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How to Improve Your Landing Pages to Produce Results

Better Landing PagesA landing page is equivalent to a business’ first impression without the benefit of a directly personal touch. There is no warm smile or charismatic banter to compensate in this sales pitch. Visitors inevitably formulate a snap judgment based upon the visual design, the content on the page, and other factors commonly left unaddressed. Designing a landing page can be quite complicated; they have been known to lose conversions for reasons as simple as an unappealing color scheme. It is essential to create and improve your landing page to maximize the potential of those precious visitors becoming valued customers.

Here are a few tips to take your landing page to the next level:

Think Ahead

  • Establish your message and goal – The audience should know exactly what your page is about within moments of landing on that page. This is not the time to be ambiguous and flashy. What is your goal, and what are you trying to say? What specifically is your call to action?
  • Decide on an audience – Know to whom you are directing your landing page before you go live. Craft your message and call to action to appeal to the specific audience in mind. Online marketing can be so finely tuned that you can hone in on an extremely precise audience. Know which audience you are addressing.
  • Stick to it – Don’t wander off topic or overload the page with information. Landing pages are about keeping it simple and inciting the reader to want more and follow through with your call to action. Remind yourself of these two most important things as changes are made: what is the call to action, and who is my audience?

Design with Intention

  • Pictures speak a thousand words – Photos or caricatures directly related to your topic, message, or call to action are extremely important. Landing pages are far more effective with visual stimuli than a flowing script of words. Capture their attention visually and you will have a greater opportunity for visitors to actually read the words on the page.
  • Logos and brands are vital – Building consumer confidence is a huge part of converting those visiting the landing page to complete your call to action. People want to feel like they can trust you, and by having a consistent logo, theme, and layout, you begin to establish that professional level of trust.
  • Break the information down – Numbered lists and bullet points have been proven more effective than pages of rolling paragraphs. Though the content may be the same in either format, our fast paced lives mean that people prefer to acquire as much information as they can as quickly as possible.
  • Direct their attention – Utilize large fonts, bright colors, photos, arrows and other visually directing cues. This will make your message that much clearer.
  • Repeat, repeat, and then repeat again – The call to action should be incredibly obvious! Repeat what you want the reader to do at least four times throughout the landing page: “click here,” “call today,” etc.
  • Speak to them – Consumers like to feel like you’re talking directly to them and not to a faceless crowd. Use personalizing language such as “you” to have them feel as if there is a relationship being established rather than a company selling to the masses.
  • Trim the fat – Keep the content short and sweet. You probably have way more information on the landing page than is necessary. Reread the copy and delete those extras. Keeping it short and sweet will actually help boost your conversions.

Develop Functions on the Page

  • Speed it up – Excessive use of flash videos, huge files, tons of links, and music will slow down load time. You have seconds to capture the attention of prospective customers; don’t test their patience by making them wait for you to sell your idea with unnecessary stuff.
  • Keep it simple – A landing page should be just that–a page. It shouldn’t look like an entire website full of sidebars, headers, flash videos, etc. Get the message across and then wow them with your tech skills later on your actual website.

Monitor Results

  • Glancing look – Ask an outsider who has never seen the landing page to take 3 to 5 seconds to view the page. Then ask what they remember about it. Did anything you say stick? What was the general impression?
  • What does Google have to say? – Utilize the Google Analytics tool to see how your page is performing, when, and with whom. You can then make the necessary changes to boost visitor follow-through and have a vastly more successful landing page.

Continue to Improve

Armed with the information gathered by checking out the pages of your competition and utilizing the results of your Google Analytics findings, as well as your own market research from questioning an unsuspecting bystander, continue to upgrade and update your landing page. The more you learn about what the audience wants to see, hear, and learn, the more effective the landing page will become. Watch your conversion rates skyrocket as you continue to improve your page one step at a time.

Matthew Toren
 

Matthew Toren is a serial entrepreneur, mentor, investor and co-founder of YoungEntrepreneur.com. He is co-author, with his brother Adam, of Kidpreneurs.org, BizWarriors.com and Small Business, BIG Vision: Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did it Right (Wiley).

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