The landing page is the bread and butter of your marketing campaign. Without a successful, high-converting landing page, you might as well throw money out the window.
But in order to create a lucrative landing page, you must follow and implement a number of best practices—which makes it a bit tricky. To make it a little less tricky, we’ve summed up the top Do’s and Don’ts to abide by when building your next landing page.
1. DO Clearly State the Benefits
Why should visitors fill out the contact form on your landing page? What will they get in return? A complementary consultation? A free e-book? How does your product or service differ from your competitors? Make sure that you are explicitly stating the benefits of what you’re offering and are answering the “what’s in it for me?” question. Your value proposition should be so obvious that it’s understood within seconds.
2. DON’T Clutter Your Landing Page
As the timeless expression goes, less is more. This applies to your landing pages too. Use a minimal design and abundant whitespace to convey your message. Your landing page will be much more effective if it’s simple and uncluttered.
3. DO Use Strong Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
A powerful call-to-action can drastically increase your conversion rate. You’ll want a call-to-action that is, above all else, benefits-oriented. Use language that is straightforward and engaging. For instance, if you are providing your users with a free webinar in exchange for their information, instead of using a vanilla verb like “Submit” at the bottom of the contact form, your CTA could read, “Watch the Webinar” instead.
4. DO Consider Placement
Where your form and CTAs are situated should also be taken into consideration. Users shouldn’t have to scroll down to see the contact form or primary CTA—they should be located above the fold or on the top half of the page. You might even want to consider having the form move as the user scrolls. That way, it never leaves the user’s eyesight.
5. DON’T Use Confusing Jargon
Make sure that your copy is easy-to-understand and free of industry-related jargon. If you try to impress people with fancy or convoluted language, you will only end up confusing your audience and losing leads.
6. DO Minimize Information
It might be tempting to flood your landing page with a long list of the benefits of your product or service. However, it will be more effective if you instead only mention the most important features or benefits offered. This will increase readability, while also making it easier for visitors to retain the information.
7. DO Rely on Social Proof
Instead of claiming that your product or service is “the best out there” (a claim which, let’s face it, would not be that believable), prove it by sharing what other people have to say. Client testimonials are one surefire way to further your credibility.
8. DO Use Bullet Points
Your landing page should be easily scannable. One way to ensure readability is by using bullet points to summarize the benefits, after you make your claim.
9. DO Have Relevant Images
Don’t put cheesy images on there just to fill up space. The images used on your landing page should reinforce the message and value that you’re offering. Sometimes, video is the best way to achieve this.
10. DON’T Lead Visitors Astray
In order to make sure that visitors don’t leave your page, you’ll want to eliminate all other links and navigation (even those that lead to your homepage), since this will only serve to distract visitors—and thereby decrease conversions.
11. DO Tailor to Your Buyer Persona
The biggest mistake that you can make is trying to appeal to everyone. Examine your target audience. Speak their language and determine what you can do to make your landing page appeal directly to their needs.
12. DO Compare
You will never know what kind of landing page is the most effective until you test it out. A/B or split testing, which compares two different versions of a landing page, can help you determine what works best. Try out different kinds of language and change the placement of the CTAs and contact form to see what is most effective. You would be surprised at how even small tweaks to a landing page can drastically affect the conversion rate.
13. DON’T Ask for a Lot of Information
Nobody likes to be bombarded with questions—including your visitors. Keep the contact form short and sweet and only ask for the essentials. If you need to obtain several bits of information, you might want to ask one at a time, so as to not overwhelm users.
14. DON’T Be Generic
Avoid using excessive explanation points or superlative terms like “best.” This screams desperate. Support your claims with facts and numbers—and make them as specific as possible. In his book Tested Advertising Methods, John Caples reveals that a mill initially backed one of their claims with a percentage of 52.7%. When they decided to round it down to a more generic number, 50%, demand dropped drastically. Lesson learned? Be as precise as possible and you will increase credibility and conversions.
15. DO Consider Objections Your Buyer Persona Will Have
What will make potential buyers hesitant to purchase from you? Consider doubts they might have and then aim to dissipate them. For instance, let’s say your product or service is very expensive. You’ll then want to make it clear why it’s worth the lofty price tag.
16. DO Make It Mobile-Friendly
Unlike a computer, users likely won’t have the patience to fill out an entire form on a mobile device. So you’ll need to create a separate landing page for mobile users—one that is not only easy to read, but requests less information, as well.
17. DO Make Your Landing Page Consistent With Advertising
If a user clicks on your ad, they will be expecting to find something similar on your landing page. If this isn’t the case, they might lose interest (after all, it’s not what they had signed up for)—or worse, feel deceived. Make the images and design, as well as the message and language, consistent between the landing page and your advertising.
18. DO Think About Design
What will the layout of the page be? What kinds of colors will you use throughout? And how will you make the form and CTAs stand out? Will you use directional cues? Highly contrasting colors? These are all questions you should ask yourself as you design your landing page.
19. DON’T Forget About the Thank-You Page
The thank-you page is the perfect (yet often missed) lead nurturing opportunity. Of course you’ll want to start by thanking the user for their interest and taking the time to fill out the form. Now that you’ve succeeded in capturing user information, you’ll also want to reintroduce your website navigation—and encourage users to continue exploring the rest of your site. Be sure to recommend related content or resources that your user might be interested in. Lastly, include social sharing buttons so that visitors can spread the word.
So there you have it! Now tell us. What landing page best practices have you found to be most effective? Share with us in the comments below.
