Your landing page is your first chance to make an impression, so it's important that you don't leave anything out. We'll go over the most important elements for conversion-focused landing pages with tips on how to create them.
Typically a landing page is different from your main website pages. Landing pages are usually meant to serve a very specific purpose: to convert visitors into leads or sales.
To successfully convert leads to customers, you need some compelling copy, enticing calls to action, and a design that guides your visitor through a journey to take the intended action.
What is the purpose of a landing page?
Whether your web traffic comes from a social media post, a paid Facebook ad, a blog article, or somewhere else. When people land on your landing page, they need to be met with just the right amount of persuasive and educational information to click and convert.
Landing pages should be designed for a specific audience segment and focused on compelling that audience to take a single action or make a specific decision. The decision can be anything - to make a purchase, download a free e-book, sign up for a newsletter, register for an upcoming event - the options are endless.
Landing pages eliminate distractions by removing navigation, competing links, and alternate options, so you can capture your visitor’s undivided attention. After all, complete attention means you can guide your visitor where you’d like them to go.
Landing Page Best Practices
- Craft a benefit-focused headline. Approximately 70% of visitors will bounce off your page, and your headline is the first thing your visitors see when they visit your landing page. It’s important to clearly communicate the value of your landing page.
- Choose an image that illustrates your offer. Your image should illustrate how your visitor will feel once they receive your offer.
- Write compelling copy. Compelling copy speaks directly to the visitor by using phrases like “you” and “your” to make them feel engaged. Your copy should be clear and concise while guiding your visitor to the action you want them to complete.
- Include the lead form above the fold. This means that your form should be easily accessible to your prospects. Visitors should need to scroll to get to the form. It should be in view immediately. If you can design your form to scroll while the user moves down the page - even better!
- Add a clear and standout call-to-action. The CTA button should stand out, so you should use a color that contrasts with other elements on the page. Use an action word or phrase like “submit,” “download,” or “get yours now!”
- Give away a relevant offer. Your offer is what you give in exchange for your lead’s personal information. It should be compelling enough for your visitor to want to provide you with their contact information, and it should also be relevant to your business. Ultimately, you’re going to ask that your lead make a purchase, and giving them something at zero cost to them is one of the best ways to get their foot in the door.
- Only ask for what you need. Remember - don’t ask for too much at once. A name and email are perfect for a new lead. It takes time to build trust with your prospective customers.
- Remove all navigation. Your landing page’s only objective is to convert visitors into leads. Any competing leads will distract from that goal.
- Make your page responsive. The last thing you need would be for your form to fall out of view on mobile devices. Give your visitors every possible opportunity to convert, no matter how they’re viewing your page. You can use HubSpot's drag-and-drop landing page editors, available in the Marketing Hub Starter, to make it easy to create mobile-optimized landing pages and forms.
- Optimize for search. Aside from driving visitors to your landing page through email and social media posts, your page should be optimized with target keywords for your paid campaigns and organic search. When someone researches your key phrase, they should find your landing page, so it’s important to use the keywords on your landing page.
- Remember to use a thank you page. A thank you page serves three purposes: 1.) It delivers the offer that you promised (typically an instant download). 2.) It gives you an opportunity to interest your new lead in additional relevant content. 3.) It serves as a chance to thank them for their interest, which goes a long way in promoting them to a customer down the line.
Landing Page Essentials
The majority of landing pages follow the same structure, and this structure has been proven to work, time and time again. A good landing page has five elements:
- A headline that grabs the visitors attention
- An image that is relevant to your audience
- A lead form that sits above the fold to capture visitors’ information
- A CTA that is compelling and action-oriented
- Good copy and description that informs and entices your visitors to complete your form
It’s time to take your landing page game seriously. A majority of your new leads will connect with you via landing pages but many businesses don’t put enough time into creating them properly leading to lower-than-expected conversion rates.
The above best practices are just the tip of the iceberg - stay tuned for more in-depth tutorials for creating better, conversion-focused landing pages.
Anabeth McConnell
