So, you want to build a high converting landing page for your website?
As you already know, most “experts” say the first important step towards building an incredible online presence is to have an awesome website.
But, what if you wanted to generate more sales or customers? The answer is simple: you need a “killer” landing page on your website.
Before I tell you about the building blocks of a highly effective landing page, let me tell what landing page is and what they’re good for.
Landing pages are similar to all other websites you see on the web. In the digital marketing world, landing pages are designed for one main purpose: to get as many visitors click through to a “goal” – for e.g. getting people to click on the “signup” button to create a free account, hitting the “subscribe” button to sign up for newsletter, or simply to get people to “order.”
So, you see, the landing page has only ONE crucial thing to do:
to promote the “desired action,” and explains all the benefits the visitor will get once he/she takes that action.
That is why a landing page should be simple and clean so that visitors directed towards these desired goals for better conversions.
So, you see, the ultimate goal of any landing page is to make people click. That means both the design and the text on your landing page has to help do that, and nothing else.
That’s why you’ll see a landing page is only a single page.
With that said, let me tell you about 6 building blocks of a “killer” landing page that convert like crazy:
A killer landing page has a:
1. Killer headline
What does a headline do? Its job is simple: grab your intended audience’s attention and keep them reading the content on your landing page, like this:
A headline has to grab your intended audience’s attention and keep them reading the content on your landing page. (Image source: Pinterest)
That is why headlines have to be witty, clever, and sometimes, even outrageous. That’s because at end of the day, you see, they have to roll in the cash for the advertiser.
On the web, you’re fighting for one thing only: grab the attention of your would-be audience. If you don’t do this, you’ll go back home empty, without money deposited in the bank.
Your potential customers, particularly online users, have a short-lived attention span. That means you have less than a split-second to impress them. Within that fraction of a second, you’ll have to compel them to pull their chair across the table and sit down with you and chat.
One of the ways to do this is to tell your intended audience what your website is all about, in an easy to understand manner.
If on the other hand, they have to think “long” trying to figure out what you actually do or offer, then you’re most likely to lose them. They’ll less likely read your content, download the free report, or make an online purchase.
So, make your headline clear, concise, and straight-to-the-point, rather than being long, vague, and mysterious.
Here’s “insider” information on how you can make your headline stand out from the rest of your landing page elements, including your company logo and name:
- Give enough space around the headline so that’s it stands out immediately from the rest of the landing page elements, including your logo.
- Use a typeface that is specifically designed for headlines. Make it bold to make it more eye-catching.
- Using CSS or grid view on PhotoShop to move your headline a little bit outside of the page’s alignment.
- Lastly,include your keywords (PPC and SEO keywords) in your headline.
With that “insider” information, let’s move on to another crucial building block of a highly converting landing page.
2.The “main image” of your product or service.
(Image source: Nike)
If you have an image of your product, use it on your landing page. Why? According to numerous study, a landing page with a product or service image can significantly improve your bottom line… than pages that don’t have one.
Using a product or service image, perhaps, builds trust. That’s why it’s sometimes called the “Hero Shot.” You trust the image of your favourite actor, don’t you?
As I was doing my own web ploughing last night, I made an awesome discovery that just made me weep with joy: if your people can rotate your product image by 360 degrees, you’ll instantly see a sharp rise in conversions.
But, don’t pick any product image you find on your laptop. That’s a huge mistake. Rather, pick only those “hero shot” that evokes the ‘right’ kind of emotions – warm, friendly, happy kind of feelings – that leads to conversions.
Spoiler alert: make sure your “hero shot” is tied with the overall theme (ONE main goal) of your landing page.
3. “Data collection” element that grabs data from your users
(Image source: SmartInsights)
Data collection is another key landing page element that grabs data (feedbacks and email address) through desired actions such as signups, surveys, and contact forms from your potential customers.
Data collection elements have to be easy to understand – with clear instructions. On the other hand, using vague data collection elements (lengthy forms) can be counter-productive to your conversion rates.
While collecting data from your users, if they enter “invalid” info, make sure you display it to them politely. Even better, tell them what they should do by giving an example.
To boost trust, let them know their data is safe and sound with you, and that you’re never going to share with others and not spam them.
And what about the number of form fields?
Well, it depends. Often times, online form with fewer fields are found to generate higher conversion rates. But, the contrary is also true. In the past, we’ve seen conversion rates plunge down when we didn’t ask enough questions. Later, we realised we had to spend more time hustling with bad contacts.
And, just to be 100% sure, make sure you run an A/B test to see what works the best for you.
4. Your call to action (CTA) button
(Image source: Business2Community)
The CTA button is a key landing page element that asks for a particular action from people visiting your website.
Minor tweaks to your CTA button, such as changing its colour, text size and placing it in a new location on the landing page can dramatically boost your conversion rates. Again, to get a better result, you need to test and see what optimisation works best for you. And, here’s another thing: the “words” you use on your CTA buttons also plays a huge part in your conversions.
Spoiler alert: always try to use clear, simple, and actionable text to entice people to take action immediately. Also, make your CTA button a little bit BIGGER and bolder, just like in the screenshot example below:
Oh, and one more thing: web users spend most of their time (over 80%) on “above the fold.” The fold represents the top half part of your landing page your visitors immediately see when they land on your website.
If you want to drive more visitors towards your sales funnel, then you need to include the most important elements of your landing page on the top fold, such as your CTA button.
Include the most important elements of your landing page on the top fold. (Image source: LinkedIn)
5. The Benefits
The benefit element will explain how your product or services will help your potential customer.
You see, online users are scanners, not readers. So, you need to boil down your long paragraphs into easy to read and digest bullet points.
As a general rule, you should try to sell your benefits, not the features of your products or services. Nobody who ever bought a drill wanted a drill in the first place. They simply wanted to make a hole. So, focus on how your product or service can help benefit a potential customer.
And, when writing down benefits, you first need to know who your “target” audience are and connect them in a way that invokes ‘right’ emotions in their head (make them feel happy, joy, satisfied, etc). But, don’t go out of your way to please every soul who landed on your page – you won’t have any prayers this way.
The benefit element will explain how your product or services will help your potential customer. (Image source: Renee Warren)
6. The secondary CTA
Last, but not the least, the secondary CTA will help you capture potential customers who are not yet ready to buy from you.
What is a secondary CTA? A secondary CTA on your landing page can be a link to your social media profiles – Facebook or Twitter. Your visitors can click on it, and instantly become your follower. This way, you’ll still able to keep in touch with them in the future – with regular social media updates.
You can also include your secondary CTAs on other places, such as your thank-you pages and confirmation emails.
And, if you like (and you should), you can test your landing page with or without your secondary CTA to see how they impact your bottom line.
The secondary CTA will help you capture potential customers who are not yet ready to buy from you. (Image source: Hubspot)
Conclusion
If you read through this article, then you’ve become smarter than 90% of marketers out there. With these killer hacks, you can easily and quickly create a killer landing page that drives sales like crazy.
Just make sure to monitor your metrics regularly, and keep on tweaking them until you get the highest conversion rate.
What’s next? Take these few steps in order to create awesome landing pages that’ll convert like crazy (which is its primary goal)
- Have one goal in mind when creating a landing page. What do you want to do? Grab user’s email? Have them call you on the phone?
- Next, figure out who your target audience are. Jot down their age, sex, profession, etc.
- And, finally, design your landing page with the 6 critical building blocks mentioned above. It doesn’t have to be perfect. You can always improve it later based on what the analytics are telling you.
