Indispensable Parts of a Successful Landing Page

What is a landing page? Before digging deeper, it’s important to answer that question to make sure we are on the same (landing) page.

If you have access to any Google Analytics account, under Behavior – Content report you will see a list of landing pages on the site. Technically, a landing page is any page through which a visitor enters your site. It may be a product page, an About us page, a Partners page or any other URL you have on your site.

When it comes to marketing and sales, a landing page is seen as a page with the main purpose to generate leads or sell something. In other words, this is a page that is responsible for converting your visitors into customers.

An effective landing page is a must for any successful marketing strategy. Some companies manage to create good pages more by luck than judgment; others put it aside and wait for a lightbulb moment. However, I have a better suggestion: you can learn from other companies’ experience. Here are a few tips that will help you create good landing pages.

1. Clear objective

Your landing is created with a specific purpose. Communicate this purpose to your customer! Don’t try to use allegories, metonymies and similar figures of speech - say what you need directly. If you need your customers to add your product to a cart, write “Add to cart” or “Buy now”; if you need them to sign up, use “Sign up” as a call to action.

Some things that may seem obvious are not for your visitors. So there’s nothing bad in pointing such things out.

2. Visible call to action (CTA)

CTAs are a very important part of your landing page. Usually, they are buttons with text. By clicking this button, a customer completes your goal or at least enters the first step of your goal funnel.

Though leaders have covered the topic of CTA buttons color to death, there is still no answer to the question which color will give you higher conversion rate. The truth is that such color doesn’t exist. The rule of thumb is to make your button visible, just use a color with high contrast to the background.

3. Keep main content above the fold

Visitors usually spend a few seconds on scanning a web page; most of them won’t even scroll down your page. So make sure all the important content is placed above the fold.

4. Add reviews and testimonials

Reviews play two important roles: on the one hand, they add trust and credibility; on the other hand, they serve as social proof.

Add customer testimonials to your landing page, make them visible. However, don’t overload your page. If you have many reviews, place only some of them.

Customer reviews may also be useful for you in Google search if you implement special markup. This will help you stand out. Some researches show that the second place in search (with a rich snippet) can get more clicks than the first one (without a rich snippet).

5. Keep your landing page relevant

Relevance is not an absolute concept; it is rather situational. For example, landing page relevance depends on visitors expectations. If a customer clicks on your AdWords ad that is about your particular product and lands on a category page with many products, it may cause frustration. Your page is not relevant because you promised a particular thing and failed to deliver it.

The example above shows how landing page relevancy depends on the situation. The best practice here is to show customers what you promise. You can even (and actually should) use titles and phrases from your landing pages in your ads and meta data.

6. Some other things that can make your landing page successful:

• Explainer video

If it’s applicable to your niche, you can create an explainer video and add it to your landing page. Such videos are usually placed above the fold. They should give an overview of your product and show potential customers how your product works and which problems it solves.

• Bullet points

Bullet points make it easier to scan info. You can choose the most important selling points and features of your product and use bullet points for them.

• Countdown

If you have a special offer that is limited by time, use a countdown to show how much time is left. It helps to achieve a feeling of urgency and increase sales as a result.

• Social proof

You already have customer reviews as a signal of trust and social proof. But you can maximize the effect and add social sharing buttons with counters. People are more likely to share something if they see that many other people have already done this.

Be careful: social buttons can distract your visitors from the main goal – sale. It’s better to test such things. I’ve seen situations when removing social buttons helped to increase conversion rate.

• Less form fields

If you are using a form on your landing page, keep it brief and simple. The fewer fields it has, the more people will fill it in. People won’t waste their time on forms with many fields, so make sure you are asking only those things you really need on this step. Some info can be collected on future steps.

Anything else?

The best way to achieve high effectiveness for your landing pages is to try and test new things to create an ultimate formula for your site.

Maybe you have some other ideas? Share them in the comments!

Author: Kristina Azarenko

Author Bio: Kristina pays careful attention to the latest marketing trends while developing detailed strategies for site performance improvement. She is a marketing manager and SEO specialist at Amasty, a company that develops professional Magento extensions which make the lives of Magento store owners easier.