No, your landing page isn’t ‘good enough’… here’s why.

Hola! ?? Is it summer holidays yet? Thank you so much for continuing to enjoy and read Marketing Self Storage. If you get a kick out of it, don’t hesitate to follow me on LinkedIn and tinkle the bell ??? on my profile to keep up to date with notifications.

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You know that feeling when you go into a department store or a clothes store and it just feels a bit messy and not well presented? Or, maybe the mannequins haven’t been styled properly and the signage is a bit sun bleached and dated and you feel like you’ve been transported back to an 80’s mall aesthetic…

…that’s what it feels like for customers when they land on a landing page that is only ’good enough’. It just feels a bit vintage…like “there is so much more potential here!”

Working in a digital agency that offers 360° digital solutions (that means that we do everything from systems architecture to api development, widget builds and new systems developments to managing all of your marketing tech and the strategy behind it) we get to see A LOT of websites and landing pages. But, it still always comes as a surprise just how many of them are not good enough, to put it bluntly.

A well-designed website can built trust, establish credibility, and encourage users to explore more, making it essential to strive for excellence rather than settling for ‘good enough’.

Websites serve as our shop windows, providing the first glimpse of our brand to potential customers. The initial impression a website creates is crucial, as it shapes customers’ perceptions and determines whether they will engage further. A well-designed website or landing page can build trust, establish credibility, and encourage users to explore more, making it essential to strive for excellence rather than settling for "good enough."

Here are 6 ???????????? I look out for when auditing websites and landing pages:

1. Mobile first

Has the site been designed with mobile first in mind? For example, the website isn’t just responsive, the site’s structure has been designed for mobile. Roughly, 86% (probably higher now) of purchases in self-storage start online. Providing a mobile friendly user experience will immediately improve your conversion rate by encouraging user to remain on the site without getting frustrated.

2. Highlight unique brand attributes

Are the unique attributes of this brand immediately identifiable above the scroll (the first scroll down the landing page)? By making attributes immediately identifiable for the customer you are reinforcing credibility, trust and encouraging users that this is the right place for them to be.

(In the context of languages that use script left to right, left justified Heroes (titles) and left justified text often perform better than centred script).

3. CRO optimised

Page speed has to be one of the number one conversion killer of all time. It causes drop offs, frustration clicks and cart abandonments. Do you regularly test your page speed at all touch points?

CTA consistency just makes it easier for customers to be able to know what to do next. Having too many CTAs can create moments of doubt or hesitation for the customer that could distract them from the job they need to do, convert.

FAQs used well can address any final friction or anxieties that could stop your customers from making the commitment to convert. Answer questions you get posed in sales calls and online before purchase and help customers make the decision faster.

Social Proof helps customers place themselves in the future and identifying with those who have already purchased. It also calms anxieties and proves that it all turned out well for previous customers!

BASIC UX/UI is the acronym to keep in mind when incorporating UX/UI into a web design.Beauty . Accessibility . Simplicity . Intuitiveness . Consistency

Shortening the booking process may not be the easiest to achieve, but avoiding off page actions, navigation away from the user flow and double entry of information are all ways to avoid frustration drop offs and distractions from the conversion process.

Payment options are becoming a key component of conversion rate optimisation. Having flexible payment options such as card options AND apple pay, SWISH (if you are in Sweden) and pay pall will encourage more customers to make the commitments immediately.

You know what it’s like. You find yourself looking to purchase something but you don’t have your card to hand, but you can use apple or pay pal, but the option isn’t available. Urgh… another distraction from the conversion process.

4. Attention grabbing animated interactions

Subtle interactive animations that are triggered by customer interactions such as icon movements, colour switches or swipes feel GOOD for customers. These dynamic interactions offer a sense of modernity and encourage customers to explore the website further.

5. Technical SEO

THIS!!! I think this is the most surprising for me when auditing websites. It baffles me the number of websites that are built with little, to no, technical seo ground work. Headers 1-3 and anchors missing, no meta data, no site maps(?!), and in general, badly structured websites, full stop.

Technical SEO is crucial for your website to be crawlable (what Google bots and other search engine bots do to index and rank your website). If this isn’t part of the basic website or landing page spec, question that!

6. Scalable systems architecture.

We can’t predict the future. At the pace technology is racing we don’t know what might mainstream in the next few years. Your system architecture must be flexible and scalable enough to pivot. My recommendation for all websites, especially those with ecommerce or booking system integrations is to use WordPress. One-click, no code, cookie cutter website services are just not good enough for scaling businesses. Avoid Wix, Squarespace, Bubble or Elementor at all costs. They just aren’t flexible enough and they make Google ads, and other marketing tech, impossible to use when it comes to tracking advanced conversions.

These 6 areas of ‘concern’ are critical in improving your website or landing page, not just for it to look good, but for it to push customers into exploring your product or services further and generating conversions.

Ok, thanks - bye!

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Hi ?? I’m Jill and if you got to the end of the newsletter, congratulations ??

I’m a digital marketing consultant and coach at Developed by me, a full stack digital agency specialising in connected digital marketing and web solutions. We have self storage clients in Sweden, the UK, and Ireland.

Get in touch by DM on LinkedIn or sending a message to - [email protected] to talk to us about any projects you want to elevate.