The Secret Formula to Build High-Converting Landing Pages
José María Lopez
Helping companies to find clients, engage customers and grow revenues | Marketing | Speaker | Writer
I studied thousands of successful landing pages and tested my findings many times.
Today, you will learn how to build high-converting landing pages. This article contains many practical examples and tested tips to make your landing pages irresistible for your visitors.
What is a landing page?
A landing page is a standalone web page. Visitors land on the “landing” page after they click on a link in an email or an online ad. Its unique goal is to convert these visitors to paying customers through a call to action.
Companies use landing pages for the following purposes:
Why should you consider landing pages for lead generation?
According to SEMRush, online marketers say generating traffic and leads is their biggest challenge.
Priority Goals Marketers Worldwide Plan to Achieve through Content Marketing in 2021. Image source: eMarketer
Companies create useful content to solve their clients’ problems. They offer this content as a hook to generate leads. Here are some examples:
But not all the content is created equal. Research reports and videos produce leads with the highest customer conversion rates.
The content types that generate leads with the highest customer conversion rates, per marketers. Image source: Marketing charts
People interested in these assets provide their contact details through signup boxes, popups, and landing pages to obtain them. Some studies show that landing pages are the least used, but their conversion rate is much better.
Landing Pages conversion rates can reach a conversion rate of up to 23%. Image Source: Omnisend
Landing pages are the best way to collect leads but there is room for improvement. Now you will learn how to build high-converting landing pages.
The Secret Formula to Build High-Converting Landing Pages
I found out that successful landing pages follow the Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA) Formula. You need to divide the landing page into three parts: the top, the middle, and the bottom.
After that, you will assign a specific function to each part. The top attracts the visitor, the middle nurtures the interest and desire, and the bottom triggers the action. Let’s check it one by one.
The Top of the Landing Page Catches the Attention of the Visitor
The top of the landing page must catch the attention of the user. I recommend removing the main navigation from the landing page. It distracts users from the call to action and invites them to leave the landing page.
It is important to stand out for some specific problems of the target audience and provide a solution. Your headlines should answer the following questions: WHAT, WHY, and HOW. Let’s see the following example:
Image courtesy of Brutask
The landing page above answers the following questions:
WHAT: A task manager
WHY: Because it is a simple to-do list for small teams
HOW: Get started for free
This landing page also includes an image that describes the headline and the service.
Some studies recommend images of real people (no stock images) using the product. They can increase the Click Through Rate by 66%. Can you imagine the image below without the male model?
Image courtesy of Trendy Butler
The Middle of the Landing Page Nurtures the Interest and Desire
How to nurture the interest of your audience?
What information would your prospect be most interested in? You need to emphasize the benefits of the offer and explain how your product solves the problem of your client.
Did you know that business sector landing pages with fewer than 100 words converted 50% better than those with 500 words or more? Keep it short, add keywords to generate traffic, use a short set-up paragraph, and bulleted benefits.
The landing page below offers three options of the product to increase the conversion rate and a nice picture of the product. The benefits are simple and clear and they use pictures of clients to emphasize the human element.
Example of Landing Page. Image courtesy of 99Designs.
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Sidekick is another good example. Each section is very clear. The text color, the images, the arrows, and the dots show clearly the functionalities of the service. The language is concise, simple, and similar to the audience’s.
Did you notice that the previous examples only promote one product? Research recommends having only one offer per landing page because multiple offers can decrease conversions by up to 266%.
How to Use Emotions to Drive Conversion?
Social proof is one of the most effective ways to increase the desire for a product. Social proof works by tapping into the basic human instinct to follow the actions of others, building trust and credibility, and lowering barriers to making purchases online.
Show your community of clients and what they have to say about your product. 36% of top landing pages feature testimonials. Don’t be afraid of using emotions. Show how your clients feel before and after they use the product.
Image courtesy of Squareshot
Combine emotions such as awe and humor or anger and anxiety and people will be more willing to share your landing page.
Finally, I recommend using video content. It will help to keep your text short and can increase conversion rates by as much as 86%.
Example of a landing page using video
The Bottom of the Landing Page will Trigger the Action
6 tips to create effective Call to Actions
After reading the landing page, you need to place the Call to Action. Here is the opportunity for the visitor to change their life by taking action about their problem.
Your call to action should be action-oriented, evoke excitement, and play on your potential client’s fear of missing out. Match the messaging on your CTA and the headline of the landing page and avoid using the word “submit”.
In this short video, I provide 6 tips to create effective call to actions:
By the way, did you know that 51.3% of landing page CTA buttons are green?
Two recommendations to create a form that people will want to fill out
Many landing pages also include a form. How can you create a form that people will want to fill out? Research shows that:
Last thoughts before you build your successful landing page
Create multiple landing pages for different offers, the more landing pages you have, the more leads you will get. Hubspot found that businesses with 31 to 40 landing pages generated 7 times more leads than businesses with only 1 to 5 landing pages.
Test your landing pages to improve the conversion rate. Use A/B tests and measure the performance of the message, the content placement, calls to action, images, and much more.
Improve the speed of your landing page. Landing pages with a 0-2 second load time have the highest conversion rates. Check this video and I will show you how to speed up your landing page and generate more business:
Summary
Taking all this data into context, we can state the following:
Do you have other ideas? Please share them with us!
P.S. Before you go, you may also be interested in the following articles:
POST WRITTEN BY
Jose Maria (Chema) Lopez
A Madrid Polytechnic University International MBA has worked as global marketing director in B2B and B2C international leading companies implementing global marketing and communication strategies to ensure business objectives and to optimize brands reputation and visibility on a global level.