Landing pages are a crucial element to any marketing strategy. It's also one of the biggest challenges that marketers face. It takes a lot of experimenting, optimizing and observing to get things right.
But companies who do succeed see the growth in conversions. For example, a study concluded that companies that increase their landing pages numbers have 55 percent growth and even though most landing pages have about 1-3 percent conversion rate, there are a lot of companies who have their numbers well into the double-digits.
Here are some tips and tricks on how to optimize your landing page for the best conversion rates.
There is no better way of knowing what appeals to your audience the most than experimenting.
Create two identical landing pages and change details like font color, images, videos, CTA etc. This method is most commonly known as split or A/B testing. It will make it easier for you to track how your audience behaves and which page works better.
This is not a one-time thing since you'll have to continuously update and optimize the pages to come up with a good end-result.
Another thing that you should definitely test and pay attention to is the loading speed. If it's anything more than two to three seconds, potential users will take off. Even though it's optimal that you add imagery and videos to your landing page, you should try to make them as fast as possible.
Social proof is a good way to get people to trust you more. If you say that, for example, a lot of people have already used your service and have been satisfied with it, more people will come. This is pure psychology – people feel safer if they know that something has been tested before.
You can take it a step further and put a few customer reviews in there or a newspaper article about your achievements, certificates, badges etc.
All of this is to create a sense of safety for your customers and invite them into this community of happy consumers.
This is a pretty obvious one, but many companies and websites don't quite understand this yet. You see, the point of the landing page is to realize your goal – one goal, not more. These companies include multiple offers and CTA's and it can be quite confusing for the user.
The key is to present them with one solution in order to keep them in focus and not let them get distracted.
Velaro Live Chat, for instance, does a great job of talking about and presenting only one offer – the importance of live chat and how that could benefit a business. They offer a free download in turn for some information.
In today's fast-paced world, it's hard to get someone to actually read what you have to say. People would rather skim through than pay attention and stick to a body of text. This is why you need to bring out the necessary emotions by using compelling imagery and informative videos.
When it comes to images, you should always keep them in sync. Your header page should complement the images used in the page. They should represent what you are trying to say and help you achieve your goals. You can find images on photo stocks or hire a photographer to take pictures specifically for that occasion.
Code Academy is excellent at this – they have added simple images that hold a lot of meaning. Breather, a website that finds meeting rooms for companies, is another great example as they introduce the viewer to peaceful and calming environments in their pictures.
Videos are a great way to provide information from a human to visitors. Video content is popular and a great way to introduce your customers to an influencer that can make your business seem more trustworthy and inviting.
It's all about your landing page looking good.
Along with videos and images which are really important, there are a few other things that you can do.
There are plenty more things that you could do to optimize the visual aspects of your landing page. You can talk to designers, other companies or marketers and figure out what will work for you best. There are plenty of community blogs that offer just this – Word Stream, for example.
Make sure that your landing page is SEO friendly.
"Many companies forget this entirely but it's extremely valuable for your landing page to be SEO friendly. There are a couple of reasons for that – it will make your page easier to find and it will help work for your overall SEO ranking. Don't forget to optimize your landing page just because it's not a priority," says Tina Jerrod, a SEO specialist from Best Australian Writers.
Spelling and grammar mistakes are easy to avoid and a text without them is nothing special. But just think about how people would react to a content full of mistakes. This deteriorates your representation with the customers. If you are not much of a proofreader yourself, use tools like Write My Australia to help you out.
A landing page is not a good spot for you go on and on about your offer. It's perfectly fine to implement a short text packed with information and add, for example, an FAQ option that will answer any additional questions. You can find this on Lyft's landing page and it provides an invaluable clarity for the readers. There are online tools as well, that can provide you with decent help – UK Services Reviews for instance or Top Canadian Writers.
Learn how to properly format your text.
A wall of text will not do in this situation – or in any other, to be honest. Use bold font for everything important, emphasize certain parts with italic, use subheadings and bullet points to keep everything readable and good-looking.
Calls to action can often seem like they are only a button, but that is the best way to get users to take action. Everything about them should be impeccable.
Use bold color, readable font and a message that encompasses everything that you are trying to achieve. Size of the button matters as well – don't go overboard and put up a huge button that will scare them away but make sure that it's visible and easy to click on both on the computer and on a mobile device. For more information about marketing strategies for calls to action visit marketing sites like Marketing Land.
Also, take a look at some of the popular websites and see how they handle CTA's. Neil Pattel, for instance, represents everything that a CTA should be on his landing page.
People don't like filling out form fields, plain and simple. However, if you make that experience seamless and entertaining, you could be on your way to the landing page greatness. Create a fun concept or segment your form fields where users can track their progress.
There are companies that handle this really well.
Unbounce, for example, doesn't even have a traditional form field but they get information from their users through a chat window. Bills uses multiform to attract customers by asking them how much of debt they have and then moving on to gathering information from them. Landbot does a similar thing to Unbounce but enhances it by providing emoji and gif options in their chat information-gathering window.
This is no easy step. It takes time and patience. However, there are some things that you can do immediately to improve the trust users have for your company.
Display your contact info – phone number, email address, physical address, etc. My House does this and it definitely improves their business results and conversion rates. Being straightforward and easy to reach gives you credibility.
Don't oversell. This is a sure way to disappoint your users. Be honest about what you offer and then, if you have a way, surprise your users with something extra. This will be unexpected and it will make your users happy.
Keep your campaign consistent. This is an obvious but essential one. Make sure that all the messages you are sending out through various funnels are identical. Being inconsistent is what makes your customers doubt you.
Show a face. People like to see a human behind the brand. Show a picture of you with your team or someone from your organization. A smiling face is even better, it ignites trust and good relations from the get-go.
To be perfectly honest, even if you do all of the things above, you still might not see a difference. People are sometimes just not that keen on giving their information if they can't see what they get from that immediately.
Make them an offer that will pay off as soon as they subscribe. That can be a book, a helpful guide, a discount or something free. People love those things and they will gladly subscribe if you have something that they can make use of immediately.
Creating a perfect landing page is not an easy feat. It requires thoughtfulness and a lot of strategizing. However, it's a good way to gather information and garner a faithful audience. Following these tips is just a beginning to what will be a struggle of optimizing and updating as technologies and preferences change. Being on top of things is a good idea.
For now, though, implement a few of these changes – or all of them – and watch your numbers grow.
Rachel Summers is a social media manager who always finds time to help small and start-up businesses with their social media strategies. View more of her work on her blog.