Landing page (Englishlanding page) is a page with the goal of a single, clearly defined action to be performed by the visitor.
Such an event can be:
- Subscribe to our newsletter,
- Order product,
- Fill in the questionnaire,
- Submit form, etc.
It is called a landing page because it should “land traffic” from other sites.
Imagine an author who has a book published. He promotes the book on all his social networks, in his newsletter and in blog articles. In all these places, he then adds a link to a website/landing page where people can buy the book. The page in question has a laser focus and is maximally optimized for conversion.
If you still can’t imagine the term landing page, you can check out the “landing” page toadvent web challengethat I hosted before Christmas.
By focusing on conversion rates, landing pages are a tremendously powerful marketing tool. But let’s start by defining a few key terms.
What is the conversion rate?
The conversion rate represents the % of people who performed the intended action on a given page.
If 200 people come to the landing page of a new book and 10 people buy it, the conversion rate will be 5% (10/200*100).
The higher the conversion rate, the better. So the goal of every landing page is to maximize this ratio.
What is a good conversion rate?
It depends (though I know that’s not what you wanted to hear).
In general, a “good” conversion rate will vary across industries and call-to-action types. If the call to action (CTA) is a free newsletter sign-up, the “good conversion rate” will be many times greater than if the CTA is a mortgage application form.
However, if you want a specific number, something like 5%+ for order pages and 15%+ for email signups could be considered “very good”.
What is a call to action (CTA)?
A conversion occurs when a visitor performs a so-called conversion action. For this to happen, you need to prompt him to take action.
A call to action (CTA) is sometimes just a text “Call me on…” but most often it is a button that sends a form or redirects you somewhere further.
Now that we’ve quickly introduced the concepts of conversion rate and CTA, we can dive into 6 specific tips.
1. Proper anatomy of the page
How the page should look like is a topic for a whole article. Moreover, it will (again) vary by CTA type and industry.
However, the structure outlined below should be a good starting point:
- Introductory section with clear CTA
- Benefits section
- References section
- Option to reuse CTA (only if following the optional section below)
- Additional information section (optional)
- Conversion point – CTA (order form, newsletter sign-up, phone number…)
- Frequently Asked Questions
So I recommend starting with this default structure and gradually modifying and adapting it based on feedbacks.
2. Language of benefits, not features
How you talk about the subject is extremely important. Throughout the site, you should speak the language of benefits, not features.
Read the text from the potential customer’s point of view and think honestly about whether the description would be appealing to you.
Let’s look at some practical examples:
❌ 365 nutritionally balanced, simple recipes focused on minimal carbohydrate use
✔️ Recipe for every day that you can cook in 8 minutes and get you in shape for life
❌ Practical SEO information from 50 expert sources
✔️ Get your site ranked number 1 on Google and bring in many new clients
❌ Sync form with Google Calendar using API integration
✔️ Get more appointments
You don’t want to sound like a carousel man. However, as an “insider”, you may often overestimate people’s ability to derive a benefit from a given characteristic. Just because it’s automatic for you doesn’t mean it’s so for everyone.
Investing maximum effort to make this part easier for people is always worthwhile.
If I had to guess the thing that can help your landing page the most out of all 6 tips, it would be this one.
3. Optimised Call to Action (CTA)
The call to action is the focal point of the page. Optimising it is therefore more of a duty than a choice.
- Contrasting, conversion colour
- Good readability
- Clarity (it is clear what happens when you click)
I’d start with this tripod.
Once you have, I would focus on the “button text”. Try to come up with a format for the call to action:
- “buy now”
- “register”
- “get a discount”
And feel free to try to think of more options to choose the best one.
Maybe these things seem like trivialities. But even if they improve conversion by 1%, the minimal time they take will almost always make them worthwhile.
4. Page speed
Go to the pageGoogle Page Speed Insights and see where your landing site is in terms of speed.
If you intuitively sense room for improvement, take advantage of it. It’s a one-time investment that is often easily paid for just by converting someone who would have left the site long ago if it were slower.
5. Preventing problems, increasing trust
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What would be the biggest deterrent to conversion on your website?
- Would you be afraid that you won’t be satisfied with the product and lose money?
- Wouldn’t the site look credible to you because of the way the testimonials look?
- Wouldn’t you know what the site offers if you’re not directly in the industry?
Pay attention to even a mere outline of these feelings. And try to come up with a defensive counter to every move your opponent makes.
Confusion -> Adding frequently asked questions
Fear for your investment -> 30 day money back guarantee
Untrustworthy references -> Integrate references directly from Google
While I highly recommend this optimization and it will bring you many desired results, you will never see your site objectively on your own. Which is a problem. This brings us to our next tip.
6. Test your landing page.
If you aresole trader or small businessyou can do it guerrilla style. Go to a coffee shop and offer people coffee if they would answer a few questions about your site. Alternatively, just ask them to empathise with someone who wants to order on the site.
Then follow the person closely on the site and write down/remember what their experience is like. Repeat this process three times (with different people) and I guarantee you’ll come up with a number of things that you hadn’t thought of before as an insider. And could not have.
If you arelarger company I recommend guerrilla testing anyway. The return on this minimal investment is huge in my experience. In addition, you can also expand your testing arsenal by
- A/B tests
- Software that monitors visitor behaviour on the site (e.g.Hotjar)
- Test the site directly on the target group (e.g. you hire mothers on maternity leave to test your product)
Landing sites are a complex topic. I hope this brief overview has been useful to you and if you have any questions or would like others’ opinions on your landing page, feel free to leave a comment!
