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5 Tips for Conversion-Driving Landing Pages
Learn how to create hard-working landing pages which drive conversions for any digital campaign.
Landing pages are a crucial part of the marketing journey. They’re the last piece of content potential leads will see before they (hopefully!) respond to your CTA—whether that’s downloading a whitepaper, filling out a form, or signing up to a trial. Your landing page has to work hard to ensure as many conversions as possible, and savvy users are often put off by common landing page faux pas.
Here are five tips for landing page success. From the journey to your page to the last click of the button, if you follow these steps, you’re sure to drive conversions.
We may live in a scroll-orientated world, but content above the fold still grabs the majority of our attention. The concept of above the fold goes back to the printing press and newspapers, when the large sheets were folded in half and presented, passers by could only see the content which was ‘above the fold’. Publishers quickly realised that to attract more readers they should present attention-grabbing headlines and imagery on the top half of the page. This principle now applies to digital content, though we can view it as above the scroll, rather than the fold.
This area is prime real estate for your most valuable content and information you see as top priority for viewers to engage with. If you want to keep your landing pages really brief, you can remove the scroll function all together and keep your page short. But if you have a larger topic to cover, or need to include more details of an offer or product, make sure the most important info is above the scroll.
The best landing pages use this area to include:
Combine these features with exciting creatives and compelling copy and you’re well on your way to building out a high-converting landing page.
The point of landing pages is to have content separate to your website, campaign-specific with a precise and definite action in mind that you want users to take. So you want to make it as difficult as possible for these viewers to navigate away from the landing page, and therefore away from the desired action you want them to take. Removing the navigation bar from your header is one of the best ways to do this.
Including a navigation bar actually increases your risk of raising your CPL—not ideal in a tightly budgeted campaign. When you include navigation links on a landing page connected to your ad, you give visitors a reason not to convert. As a consequence, you’re costing yourself money for no reason. Even though that visitor clicks your ad, the chances of them converting are slim because there are too many distractions. They may click a link to your homepage, blog post, or social media. If you’re running a brand awareness campaign, these click-throughs would be fantastic news—so obviously keep the navigation bar on your normal website! But if you’re drumming for downloads and signups, it’s best to leave it out.
Similar to the fold, using rich media in your landing pages is a great way to increase engagement and avoid high bounce rates. Rich media refers to advanced features like video, audio, or other elements that encourage viewers to interact and engage with the content. You’ve managed to encourage individuals to land on your page through compelling copy, ads, or social posts—don’t waste the hard work by letting them bounce due to an unengaging page!
Using rich media in your landing pages has many benefits, including:
Obvious, but true. Make the action you want users to take as clear as possible, highlight the details of the offerings and the way they can obtain it. Your usual messaging points are obviously important, but remember that landing pages have a specific objective in mind. All pieces of content should come back to the offer and the action you want users to take.
Here are a few ways you can ensure you’re really highlighting your offering:
Landing pages are seldom standalone pieces of content. The best marketing campaigns have the landing page as the final step in longer journeys, and often link to them from multiple channels like social posts, PPC campaigns, programmatic advertisements and webinars.
So it’s important to take into account all of the potential steps your user has taken before landing on your page, to best understand the knowledge they have of your offering, what they may need to know before they convert, and the impression they have of your brand before they reach the landing page. If you don’t take steps to ensure a harmonious user journey across channels you risk users getting confused, lacking information needed to convert, misaligned expectations, and, eventually, poor conversion rates.
Here are some questions you should ask yourself to ensure the journey to your landing pages is harmonious and primed to convert:
It’s a good idea to map out the architecture of your campaigns before launch to ensure the journey to your landing page is logical. This allows you to spot any potential barriers to conversion, and identify any places particular messages should be put across. If you want to be extra scientific in your journey-tracking, you can use tools like Ruler Analytics to help better understand your lead sources and the journey they take with your brand.
As the final hurdle to conversion, landing pages are one of the most crucial elements of your marketing mix. By following UI (user interface) best practices you ensure your leads’ attention is drawn to the right place, and utilising engaging creatives both improves brand perception and the likelihood of click throughs. If you ensure your landing pages are engaging, navigable, and harmonious with the rest of the user journey, you’re sure to earn the conversions your marketing campaigns deserve.
Marianne Turner is Head of Content at Radial Path, a full-service digital marketing agency for B2B tech, and happy customer of Ruler Analytics.
