Landing pages are the core of your website, but are yours actually working for you? Read on to find how to create one that will be a success.
One of the biggest battles in modern day marketing is getting users to click on your page and, more importantly, stay there. Whether or not this happens depends on a lot of factors, but there’s no getting away from the fact that landing pages are at the core of it.
You can be the Don Juan of social media or plan your marketing strategy to a fine art, but if your landing pages aren’t working effectively, you won’t get the conversion rates you need. Many teams can be so focused on how to drive traffic to their website, what visitors actually see when they get there is too often an afterthought.
So how do you go about creating a successful landing page?
Make first impressions count
We all know how important it is to look the part when you’re going to a client pitch or any other business meeting and it’s the same for your website’s landing pages. Each should contain a clear purpose and call to action (CTA) to ensure visitors understand where to go next if their interest is piqued.
It takes a matter of seconds for users to decide an opinion on your website, so it’s essential that everything on the page has a reason for being there. This includes the actual content on the page, of course, but you should also consider elements like the graphic design of the webpage, as well as how easy it is for users to progress through the consumer journey.
Conversion rate optimization (CRO)
Much like other marketing practices, a key element of a successful landing page is trial and error. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) focuses on getting more from the users that are already coming to your website, instead of increasing your traffic. Whether you’re tracking the number of people who sign up for a newsletter, give you information, or actually buy a product, you can optimize this process to get more value from your visitors.
This is crucial because most businesses have a finite demand, so making the most out of users that have already decided to visit your landing pages is important. It’s fairly straightforward to work out the percentage of visitors that are converting on your website and then you can look to optimize the process so the number improves.
- Look for blog posts that got high traffic but low engagement and see what may have stopped consumers from converting. It could be something as simple as not having a clear CTA or the title is misleading compared to the blog’s content, but it can be extremely effective.
- Consider live messaging for high-traffic web pages to push users to convert.
- Create text-based CTAs within blog posts to entice users that may not read all the way to the bottom.
A/B testing
There can be a lot of marketing jargon and most of it is just another name for something that has already been established. A/B testing may seem like another one of these terms, but it’s actually a really important element of ensuring your landing pages are being effective at driving conversions and guiding visitors through the buyer cycle.
The idea is simple; A/B testing allows you to see which performs better out of two slightly different options – A or B. However, executing it can be a little more complicated. Deciding what you want to test and what you want to change on each page will be the hardest step, but it is well worth the pursuit. This way, you can trial different styles of landing page and see what the impact is on KPIs, such as time on page, conversion rate and CTA rate. For example, people are divided on whether short and concise or descriptive and advisory content works better. With A/B testing you can test both and decide what works best for your consumers.
Above or below the fold
Whether you subscribe to the importance of keeping content above the fold or not, one area where it can’t be debated is in a landing page. Your CTA needs to be towards the top of the page, so it’s one of the first thing visitors see and they don’t need to scroll to click on it. This doesn’t mean that users won’t navigate the rest of your page, and you certainly shouldn’t leave the rest blank, but you need to give users that are ready to convert the option straight away.
This not only makes it easier for visitors to continue through the buyer cycle, but it also ensures that the purpose of the landing page is conveyed right from the start.
Creating a successful landing page
There’s no straight and simple formula for creating a landing page that will hit all your marketing and sales targets, but these tips should put you on the path to success. The most important thing is to regularly test and trial new ideas for your landing pages and see how your audience reacts. This will not only allow you to get the most from your landing pages, but also ensure your marketing doesn’t get stagnant and that you can innovate when possible.
For more demand generation best practices, check out our latest guide: 7 Pillar to Successful Demand Generation
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