Be a Landing Page Conversion Ninja!

Convert, convert, convert!

That's pretty much what is expected out of a product marketer today. The landing page must be convincing enough such as a sales person is talking in person with the landing page visitor and getting the details. A very reasonable expectation actually.

Lets raise the bar and talk about the specific areas that can make you a Landing page conversion Ninja. Oh yea!

1. Why are the users landing onto your page? 
So the user has come to your page either organically, directly through your website, a google ad, an email newsletter, a social post, a referral link etcetra etcetra but the user has a perception built already. He/she read something or searched for something before landing onto this page of yours. Now, the content of your landing page has to resonate with the messaging on that channel. For instance, a user searched on Google for, lets say, "Cheapest Flight Provider". This directly means that the user is searching for an economical flight, provider that has potential offers or has some sort of discount to offer.

With that thought in mind and search on Google, he/she in most likelihood is going to click on such a result that talks about discounts on flights etc and when the user lands onto the page, he/she must be expecting a similar messaging tone in the landing page as well.

The following landing page passes such a test:

While a generic landing page with no direct information on any discount such as this one fails completely.

So your marketing strategy (paid/organic) has to make sure that there is always a sync of what users look for & what you tell them back.

2. Keep the page usability high, as high as possible. How?
So, obviously you want the user to take an action post landing onto your page (except of course bouncing off). That action is based on usability of your page i.e. user enters his/her information and submits. Now, the information (or the quantum of it) you ask must be minimal enough for the user that he/she does not get sick of it (sorry, couldnt think of a politer way) & good enough for you to take action post the form submission. Now there are forms, forms like these:

And then there are forms like these:

A lot of people say, there is no clear definition - sometimes the forms have to be long. No, not true, don't believe them. Unless of course, you are not going to follow up with the user again and just want to sell the information, you can definitely go ahead with some basic information and get rest of the information later. For now, you want him/her to get ready to get started with you in the first place. That's it. 

3. Killer headline or a smiling image? Come on do an A/B test.
Yea, this one is a little trickier. You will never know what works the best in ATF (above the fold) for you - an image or a crisp headline or a specific mix of both. To be sure on this, A/B test your page and put in front of your actual audience to decide it for you.

I recently observed one of a leading stock broking companies in the US performing an AB test on a similar note. Here were some of the variations they tried (they are still trying):

An A/B test can be carried out by a variety of tools such as Optimizely (my fav), Visual web optimizer (VWO) etc. Testing your landing page (or any web page for that matter) on a time to time basis is like getting your regular body health check up. It keeps you ticking and lets you know whether there is anything to worry, at the right time.

4. Well defined USPs & Zero distractions. Period!
When you are trying to sell your business offering, be very direct, clear and honest around your USPs (Unique selling propositions). You have this page at hand that obviously cannot talk to the user (damn you, slowness of Artificial Intelligence!), thus, the page must be highlighting every possible reason that differentiates your product/service from the competition. It must have an answer to every sort of doubt around - "Why shall I buy this from you?"

Also make sure that you have gone through landing pages of your competition to see in what tone, they talk to the audience. If your page is taking care of all the selling points you can think of & know of, and is beating the competition landing page on a similar front, then do a self high-five!

When its said that your landing page must not have any distractions, it literally means the same, implying no outbound links (except of course there are some compliance concerns). You must get rid of the header, menu, footer or any other links connected on your page. Keeping all of this might be good in terms of keeping UI (User Interface) consistent, but well you have to make sure the UI fits well within the business funnel as well. 

Here is a good example of a distraction-less landing page:

5. A well contrasty lit, sensibly titled, wide sized CTA
The CTA (Call to action or the primary button) is the heart of the landing page. Its the Jesus of the conversion universe. 

Few things to remember about the landing page CTA:

• It must be only clickable widget on the page
• It must not be titled as "Submit". Depending on the offering type, the CTA title can be Register, Apply, Subscribe, Get Started etc.
• The color of the CTA must be contrasted starkly from the background color of the form/page.
• The size of the button must be wide enough that it gets the deserved attention as the user lands onto the page (perform 3-second usability test to confirm this for your landing page).

Here is an example of a form that takes care of all the 4 points mentioned above:

Makes sense, right?

6. Last but not the least by any means - Technology 
It might not look so obvious, but make sure your tech team actually implements a robust, never-failing, always-working landing page. This landing page of yours has to:
- Work across devices (mobile, tablet, desktop etc)
- work across browsers (Chrome, UC, Firefox etc)
- work across browsers across devices (Chrome - mobile, chrome - tablet, UC - tablet etc)

Nothing hurts more than an awesomely designed, product savvy, result oriented landing page faltering due to technology. 

Is there anything you'd like to add, well please go ahead and comment.

Keep converting!

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