Your landing page might look visually great and be beautifully written. But, let's be honest. At the end of the day, only one thing really matters.
Are visitors doing what you want them to do once they've looked at it? Or is your call-to-action button languishing under an inch-thick layer of digital dust?
Design and copy aren't exact sciences — that's why it's important to test and make adjustments. But, if your answer is the latter, a few tweaks could make a world of difference to your results.
Whether it's a key part of your website or a page you've put together for a one-time offer, here's a look at the key elements you should include to make sure your landing page has the best chance of succeeding.
What do we mean when we say 'high converting'?
According to WordStream, the average landing page converts at 2.35%. This means that, out of every 100 visitors, only two will do what you want them to (that .35 felt a bit too gory, so we've rounded down).
That said, some pages perform much better.
WordStream reckons that, out of all the landing pages they looked at, the top 25% had a conversion rate of 5.31%. And the top 10% did even better. They converted at 11.45% or higher.
So what are the elements your landing page should have so it's best placed to achieve these kinds of results?
1. A compelling offer
We shouldn't have to say this, but no amount of design or copy wizardry will help if your offer doesn't stack up. You wouldn't part with your money — or your personal details — if you didn't think what you were getting in return was worthwhile. And you can bet anything you like that your customers think exactly the same way.
There are a million and one things that could be wrong with your offer. But they can be broadly categorised under two headings:
It's not a good fit
This is the worst case scenario. You're offering something the people you're targeting aren't interested in.
If this is the case, you'll need a rethink. Look at your customer data and ask yourself: Who are you trying to target? What are their pain points?
Most importantly, how does your offer address those pain points and make these people's lives better?
You're not being clear
Perhaps you've got an amazing offer, but you haven't managed to bring out the benefits (this is so crucial it's getting not one, but two subheadings further down in this post).
Alternatively, it may be that you're not spelling out what you expect your landing page visitors to do.
Should they click on the 'get in touch' button? Go to the contact page? Email you directly? Read your about page?
It's best if you stick to one instruction — or conversion goal, as we call it in the biz — and one alone. Otherwise, visitors might get confused and not take any action at all.
Gill Andrews, web consultant and author of the excellent book Making Your Website Work also recommends making sure your call to action button:
Makes sense out of context. Visitors should be able to understand what will happen if they click on it without having to read too much of the copy around it
Stands out. Your button should draw the eye and be easy to distinguish from your subheadings and body copy
In both cases, the reasoning is simple: your visitors shouldn't have to work hard to understand what you want them to do. Effort causes friction, which discourages people from taking action.
2. An attention-grabbing headline
We could spend all day quoting stats about the importance of the headline, but we'll stick to one: 80% of your visitors won't read past it. Which means it's got a lot of heavy lifting to do.
Writing great headlines is part science, part art. But, at the very least, they should:
Describe your offer clearly and concisely
Get across a key benefit
Trigger an emotional reaction
It's also worth placing your headline next to a compelling image. The image should reinforce your message, for example by helping visitors visualise a situation in which your offer would come in handy.
Humans are visual creatures — 30% of the neurons in our cerebral cortex are for processing visual stimuli. So, a carefully chosen image can help draw more people in than the headline would on its own.
3. A list of three to four benefits
The headline is crucial, but it'll only take you so far.
Once you've grabbed a visitor's attention, you need to give them some more information and address any objections they may have. This will help them decide if the offer is right for them.
As with the headline, the copy in this section of your landing page should focus on the benefits. Why should people part with their money — or personal information — to get your offer? How will it make their life better?
You'll want to be as specific as possible, but also clear and to the point.
For best results, work out what your ideal customer's biggest pain points are and address those. Three to four usually works best. There's no need to list every last detail or wax lyrical for paragraphs on end — you risk losing people's attention or overwhelming them. And neither is what you want.
4. Social proof
No matter how compelling your arguments are, they've got a greater chance of hitting the mark if you have social proof.
The term 'social proof' was coined by Robert Cialdini, a professor of psychology and marketing and author of Influence: The psychology of persuasion.
Cialdini argued that, in many situations, people tend to follow others' cues. To prove his point, he assigned three different messages to hotel rooms at random to see which would be most effective at getting guests to reuse their towels.
The first message appealed to guests to respect the environment.
The second told guests the hotel would donate a portion of its energy savings from towel reuse to an environmental non-profit.
The third simply said that 75% of guests reused their towels.
The latter message increased compliance by 26%.
Social proof is equally effective online. According to Nielsen 92% of people will trust recommendations from their peers. And 70% will trust recommendations from strangers.
The takeaway is that you should ask happy customers for testimonials and include them somewhere prominent on your landing page. Your visitors will be more likely to trust you and buy from you.
5. A straightforward form
So you've persuaded your visitors to take action.
Your work is done, right?
Not exactly.
If you don't want to fall at the last hurdle, you need to make sure the form your visitors are taken to after they've clicked on the call-to-action button is up to scratch.
Forms are inherently a friction point. Your visitors must fill them in — there's no way around it. So it pays to make the process as painless as possible. The easier it is to fill in a form, the greater the chance people will get to the end of it.
When it comes to filling forms, less is usually more. With this in mind:
Stick to asking only what's strictly necessary, even if you're tempted to gather as much data as possible. Case in point, asking for a phone number lowers conversion rates by 5%
Reduce the number of fields to the absolute minimum. For example, there's no need to have separate name and surname fields. One field for the full name gets you the same information but makes the form look like it's less work to fill in
Use in-line validation. This tells the visitor there's something wrong with one of the fields before they submit the form. No-one likes filling in a form and submitting it only to be told they have to start over
Automate if you can. Using autofill technology — software that lets people automatically complete fields with information they’ve used before — can boost completion by as much as 30%
All set. But don't forget to test.
If you include all these key elements in your landing pages you should be well on your way to ensuring more people respond to your call to action.
That said, you should always test. Experiment with different layouts, different headlines, different calls to action, and even different-coloured call-to-action buttons. You might be surprised at what you learn!
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