Landing pages are an essential piece of any well-crafted, effective inbound marketing strategy. Think of these pages as landing pads for the numerous prospects that visit your website. Whether you’re looking to generate leads, sell products, or collect data, landing pages are where the visitor conversion occurs. To get the most out of your landing pages and optimize for conversion, use these tips.
A landing page is a web page that allows you to capture a visitor’s information through a lead form. It’s where visitors land when they click a call-to-action on your website, blog, offer, or pay-per-click ad on social platforms. On your landing page, visitors will find a form to fill out for an offer. When they submit your information, they are captured as a new lead in your database.
Using Landing Pages to Drive Lead Conversions and Sales
Think of landing pages as your means of achieving your conversion goals. Let’s say someone clicks on a call-to-action in an email for your latest ebook… do you want to send them to your homepage? When they get to your homepage, where do they go next? What do you want them to do?
Once you have a solid conversion path, you can design a series of landing pages to facilitate this conversion. You want to make it easy for your visitors to follow the path you have just laid out keeping relevant, focused, important information on a single page can increase conversion by 55%. So it often makes sense to have a dedicated page for each step (or a series of similar steps) of your conversion path.
By sending your visitors to a targeted landing page, you are directing them to the exact place they need to be for them to fill out your form and complete the conversion. This simplifies the process and keeps prospects from meandering around your website looking for the content or offer you promised them.
Your goal as a marketer is to deliver the right information, to the right person, at the right time to convert your visitors into leads and sales.
The Headline
Now that you have the basic gist of what a landing page is, it’s time to dive into the individual elements that make up an effective landing page. The headline is usually the first thing that your visitors see when they land on your landing pages. With an average online attention span of eight seconds, it is important that your headline sums up the offer as clearly and concisely as possible. You need to ensure that your viewer understands the offer and what you’re asking them to do as soon as they “land” on your page.
Landing Page Content and Copy
The body of your landing page should build on the headline and truly explain what the offer is and why your visitors should sign up or download it. The goal of your landing page content is to incentivize conversion by conveying the value of your offer through clear and concise language. You’ll want to highlight the benefits of your offer with a brief paragraph or a few bullet points. Your copy should emphasize how the offer addresses a specific problem, need, or interest your target audience cares about.
The Image
Instantly attract your visitor’s attention with relevant images to reinforce the benefits detailed in your landing page. This will entice visitors and convey the purpose of your landing page and why they should download your offer. The brain processes visuals faster than text — remember that.
Call-To-Action Buttons
Try to place an opt in form or a call-to-action in several places on each of your landing pages. The last piece of your form is a major component when getting visitors to send you their information – the button. For most forms, you’ll notice that the default text is usually “Submit,” but data shows that landing pages with buttons labeled “Submit” have lower conversion rates than those that do not. Try to make your buttons engaging and relevant to your offer.
Experiment with different wording and focus on using language that will make visitors want to click the button instead of language that will scare them away. Putting more thought into your button text can significantly affect your conversion rates.
Trust
Convince your visitors that they can order from you without worry by using SSL certificates.
Create SEO Friendly Content
You can create landing pages that also offer you search engine optimization. To accomplish this, all you have to do is create a keyword focused headline and subheading along with a well-written description. Use properly coded hierarchy and content that focuses on your keyword. Offer visitors socialization options with links to Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Properly Coded Hierarchy
Properly coded hierarchy refers to the heading choices you use throughout your landing pages. You should use ‘heading 1’ for your headline; ‘heading 2’ for your subheading and your first sub section that is located within your main sections should be ‘heading 3.’
Social Media
Social media gives you the opportunity to build and then interact with the community, which can drive traffic to your site. Another benefit is that it offers you a way to make your brand more recognizable. You can also build loyalty using social media. Your distribution efforts increase substantially when you take advantage of social media. It helps you reach a larger group of the audience you are already targeting.
Follow these tips and maintain brand consistency throughout. It’s important to make sure the look and feel of your products and services come through in your landing pages. Maintaining brand consistency will lend credibility to your pages and increase the likelihood that your visitors complete the actions you desire.