Have you ever visited a page on a website and been so enraptured by what it had to say that you handed over your personal information, no questions asked?
Odds are that it was a landing page designed to grab your attention and encourage you to convert.
The thing we love most about landing pages is that they work for every sector. Whether you’re a B2B organisation encouraging sign-ups to your latest webinar or a B2C business promoting your latest product line, a well-designed landing page can drive results.
There are factors that differentiate an average landing page from an amazing one. The landing pages with the highest conversion rates have a lot in common. We’ve dug out our magnifying glass and deerstalker hat to detect what these things are!
Let’s look at seven key factors that shape the landing page experience and are essential when building effective landing pages.
1. A compelling headline
The headline is the first thing prospective customers will see when they visit your landing page.
Your headline sets the scene and encourages visitors to keep reading, hopefully to the bottom of your page, where they will see your call-to-action. Your heading must be catchy, scannable, and demonstrate the benefits of your product or service.
(We know, it’s not a lot to ask!)
Here’s an example of a compelling and effective landing page headline from W3 Benefits, a client of ours: “Unlock the Freedom of Payroll Management with W3 Benefits”. It immediately specifies the purpose of their services and the benefits clearly and concisely.
2. Convincing copy
When developing a brilliant landing page experience, it’s important to think hard about your copy. Your copy does most of the heavy lifting on your landing page, explaining the key benefits of your product or service in an exciting way.
How long should your landing page copy be? It depends on your target audience, what you’re selling, and what your goal is. Some landing pages might need 3,000 words to convince a customer to buy, while others can do the job in 300 words.
Here’s an example of a short but effective landing page from Harry’s Shave Club, just over 180 words long.
3. Minimal navigation
On a regular page on your website, you want as many relevant internal links as possible. This doesn’t just encourage visitors to stick around your site for longer but can help Google better understand your website.
However, you want to keep the internal and external linking to a minimum on a landing page to prevent visitors from wandering off!
HubSpot did a study, testing various landing pages with and without a navigation bar to see which brought the best results. In all but one scenario, removing the navigation bar led to more conversions.
Here’s an example of an effective landing page with minimal navigation. This landing page encouraging people to become Airbnb hosts contains as few internal links as possible, encouraging people to click the call-to-action.
4. A form for data capture
Not all landing pages need a form. However, if you want to generate leads that you can either contact straight away or nurture until they’re ready to buy, you’ll need a form on your page.
At a bare minimum, you’ll need a name and an email address. However, getting the right information makes it easier to qualify your leads to see if they’re a good match for your business. For example, if your target audience is people in the manufacturing industry, you can use your form to identify who you should prioritise.
It’s crucial to only ask for the information you need. The shorter your form, the more likely people will fill it out. However, make your form too brief, and you won’t get the data you need to qualify your leads correctly.
We recommend A/B testing your forms to identify how much information your target audience is willing to provide.
This form once again comes from W3 Benefits. The form is relatively short and asks for all the information needed to qualify leads to see if they’re a good match for their services.
5. A strong call-to-action
While your headline is the starting point for your landing page, your call-to-action is your finish line. Your call-to-action is what encourages your web visitors to convert, whether they’re buying your product, downloading your eBook, or signing up for your webinar.
It’s essential to have one unique call-to-action throughout, although you can repeat it multiple times on a page to get people’s attention. When you use different call-to-actions on a page, you risk confusing or frustrating your page visitors.
Different variations of your call-to-action can result in wildly different conversion rates. Try a range of text, placements, button colours, and even button shapes to see what your page visitors like the most.
Here’s an example of an effective landing page from HubSpot. The minimalist page uses the same ‘get a demo’ call-to-action throughout, in HubSpot’s trademark orange colour.
6. Reliable trust signals
A trust signal is a piece of content on your landing page that shows your business is reliable and credible. Trust signals can make customers feel more secure in giving you their personal data, which is especially important if it’s the first time they’ve heard of your brand.
Trust signals include reviews, five-star ratings, testimonials, customer logos, accreditations, and awards you’ve won. According to Trustpilot, two-thirds of customers say that the presence of a trust signal increases the likelihood of purchasing from a business.
Here’s a snippet from Salesforce’s landing page, encouraging people to check out its CRM. To show how reliable and well-loved the platform is, it offers trust signals in the form of logos of the companies that use it.
7. Good digital marketing
You could have the most amazing and engaging landing page in the world, but if you don’t market it, nobody will visit it. The best landing pages have comprehensive marketing campaigns behind them to draw visitors in.
How can you use marketing to drive traffic to your landing page? You can use:
- Search engine optimisation – using keywords on your landing page to drive organic traffic in Google
- Affiliate marketing – getting affiliate sellers to drive traffic to your landing page, offering a commission for every conversion they bring
- Pay-per-click advertising – creating a search or display ad campaign in Google Ads, pointing to your landing page
- Email marketing – driving your email subscribers to your landing page
- Paid social advertising – promoting your landing page on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn
The right marketing campaign (or campaigns) will depend on your goal, your budget, who you want to target, and where your target audience is in the sales funnel. Are they completely new to your brand, or are they ready to buy right away?
Here’s an example of LinkedIn Ads using Google Ads. This search ad pointing to the LinkedIn Ads landing page provides lots of detailed information, encouraging people curious about LinkedIn Ads to click and learn more.
Want an effective landing page for your project? We can help
Building an effective landing page can be challenging. You need to understand your target audience, know what they want to see, and constantly tweak your page to increase the chances of conversion.
Get it right though, and a landing page will generate lots of lovely leads for your business!
Still not sure where to start? We’re specialists in landing page creation and optimisation. Our experts will work with you to understand your business needs, using data-driven insights to create pages that don’t just look stunning but drive targeted conversions.
We created a Facebook ads campaign for Thorpe Lakes Aqua Park, driving prospective customers to a bespoke landing page where they could buy tickets. Over a month, the landing page generated over 232 conversions!
Want similar results? Book your 15-minute call with our experts. Tell us what results you want to see, and we’ll help you identify the right type of landing page for your needs.
It’s completely free of charge, and no obligation, so get in touch today!