If you’re looking for something to add to your site to boost conversions, landing pages are the perfect things. The average landing page has a conversion rate of 2.35%. What’s even more astonishing is that the top 25% are actually converting at a rate of 5.31% or higher. With this opportunity to convert, it’s incredibly important to optimize your landing page in order to get the most out of them.
So what exactly IS a landing page? A landing page is a single webpage that a visitor arrives or lands on whenever they first enter a website. In a marketing sense, a landing page is often viewed as a standalone page. One that is separate from your main website and has been designed for a single objective. Like email address signups, membership creation, or sales.
In practice there are two types of landing pages:
A click-through page’s main goal is to make a user click through to another page. Click-throughs are usually used in eCommerce. The pages are used to describe a product or offer in greater detail. This is done as a way to help drive sales by offering more details.
The destination page from a click-through page is generally the shopping cart or the registration page. It’s a good idea to use a clearly defined call to action as a way to get users to do something as simple as setting up an account. This is especially effective if the user needs to create an account in order to gain full access to the site.
A lead generation page is simply a landing page created solely to generate leads. The biggest difference between this and a click-through page is that it has only one field that needs to be filled out in order to generate a lead. The page has one purpose and one purpose only: collect information from potential customers OR drive an individual sale.
The headlines you use for this type of landing page should be powerful. It’s really one of the best ways to leverage social proof, while also giving a clear statement of value about your brand. This type of page can even showcase big-name clients, captivating imagery, and bold, verifiable claims about your company. It also doesn’t hurt to include a very simple, straightforward call to action – one that asks very little of the user, like an email.
Landing pages really are an awesome way to generate leads, share offers, and let your customers get to know you better. But the main thing is staying ahead of the curve. Because the main reason that brands don’t use optimized landing page is that they either don’t know how or are too busy to bother with it. Which is sad because landing pages is one of the best ways to dramatically increase your lead generation efforts.
Think of it this way… once you get people to your site, they might be interested enough to explore your site even more. And who knows, they might even sign up for one of your homepage CTA’s (call to actions). But here’s the thing, 96% of first-time visitors aren’t always ready to buy. This is why sending them to a website without a landing page doesn’t always bring in the profits you’re looking for.
When it comes down to it, you can get a lot of leads at a much higher rate JUST by sending visitors to targeted landing pages. And a well-planned, single-focused, and fully-optimized landing page can very well be your golden ticket.
Typically the best headlines are short. Short headlines will give you a higher task completion rate, click-through rate, and conversion rates. Your headline should immediately let the visitor know what they can expect in exchange for their email. Like a free e-book, download, product, or service.
Your headline can be as unique, sophisticated, or as funny as you want it to be. But whatever you choose make sure it is short, descriptive, and most importantly, not hyperbolic. The headline should get their attention and offer the immediate promise or value.
Since the headline is your opener, the subheading is your closer. It’s the best chance you have to let the visitor know even more about what you’re offering. For example, your heading could be: “How To Increase Your SEO Traffic” and your subheading could be: “Find out the three things you can do to increase your SEO rankings”.
Just remember that the subheading should be quite short as well. Its main goal is to offer a more descriptive look at what you are actually offering.
Images aren’t just used to make something more appealing, granted it does work well for that. But it really is a requirement for most landing pages. According to a research by 3M, the brain processes images almost 60,000 times faster than text, which is why using images is your best bet.
A landing page’s copy should answer the question why people purchase, not just what they are purchasing. This is why it’s always a good idea to anticipate your own visitor’s questions whenever you add copy to your landing pages. It also doesn’t hurt to make those features and benefits the main attraction. For example, you can list a few things they can expect from the product and answers any possible questions.
Just make sure to let those questions serve as your guide and you should be golden.
Let’s be brutally honest for a second here, shall we? If a visitor can’t find where to click next, the following tips won’t be that helpful. So make sure they can clearly figure out the next step. Below are three ways to make it happen:
When landing pages are used correctly they can transform a good amount of web traffic into conversions. The trick is refinement and testing. Hopefully, this will help hit the ground running when it comes to creating a landing page chockfull of opportunities. Have you used landing pages before? Were they effective? Let us know in the comments below, so we can discuss.
