Designing an effective landing page requires all the creativity, productivity, and motivation you can get.
That said, the process is definitely worth it.
Especially when you see a significant increase in conversion rates.
Here’s how to do it:
You see, your landing page leads your visitors to the exact offer you got for them so they can take action.
The page creates the first impression of your business.
If it’s high-quality and super-persuasive — you win a higher conversion rate.
Most of the time, this takes trial and error before you can start seeing results.
You MUST keep changing and testing different tactics to see what works for various unique offers and audiences.
Fortunately, there are certain elements and content strategies that will almost always result in a higher conversion rate. Make these small changes, and you’ll yield big results.
If you’re not sure where to start, here are some simple and effective tactics you can use to increase your landing page conversion rates:
1. Develop An Elaborate Wireframe With A Clear Market Callout
The first step in designing an effective landing page is to develop a clear and concise wireframe. This outlines all the key elements of your page and ensures that your design is uncluttered and easy to navigate.
Most importantly, your wireframe should include a market callout. This short, attention-grabbing statement speaks to your visitors about what you do and how you can help them.
Your visitor needs to know they’re in the right place.
They need to know that you see and appreciate them. You’ll therefore want to call them out directly (i.e., Attention Online Marketers) or indirectly using recognizable images, headlines, and vocabularies that speak to their unique needs and interests.
- Key Takeaway: Creating a well-thought-out wireframe for your landing page is essential. Be sure to include a market callout that speaks directly to your target audience.
2. Have A Captivating Design
The design of your landing page should be clean, modern, and visually appealing. Remember that first impressions matter, so make sure your page looks professional and trustworthy.
Some key design elements that you should put particular emphasis on include:
Your headline: This should be a clear, concise, and catchy benefit-focused headline that speaks to your target audience.
Your image: Use high-quality, professional images that are relevant to your offer. Having fascinating images with eye-catching color combinations will make your page more visually appealing. This increases the visitor’s likelihood of staying on your page and taking action
Text: Your text should be easy to read and digest. Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and clear font types. Also, be sure to highlight important words and phrases using bold or italics.
Navigation: Is your navigation easy to use? Are your links clearly visible and working correctly? Be sure to test your page on multiple devices to ensure that everything is working properly.
- Key Takeaway: Creating a captivating design that includes the copy you’re writing.
3. Use Custom CTA Buttons That Stands Out
Your CTA button is one of the most important elements on your page. It should be large, easy to find, and use persuasive language that encourages visitors to click. It should give a specific command or speak to the end result (i.e “Free Instant Access”, Get Started Now, or Download Now.).
Your buttons should also have custom button text and contrasting color schemes from the rest of your page so that they stand out and are easily clickable.
You should also place it above the fold. No one wants to scroll beyond the fold to learn how to take action. Visitors should be able to see what they need to do next without having to scroll.
Incorporate smart visual cues such as boxes, arrows, and other visuals to guide the eye to your CTA.
- Key Takeaway: Your CTA button should be large, easy to find, and use persuasive language.
4. Clear And Concise Communication Is Key
The best landing pages have a single message and give a single offer. Cluttering your landing page with multiple unrelated offers is counter-productive and will make it more difficult for visitors to take action.
Your headline, subheadline, and copy should all focus on a single offer and be clear, concise, and easy to understand.
- Key Takeaway: Make sure your landing page has a clear and concise message. Stick to one offer that is vividly communicated throughout the page.
5. Make Your Offer Clear Early Enough
Your offer is the main thing you’re selling on your landing page, so you must ensure it’s prominently featured. The sooner you can get it in front of your visitors, the better.
Make your value proposition easy to understand in 5 seconds or less. How are you going to help the customer? What’s in it for them?
If you wait too long to make your offer, you risk losing the visitor’s attention.
- Key Takeaway: If your offer isn’t clear enough, you risk losing the visitor’s attention. Make sure your offer is prominently featured and easy to understand.
6. Showcase Your Benefits
Product benefits are any positive impact your product or service has on the user. It’s important to focus on these benefits because they are what encourage people to take action and buy your product.
When creating your landing page, ensure to prominently display your benefits so that visitors can see them right away. You can do this by using images, videos, or text.
Some benefits that you may want to highlight include:
- Improved productivity
- More features
- Better performance
- Easier to use
- Better customer service
- Higher quality
- Lower price
- Key Takeaway: Focusing on your product benefits is key to landing page success. Be sure to highlight your benefits using images, videos, or text.
7. Use Compelling Language And Data
Consumers are bombarded with marketing messages all day, every day. As a result, they’ve become extremely good at tuning out anything that doesn’t interest them.
To cut through the noise, you need to use compelling and interesting language that’s backed by some data.
Your copy should remove any doubts and clarify any confusion. Be as specific as possible and use data to back up your claims. For example, rather than saying “our software is the best,” say “our software increased conversion rates by 20% for XYZ company”.
Data is always more convincing than empty claims.
And be sure to work magic with your CTA button text to increase motivation. The text should be clear, action-oriented, and benefit-focused.
- Key Takeaway: Use compelling and interesting language backed by some data to increase the effectiveness of your landing page.
8. Maintain Brand Consistency And Congruence
The look and feel of your landing page should resonate with your brand. Can you identify your company just by looking at the landing page? Be sure that typography, colors, imagery, and overall design create a cohesive look.
But there is a caveat: you really don’t have to splash your logo on every landing page. The idea is to create a consistent look and feel that visitors can associate with your brand while still maintaining some subtlety.
You’ll also want to ensure that your landing page is in unity with the ad or message that brought the visitor to your page in the first place. There’s nothing more confusing and off-putting than a mismatched ad and landing page combo.
- Key Takeaway: Keep your brand’s look and feel consistent across all landing pages. Make sure each page is also in unity with the ad or message that brought the visitor to your page.
9. Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS)
The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore, simplicity should be a key goal in design. This goes for everything from the copy to the form fields.
The best-performing landing pages are usually those with the least amount of distractions. So, if you want people to stick around, keep it clean and easy to navigate.
Look at some of the most popular landing pages and analyze their layouts. Then take inspiration from them and apply it to your own landing pages.
- Key Takeaway: The best-performing landing pages are usually those with the least amount of distractions. Keep it clean and easy to navigate.
10. Make It Easy To Navigate
How many times have you landed on a page and had no idea where to go next? If you want people to stick around, you need to make it easy for them to navigate your site.
The first thing you need to do is get rid of any distractions. This means removing anything that could pull the visitor’s attention away from the main CTA.
Next, you need to make sure your CTA is prominently featured and easy to find. The last thing you want is for people to have to search for your CTA button.
Your landing pages should offer only two options: opt-in or exit. And both of these options should be easy to find.
- Key Takeaway: Keep your landing pages free of distractions and easy to navigate. Feature your CTA prominently and make sure it’s easy to find.
11. Layout And Formatting
The layout of your landing pages is important to the user experience. You want to lead the user’s eye to the most important elements on the page.
Highlighting key product features or services using bullets and arrows can add some emphasis to your key value propositions. You should also consider using headings and subheadings and visuals such as GIFs and short videos to break up text and highlight important points.
And don’t forget to use white space effectively to avoid overwhelming visitors with too much information at once.
- Key Takeaway: Use a clear and concise layout that supports your text (and vice versa).
12. Have Limited Form Fields
If you don’t need the information, don’t ask for it. The fewer form fields you have, the more likely someone is to fill it out and hence more conversions.
You see, the patience span of an online user is very low. So, the last thing you want to do is make them fill out a long and tedious form. Because with each new field you add to a form, you create more tedious work for the user and also more opportunities for them to make a mistake or abandon the form entirely.
Another often ignored tactic is to change the visitor’s perception of the length of the form. If your form requires many fields, you can reduce the spaces between the fields or align the titles to the left instead of above to make them appear shorter.
And finally, use progressive profiling to only show necessary fields at first and then show additional fields as the user progresses.
- Key Takeaway: Consumers no longer have the patience to fill out long and tedious forms.
13. Test Your Hero Shot
Your hero shot is the first thing visitors will see when they land on your page. So, it’s important to get it right.
Make sure your hero shot is high quality and relevant to the offer. It should also be large enough to catch the user’s attention but not so large that it takes up too much space on the page.
And don’t forget to test different variations of your hero shot to see what performs best.
- Key Takeaway: The hero image is your first impression—make it a good one.
14. Include Visible Privacy Policy and TOS
Not only are privacy policies and terms of service required to advertise on some platforms, but they also instill trust in visitors. Ensure that your privacy policy and terms of service are easily accessible from your landing pages.
You may choose to include links to these policies in your header or footer, or you may choose to include them on the page itself. Either way, make sure they are easily accessible and visible.
- Key Takeaway: Include a visible privacy policy and terms of service on your landing pages to instill trust in visitors.
15. Reduce Anxiety With Social Proof Elements
This is perhaps one of the most important psychological factors you need to consider when designing your landing pages. Fear and anxiety are some of the main reasons people don’t take action on landing pages.
You need to communicate reliability and confidence. Are you trustworthy? Do you have any testimonials and case studies? Do you have reputable partners that could earn you social proof by association?
Proudly highlight those awards, certifications, partner logos, and anything else that could help build trust with first-time visitors. Use customer photos, videos, or logos to leverage their social proof.
If you are dealing with sensitive information, be sure to include security seals, BBB+ ratings, or certifications to let the visitor know that their information is safe and secure. Privacy policies, terms and conditions, and refund policies are also just as important.
The idea here is to show that other people have already taken the leap of faith and are happy with the results. This will help reduce anxiety and increase conversions.
- Key Takeaway: Use social proof elements such as testimonials, customer photos and videos, logos of reputable partners, and security seals.
16. Encourage Social Sharing
“Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.”
If you have a lot of social proof, make it easy to find and navigate. Display it prominently on the page and in a way that is easy to understand. If you can get people to share your landing pages on social media, it will not only help increase traffic but also help increase conversion rates.
Make it easy for visitors to share your landing pages by adding prominent social sharing buttons and widgets.
By placing them at the top or bottom of the page and making sure they’re visible when people scroll down, you’ll increase their visibility and the likelihood of people sharing your content.
- Key Takeaway: Social sharing can help increase traffic and conversion rates.
There You Have It!
There’s a lot to think about when designing and optimizing your landing pages for conversions.
But if you keep these simple and effective tactics in mind, you’ll be well on your way to increasing your conversion rates and generating more leads and sales for your business.
Remember, the key is to keep it simple, clear, and hyper-focused on the user experience. If you do that, you’ll be sure to see an increase in conversions.