A landing page is the final step in a lot of marketing plans. It slips into the user’s journey and shows up, as if by magic, at just the right moment to convince the user to take action. It’s a great showcase for presenting your current offer or a specific product or service. This marketing tool has become a must-have, and while you can customize it endlessly, you still need to know how to use it well.
Follow our tips to give yourself the best chance of hitting the mark and reaching your goals!
What is a landing page?
A landing page, also called a destination page, is a single page whose job is to turn visitors into leads.
Its content is built around presenting a specific product or offer, pushing visitors toward a decision, whether that’s filling out a contact form, booking an appointment, or making an online purchase, depending on the page’s goal. It also often goes hand in hand with the launch of a new product or service.
1. Define the goal of your landing page
For a landing page to work well, it needs to serve a single goal. It really matters that you don’t spread yourself thin, and instead put all your effort into one goal. All the content on your landing page should stay focused on the service or offer at hand, encouraging visitors to sign on.
Beyond giving visitors a smooth journey, sticking to one goal also makes it much easier to measure how your page is performing. The goal of your landing page comes down to the action you want your prospects to take, such as:
- buying a product
- subscribing to a plan
- signing up for a newsletter
- receiving free samples
- requesting a quote
- booking an appointment
- downloading a guide
2. Identify your audience
To find the words that will actually convince your audience, you first need to know who you’re talking to! Take a close look at your customers: age range, gender, interests, lifestyle and buying habits, what drives them and what holds them back, and so on.
You can absolutely build different journeys and landing pages for the different personas within your audience. You can lean on quantitative tools like Google Analytics, along with qualitative ones like user interviews, to build personas that reflect reality as closely as possible.
3. Think about the user journey
Anyone landing on your page clicked a link or a call to action at some point along the way. That could be a social media ad, a blog post, a newsletter, or a paid search campaign.
Giving visitors a consistent journey matters more than almost anything else. The user experience needs to stay smooth so you don’t lose prospects along the way. Your landing page needs to deliver on the promise made by the call to action that brought visitors there. If the content doesn’t match what they were expecting, that letdown can send them running.
If your CTA invites prospects to check out your newest product with a special deal, your landing page needs to showcase that product and offer a real discount. Also make sure the style of your page matches the material that drove people there in the first place.
Say you’re running social media ads to get people to sign up for your newsletter. If your ads are fun and lively, your audience will naturally expect the same energy on your page. A completely different tone can disappoint them and send them off your page faster than you’d like!
Finally, avoid outbound links that could lead visitors astray and push them right out the door!
4. Get the style and structure right
The first thing to think about when designing your page is the fold. It splits your page into two parts: whatever sits above the fold shows up on screen right away, and whatever sits below only appears once visitors scroll down.
Your landing page should be designed to grab visitors’ attention right from that first section. The ideal landing page structure breaks down into four sections:
The header
The headline is the first thing that catches a visitor’s eye. It needs to be short and clear enough to explain what the page is about and make people want to keep reading. The header is also where you’ll find the call to action, form, or button that lets your audience actually take action.
The conversion form or call to action
Everything on your page should lead visitors toward filling out the form or clicking your main call to action.
The form should be as quick and easy to fill out as possible. Don’t scare off your leads with fields that are too complicated! Anything that needs more detail can be gathered later.
The call-to-action button tied to your form, purchase, or add-to-cart should stand out clearly. Feel free to add links throughout the page that jump straight back up to the conversion button above the fold, to make navigation faster.
The selling points
The content on a landing page should be direct, no beating around the bush. In a few short lines, lay out your sales pitch and what customers stand to gain.
Images
Adding images to your content gives your page some breathing room and backs up your pitch. Choose visuals that fit your audience and your page’s design. Short, interactive videos are also a great option for promoting your product or service.
Finally, make sure your landing page is adapted for mobile, so visitors get the best experience possible.
Don’t hesitate to hand your project to seasoned professionals to get the best possible result. Our specialists build websites and landing pages that meet the latest standards for performance, user experience, and SEO, so they can do their job: generating sales, calls, or whatever action you’re after. Get in touch with our team to tell us about your goals!
5. Build trust
Since landing pages usually target a new audience, you need things that boost your credibility.
To show potential new customers they can trust you, use proof like customer testimonials, reviews, or certifications. You can also add your clients’ logos to back up your track record, along with examples of past work.
6. Don’t forget the thank-you page
The user journey doesn’t end once the form is submitted. Adding a thank-you page lets you confirm to users that their information went through, and tells them what happens next. For example, if the form was there to let people download content, you can include the promised link there. If it was a contact request, reassure prospects that you’ll get back to them soon.
The thank-you message is also a good moment to invite your audience to follow you on social media or refer friends and family with a special offer.
7. Measure how your landing page is performing
You need to keep an eye on how your landing page is performing. It’s built around a specific goal, so being able to measure your results matters a lot. To do that, you can track a few different metrics:
- number of visits
- engagement rate
- form abandonment rate
- number of leads generated
- conversion rate
Before you publish and promote your landing page, check that the tracking you’ve set up is actually capturing your data.
Also remember to test your form. Make sure the destination addresses are entered correctly and are actually receiving completed forms. This is also a good time to check that the thank-you message displays properly.
8. Test, test, and test again
Once your landing pages are live, keep testing them to make sure they’re actually reaching your goals.
For starters, you can use A/B testing. This means creating two very similar versions of your landing page to compare results and see how visitors behave. For this to mean anything, you need to test both pages on the same audience. Reading and analyzing your KPIs will show you which landing page performs better, and therefore which one to use for your campaign.
After that, ongoing review of the data you collect will let you track how your landing pages perform over time. Beyond the quantitative numbers you can read, certain tools, like Hotjar, also let you understand how your visitors actually behave. You can watch recorded sessions of users as they browse your site. You also get access to mouse tracking and heatmaps to spot which sections could be improved to boost conversion.
Reach out to our team to analyze the performance of your landing page or website and get better results!
