One of the main purposes of having a website is to generate more business. It should be easy and irresistible for potential customers to do so. Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, meaning when someone visits your company’s website for the first time, you don’t have a lot of time to turn them into a customer. This is where landing pages come in handy.
If you are marketing correctly, generally, users will be arriving at a landing page by clicking one of your advertisements. Whether they clicked from an email campaign, a search ad, or a social media ad, you’ve successfully gotten their attention. Unfortunately, that does not mean you will hold it long enough to convert it into a transaction.
Landing pages were created to lead visitors right toward a specific action, which in turn converts more leads. They should have a very singular focus, with nothing distracting that leads elsewhere. Basically, the customer needs both a good reason and a very clear way to perform your desired action. This is why the way your landing page is designed is so important. It takes the right combination of smart, simple design, compelling copy, and seamless navigation to make a successful landing page.
Landing page vs Home page
Now, don’t confuse a home page with a landing page. While a home page can be someone’s first point of contact when visiting your site, it has a different purpose than a landing page. Home pages will set the stage for your company, and can have many different points of exploration. Landing pages, on the other hand, are created with a specific goal, usually tied to a specific marketing campaign.
There are different types of landing pages depending on what you’re trying to promote. For example, if you want people to buy your new product, the advertisement for it should lead directly to the product landing page. If your goal is to inform people of an event, the ad they click should take them to an event landing page.
What are the key components of a landing page?
The exact anatomy of a landing page will vary for each company, but there are several key parts that are agreed upon in landing page best practices. Each of these have been proven to produce high conversion rates, and most of them rely heavily on design. A high converting landing page should have:
- Limited navigation – you should not be jamming this page with useless clutter, because it distracts the user from where they ultimately should be going. They should not have to scroll much, either, to find the call to action. It should be clear from first glance what the hierarchical page elements are trying to guide.
- Big, compelling headline – this headline’s language should match the language of the ad the user clicked to get to this page. It should be simple and straightforward, but persuasive enough to get them to stick around.
- Enticing offer – make sure whatever you’re promoting is written in a way the customer is immediately interested. This is where good landing page copywriting comes in handy. Copy and design go hand in hand in successful landing page conversion.
- Clear call to action – if designed correctly, this call to action should stand out in some way. Contrasting colors, negative space, and an actual button are all effective ways to make a call to action pop. Everything on the page should be guiding the user here, so it’s one of the most important components of the landing page layout.
Conclusion
An important thing to keep in mind is that an effective landing page will look different for every business. Having an audience in mind can be helpful in guiding your copy and how you want it to look. Don’t personalize it too much, though – you don’t want to turn off other people that get there. Personalized landing pages can work, but you have to be smart about how you design them. Don’t be afraid to play around with how you arrange the key components – nowadays, users are likely seeing a lot of the same strategy and design, so creative landing page design could set you apart from competition. There are also many landing page design services out there if you’re stumped on why your site does not have high conversion rates.
