As part of a marketing campaign, landing pages are where potential clients land after being directed there from another source. As such, a good landing page is a critical component for converting potential clients. This article covers the basics of making an effective landing page.
Driving Traffic to a Landing Page
Landing pages don’t attract people on their own; instead, other sources send people to landing pages. Options for attracting people to your landing page include social media, email, and paid advertising.
Effective Headlines
The headline of your landing page should match whatever made people come to your landing page in the first place. Someone who feels immediately misled likely won’t stay on the landing page for long. Make your headline direct, concise, and accurate.
Have a Call to Action
Landing pages use calls to action to encourage users to perform a specific task, such as signing up for a service or downloading a file. A landing page should have a single call to action in order to keep users focused on completing the task at hand. Like the landing page’s headline, the call to action should be concise and focused on the information that initially drew the user to the page.
Effective Offers
Landing pages typically offer the viewer an item like a free checklist, e-book, or consultation. If you want the potential client to sign up for that offer—and give you their contact information to do so—make sure it’s a worthwhile offer. Additionally, keep attention spans in mind by not droning on and on about your offer. Consider producing a brief video about your offer, as videos have been shown to greatly produce the success rates of landing pages. If a video is not an option, include a picture and a brief summary of the benefits of your offer.
Effective Forms
Forms are another key element of landing pages, as they are an opportunity for you to begin engaging with potential clients. People don’t like long forms, so keep yours short. Typically, a form shouldn’t ask for more than a person’s name, company name, email address, and telephone number. Think carefully before requesting more information.
Effective Layout
More goes into the layout of a landing page than just having a pretty design. Getting to the point before your readers lose interest is key. Make sure your forms, copy, call to action, and other important elements all appear on the front of your landing page—that is, all of those items should be visible before the user has to scroll down. Test this on a wide variety of screens.
