A landing page is a targeted webpage designed to convert visitors into leads or customers.
If you're looking to improve the conversion rate of your online marketing campaigns, a well-designed landing page is the way to go.
However, creating one that converts can be a daunting task.
This is especially true if you're new to the world of online marketing.
We'll walk you through the essential steps of creating a high converting landing page, from defining your goals to crafting effective copy and designing an eye-catching call-to-action.
Understanding Landing Pages
If you're looking to improve the conversion rate of your online marketing campaigns, understanding what a landing page is and why it's important is crucial.
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a standalone web page designed to drive a specific action, such as filling out a form, subscribing to your newsletter, or making a purchase.
Unlike a homepage, which serves as the main entry point for your website, a landing page is focused on a single offer or promotion.
It's designed to convert visitors into leads or customers by guiding them through a clear and compelling journey.
Why are Landing Pages Important?
They allow you to capture the attention of potential customers by presenting them with a tailored and targeted offer.
By focusing on a specific message, you can cut through the noise and provide a clear and compelling reason for visitors to take action.
Generally speaking, a high-converting landing page is centred around a highly targeted offer.
This allows you to laser in on a particular target market with an offer that speaks directly to them.
You can also track and measure the success of your online marketing campaigns.
By directing visitors to a specific page, you can easily track the number of leads or customers generated from that page and optimise your campaigns accordingly.
Types of Landing Pages
There are several different types you can use.
The choice depends on your goals and objectives.
Some popular types include:
- Click-through: Designed to encourage visitors to click through to another page, such as a product or service page or registration form
- Lead capture: Designed to capture visitor information, such as name and email address, in exchange for a valuable offer
- Sales: Designed to convert visitors into paying customers by providing a clear and compelling offer and a straightforward path to purchase
- Viral: Designed to encourage visitors to share your offer with their network, usually through social media or email
Create Goals and Objectives
A successful landing page requires more than just a good design.
To drive conversions and achieve your business goals, you need to start by setting clear and specific goals and objectives.
We'll look at the key steps to defining it's purpose, identifying your target audience, and setting SMART goals.
Defining the Landing Page Purpose
Before you start designing, it's essential to define the purpose of your landing page.
What action do you want visitors to take once they arrive on the landing page?
Some of the most popular goals include:
- Generating leads
- Selling a product or service
- Promoting an event or webinar
- Building brand awareness
Identifying the Target Audience
To resonate with your visitors, you need to understand their needs, pain points, and motivations.
Who are they, and what are they looking for?
In order to really speak to your target audience, you need to understand them in more detail.
This involves:
- Defining your ideal customer avatar
- Conducting customer research
- Identifying their pain points and desires
By identifying your target audience and understanding what motivates them, you can create a copy that speaks directly to their needs.
The more you speak directly to a customer, the higher the likelihood of them taking the desired action.
Setting SMART Goals
SMART goals are a framework for setting objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
To set SMART goals, you need to follow these steps:
- Specific: Define the specific goal you want to achieve. This goal should be clear and focused on a particular action.
- Measurable: Determine how you will measure the success of your page. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) such as conversion rate, bounce rate, and click-through rate that you can track to monitor performance.
- Achievable: Ensure that your goal is achievable and realistic based on your current resources and capabilities. Avoid setting unrealistic goals that you cannot accomplish.
- Relevant: Make sure that your goal is relevant to your business objectives and aligns with your overall marketing strategy.
- Time-bound: Set a specific timeframe for achieving your goal. This helps create a sense of urgency and provides a clear deadline for achieving your objective.
By following these steps, you can set SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
This will help you create goals that are effective at achieving your business goals.
Effective Landing Page Best Practices
Design Elements of a Landing Page
Design plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of a landing page.
It should be visually appealing, easy to navigate, and focused on the user experience.
We’ll look at three fundamental design considerations.
Follow Design Best Practices
When it comes to designing your page, there are a few best practices you should keep in mind:
- Keep it simple: A cluttered design can be distracting and overwhelming for visitors. Keep your design simple and focused on your key message and call to action (CTA).
- Use a clear hierarchy: Use design elements such as typography, colour, and layout to create a clear hierarchy of information. This helps visitors quickly understand what your page is about and what action they should take.
- Make it mobile-friendly: With more and more visitors accessing the web on their mobile devices, it's important to ensure you optimise for mobile viewing. Use responsive design to ensure that your page looks great on any device.
- Test and iterate: This is not a one-time activity. Continuously test and iterate your design based on user feedback and data.
Using White Space Effectively
White space, also known as negative space, is the area around and between design elements on a page.
It's important to use white space effectively to create a minimalist design that's clean, uncluttered look and improves readability.
The best ways to implement white space effectively include the following:
- Use plenty of white space around important elements such as headlines, calls-to-action (CTA), and forms.
- Avoid using too many design elements on your page layout. These can clutter your page and make it difficult to read. You want to focus on creating a simple design.
- Use contrasting colours to draw attention to important elements and help create a clear visual hierarchy.
- Break up your content into smaller, easily digestible chunks to make it easier to read.
Choosing the Right Colours and Fonts
Colour and typography are important elements that can impact the effectiveness of your page.
You should use colours that are consistent with your brand and help create a sense of trust and credibility.
Avoid using too many colours, which can be overwhelming and distracting.
For fonts, choose fonts that are easy to read and consistent with your brand.
You should stick to one or two fonts throughout to maintain a cohesive look.
Contrasting colours can also be used to help draw attention to important elements - such as your call-to-action buttons.
You should test your colour and font choices to see what works best for your audience and your business objectives.
Writing Compelling Copy and Headlines
The copy is just as important as the design, perhaps even more important.
Your copy should be clear, concise, and focused on the benefits of your offer.
Writing Effective Headlines
Headlines are one of the most important elements.
They're often the first thing that visitors see, and they can make a big difference in whether or not someone decides to take action.
Some key factors in writing a killer headline are:
- Be clear and concise: It should clearly communicate the benefit of your offer in just a few words.
- Make it stand out: Use bold or larger font to make your headline stand out from the rest of the text on the page.
- Focus on the benefits: Highlight the benefits of your offer rather than the features.
- Use action-oriented language: Use verbs and action-oriented language to encourage visitors to take action.
- Test and iterate: Continuously test and iterate your headlines to see what works best for your audience.
Using Persuasive Language to Increase Conversions
The language you use can have a big impact on whether or not someone decides to take action.
You can do this by:
- Using power words: Use words that evoke emotion and create a sense of urgency, such as "limited time" or "exclusive offer.”
- Highlighting the benefits: Focus on the benefits of your offer and use language that helps visitors envision how their life will be better after they take action.
- Using social proof: Incorporate customer testimonials or social proof to help build trust and credibility.
Creating a Sense of Urgency with Your Copy
Creating a sense of urgency with your landing page copy is an effective way to motivate visitors to take immediate action.
You see people are much more concerned about what they have to lose, rather than what they have to gain.
So using urgency threatens to take the offer away from them, making them much more inclined to buy right there and then.
Some ways to implement this urgency include:
- Using a countdown timer: Use a countdown timer to create a sense of urgency and encourage visitors to take action before time runs out.
- Highlighting limited availability: Use language that emphasises limited availability, such as "only a few spots left" or "while supplies last.”
- Emphasising time-sensitive offers: Use language that emphasises time-sensitive offers, such as "last chance" or "ending soon.”
- Using urgent language: Use urgent language such as "now" or "today" to create a sense of immediacy.
By writing compelling copy and headlines that speak directly to your target audience's needs and desires, while also proving scarcity, you can increase the likelihood of conversion.
Choosing the Right Images and Graphics
Visuals can be a powerful tool for capturing your visitors' attention and conveying your offer's benefits.
When choosing images and graphics, it's essential to keep your target audience in mind and use visuals that resonate with them.
When selecting and adding images the key factors you should keep in mind are:
- Use high-quality images and graphics
- Use visuals to reinforce your message
- Optimise images for fast loading times
By choosing the right images and graphics, you can create a landing page that is both visually appealing and persuasive.
Crafting an Effective Call-to-Action
The call-to-action (CTA) is the final step in converting visitors into leads or customers. Your CTA should be clear, compelling, and focused on the benefits of taking action.
Your CTA’s should use action-oriented language, such as ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Get This Offer Now’.
Landing Page Optimisation
Creating a high-converting landing page is an ongoing process of optimisation and testing.
Keeping an eye on the data and constantly striving to improve it will have a significant impact on your conversion performance.
For this, it’s essential to carry out your testing.
The Benefits of A/B Testing
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a method of comparing two different versions of a page to see which one performs better.
By testing different versions and measuring the results, you can identify which elements are most effective at driving conversions.
Some of the main benefits of A/B testing are:
- Improved conversion rates: It can help you identify the most effective elements on your landing page.
- Data-driven decisions: It provides concrete data on the performance of different elements, helping you make informed decisions about how to improve optimisation.
- Better user experience: It allows you to experiment with different designs and messaging to create a better user experience for your visitors.
How to Set Up an A/B Test
Setting up an A/B test involves creating multiple versions of the page and directing traffic to each version to measure their performance.
Here are the steps to set up an A/B test:
- Identify the element to test: Determine which element you want to test, such as the headline, copy, call-to-action (CTA), or design.
- Create alternate versions: Create two or more versions that differ only in the element you are testing.
- Set up the test: Use a testing tool like Google Optimize or Optimizely to direct traffic to each version.
- Monitor the results: Track the performance of each version, measuring key metrics.
Analysing and Interpreting A/B Test Results
Once you've run your A/B test, it's important to analyse and interpret the results to determine the most effective version.
The main points to keep in mind when analysing and interpreting the A/B test results are:
- Look at the data: Examine the key metrics for each version.
- Determine statistical significance: Use a statistical significance calculator to determine if the results are statistically significant.
- Consider the sample size: Ensure that your sample size is large enough to produce reliable results.
- Draw conclusions: Based on the results of your A/B test, make decisions about which version to use.
Tools for Landing Page Optimisation
There are several tools available to help you with optimisation, from testing and analytics tools to design and copywriting tools.
At Ovii, some of the tools we use for optimisation include:
- Google Analytics: For tracking and analysing landing page metrics
- Optimizely: For A/B testing and personalisation
- Unbounce: For creating and optimisation
- Hotjar: For heat mapping and user behaviour analysis
Best Practices for Landing Page Optimisation
When it comes to designing your page, you should keep these key principles in mind:
- Ensuring a simple design
- Minimising form fields
- Personalising your content
- Using social proof to build trust and credibility
Promoting Your Landing Page
Designing an effective landing page is just the first step in achieving your business goals.
To generate leads or sales, you need to promote it effectively.
Strategies for Driving Traffic to Your Landing Page
One of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your landing page is through targeted advertising.
By running ads on search engines, social media platforms, or other websites, you can reach your potential customers and drive them to your landing page.
The most popular methods of driving this paid traffic to your landing page are:
- Creating Facebook or Instagram ads
- Using Google Ads
- Running display ads on relevant websites
Aside from these primary paid advertising methods, there are some other strategies that are highly effective for driving traffic. These are:
- Email marketing
- Influencer outreach
- Content marketing
The strategy or strategies you choose will depend on the niche and target market that you're targeting.
For example, if you were selling makeup to women between the ages of 18-24, then you would most likely focus on Facebook ads and influencer outreach.
That’s because these are platforms where this target market would generally hang out.
Take your target market into account when deciding on the best strategies to use to drive traffic to your page.
Optimising for Search Engines
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of optimising your web page to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
By optimising for relevant keywords and phrases, you can increase your visibility and drive more organic traffic to your page.
In order to achieve the best results for this you should:
- Conduct keyword research
- Carry out on-page SEO
- Carry out link-building strategies
By incorporating SEO into your promotion strategy, you can increase your page's visibility and drive more organic traffic.
It’s important to note that SEO is more of a long-term strategy.
Unless your website has a high domain authority it will take some time for your page to rank.
One strategy is to incorporate an SEO strategy along with paid advertising to get instant traffic to your website.
The SEO strategy running at the same time will mean that you’ll see the benefit of this organic SEO traffic further down the line.
Promoting Using Social Media
Social media can be a powerful tool for promotion and driving traffic.
By sharing your page's URL on relevant social media platforms and engaging with your followers, you can increase your page's visibility and reach a wider audience.
In order to get targeted traffic from social media you should:
- Create social media posts and direct them to your landing page
- Use paid social media ads to promote it
- Engage with followers to increase social media reach
By using social media to promote your landing page, you can build brand awareness and drive more traffic to your page.
Measuring Success
Measuring the success is essential for understanding how well it's performing and making data-driven decisions to optimise it.
Key Metrics for Measuring Success
- Conversion rate: The percentage of visitors who complete the desired action
- Bounce rate: The percentage of visitors who leave your page without taking any action
- Time on page: The average amount of time visitors spend on your page
- Click-through rate: The percentage of visitors who click on a specific element, such as a call-to-action button or a link
By tracking these metrics, you can gain insights into how well it's performing and identify areas for improvement.
You can set up Google Analytics on your website to help with tracking this data.
How to Use Data to Optimise Landing Pages
Once you've collected performance data, it's essential to use that data to make informed decisions about how to optimise your page.
By collecting and analysing data on how visitors interact with your web page, you can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions to further improve performance.
Some of the ways to use data to identify areas for improvement are:
- Analyse bounce rates: A high bounce rate can indicate that visitors are not finding what they are looking for. Analysing bounce rates can help you identify areas for improvement.
- Monitor conversion rates: This can help you identify which elements are most effective at driving conversions.
- Analyse user behaviour: Analysing user behaviour, such as where visitors click and how long they spend on the page, can help you identify areas for improvement.
By using data to optimise, you can continually improve its performance and achieve better results.
Conclusion
Creating a great landing page is crucial for achieving your business goals, whether that's generating leads, making sales, or driving conversions.
By following the steps in this article you can ensure that you’ll cover all the essential factors to create a high converting landing page that converts.
If you need any help, contact us at Ovii, a Belfast web design and digital agency. We'll be happy to provide clear solutions for your business.
