By Jared Carrizales
As you set out to market your products, you know that you need a landing page to promote your item and create conversions. Generating conversions is often a challenge because it’s easy to create the “perfect” landing page and then get no results. If you do an online search for “landing page designs,” you are going to find hundreds of examples and solutions. The process can no doubt be overwhelming and confusing. Here are some tricks for creating landing pages with high conversions.
1. Get to Know Your Audience
Who are you reaching out to with your landing page? It’s vital that you pin this down before you create a landing page. Your particular niche should reach out to a specific group of potential clients interested in the products and services that you provide. Remember that your job is to help solve your customer’s problems, whether through a piece of clothing, type of food, lifestyle, or service.
Through your landing page, you can communicate the solution to your unique audience in the most efficient manner. Learn about your audience by joining social media groups and forums where they congregate.
2. This Design Element is Key
You may be relieved to know that there is not a “perfect” landing page template or layout, or one that is guaranteed to give you the conversions you want and need. However, some areas apply to most any niche or industry. The color of your page will affect the emotions and unconscious thoughts of your visitors.
Google design uses vibrant colors to reel in page visitors.
By doing a simple study of the psychology of color, you can get a better idea of what you want to convey on your page. The page should not be too busy, as no one has the time or cares enough to try to understand your message. Instead, it should be simple, straightforward, and leave no doubt as to what you are offering.
3. Keep Your Page Simple & Focused
It’s possible that you offer many different types of services and products. However, on your one landing page, you don’t want to try to sell all of it. Each landing page should focus on a particular product or service and should speak to a specific audience.
If you want to use pre-designed pages, use trusted, responsive website themes. If you’re running an online store, Shopify has excellent eCommerce themes that are ready for your content. If WordPress is your content management system of choice, use only customizable themes – you want to maintain full control.
4. Congruence is Vital
It is most likely that someone came to your landing page from a link on an advertisement or blog post. Every part of your campaign should line up in the colors, design, and content. This uniformity of message facilitates trust for potential clients because they see the same message portrayed across various platforms. Eliminate any elements that don’t align with the overall goal of the landing page as it could distract visitors from the main message.
5. Headline Writing Fundamentals
When someone goes to your landing page, the first thing he or she will read is the headline. Target audiences need to connect emotionally with your headline, and you establish that connection by addressing a problem they are facing and explaining how you can provide the solution. Your headline needs to be detailed enough to be convincing but as short and straightforward as possible.
If you need help with headlines, use tools like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer and AMI’s Emotional Value Analyzer to help you determine potential success of your headline. If it’s not looking like you’re going to be successful with the headline you’ve chosen, let these tools guide you to improve it.
6. Consider This When Creating Lead Magnets
Choose from a variety of valuable assets that you can offer your target audience. EBooks, blog posts, podcasts, webinars, white papers, and infographics are advantageous for your potential clients and will improve their user experience. Research to discover what would be best for your target audience and offer that to them free of charge.
7. Simple Page Elements That Build Trust
Building trust is a vital part of a campaign. It can be difficult to do this on one landing page, but there are some elements that you can use. Here are some ideas:
- Client testimonials
- Awards
- Company logos
- Trust seals
- Social media buttons
8. This is How to Use Calls to Action
It’s vital to have a Call to Action (CTA) button on your landing page that is easy to see. The color must stand out, and the words should align with the rest of your copy. Through your CTA and button, you are asking the visitor to take action. The content should be simple, easy to understand, and bold for visitors who land on this page.
There are a lot of actions you can take on Stumbleupon.com. The designers here make it easy for visitors to know what to do next. Their CTAs are basically explained. You don’t have to create such intensive guidance with your website. Do reflect on this to understand how clear website visitors expect your instruction to be.
9. Learn Search Engine Optimization Basics
Optimize your landing page so that Google and other search engines can find it. Your headline text should use the H1 tag, and your subtitles should be H2s or H3s. Google identifies these as reliable indicators of the content of your page. The harder you work on SEO on the backend, the less money you will need to pay for advertising and campaign costs.
10. Enhance Pages Continually Through Trial & Error
As you work through the layout and content of your landing pages, you might want to consider A/B testing. A/B testing will show you what parts of your pages are working and what elements are failing. With your page variations, you can try various CTAs, content, color, design, images, and more. While testing takes time, it provides you with invaluable insights that come in handy as you move forward with future landing pages.
There is no magic formula for creating landing pages that convert. The single most important items are: 1) keep it simple, 2) keep your message clear, 3) research your target audience, 4) trial and error. Creating landing pages is a skill that can be learned, and once you master it, you’ll find yourself with more conversions than you can handle.
Jared Carrizales is the lead of marketing at Heroic Search – a marketing agency based in Dallas and Tulsa.
