Landing pages are the hooks you use to snag new leads: make sure they’re prepped with the right bait
A landing page is a launchpad that converts website visitors into leads for your business. Landing pages are essential in inbound marketing because they gather leads, which you can then nurture with content, furthering the conversion in the marketing process. There are many websites with dozens of landing pages that cast a wide net, but we believe quality outshines quantity. Here are the top tips we’ve honed over years of trial and error that will guide you to create effective, highly-converting landing pages. Just one great landing page could mean a significant increase in sales.
What’s a landing page?
In the inbound pipeline, visitors reach your landing page after following a “call to action,” which promises something valuable, like access to exclusive content, in exchange for a small investment on their part, like loading a new web page or sharing their email. Examples could include a downloadable PDF, a free class, access to a software solution or just the promise of awesome resources in the future. On your landing page, you’ll offer your leads an exchange that looks like a win on their end: in order to receive this free gift, the site visitor just needs to fill out a form with their contact info. Once you have that information, they transform from a stranger into a lead you can nurture, most often through an ongoing exchange of content and email marketing.
Keep It Simple and Obvious
The design of the landing page should be very simple. First and foremost, there needs to be a direct call to action somewhere visible. The visitor should know in an instant what you are offering and why it’s so useful. Are they gaining access to a newsletter that will contain exclusive offers? Or membership to an elite network of entrepreneurs? Briefly detail how to access this benefit, and what exact steps they need to take, emphasizing value at every possible opportunity.
Words Matter
The best way to communicate your call to action is with a clear headline. Make sure to use a verb that clearly instructs the visitor on what they need to do to receive their gift. The language you choose, and the images that accompany it, should work together to clearly convey your message. Beneath the headline, provide additional context that explains your offer and, again, emphasizes its value. OK, it’s a newsletter—but what is inside? What makes it worthy of a space in their already-cluttered inbox? The words you use on this page matter; don’t discount the power of descriptive and compelling language.
Don’t Discount Visuals and Design
Including an image or video will increase the likelihood of opt-ins. Explain why the offer is useful, but make sure to keep the focus on the form you want your site visitors to complete. From a design perspective, the form should be the focal point of the page. Eliminate the website navigation menu: instead, make the buttons for your form big and noticeable. It’s imperative to keep the visitors on this page with no easy exits to increase the likelihood that they’ll complete the form.
Add a Form
The form is the most important part of the page, since your primary goal is collect information about your visitor. It’s important to carefully walk the line between your ask and your offer. Consider the central principle of landing page form design: the more valuable your offer, the more information you can request from your visitor. Ask yourself how much information a user would reasonably exchange for your offer, and don’t risk deterring a potential lead with the length of your form. Decide at the outset what information is most important, and design your form around it. Consider making responses to some fields mandatory and others optional.
Make It Shareable
Underneath the form you can add social sharing icons that encourage your visitor to share the offer on their networks. If they were interested enough to navigate to your landing page, it’s likely they have friends and acquaintances who would also find the offer useful. Consider offering them an incentive to share, like additional premium content, to access their pipeline of like-minded users directly.
Measure Your Success
Analytics are at the center of everything: they’re how you know if an effort is working, and they tell you when and how to realign one that isn’t. It’s exceedingly rare that even a majority of people who hit a landing page will fill out the form and become a lead. A reasonable goal is to aim to convert 10% of landing page visitors into leads. With that in mind, keep a close eye on your data. If the landing page isn’t as effective as you hoped, experiment by making small changes following our best practices, and make note of what works and what doesn’t work with your audience.
Landing pages are the key conversion tool in the inbound marketing strategy, and we place commensurate value on delivering conversions to our clients via optimized landing pages here at Yakkety Yak. Contact us if you want to talk about calls to action, landing pages or anything in between.
