How To Create High Converting Landing Pages

8 Best practices for Creating High Converting Landing Pages

For many businesses, a website landing page is often their first point of customer contact. Audiences usually arrive on a landing page by clicking on a social media link, google ad, display advertisement or organic search, which all have the common aim of converting visitors via email sign ups. Optimised landing pages not only ensure a positive user experience and increased traffic, but also encourage greater conversions. 

Landing page optimisation involves making improvements to the design of your page to increase engagement, generate more leads, and provide opportunities for desirable customer behaviour. They’re incredibly important to your conversion strategy, yet many companies fall victim to safe and generic layouts which lack imagination and gusto.

Nevertheless, it’s essential to remember landing pages are lucrative places to focus your optimization efforts.  They are the hub of lead generation efforts and a great landing page has the potential to make the difference between a lead and a loss.

Here are some tips to create high converting landing pages:

#1 Catchy Headlines

A headline is the first thing to catch your visitor’s attention and keep their interest. A strong headline should meet the following requirements:

• Grab the reader’s attention.
• Enlighten the visitor what the product, service or content offering is. It’s a good idea to use an image to enhance your readers understanding.
• Keep it concise; aim for below twenty words.

#2 Compelling Sub-Headlines

You’ve won your readers attention with a strong headline, now you want to entice them to stay. Your subheading is part two of the sequence to win over landing page visitors. It should:

• Sit directly underneath the main headline
• Go into further detail by introducing the benefits of the product, service or content offering- Remember, you want to convince visitors to stay. Use persuasive language to promote the concept of the headline even more.

#3 Utilise Images

The human brain reacts much quicker to images than it does with plain text. A visitor will register the images on your landing page immediately.

Here are some best practices for picture usage:

• Use high quality images- but remember to compress them to avoid poor page speed.
• Images should be relevant to the product, service or content offer featured on the landing page.
• Avoid the use of stock photos if possible.

#4 Get straight to the point

An explanation is a fundamental element of landing page optimisation. If a visitor can’t grasp what your content is about, you’ll inevitably loose them.

Structure the explanation to focus on the offer’s benefits; Slant this copy towards the user and explain how your product/service or content will help them rather than just promoting your company. For example, rather than stating “We create awesome content” instead frame it towards the user, with something like “we will create content that will double your website visitors per month” instead.

#5 An Enticing Value Proposition

A value proposition should be used to present your offering in an attractive way so that visitors want to learn more. These benefits should be placed in an optimum position on the landing page and should address the common “How will this benefit me?” hesitation users tend to have.

Always maintain focus on the user and not yourself. While you want to show that you have the solution to your customer’s pain points, don’t frame this in a way that’s all about your company. Instead, think about how the user will benefit from your offer. A clear way to present your value proposition is by listing the benefits in a concise bullet point form.

#6 Logical Flow

While landing page content is a fundamental part of optimisation, the rational flow of the page plays a vital role in user experience too. When a visitor interacts with the landing page, they will read the information and follow the steps presented. It’s important to create a flow of thinking that’s not only logical but captivating to hold their interest too.

A compelling, logical landing page structure generally follows this order;

1. Explanation
2. Benefits
3. Testimonials (if possible)
4. CTA
5. Contact methods 

Here are some best ptractices on getting the logical flow right:

• A call-to-action (CTA) is vital for landing page conversions. One or two CTAs work best, depending on the size of the page. CTA’s should be located in prime spots. For example, social follow should be placed at the bottom of the page. And “Download Now” should be positioned directly underneath the offer form.
• Use design features to enhance the flow of the page; Visual cues such as arrows are a good way to direct users throughout your page towards conversion.
• You want to encourage users to convert so don’t shy away from incorporating persuasive language and design throughout your landing page.
• Landing pages don’t have to be short. In fact, some of the top performing pages are long – form. Bear in mind, they do require more work to get optimisation

#7 Contact Methods

Including multiple contact methods validates you as a ‘real’ company and not some scam to simply gather personal info from users. Authentic websites typically contain multiple contact options, such as a phone number, address, email, contact form and some even have a live chat pop-up with customer service. While the live customer service chat can be beneficial for certain companies, it’s not essential. Do the research to make sure it’s relevant to your business and worth the added management time.

#8 Striking CTA

The most fundamental landing page optimisation element is undoubtedly the call-to-action. CTAs are crucial for converting users into leads.

So, what makes up the perfect CTA?

• The more visible the better; make it big!
• Your copy is the most important part of the CTA, so make it compelling! Avoid ‘Submit’; people don’t like to feel like they’re submitting to something. Instead, use actionable words like ‘Download Now’ or ‘Book Your Consultation’.
• Use a stand out colour to make the CTA different to the rest of the landing page. You want the CTA to ‘pop’ and the best way to achieve this is to use a contrasting colour to draw the user towards clicking it.
• Users expect a CTA to contain a button, so don’t attempt to reinvent the wheel and change it. Stick with what already works and what your visitors are accustomed to.

Your website’s landing page is one of the most important parts of your conversion strategy. As the old saying goes, first impressions are everything, and when a customer clicks through to your website, they expect to be met with informative, engaging and convenient content and design. 

To create a powerful and high converting landing page, use the above 8 essential guidelines to ensure you capitalise on your most powerful customer touch point. It’s also important to never rest on your laurels, making sure you’re getting the most from your landing page by conducting A/B testing, to assess what’s working, what’s not and how you can keep improving your performance. In this respect, landing pages are ongoing projects to be re-visited every so often.