When people arrive at your site, do they instantly see what it is they came for or are they having to hunt around or even worse take themselves away because the site isn’t what it promised to be?
What visitors see the minute they hit your site is vital to getting those precious conversions (sales, leads, contact details…). Many a time I’ve received an email or direct mail campaign that has caught my interest but when I visit the landing page it just doesn’t deliver. Below are some tips that you can use to avoid this and to get your landing pages converting for you:
- Know your single most important outcome – if it’s not clear in your head then it won’t be clear on the page. What do you want them to do above everything else?
- Make sure your message points to that – test on others, ask friends/family would your message get the desired outcome?
- Use endorsements whether that’s celebrity, well known industry spokespeople or customer testimonials/reviews
- CTAs (call to actions)– don’t confuse visitors with too many, make them clear and then test their effectiveness
- Forms – the simpler the better, if you need more info then do a second stage with an incentive or send a separate email after asking for more info
- Show people what they’ll get – if it’s a newsletter then show them last month’s, if it’s a membership then show what benefits they’ll get, if it’s a trial or request for quote then be clear on what the next steps are and stick to them
- Reflect the traffic source – design and messaging should match or there’ll be a disconnect, don’t trick people to get the clicks as they won’t convert on page
There’s a great blog called ‘your landing page sucks’ that gives examples of 10 successful landing pages, including screenshots and also how to improve them even more. It’s well worth a visit.
