5 Tips to Create an Effective Landing Page That Converts
What’s a Landing Page?
A “landing page” is a web page that stands apart from your website that has a single focused objective. You can use them for selling a product or service, promoting a product launch, getting email subscribers, and more. They are extremely important to your digital marketing strategy. Most commonly, they are used in conjunction with an ad or sponsored post campaign. Your ad links directly to a landing page where potential customers can learn more and take action.
You can’t afford to mess up on designing your landing pages! It could mean the difference between making and losing the sale.
I’ve developed and designed landing pages for many different brands. And from that experience, I’ve gathered a few simple, but important tips that you can begin implementing today in your landing page.
5 Tips to Create an Effective Landing Page
1. Be clear about what you’re offering and the benefits.
Your copy should clearly communicate what you offer, and how this will make the person’s life better. This may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many companies fail to stay focused, and they end up confusing their users.
So, let’s say you’re building a landing page for the purpose of growing your email list. You’ve determined that a free webinar would be an appropriate opt-in offer to get them to sign up. Your copy on the page should probably say, “Sign up for our free marketing webinar” (what you offer). And then include something like, “After watching this webinar, you’ll be equipped with a clear, full-proof strategy for your company’s next marketing campaign” (how it will make their life better).
It’s simple, but that’s the point. Focusing on these two things will create a clear message, and ultimately lead them to do what you want them to do.
2. Have one clear CTA.
You need a “Call-to-Action”. This is essentially the text (usually in a link or a button) that provides the user with a clear way to act on the information given. Some common call-to-actions are, “Sign-up”, “Buy Now”, “Add to Cart”, “Contact Us”, etc. However, it’s ok to get creative with it. Going back to the webinar example, you could make your CTA “Reserve my spot for the webinar”.
The point is, that you have a clear, actionable step for your user to take. You don’t want to leave them guessing what to do next.
For a landing page, it is best to have only ONE call-to-action. Again, you want them take a particular action, so don’t confuse them by giving them more options. This leads to my next point…
3. Exclude any other links or navigation.
Again, the best landing pages have one call-to-action, so this means you should exclude any other links, even your site’s navigation.
Maybe you’re thinking, “But I offer several products. Shouldn’t I make it easy for the user to find all of my products?” No. The purpose of a landing page is different than that of your website. Here you are promoting one thing. So, if it’s a product, talk about that product. Make sure they have a way to buy that product. And cut everything else out.
Otherwise, people tend to get distracted and overwhelmed by too many options. If your user has been directed to this landing page through a targeted ad, you already know that they are someone who is actually interested the product. So sell them that product.