7 secrets of a successful landing page

Craig Hoggins
May 27, 2016
Marketing

All you need to know about a successful landing page

First things first. Before you can unveil the secrets of what makes a landing page successful, be sure you are clear on what a landing page is. A landing page is not simply any web page that you may “land” on.

Rather it is a page that has been created with a specific and single business purpose in mind: convert that visitor. Conversion can mean different things. It can mean a direct sale of your product. It can also mean that you gather direct contact information from your visitor so you can connect to them by other means, such as email.

So this means that a “Successful Landing Page” is one that leads to conversions. If we keep this in mind at all times, everything about this page must contribute to the likelihood of our visitor converting. Make it easy for them. Make it interesting for them. Make it clear exactly what they should do. And how do you do that?

Now you are ready for those 7 secrets:

1. Have a Clear Call to Action

It should be instantly obvious to your visitor what they must do. A short, simple, specific instruction that they must action: “Add to Cart”, or “Download Now – Free”, or “Sign up here”. It must look clickable, like a button. Make good use of colour to ensure that it stands out and is obvious. The colour of the button should be distinctively different from the background. Pay attention to the copy you use for your button, and test to see what generates the best response. And the golden rule: ban the word “Submit” from your vocabulary.


2. Less is More

Your landing page should be clean, uncluttered, and have no distractions. It should be easy for the visitor to scan. Think bullet points and lots of white space. You do not want your visitor to have to search for the information they are looking for. Use a big font, and keep your text to a minimum. If you want to add more detailed information, add it below the fold. Your visitor knows to scroll if they are looking for more. And keep your call to action button above the fold in clear sight of your visitor.


3. Put Catchy Headline Here

You have approximately 8 seconds to capture the attention of your visitor. Your headline should be clear, concise and convincing. It should communicate very clearly what you are offering. Follow up with a sub-heading that explains how amazing your offering is.

4. Match it up!

Let’s use an example. When a visitor clicks on your advert with the keywords “Blue Suede Shoes” they should arrive on a landing page with related content and copy‍‍, such as “Blue Suede Shoes On Promotion”. They should not arrive on the page “Men’s Clothing”. And why? The purpose of your landing page is to convert the visitor to a customer. To convert the visitor, you need to give them what they are looking for.‍

5. Social Proof Your Landing Page

People like to have the assurance of others. They like to know others have used your product, follow you. It signals to them that you can be trusted. You can social proof your landing page by adding testimonials of satisfied customers. If you provide a service to customers, you can list their well-known logos on your page. Usage statistics are reassuring such as “30 000 copies sold”. Industry standards and certification, such as SABS or VeriSign, build trust. You can even use badges of your own making such as, “Best Service Guaranteed”.‍

6. Make sure you are mobile friendly

Currently, 50% of Google searches are done through mobile devices, and this number is growing. Having a landing page that works well on a mobile device can double your conversions. Make sure that your landing page scales for mobile devices. Your call to action button must remain visible and accessible.

7. Only ask for what you need

Only request essential information from your visitor. This is the information that will enable you to make direct contact with them. Ask for too much information and your visitor may get bored, or irritated, or distracted. You have a small window of opportunity to capture their attention and convert. Do not squander it with a lengthy form. Apply these tips to your landing pages. Tweak and change, test and retest. With perseverance, you will find the exact combination that converts your visitors into customers. Landing pages form part of a Lead Generation Strategy, read more about how a Lead Generation strategy works here.

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