Why are landing pages so important in conversion rate optimisation?
From a marketing point of view, landing pages encompass the idea of creating a page that turns the conversion rates up to 11 and really laser-focuses the content to maximise the number of visitors who want to – virtually – raise their hands and say, ‘yes, please tell me more’.
When it comes to conversion rate optimisation, looking for holes in your conversion paths and exploring opportunities to convert more visitors/leads, your landing page are a natural starting place. After all, they are where most conversions (away from ecommerce) are likely to occur.
A good landing page should be very sales-oriented and look to drive visitors/leads/prospects to perform, usually, a single conversion task. Depending on your goals, this might be signing up for a newsletter, downloading an ebook, making a purchase or booking an appointment.
Whilst there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to building out a conversion behemoth of a landing page, there are some great base guidelines that will, if nothing else, give you a head start to optimising your new and existing landing pages.
When you’re finished watching our video below, you can find 9 other ways to convert more visitors in an article we recently published on the area of CRO.
What makes a conversion-tastic landing page?
Here’s our recent landing page Facebook video on the matter.
Landing page conversion optimisation key points
In the video, I quickly run through the key points that constitute a winning landing pages. Of course, there are many ways to build a successful landing page and some of those will depend on your creative/technical ability, the industry your business is in, and what really resonates with your audience.
There are some great examples of brilliant landing pages around the web, but they will usually all share most of the following attributes:
- Clear, non-distracting header
- Strong, to-the-point title
- Sales-focused copy
- Compelling image
- Form aligned to value of offer
Let’s flesh the points out a little more to make sure you have all the info to create winning landing pages for your campaigns.
1 – Clear page header
Once you have your visitor interested enough to have visited your landing page, it’s your job to keep them there and hopefully give them an even stronger reason to convert there too.
One of the ways to keep visitors’ attention (which, these days, is already very limited) is to remove all possible distractions and anything that detracts from the main aim of the landing page.
Headers are a common area filled with signposts, links, actions and other interesting furniture (like a navigation bar) that can usually be removed to keep attention on the main content on the page.
Note – don’t trap your visitor here, they still need an ‘out’, but this might be a link to the home page, or back to a previous page.
2 – Strong page title
As well as keeping those all important topical keywords in the title for good search optimisation practices, we really want to get to the point of the page in as quick a time as is possible. Good, clear, strong titles are a good way to do this.
We want to stay away from bold, clickbait-ish terms here, but now’s your first real chance to get across the offer in front of the visitor so that, even if they read nothing else on the page, we’ll know that the title gets the point over for us.
3 – Sales-focussed copy
Keep your landing page content relatively short, to the point and supportive of the aim you’re trying to fulfill. This is your chance to dial in a little more sales-oriented language that moves your audience to take action.
Not many people are a fan of the 80’s style hard-sell techniques any more, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use a lot more persuasive language in your copy and really hone in on the features and benefits to a visitor by taking the action on this specific landing page.
From the many examples of top-performing [LINK IN HERE] landing pages in the HubSpot gallery, you’ll see that the best ones keep things brief, maybe 2-4 short paragraphs and include a bulleted list of the main benefits and selling points. These are easier to digest quickly and when scanning the text without having to read any of the other supporting copy.
4 – Compelling and supportive imagery
Images are vital for good sales and marketing; they can stir emotions, push people into action and get across a message very quickly by visual means.
Again, looking at lots of examples of landing pages that have high conversion rates, you’ll see that they all include some form of imagery depending on what they’re trying to convey. So, if you’re selling a software product, it might be shots of the best parts of the dashboard and group shots of people using it. If you’re trying to get your visitors to book a meeting, some visuals around this subject will hammer the point of the page home.
Note – remember when I mentioned distractions above? Well too many images or the wrong kind can have the same effect, so use your visual powers with caution!
5 – Conversion form
Forms are where the real magic happens, the conversion itself! Taking areas such as ecommerce out of the equation for a moment, most landing pages aim to offer their prospect something in exchange for personal data, details to follow up on later down the line.
Feel free to ask for as much or as little as you wish. The important point here is to keep the information you ask for relative to the perceived value of the offer you’re giving up in return.
For example, our in-depth guide to designing your business website landing page asks for 7 articles of information, which could sound like a lot to some people but, in return, you will be able to download a 60+ page guide on how to plan, design and develop your best business website yet. It’s one of our most popular downloads and definitely a worth trade.
On the other hand, if we asked for the same information for, say, access to a blog post, or infographic, the conversions would most likely dive right down.
Think about the value your offer has and align the amount and type of information you’re requesting to that.
Now go make your landing pages great!
CreatedRed
Our team is 100% focussed on delivering the best inbound marketing solution to your creative online marketing needs.
Visit createdredmedia.co.uk for more information
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