Landing pages are the backbone to every successful website. Give them the attention they deserve by following our 12 step guide.

What’s the first thing you notice when you are directed to a website after a Google search? You can look at the images, the font, the colour – whatever catches your eye. And that’s the most crucial thing – catching the eye.

That’s because an internet user would take a few seconds before deciding whether they are going to spend time on your website or not. That’s why you need to make an impression rather quickly. And that’s the reason why it’s important to build an appealing landing page that can pique people’s interests and convert prospective leads into your customers.

How do you do that? Here’s how!

1. The Headline

   More often than not, the headline is the only thing that a prospective lead will read. The headline must act as a magnet and entice the lead onto the next step. Here are some of the essential characteristics that your headlines should have:

   • Make things believable and don’t sell the moon
   • Keep it in active voice
   • Keep it short and succinct, between 10 – 20 words
   • Be very specific

   It’s also essential to discern how much value you would get. Apart from the above points, it’s also important to keep your target audience in mind. Considering all the things in mind, make sure to craft a headline that would immediately reel in the reader.

2. Subheadings

   Usually, subheadings act as persuasive elements that nudge the leads into making a decision, like signing up for newsletters.

   The messages like ‘four weeks free’ and ‘unlimited articles’ do the task of supporting the value on offer. Together with the heading, it completes the value proposition. With such messages on display, the leads are more likely to make a decision that benefits the company.

   The final masterstroke is the parting message that may say something like, ‘Ends soon.’ It serves in delineating a time limit to avail the offer and makes the lead think about it in real-time. All of these contribute to creating a landing page designed to yield results.

3. Engaging images

   Using images on your landing page is a great idea since humans can process them within 13 milliseconds – leaving time to make a positive decision. The images should be:

   • High-resolution quality
   • Related to the product or service on offer
   • Appealing and enticing
   • Offer a glimpse of value on offer

   Images visually appeal to the leads without going into the complexities of prolix texts. Also, fast image loading is important.

4. Get To The Point Immediately

   When designing a landing page, it is best to get to the point immediately.

   An example, we could have a sentence that is the USP; ‘comprehensive guide to market analysis’. Being concise and short can have a powerful impact on leads, as opposed to lengthy descriptions that the majority wouldn’t read. It’s a good practice to try and fit in the functionality – the ‘what’s it all about’ – into the explanation.

5. What are you losing?

   The theory of loss aversion states that humans value not losing something they already have, much more than gaining something. That can be a point of focus – telling the prospective leads what they are missing out on, and driving home the point that they don’t necessarily have to. In the example below, you’re getting an opportunity to save 50% for the 26 weeks on a subscription. It has a powerful psychological impact when incorporated as part of your strategy on your landing page.

6. What’s to Gain?

   We’re all human beings, and end gains matter. That’s why, while designing landing pages, it makes sense to highlight what your audience stands to gain.

   As an example – a marketer could promise monetisation of up to $100,000 of your Instagram that could be easily gained. It’s bound to appeal to many leads.

7. Additional Communication Channels

   Supplement the efforts you are putting into getting the email addresses of prospective leads or other end goal from the landing page. Include things like your phone number, address, customer service helpline number, and email address. You could also include the links for your social media handles.

   All of this ultimately works in your favor and help the leads believe that you’re not a hoax. You can open up even more communication channels and start the use of chat boxes to visitors on the landing page. It only makes your case stronger.

8. Add a Persuasive Call to Action

   Adding an appropriate CTA-button is a significant factor that can make all the difference. The proper CTA can influence and push the lead down the path towards your target conversion. Here are a few characteristics of the perfect CTA:

   • Must be clear
   • Make it enticing
   • Use contrasting colours on the landing page
   • Use a CTA button several times

   If possible, try to incorporate all the elements mentioned above in your landing page for the best results.

9. Guarantee

   Human beings love guarantees – whoever they may be. That’s why it’s very important to reassure your prospective leads that they are making the right decision with you. You could make simple guarantees on your landing page, such as:

   • 100% money-back guarantee
   • 100% risk-free guarantee
   • 100% authentic content guarantee
   • Or a free trial

10. Win The Trust Of Your Audience

    Does your landing page look and feel trustworthy? It could be a big issue for some. You need to reiterate the authenticity of your business and stamp your legitimacy. One of the ways to do that is by displaying trust badges on your landing page. Apart from this, you can also add testimonials on your landing page to get validation.

11. Add videos

    This can be a game-changer as far as your landing page is concerned. Small video tutorials that run up to 3-4 minutes can take advantage of their popularity online and could improve conversion rates by 80%. Videos can:

    • Be processed easily
    • Builds a sense of trust
    • Make signing up process entertaining
    • Provide peer validation

    Also, people spend considerably more time on pages with videos than pages without them. So, make sure to take advantage of it.

12. Testimonials

    Adding short and succinct testimonials on the landing page also builds up trust, provides validation, and ensures market goodwill. Positive feedback from customers serves as a template for prospective leads, who then know that you are legit and not a scam artist. Testimonials on the landing page can increase conversion rates substantially, which makes them decidedly important.

Wrapping Up

Every business venture today needs a proper strategy. Just like in e-commerce marketing, strategic planning and content planning is also important when it comes to creating the perfect, high converting landing page. Although the needs will vary from business to business and sometimes across B2B and B2C, the tips above can provide a distinct advantage when followed in entirety when it comes to generating leads.

Marketing Labs are an expert digital marketing agency in Nottinghamshire with vast experience optimising landing page and know how to convert visitors! Give us a call if you want to take your website leads to the next level.