAid. When writing copy, you should use short sentences and paragraphs, highlight key points with bullet points or numbered lists, employ active voice and action verbs, add social proof or reviews to build credibility, create a sense of urgency or scarcity to evoke FOMO (fear of missing out), and include a clear and strong call-to-action (CTA) that tells visitors what to do next.

5 Optimize your form and CTA

The form and the CTA are the most important elements of your landing page, as they are the final steps that your visitors need to take to convert. To make them as easy and appealing as possible, you can use tools like Leadformly, Formstack, or ConvertFlow to create or optimize your forms, and tools like Hello Bar, Sumo, or GetSiteControl to create or optimize your CTAs. When optimizing your form and CTA, some of the best practices include using as few fields as possible and only asking for essential information; using labels, placeholders, and tooltips to guide visitors; using validation and feedback to prevent errors and frustration; using contrast, color, and size to make your CTA stand out; using action-oriented and benefit-driven words for your CTA; and using a secondary CTA to offer an alternative option or value.

6 Test and improve your landing page

The last step to optimize your landing page is to test and improve it based on data and feedback. You should use tools like Google Optimize, VWO, or Crazy Egg to run experiments and analyze the performance of your landing page. You can test different elements, such as headlines, visuals, copy, form, or CTA, and see which ones generate more conversions, clicks, or engagement. You can also use tools like Hotjar, UserTesting, or UsabilityHub to collect qualitative feedback from your visitors, such as their opinions, suggestions, or complaints. This will help you identify and fix any issues or gaps in your landing page, and improve the user experience and satisfaction.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?