How To Optimise Your Landing Page
George Zeidan
I enable SME Business Owners to scale their business by consistently generating qualified leads using systematic, scalable digital solutions.
Landing page?optimization?is the method of improving each aspect of your landing page in order to improve conversion rates. However, optimizing your landing page is not something that happens?quickly.?It can be very frustrating to successfully optimize a landing page, which is why many marketers give up. A key aspect of optimizing a landing page is to design it according to information that you already have about your prospects.?But?you need to keep gathering more information as people?continue to?visit your website.?This is the only way that you’ll be able to build a landing page that will attract your target audience and make them act.???
Optimizing a landing page is comparable to building a prototype; it will take dozens, if not hundreds of prototypes before you nail the right one that you’ll use.?I’ll?show you very effective landing page optimization?tips and?tricks that will greatly increase your conversion rates.??
Common Mistakes
But first, let’s take a look at common mistakes made by marketers.?There are many reasons why a landing page is not converting. Usually, marketers don’t fully understand the needs and expectations of their prospects. And if that’s the case, then how can you offer?content that is useful?to them? Other common mistakes include:??
Most landing pages convert at rates between 2% and 6%. The best landing pages convert between 25% and 27%. However, the true indicator of success is how well you improve your landing pages based on the information that you collect. If your conversion rates are steady on a monthly basis, then you’re not making the best use of your data. Also, it is natural to assume that as the number of visitors to your website increases, so do your conversion rates.??
However, if your conversion rates are not following the increase in your website traffic,?then either the landing page, the offer or product needs some improvement.??
One of the best features of landing page optimization is that you collect data before you upload your landing page to the internet. One way of getting information data is by using surveys that will give you in an insight into what your target audience?likes.?Of course, you won’t have all the?necessary information to make an ideal landing page until you put?it?on the internet. Only after it’s live?can you tinker with it according to the data you gather and analyze the conversion rate.?
Positive Copy
The text on the landing page should make the visitors?feel good about themselves; use strong?and?positive emotions that will get the prospect feeling good. You want them to experience excitement, appreciation and happiness when visiting your landing page. Try to weave those emotions into a headline on your landing page. For instance, a landing page for a data analysis software company can claim that their tools?empower?their clients.?
Simple Design
Many marketers make the mistake of thinking that a simple landing page will not be great for conversion rates. While this may sound plausible,?it is the wrong way to go about doing designing your landing page. You want to ensure that people are not distracted by your landing page and that they can easily locate the call to action. Remember, simplicity is key. Let’s take a look at a good example from Airbnb:??
This is a simple landing page informing you about the offer and how to start hosting. It even gives you an average of how much you could earn if you sign up with the company. The landing page perfectly communicates the message without any clutter.?This is a landing page that will easily convert visitors into customers with its simple and efficient layout.?
Colours
When designing your landing page, make use of the psychological theory of?colour?associations. If you use the wrong colours, then you run the risk of sending an unintended message to your visitors. Let’s take a quick look at the association’s popular colours have for us as humans:?
Blue is associated with loyalty and honesty. It stands for coolness and intellectual power. Yellow is an attention grabbing?colour, often associated with youth, creativity and friendliness. Red is seen as a very physical?colour?that stands for urgency, warmth, strength and courage. Next, Green is associated with relaxation since it is the easiest?colour?for us to process. It stands for health, environment and balance. Orange, on the other hand, is associated with passion, warmth and?security. Pink is a very feminine?colour?that is often associated with love and sexuality. And finally, purple is a comforting?colour?associated with luxury, excellence and quality.??
You can?also?use contrasting colours on your landing page to?make?your call to action stand out. Think along the lines of a dark background with bright colours and fonts used?for?the call to action button. Using black as a background?colour?for your landing page will give off an impression of sophistication and sleekness.??
Focus On the Important Parts
Keep the most important part of your copy “above the digital fold”. The term “above the fold” refers to the front page of the newspaper which would have the most interesting stories to attract the customers. You follow the same practice in the digital space.??The “above the digital fold” is the point of the landing page where the user has to scroll down to keep reading. Keeping?the most engaging part of your copy above this fold is further complicated by tablets and smartphones. Luckily, there are useful tools like scroll maps that can help you detect where the fold is typically located on various devices.?A scroll map uses a?colour?spectrum to show the sections of the page that receive the most views-the brighter the?colour?the more views that part of the page gets. Really dark sections get little to no views. A?scroll map typically comes?with a legend that identifies the exact correlation between the colours and the percentage of impressions.?Therefore,?with?this great tool,?you can?organize the layout of your landing page in?a?way that will make your headline along with other important elements front and centre.?
For A Limited Time Only
Marketers have for decades used the concept of?scarcity?to push people to buy products or services.?That’s why we sometimes come across offers that are time sensitive – companies urge potential customers to buy?now?because there are “limited quantities”.?The website?booking.com?uses this trick to compel people to book a reservation for their listings by stating that “only two rooms available at this cheap rate” or “ 3 people are looking at this room right now” all written in red font for greater effect.?Use this technique on your landing page to gently nudge your visitors to take an action immediately before they miss out on a great opportunity.?Make a limited-time offer for a product or service on your landing page. A proven way to push your visitors to act is by installing a countdown timer on your landing page that displays how much time is left before the offer expires. It’s very effective!?
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Simple Call to Action Buttons
Your call to action button should clearly state an action without using too many words or complicated offers. Use simple phrases: “Click to Download”, “Join Now” and “Try For Free”.?
Contact Information
The people who visit your landing page must be able to easily find your contact information. It’s good practice to include your email address or even phone number on the page.?
A/B Test Many Different Headlines And Copy
When it comes to landing page optimization, you must use A/B testing to ensure that you’ve found the best option.?A/B testing (sometimes referred to as split testing) refers to a method of testing where two versions of the same web page are shown to different sections of visitors at the same time determining which version has a better conversion rate. This way you can be sure that you know which version of your landing page is better for conversions.?
Apply this form of?testing to different elements on?your landing page.?Test different headlines, body copy and calls to action. A/B testing will show you which variants are the best performers.?
Consistency
?It should go without saying that your landing page should be consistent with the ads you run. Your copy must be on-brand; your landing page must reflect the tone and the spirit of your business. Also, you must keep visual consistency between your website, ads and your landing page. If the visual layout is not consistent throughout, then your conversion rates are guaranteed to fall drastically.?Pay close attention that the fonts, imagery and offers in the ads are referred to in the landing page. If there is any inconsistency, then you run the risk of confusing and frustrating your prospect.?
Use Testimonials?
Prospects?who?are “sitting on the fence”?can?be swayed by convincing testimonials.?People want to know that your products or services helped others achieve their desired goals. The?common but effective way of doing testimonials is by using quotes. Be sure that the quotes are clear and concise and that you include the first and last name. Try to use a headshot to go along with the quote. Video testimonials are great as well. Ideally, try to convince a satisfied customer to make a quick video discussing how much your offer helped them achieve their goals-this will make you stand out from the rest of the competition.?
SEO Friendly
By making your landing page optimized for SEO (search engine optimization), you will make it easier for people to find your business organically. Pretty much anything can be made into a landing page, including the home page of your website. Therefore, work on your SEO so that your business pops up in organic searches as well. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner or?Ubersuggest?to find the best performing keywords for your business that you can include in your headlines and web copy.???
Tweak Don’t Overhaul
Many marketers make the mistake by making?major?changes to the landing page instead of small incremental ones.?You should always start out by identifying precise issues with your landing page that are hurting your conversion rates.?This is why landing page optimization is a?delicate process.??
One of the most common and powerful tools, if not a little strange is using a heat map to optimize your landing page. A heat map is useful because it will show you exactly where your visitors’ focus is when they land on your page. This tool indicates where the most amount of clicks happen on the page.?Therefore, you will know where to place the most important content on your landing page.?
A heat map relies on a colour spectrum where the brighter the spot, the more attention is attracts.??
As a result, you can find out if there are any elements of your landing page that are distracting your visitors or whether your call to action buttons (CTA) are clearly visible. Let’s take a look at an example:?
In this example,?you can clearly see that?the?top?part?of the page is getting a lot of attention from visitors. Also, the middle of the page is attractive?to?your visitors. Therefore, if you were analyzing this page, you’d want to place the most important elements?in places with the brightest colours?in order to draw in the most?amounts?of clicks.?Unsurprisingly, heat map software is very sophisticated, which means that there is a price for good ones. Crazy Egg has one of the best heat map tools?on?the market, with different plans available. I highly recommend that you take a look at their software.?
Conclusion
The?tips outlined in this guide will surely optimize your?landing page and?improve your conversion rates. Remember however that landing page optimization is a long process that requires patience and attention. Any changes you make to your page should be based on the user data you collect from your page. Following the strategies outlined will?give you an edge over the competition!?