The art of effective landing page design isn’t a mystery. But it’s essential to the success of your business’s website – it can be a make or break point in the sales process. If you want to drive conversions and increase sales, you need a well-designed landing page. But how do you create one? Let’s find out.
The First Step in Landing Page Design
The first and most important step in designing an effective landing page for your business is deciding what action you want your customer to take on the page. Do you want them to read your blog article? Give you their email address in exchange for some content? Purchase your product? Call you to talk about your service?
Your landing page needs to ask your visitor to take one (or in a few cases, two) actions. And those actions need to be clear. If you don’t know what you’re asking your customers to do, how will they know?
Your landing page can be your homepage, but it could also be a standalone page that prospects access after clicking on your Google Ads or social media marketing campaigns. However your audience finds your landing page, it always has the same goal – to drive conversions.
Customer–Centric Content
To drive those conversions, you need to tell the prospect on your page how your product or service will make their life better. They won’t be convinced if you tell them how great your product or company is – that doesn’t connect with them. It’s all about you, and your visitors don’t have a stake in your greatness like they do in their own needs.
What you need to do instead is center all your content around what your target audience wants, needs, or fears. Your landing page should not be just a statement about your company. That rarely compels visitors to take action. Instead, focus your landing page language on what you do for the customer. Instead of telling your customers “we make the best tacos in Texas!”, tell them “you can eat the best tacos in Texas!” It’s a small shift but it makes a big difference in increased conversions.
Building Trust
It’s also important to built trust with your audience. Prospects are more likely to buy what you offer if you offer a guarantee of some kind and if they’re sure you’re a reputable business. This is where customer reviews are useful – think about including just three with pictures on the page if you’re a newer business. If you’re more established, putting up testimonials or providing your Google reviews can help provide that sense of trust. You want to reassure buyers that people just like them have bought your product and loved it. And that if things go wrong, they know where to reach you.
If you’re trying to get email addresses instead of making a sale, prospects will be more likely to trust you if your site is free of errors and looks professional. And don’t underestimate the power of a few reviews here too, even if the content you’re providing is free. It’s all part of the journey to become a trusted authority in your industry.
Clear and Compelling Writing
A well-written headline and sub-header are must-haves for good landing page design. You want to tell your visitor in one glance what you’re offering, how it’s different, and what it will do for them. That can seem like a lot to do in just a headline and a subheading. But if you do it correctly, your results will be worth the work.
Your call to action should be something more compelling than just a plain “submit here.” Your headline should use that customer-centric language to convey a sense of urgency and emotion. Emotion doesn’t just apply to companies who offer a feel-good service – emotions could be surprise, wonder, or just a common human feeling like wanting to get something right on the first try.
You’re not just selling your product. You’re selling how that product produces pleasure as a by-product, that avoids an experience of pain, or meets an emotional need as well as a functional one. That taco company referenced above isn’t just selling some meat wrapped in a tortilla. They are also providing care, joy, and a taste of the best of life.
It’s powerful, right? And to be most potent, your landing page copy should be short and sweet. Your visitors are here because you intrude them enough already to click through from another site – now you just need to clinch the sale. You don’t want walls of text distracting from that. If you feel a list of benefits is important for this page, keep it to short bullet points that focus entirely on the benefits to the customer (not just a list of the wonders of your product).
Make it Look Great
Eye-catching design on your landing page can seem like it’s enough to convert your audience. But it’s important to make sure it’s catching your prospects’ eyes in the right way. If your landing page design is cluttered, unclear, or confusing to navigate, it’s not going to have a high conversation rate.
We talked above about how being clear in the action you want your visitors to take is essential. That’s the first step. Now, look at your page design. Is it intuitive and easy to take that action? Is your eye drawn to the call-to-action (CTA) buttons? And it should be a button – that’s what consumers expect, and it’s what works. The color of the button should stand out from the background, and the button should be in a logical place with no busy surrounding distractions.
And you need to have great photos on your landing page. Pictures draw the eye even before text and buttons – they set the tone for the whole page. Tie it into that emotional experience from creating your copy. If your product is about making a business’s process easier, show relaxed people. If it’s about the most amazing tacos in Texas, convey bliss. You’re helping to create a shortcut to the emotion you’ll also be conveying in words – it all ties together.
Drive Those Conversions
With all the right pieces in place, you’re ready to start converting your visitors to customers. Don’t underestimate the power of creating a sense of urgency in your visitors. After all, human beings have a short attention span. They read a tempting offer and think “that sounds great! I’ll sign up tomorrow.” And then they forget entirely. You want to make them want to sign up now – with the fear of missing out on critical information or a great deal.
If you’re using your landing page as a lead generation tool by offering free content or information instead of selling a product, the next step in the sales funnel is critical too. If your email automation campaigns aren’t as compelling and well-written as your landing page, you will lose that momentum you’ve built. Use the clarity, emotional pull, and customer-centric thinking you used to create the landing page to write or revamp your sales funnel content.
Create an Effective Landing Page with C1M
If you’re struggling to create landing pages or home pages that convert ad clicks or website visitors to customers, you’re not alone. It’s a challenging process with lots of moving parts. But you don’t have to do it all yourself. C1M has years of experience helping businesses just like yours increase conversion rates, drive sales, and get consistent growth. Schedule your free business review today and start getting measurable results and expert digital marketing guidance.
