How To Create High-Converting Landing Pages

You’ll have heard of a website, and you’ll have heard of email marketing, but have you heard of landing pages?

If so, we’re going to share some top tips on how to maximise the conversion rate of your landing pages. And if you’ve not heard of them then you’re missing out on a vital tool in your business’s marketing tool kit.

So let’s give you a quick introduction to what they are and why you should be using them before we give you some tips on how to create a great one.

What is a Landing Page?

A landing page, also known as a sales page or lead capture page, is essentially a page that people ‘land’ on when they click on your link in either a search engine results page (SERP), an email campaign, social post, or a Pay Per Click (PPC) advert.

Its sole purpose is to ensure that the person who clicked on your link completes the action that your email, advert or search result was designed for, whether that be buying a product, booking an appointment or downloading a piece of content.

Why Do You Need Landing Pages?

They’re important as it’s incredibly rare that the person was 100% sold at the time they clicked on your link. This means that the page they land on has to take up the baton and convince them to take the next step on your sales journey.

“Can’t I just use my homepage as a landing page?”

When a user clicks on a link they want to see information that is specifically focused on the advert, email or search engine result they clicked from.

A homepage or general content/product page isn’t designed with targeted conversion in mind and they normally contain a broad range of information and cover several subjects. A user won’t sit and sift through it all to find what they’d clicked for. This means that these pages aren’t the best tool to convert your clicks into action.

Step in targeted landing pages.

How to Create a High-Converting Landing Page

Don’t Neglect Your Landing Page’s Headline

80% of people will read your headline but a mere 20% will read the rest. Meaning your headline has to work hard to make sure it grabs the user’s attention and make them want to read the rest of your landing page.

Stick to One Message

Having more than one offer or message on your landing page can reduce conversions by up to 266%. Keep your message clear, consistent and focused. Don’t be tempted to sneak in other products or services.

Include Your USPs

Do you offer free delivery, does your product have a lifetime guarantee, are you the top-rated service provider in your area?

Make sure you include whatever it is that makes your product or service unique, and include it at the top of the page so that you don’t risk people missing it if they don’t scroll.

Build Trust

People don’t want to just take your word for it. 72% of customers don’t take action until they’ve read reviews so it’s important to include social proof on your landing page. Social proof includes client testimonials, reviews and logos of companies work with. You can also include recognised accreditations and awards to help build trust.

A Picture Tells A Thousand Words

Our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text. This means that the images on your page are vitally important as they are likely the first thing a visitor will see.

Make sure your images are high quality, professional and most importantly relevant.

Use Video Wisely

Video can increase conversion rates on landing pages by up to 86%, making them a great addition to your landing page.

However, they can slow down the loading speed of your page which will have a negative impact on your conversion rate (more on that later).

They are also one of the most unsustainable things you can include on your website and massively increase your website’s carbon footprint.

So if you are going to use video make sure it’s optimised for the web and, like the images you use, make sure it’s relevant and adds true value.

Have a Clear Call to Action (C.T.A)

What’s the point in having a great headline, engaging copy, and a strong sales message if you don’t make it easy for people to take the action you want?

Make it easy for the user to take the next step and remember that 79% of people scan web pages so if your call to action isn’t obvious they may miss it.

Top tip
The optimal number of fields for conversion on a contact form is three.

Top & Bottom Your Call To Action

Most visitors scroll through around 50-60% of an article before leaving. This means that if your call to action is in the bottom 20% most people are going to miss it.

Put your call to action at the top AND bottom of the page to make sure you maximise the chances of it being completed.

Offer Value

In order for the end-user to complete the action you want them to take they need to feel that it’s worth it for them.

You can offer value in a number of ways, for example, free delivery, a discount code, access to exclusive content or a downloadable file.

Personalise

Personalisation is huge in the marketing world as it increases results, so make sure you use it on your landing page. And we don’t mean by using their name, as let’s be honest, you’re not going to have it at this point. We’re talking about using terms such as you and your, things that make the user feel like you’re talking directly to them.

Also, avoid using terms such as ‘submit’, ‘subscribe’ or ‘send’ on forms too. Terms such as ‘Save My Spot’, ‘Sign Me Up’, ‘Send Me The XXX’ are more personal and in turn deliver better conversion rates.

Hide Your Navigation

This might sound like a strange thing to do, but in reality, you don’t want the user to leave your landing page until they’ve converted. Which means that you don’t want to make it easy for them to disappear. A well-designed landing page should answer all of the user’s questions. So hide your full navigation bar and ensure that you have all the information the user will need to make a decision.

Make It Easy To Get In Contact

Being able to contact you helps to build trust and reassure them that if they choose to buy your product or service they’ll always be able to reach you if they have a problem.

Optimise Your Page

One of the most common landing page mistakes people make is that they’ve not optimised them for mobile. Remember, the vast majority of internet traffic is carried out on mobile, so make sure you check your design and content are well laid out, easy to read and easy to navigate through before you put it live.

Google also ranks pages based on the mobile version first, so if you neglect that version of your page you could be damaging your position in search results.

Plus, don’t forget to ensure that your page loads quickly. For every extra second a page takes to load you lose 7% of your visitors. This is why we mentioned earlier that you should use video wisely. A large video can slow a page down, so only use them if they are truly adding value.

Make Your Landing Page Accessible

Ensuring that your images have alt text, your buttons have accessible names and that content works for screen readers will mean that your page is accessible to everyone.

Don’t Copy & Paste

If you’ve got a landing page that delivers a great conversion rate it can be tempting to copy it like-for-like to use for another marketing campaign. But in order to deliver the best results, your landing pages should be created with a specific product, service or call to action in mind.

By all means, use a good landing page to inspire your next one, but don’t copy and paste.

Test, Test & Test Again

Last but not least, test your landing page. Test different headline options, the call to action you use, the sign-up method, the content, images, the information you ask for and more.

Targeting and testing your content can increase conversion by up to 300%.