Tips for Creating the Perfect Landing Page

Landing pages are a valuable factor in lead generation. Converting site visitors into leads is the first step in building a relationship between your company and your prospects. With a robust landing page, you can funnel your site traffic toward your desired action, such as purchasing a product or subscribing to your newsletter.

A landing page often exists outside your network of linked pages. Its primary purpose is to position your brand in front of your target audience and promote your business’ unique selling point (USP).

Improve your digital marketing strategies with a solid understanding of the impact of landing pages in search engine optimization (SEO). In this post, we’ve covered all the information you need to create a winning landing page. Read on and learn about:

•  What is a landing page
•  The difference between a homepage and a landing page
•  The importance of a landing page in SEO
•  Different types of landing pages
•  How does a landing page work
•  The essential elements of a useful landing page
•  Creating a landing page that converts

Let’s go through the process of creating the perfect landing page design.

What is a Landing Page?

A landing page is designed to address the needs of page visitors who have specific goals in mind. It is a separate web page created for a particular marketing campaign. A landing page is where online users land after they click on a link in emails or paid search ads on search engines and/or social media.

A good landing page is focused on a single goal and a specific stream of traffic. It contains unique, useful information that elaborates on a topic your target audiences care about.

For instance, you may launch an email marketing campaign for your new review response service. To boost your leads and conversion rate, you need to direct visitors to a landing page specifically designed to promote this service. Its main focus is the people who are presumably interested in review monitoring and response services, based on your customer analyses. Using a lead-capture form, you can convert more page visitors into qualified leads.

What is the Difference Between a Homepage and a Landing Page?

The purpose and goals of a homepage and landing page differ significantly. A homepage serves as your virtual business card or storefront. Its primary objective is to leave a positive impression and encourage site visitors to explore other web pages that satisfy their informational needs.

For example, your homepage may contain snippets and links to your product/service pages. Online users must click on these links to acquire the information they need about a particular product or service.

A homepage:

•  Occupies your root domain (i.e., thriveagency.com)
•  Provides online users with a comprehensive overview of your company and offerings
•  Links to your product/service pages and other important site pages
•  Includes several calls-to-action (CTAs) to guide visitors on how to connect with your brand

A landing page, on the other hand, is the primary page that satisfies the specific informational needs of your target customers. It is designed to generate traffic from a clearly defined source, such as pay-per-click (PPC) ads or email campaigns.

For example, your SEO landing page may contain information about your service promos. Once your target customers click on the link, they will be directed to this particular page.

A landing page:

•  Prompts visitors to take one well-defined action, such as subscribing to a newsletter or availing a promo or discount
•  Focuses on a single offer or topic throughout the page
•  Downplays navigation options to keep site visitors on the page
•  Is not a permanent part of your website

The use of a homepage and landing page all depends on your marketing goals. Here’s a brief guide to help you decide which page serves best for your purpose:

Are Landing Pages Good for SEO?

Yes. Quality landing pages are significant SEO factors. A landing page offers a unique resource or experience to your target customers in exchange for their contact information. These include product promos, ebooks, newsletters, online courses and community memberships, among others.

A landing page is designed to generate leads for your business.

Why is a Landing Page Important for SEO?

A landing page is designed to convert site visitors into leads. It allows you to capture leads for existing and future marketing campaigns. In addition, it provides your target audience with necessary information about your new products and services before sending them further into the sales funnel.

Investing in a robust landing page design allows you to:

•  Increase your click-through rate (CTR)
•  Maintain site traffic
•  Lower bounce rates
•  Update your campaigns on the fly
•  Get page visitors to take your desired action, such as buy a product or sign up to an online course
•  Boost your brand awareness

A landing page is an integral part of your online marketing campaigns, mainly email marketing and PPC management. It makes it easier for you to track and analyze your page visitors’ online behavior. More importantly, it allows you to modify your marketing campaign to optimize the user experience.

Different Types of Landing Pages

There are various types of landing pages, depending on your purpose. The following are the four major categories of landing pages used in online marketing. Here are the key differences between these four types to guide your landing page design creation:

1. Lead Capture Landing Page

This type of landing page is used to capture customer information, such as contact number or email address, to complete a non-financial transaction. A lead generation landing page typically includes forms for ebooks and marketing guides.

The information acquired through this landing page is used in inbound marketing for follow-up sales. The form must be brief and not too personal to boost conversion.

2. Click-Through Landing Page

This type of landing page is great for prompting customers to click through another page and make a purchase.

Paid ads are the primary source of traffic for click-through landing pages. Ads are marketed to various audiences from different sources. As such, it is significant that you optimize your landing page to match the message on your ads.

3. Viral Landing Page

This type of landing page promotes word-of-mouth marketing through social platforms. The goal is not only to get page visitors to follow the CTA but also to spread information about what they found out.

A viral landing page takes advantage of social share buttons to put visitors at ease with subscribing and sharing the information.

4. Microsite

This type of landing page serves as a supplementary site for relatively large campaigns. A microsite typically has its own vanity URL driven from paid ads. Sample microsites include movie trailer sites and Spotify’s Year in Music.

Other types of landing pages include:

•  404 landing page
•  Long-form sales landing page
•  “Thank You” landing page
•  Product detail landing page
•  “Coming Soon” landing page
•  “Unsubscribe” landing page
•  Squeeze landing page
•  Splash landing page
•  “About Us” landing page
•  Among others

How Does a Landing Page Work?

A landing page serves as the starting point of your lead nurturing process. Lead nurturing is the method of building relationships with your target customers at every stage of the sales funnel and their buyers’ journey. This process is crucial in converting interested leads to sales.

A powerful landing page allows you to generate qualified leads, analyze your customers’ buying process and guide page visitors to relevant parts of your website.

The Lead Nurturing Cycle on Landing Pages

What are the Essential Components of Quality Landing Page Design?

Creating a competitive landing page entails several optimization strategies. A thorough optimization tactic propels site visitors to take your desired action. Although there is no standard method of creating a landing page, there are some common characteristics you need to keep in mind.

Here are the essential factors in creating a winning landing page:

1. Compelling Headlines

The headline is the first thing that page visitors will see once they arrive on your landing page. To attract your target audiences’ attention, you need to create a killer headline and persuasive supporting headlines.

Your main headline should be:

•  Comprehensive, on-point and interesting
•  Short — preferably between 10-20 words
•  Digestible and succinct

Your supporting headlines should be:

•  Related to your main headline
•  Persuasive
•  More detailed than the main headline

2. Visual Hierarchy

A good landing page must guide visitors with a visual hierarchy. Some online users read from top to bottom and some read from left to right. To get readers to read on your content, you must:

•  Understand your prospects’ reading patterns
•  Choose your typeface weight and pairing carefully
•  Use attention-grabbing images
•  Incorporate big headlines
•  Divide the content with compelling subheadings
•  Use colors to accentuate important information

3. USP

Your landing page should highlight your brand’s competitive advantage. Whether it be additional product features, improved pricing or new business location, your landing page must highlight your value proposition.

Your USP should:

•  Appeal to your target audiences’ personal  interests
•  Provide a unique solution to specific customer needs and concerns
•  Encourage page visitors to take action

4. Engaging Texts and Images

Craft content and utilize visuals that intrigue your target audience. Your landing page content should be clear and concise. Leverage bullet points to make the information digestible and don’t forget to optimize the content for keywords.

Images are another critical element of your landing page. Research shows that the human brain processes visual content 60,000 times faster than texts. This means that the first thing page visitors see on your landing page is the image.

Here are some tips on how to optimize your landing page visuals:

•  Use images that speak about your brand and highlight your key offerings
•  Include photos that create an emotional connection with your target audience

5. Social Proof

Include testimonials and positive customer reviews on your landing page. Note, however, that your social proof must be relevant to your buyer persona.

For instance, a landing page that talks about digital marketing for real estate companies should include testimonials from similar professions. This practice helps build your vote of confidence from your prospects.

6. Form Fields

Ensure the form is smartly placed on the page to generate qualified leads. Remember to keep it simple and concise. In addition, only ask useful, relevant information to your business. Doing so increases the chances of your prospects accomplishing the form.

7. Strong CTA

Get clicks that close the deal for your business. Here are some of the best practices in creating a robust CTA that drives higher CTR and conversions:

•  Create a sense of urgency
•  Craft compelling and impactful CTAs
•  Use color combinations that make your CTA stand out
•  Go with legible font size
•  Use action-packed CTA
•  Limit your CTA to three to five words
•  Get fancy with button graphics
•  Ensure there’s ample white space around your CTA

How Do You Create a Landing Page that Converts?

Every aspect of your landing page should be consistent with your marketing goal. One mistake, and you risk wasting your investment and losing your potential customers. Don’t commit this error. Follow this guide on how to create a landing page that generates higher conversion rate:

1. Perform In-depth Audience Analyses

The first step in any digital marketing campaign is to determine your target market. The same goes for landing page creation.

First, identify your target audience and buyer persona.  The second step is to analyze their online behavior and buying process. Utilize analytics to determine your prospects’ age, interests, location, mobile use and other necessary information. Doing so sets a clear direction for your landing page design.

2. Consider Your Target Audiences’ State of Awareness

Not all landing page visitors are similar. Prospects are at different buying cycles. According to Eugene Schwartz, author of the Breakthrough Advertising, prospects can be divided into five different stages:

•  Unaware — At this stage, page visitors have not yet realized they have a problem that needs a solution.
•  Pain-Aware — Page visitors are aware of the problem but are not actively looking for solutions or oblivious of their existence.
•  Solution-Aware — This is where your prospects start to search for solutions. They know what they need but have not yet found the right provider.
•  Product-Aware — At this stage, your potential customers recognize your offerings but are still weighing their options.
•  Most Aware — This is where your target audiences decide to go with your product or service offerings.

Understanding your prospects’ state of awareness allows you to create an effective landing page.

3. Keep Your Message Clear, Professional and Consistent

Ensure your promotion is consistent throughout the advertising process. Customers do not tolerate false and unpolished advertisements.  For instance, if you are promoting a free trial on your PPC ads, ensure your landing page features this promo. This practice is called message matching.

4. Reduce Landing Page Friction

Another important consideration in creating a professional copy is reducing friction. Landing page friction pertains to unnecessary site elements that inhibit page visitors from taking action. These could be multiple CTAs and form fields, unrelated images, slow page loading time and unclear headline. The key is to perform thorough site tests to refine your landing page experience.

5. Cater to Timely Consumer Interests

Get to know what’s in and trending. What does your target market talk about on social media? Leverage the latest trends to come up with a relevant landing page that appeals to your local consumers.

6. Optimize for Multiple Traffic Sources

Prospects and customers have different online behaviors. Those who click on paid search ads have different needs and expectations compared to online users who arrived on your page through social media ads.

More importantly, online platforms vary based on algorithm updates. Ensure your landing page caters to each of your potential sources. Pay attention to each page element and optimize accordingly:

•  Test different value propositions
•  Optimize form fields and keep them simple
•  Include social proof to ensure maximum traction

7. Set the Right Expectation with Your CTA

Customers want to know what they’re getting into before taking further actions. Ensure your CTA button sets proper expectations. If you’re not sure if you are using the right CTAs, perform A/B testing.

For instance, there’s a big difference between the “Get Pricing” and “Get A Quote” buttons. Consumers who click on the “Get Pricing” button expect to be redirected to a pricing page. People who click on the “Get A Quote” button, on the other hand, expect to get personalized pricing or a consultation schedule with an expert.

8. Make Your Landing Page Mobile-Friendly

There are approximately 3.5 billion smartphone users globally. To cater to this growing population of mobile users, Google rolled out mobile-first indexing. This means that search engines prioritize the mobile version when indexing and ranking websites.

To ensure higher chances of conversion, you need to optimize your landing page for mobile. A landing page that’s difficult to read on small devices will significantly hurt your SEO and conversion rate.

9. Build Targeted Landing Pages

You need different landing pages that address your target audiences’ specific needs. This is especially true if you have a multiple-location business that provides a variety of products or services. For example, you need a separate landing page for your ebook promotion and membership discounts.

Follow these tips when creating targeted landing pages:

•  Create unique content for each landing page
•  Provide dynamically changing landing pages with engaging images
•  Craft content that matches the user intent

10. Perform A/B Testing

Conduct split testing to determine the best landing page design that resonates with your target audience. No matter how appealing your landing page is to you, if it does not capture the interest of your prospects, then it won’t generate leads and sales.

An excellent way to test your landing pages is by using a heat map. It allows you to determine which areas of your landing page are generating more views and clicks.

Rank Up Your Landing Page and Generate More Leads and Sales

Create a landing page that evokes the right emotion and drives your target customers to take action. Your landing page should:

•  Reinforce the details of your marketing campaign
•  Provide instructions on how to redeem the promo
•  Spell out restrictions your target customers should be aware of
•  Include a clear CTA

Don’t know where or how to start your landing page design? Thrive Internet Marketing Agency has got you covered.

Thrive prides itself on having a team of experienced web design and development and online marketing specialists. We take the time to understand your business needs, customer behavior and marketing goals. Let us help you create an effective landing page that converts. Schedule a call with our digital marketing agency now.