How to Build a Landing Page that Converts
By Melissa | Mar 11, 2021 (5 min read)
If you are launching a new product or service, or if you have something specific you’d like to promote, there is a unique type of website that can help.
A landing page is a purpose-built single web page with one stand-alone goal, one call-to-action (CTA). This type of page is different from regular websites that have multiple pages and purposes.
A single-page website can be useful in certain situations for a business. Often they are used to grow traffic to sell something, increase email signups, or for promoting events.
Every time you send a person to a new landing page, you want them to complete one clear action. For it to be successful, you must present valuable information that compels them to take one small action.
In this article, we will look at ways to build a landing page that compels people to take action, and to increase your conversion rate.
Showcase your Unique Value Proposition
Each landing page should display something special about the company or the product or service. To get clearer on your Unique Value Proposition (UVP), you can ask yourself:
- Why should a user choose your business/product/service over someone else?
- What makes your product or service stand out?
- What can you do that other brands cannot?
- Why should users care about you?
Create Clear Messaging
Always use concise, benefits-focused copy on your landing page. Let people know what they will get if they buy, subscribe, signup, etc. This should be in alignment with any messages in your marketing campaign in any Facebook ad, Google ad, or Display ad.
It’s also vital to address audience pain points quickly. Show them what they might miss out on if they don’t take action. Your target audience will have a short attention span, and any landing page design should address what they want very quickly.
A landing page is not like a regular website when it comes to details. Cut out the fluff, get to the point, and be enticing. A landing page should make it as easy as possible for a potential customer to find the information they need.
Speak to Visitor’s Needs
Always start with the user’s perspective and what’s in it for them. The more accurately you can describe the pain points, the more likely they will want to learn about your product or service.
Next, move into what your business does and how it benefits the person reading. Always ask yourself, ‘why should they care?’
Walk site visitors through the process of using your product or service. When people are thinking about buying, they often are unclear how to get started. Let your website visitor know their next steps and they will be more likely to take the action. This is the sign of a great landing page.
Serve users with messaging that meets them where they are in the conversion funnel/buyers’ journey and they will be more likely to pay attention.
Use Social Proof to Convince
Social proof from other people helps build trust with users. People are skeptical the first time they visit a landing page. So you need to prove your business’s services or products work. The best way to do this is by sharing the opinions of people who have worked with you.
Positive, honest reviews and testimonials are crucial to help develop a sense of trust with new site visitors. Ideally, this would appear above the fold or as close to the fold as possible, to grab the user’s attention and immediately start building trust and credibility in your expertise.
Have a Clear Action To Complete
You should have a very clear action that you want each person who visits your landing page to complete.
These are typically some form of capture prompt, and can include:
- Contact Form Completion
- Quote Request
- Booking a Call
- Download a document
- Downloading a demo app or software
- Liking or Following a Page of Social Media
- Sharing a Comment
Make It Easy To Scroll
Any landing page must be easy to navigate. Use colors that guide the eye and make people want to scroll and click. Use images that make people want to read further down the page.
Remove any friction or roadblocks that might cause somebody to stop during the process.
Use easy to find visual cues. These can include bright or contrasting colors, clear placement, one clear CTA button, per section. An action button or signup form should be displayed every few paragraphs to boost lead generation.
Make it easy to move through the conversion process. Create easy to complete simple forms, enticing messages, and clearly lay out what the user can expect after the sale.
Using A/B Testing for Better Results
If you want to get the best results from your landing pages, then creating heatmaps with a tool like Hotjar can give you an idea of what people are doing on the page.
Heatmaps will let you see exactly where users are clicking, how far they are scrolling, how much of the content they are engaging with.
You can also discover if they are getting to your CTA and converting or missing it.
From here, you can figure out if the messaging needs to be updated. Or if the CTA messaging needs to be more enticing. Or maybe the submission form is too complicated.
Keep in mind that any A/B Testing should be limited to 1-2 changes at once. Too many updates will make it impossible to tell what specifically is contributing to any change in user behavior.
Use tools like Google Optimize, Unbounce, or Instapage to test landing pages in more detail and test our alternative versions of the same pages.
Conversion is Always The Goal
Hopefully this article has given you a better idea of how to build a landing page. But there is one more crucial element to understand when using landing pages as part of your digital marketing.
It might seem positive that you are getting lots of clicks to your landing pages. However, the real question to ask is whether those clicks are becoming customers. This is the hallmark of an effective landing page. It’s not about building brand awareness, it’s about getting people to take action.
Landing Pages are purpose-built for conversions. They don’t need to rise in the Google rankings, and they typically cost money every time somebody visits. For this reason, you have to do everything you can to optimize and gain full benefit from the time and money you spend creating a landing page.
