No self-respecting inbound marketing strategy is complete without a landing page or twenty. But how do you make the darn thing convert? Lead generation is constantly evolving and with it the hallmarks of what makes an effective landing page.
To help you hone that sales funnel, here’s our 3-step guide to landing page optimisation.
1. Revamp your Call to Action
First off, position the CTA above the fold. That way, your visitors are instantly acquainted with your offer and don’t have to scroll down to uncover it.
Remove all choices but one
There should be a single action your prospective leads can take. To eliminate unnecessary distractions, get rid of redundant navigation bars or any other links apart from your primary CTA. Cramming multiple CTAs is tempting, but will only hurt your conversion rate in the end.
Guide visitors to your CTA with directional cues
There are two basic types of cues to consider:
- Explicit cues are things like arrows, pathways, or even photos of people pointing at your CTA (the latter is used way more often than you think). If your CTA falls below the fold, make sure you at least have a directional cue to point visitors to it.
- Suggestive cues are various tacit ways to highlight the CTA. Whitespace, for example, refers to a portion of the page being left intentionally blank to make your call to action stand out. Many websites also effectively utilise contrasting colours (say, black inquiry form on an all-white background) to engage visitors with their content.
- Emphasise your CTA button.
- The lead-capture form and the call-to-action button should be the most prominent features of any landing page. There are several ways to highlight the importance of your CTA button:
- Make it ‘feel’ clickable, either via 3D design or a simple download arrow when people hover over it.
- Make the button text bolder than anything else on the page, so it captures more eyeballs.
Contextualise your button text. Rather than a generic ‘submit’, describe the perk your visitors receive by clicking on it: ‘Download my e-book’, ‘Get a free site audit now’ etc.
Reduce the # of text entry fields.
If you can do away with just their name and email, don’t ask for anything else. Shorter lead-capture forms have repeatedly outperformed their long-form counterparts. At the very least, try replacing a text box with sleek radio buttons where appropriate.
2. Polish your on-page content
Start by aligning your message. There should be no conceptual difference between your landing page and the ads you use to promote it. Aim to convey a uniform message through content and design of both. To that end, make sure that the primary headline matches the ad copy exactly.
Divide and conquer
If your marketing efforts differ based on your traffic source (PPC, organic, email, social media), it’s a good idea to create separate landing pages for each so you can address the message discrepancies. Either way, transitioning from your ad to your landing page should always feel seamless for visitors.
Aim for brand awareness
Feature at least a company logo on each of your landing pages. It should be natural for visitors – especially those from non-branded sources like social media – to instantly associate the offer with your brand. Remember, not all prospective leads convert on the first visit, so make sure your brand lingers in their mind.
Segment the text
When describing your product benefits, try putting them in bullet points or list form. Most people skim through much of the copy anyway, so presenting it in visually appealing and undemanding way helps get the message across.
Keep it concise
Gone are the days of infinite-scroll copies. Whatever you have to say should be packaged in an unimposing, minimalistic pitch that’s universally easy to understand. Marketers typically recommend opting for 3-5 distinct benefits of your service and giving each a few sentences worth of context.
3. Demonstrate Trust
Finally use customer testimonials. If a past client was clearly ecstatic about your product or service, ask him for a quote. If there are people praising you on social media, embedding their tweets is a great way to establish rapport with your visitors.
Offer a free trial or preview
Whether you’re selling a book or a B2B software, there’s usually a way to let prospective customers test your product’s merits before buying. Try-before-you-buy has been used as a conversion booster for ages – mostly because it works.
Provide your phone number
Disclosing your contact details diminishes the ‘spammy’ look some landing pages inevitably end up going for.
Flaunt your certificates
Guarantee seals and security badges demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction.
Consider co-branding
If you’re already partnering with an influencer in the field, you can leverage that relationship by mentioning them in the copy.
Avoid asking for too much information
As already mentioned, the less information you require, the better. However, if you have to gather additional info, it can be a good idea to migrate some of the required fields to the next step, to portion out data collection.