Email is a powerful tool to reach your audience. Any time you send an email marketing message, you should have a landing page linked to your content. If you send an email about fall specials, for example, then your landing page should direct the recipient to the specific offers or a form to claim these specials. The landing page serves as an end point your recipient “lands” on if s/he deems your content worthy and decides to follow through with what you’re offering.
A successful landing page does a few things:
- It engages your audience.
- It prompts visitors to click through to your website.
- It encourages visitors to do what you want them to do (buy or contact you) and explains why they should do it.
- It gives visitors permission for you to follow up with them by way of registration.
- It informs the recipient of something they need to know about. It provides value!
If your landing page isn’t designed to prompt a certain action or response from visitors, then it’s pointless.
Consider These 10 Tips For Creating Better Landing Pages
Know What You Want Your Landing Page To Achieve
If you don’t communicate what you expect from your visitors once they get to your landing page, how will they ever know? A good landing page delivers a simple, clear and concise call-to-action. When visitors look at your page, they should understand immediately its purpose, why they’re there and what you want them to do. Are you pointing them to a page to learn more about your products, or are you trying to capture their information to contact them later? Only ask visitors to do one thing and make that action paramount.
Create Compelling Landing Page Copy
Your copy should focus on one central message: your call to action. Your headlines should be attention grabbing and engaging, while non-lengthy copy is used to explain the benefits and features of what you’re offering. Keep paragraphs short and sweet or use bullet points, and make sure your beginning and ending are strong. Use action-oriented language, write in second person, proof for consistency, and opt for clarity and conciseness over creativity.
Keep Your Landing Page Simple
When it comes to your landing page, simplicity is the golden rule. No fluff and no flashiness. Nobody is going to sift through mounds of text, so the only copy on the page should be what’s most important: what you want visitors to do. If it isn’t contributing to successful conversion, get rid of it. White space is your friend.
Give Your Landing Page Audience Something To Look At
Never underestimate the power of professional photography or videography on your landing page. Stellar visuals keep people on your page longer, and they tell a more powerful story than text without taking up too much space. They can have a positive impact on your visitors and serve as that extra push to pursue your product or service even further.
Use Your Landing Page To Direct Your Audience
Every landing page should move the visitor toward conversion. Use color, contrast, graphic arrows and even eyes (an image of a person looking at your call to action button or product, for example) to direct visitors to the call-to-action button or form you want them to fill out. Give your visitors easy choices, minimal distractions to keep them focused and extra nudges to entice them to take action.
Your Landing Page Must Generate Trust
Your visitors need reasons why they should trust your brand or products. If they don’t trust you, they won’t have the confidence or faith in your company to enter their personal information and/or buy your products or services. Trust can be earned by adding client testimonials, product reviews, impressive stats, client logos, third-party certifications and press mentions to your landing page.
Keep Landing Page Forms Short & Sweet
Generally speaking, the shorter the form the higher the conversion rate. Requiring your visitors to fill out too many fields is a surefire way to turn them away. Decide the key data necessary for collecting or contacting your leads, often just a name and email address. Ask only what’s most important to your marketing efforts (if it isn’t actionable, then don’t collect it here), be sure to include a privacy link and keep the form above the fold.
Sharing is Caring—Use Your Landing Page For Social Media
If your visitors accept your offer, why not ask them to share it with their friends and colleagues? Just like any other page on your website, your landing page should have social media sharing options. By including social plugins, you’re increasing the chances of your marketing reaching an even bigger audience.
Don’t Stop With The Landing Page. Create a Great Post-Conversion Page
Believe it or not, the page after your landing page is just as important as the landing page itself. Now that you know your visitors are interested and they’ve done what you wanted them to do, the pressure’s on you to instruct them what to do next. Include your confirmation or thank you, plus suggestions to buy similar products, download a free white paper, follow you on social media, or visit another page on your website with related content.
Landing Page Analytics
Tracking your landing page’s performance lets you know which messages your customers are resonating with, and what they’re not responding to at all. Your landing page should be optimized for conversion over time. Make small changes to your copy, headlines, images and calls-to-action to see which version does better with your audience.
What tips do you have for creating effective landing pages? Tell us in the comments section and be sure to share this content on social media using the plugins below.