A landing page is a webpage that appears in response to a search engine query, lead gen campaign, or any other ad. It’s designed to convince visitors who see it to take any action, such as buying a product or service, signing up for an email list, downloading something from the site, etc.
Landing pages can make or break your business. A well-designed landing page will help you convert visitors into customers, and a poorly designed landing page will send them packing.
In this blog post, we will discuss elements of a well-executed landing page optimization and what are the key components of a landing page, so you can create your own winning site!
1) Domain or subdomain name
A good domain name will help you get more conversions because it’s easier to remember and recognize. It also serves as an indication of what your company does, if that is the purpose of the landing page.
Most CRM/landing page tools/marketing tools require a subdomain where the landing pages are stored. Please note that you can also use a folder on your web server. A lot of people believe that subdomains are treated as a separate entity for better exposure to search engine crawlers. Some say that this does not always provide them with an edge in rankings, so they prefer their website’s content on the same domain for the organization’s sake and ease when it comes to hosting images or videos from different pages across our site. In addition, keep things simple! But I don’t think there is 100% proof for either way. We’re keeping them on subdomains, we think you need a domain for a landing page.
Some good subdomain names for landing pages are:
- blog.[domain].com
- news.[domain].com
- landing.[domain].com
- articles.[domain].com
- resources.[domain].com
- insights.[domain].com
- pages.[domain].com
- inbound.[domain].com
2) Design
The design of the landing pages depends much on the approach and industry you are in. A landing page should be designed to make it easy for someone who has never been on the site before to quickly comprehend what you offer and why they need it (and hence convert the best).
Elements of good design
- Short, concise copy with a clear CTA (call to action)
- High-quality photos or videos
- Consistent elements across all pages so users know where they’re going when they click your links or ad text
- Scannable headings/subheadings that tell people at a glance what’s inside each section of the page – quality calls-to-action that stand out from content on the page but aren’t intrusive, flashy, annoying etc… they work and if possible have multiple buttons for multiple purposes
- Good use of color elements or contrasts so that your message is not lost in the design elements/layout elements – background colors to avoid eye fatigue, predictable text layout (all justified) with appropriate line height and font size for readability.
- Design for purpose: if want to collect leads through the download of a white paper you will need a different design than for a webinar invitation landing page (that is for instance placeholders for the presenter of the webinar).
All these elements will ensure people actually read what you have to say! And if you have made your call-to-action stand out then more people will click on it!
Once you’ve designed the elements for a landing page, keep in mind that mobile responsive design is important. Your customers are using their phones and tablets to browse the web these days – do not make them jump through hoops just to see what content you’re offering.
Design elements to avoid
- Pop-ups that block the whole screen – aggressive CTAs or buttons, too many options on a page (it can lead them astray), etc… Keep it simple and focus on what people came for!
Image: anatomy of a landing page
3) Headline
Your landing page headline is crucial for attracting visitors and keeping them on the site. The message should be strong enough so that you can grab their attention right away with a great offer or story-based headlines!
Why does your headline matter? Check out these statistics: for every 10 people that visit, seven will bounce right off the page. To keep this number low and ensure visitors know exactly what they’re getting themselves into before logging in or clicking “go!” make sure there’s value communicated quickly after arriving on-site!
You really ought to think of your Headline as “front door” where all new prospects come in – it needs an exciting tone both informative AND interesting if possible because this will get people clicking through quickly while also drawing interest from around social media waiting patiently at peak internet time hours when everyone has finally finished work and has come home to their computer screens.
There’s a good chance that the search engines will index the landing page so it’s important to have a good headline that will attract the first visitors to your page AND it’s well keyword-researched and SEO-optimized.
Key elements for a great headline
- Great offer (great deal, free trial etc.)
- It speaks directly about the problem people are facing – it makes them feel like you understand what they need or want because it’s right on point with what made them click through in the
- Use action words and active voice
- Be specific about what you do but don’t give away all your secrets at once – tease your audience with elements of your offer
- Make it easy for people to find what they’re looking for (CTA)
Headline elements to avoid
- Corporate jargon, buzz words or any kind of “marketing speak” that you might be used to! Remember the goal is clarity and simplicity. Keep things relevant and don’t forget to respect the elements of good design (see above)
- The page’s layout should be such that there is no distraction from the main CTA.
The headline and elements on a landing page are crucial to your conversion rates – keep things clear, easy, and simple! And if you need help with wordsmithing or designing try using tools like Canva or Upwork to get help.
4) Subheadline or supporting elements
The best subheadlines are the ones that stress and reinforce what had been claimed in the headline. This means, for example, they can’t simply repeat what’s written above them – instead, it would be helpful if these secondary statements gave more context or added some new insight to help readers understand why this is important information worth knowing about.
The elements that follow the headline should be in sync with what had been written above them. They should provide more information, deeper insights, or just emphasize something in order to grab viewers’ attention and keep it on your page! For instance: ‘We offer x amazing new service – get a free trial today!’ is essentially saying the same thing as the headline but it’s adding another layer of information that will help readers understand the benefit they’ll receive from signing up for your offer.
Subheadline elements to avoid
- Spelling and grammar mistakes, typos or other errors as these can send out red flags to Internet users who might think you’re unprofessional (or even worse)
For most people reading an article with just one headline on their screen at any given moment isn’t enough time nor space so subheads often come alongside each main head as well giving even deeper insights into why something needs addressing within a certain topic range
This is your chance to really surprise visitors by offering something unexpected. Use this space for more information, bonuses, etc. If you have a great offer in the headline so people are already clicking through then show them what they’re getting into! Letting prospects know that it’s not just about “one thing” but there are multiple benefits to using your product or service. Or if you’re running a webinar, for instance, offer different elements of the webinar that will appear in the bonus section at certain times during it so people can have more information about what they want to know!
It’s also good practice to use this space in order to “warm-up” visitors and let them know what to expect in the next few minutes – don’t just jump right into your offer, instead of ease people into it.
The persuasive subheadline should convince your visitor to stay. It’s not enough that the main headline grabs them, but you also need an equally compelling secondary point of contact for those who are interested in finding out more about what it is exactly that has captured their attention on this landing page and tempted them into reading further down towards its conclusion with yet another enticing heading – giving just enough information without overwhelming or deterring potential customers before they’ve had a chance at tasting some delicious bacon pancake goodness!
The most effective headlines will always have both captivating traits: one being strong emotional appeal so people want to read; secondly having intellectual interest by making sense, being coherent, and/or presenting useful information.
5) Imagery or videos
What Are the Key Components of a Landing Page? Pictures for sure are worth a thousand words, and the right one can make all the difference. Your hero image should represent your target audience (or also your buyer persona) so that when they see it for themselves – their first thought isn’t “What am I looking at?” The purpose behind having this type of campaign must convey feelings instead; if someone doesn’t feel anything after viewing then there will be no reason not to buy from another company.
If you’re promoting an event, for instance, then use the date and location of it in your imagery to give attendees a chance to visualize what’s coming up next month or earlier this fall – this will help them feel like they are there with everyone else plus encourage more people to come out (or stay home!) depending on where the event is taking place.
A hero image should show the context of use. For example, if you’re running a SaaS company this could be your killer app on a sleek modern device or someone blowing massive bubbles with vegan chewing gum for eCommerce companies.
A headshot is typically used to represent yourself in business settings which often have more formal tones than other types of social media platforms like Instagram where fun images are favored
Compare this with your competitor’s imagery and see what elements you can change, update, or improve upon – remember the principle of “first impressions are lasting” so make yours as positive as possible!
People will spend time reading about why they should care before actually caring for themselves which is where a non-intrusive yet still attention-grabbing image will do the trick. This could be a picture of yourself or your employees, for instance – it doesn’t have to be anything too fancy but just something that tells customers what they’re in store for when they decide to read more about you and what’s on offer within this blog post!
Videos are another way to inspire an emotional response and can help people envision themselves using your product or service in their own lives.
Even if you’re just selling a physical item, for example, it’s important that the video is well-crafted so customers don’t feel like they’ve been sold something but understand what elements went into creating such a great piece of work.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different elements or styles of video as it’s a great way to convey what you do in a more fun and engaging format.
You can also use videos as testimonials from customers who have already had the chance at using your product, service, etc. before – this is an excellent opportunity for people to see what real people are saying about a particular topic instead of just reading the information themselves. For webinars, a quick introduction of the speakers and the topic works well.
6) SEO-optimization
Landing pages are more than just a landing spot for visitors to your site – they need to be optimized with keywords and phrases that will help you attract potential customers. This way, when people search using the right types of advertising campaigns or organic searches on Google (or other engines), their destination should appear quickly in response! Important here are the page title tag and the H1, H2, H3 headlines to contain the most relevant keywords. Do some keyword research to find the right ones for your audience.
7) The unique selling proposition (USP)
Your USP is what sets your product or service apart from the competition. It’s how you position it as different and better than all others! A series of page elements tell this story:
- An offer that solves a problem for which there are currently no solutions, but one with potential for success if executed correctly by having features tailored specifically to their needs;
- Fulfilling an unmet need in terms of generating revenue through subscriptions instead of ads because they understand consumers want more value out their purchases while still being able to enjoy them without interruption at any given time;
- Something not yet offered on marketplaces where products compete for solely based on price point alone; and/or offering easier access points into content via social.
8) Social proof
Social proof is the influence we have on each other. It can be a powerful tool in convincing people around us, and sometimes it creates regretful decisions like buying an overpriced new toy for the dog or getting that animal tattoo that Stephanie had talked you into it because of her social media following.
Social Media Marketing surely has its benefits but one thing I’ve realized from my experience with this industry-social Proof actually influences our own judgment!
Social proof can be a powerful force to convince others that your product or service is good. Visitors are more likely to convert into consumers if they see other people have bought what you’re offering, so use social proof on the landing page by providing counts for sign-ups and awards from reputable organizations like Facebook profile pictures with five stars next to them in their approval section of reviews written by actual buyers who tried out this new app before it became popular—this will make visitors feel confident about ordering because there’s already been a success!
9) Responsive design
Landing pages need to be mobile responsive and solve the issue of a form falling out of view. Your site visitors want to convert, so you need to let them – even when viewing on their phone! It’s not ideal to have them leave your site in search of another solution, so make sure it is mobile responsive! You can easily check this by viewing your page on a mobile device. If the elements of what you’re offering are cut off or too small to see, try scaling down their window and checking again – if it’s still not working, make changes until it is!
Responsive design is necessary for any online business that wants to get more customers. All landing page creation software companies nowadays support a responsive design nowadays though.
10) The B2B contact form
Chances are that when you’re reading this blog you are in a B2B marketing environment. Lead generation with the help of landing pages is often done through collecting email addresses of contact through contact forms and lead nurtures them in the following weeks. Hence you will need a properly designed contact form; these are points to consider:
- Only ask for information you must have
- Spend time crafting and optimizing the CTA
- Use radio buttons to minimize typing.
- A/B test everything.
11) Work with CRM integrations and other automation
Most of the time the landing pages will be created by the CRM tools (like Hubspot, Marketo, Salesforce, etc.) so the integration is provided. However, especially smaller businesses tend to use standalone tools like Unbounce or also WordPress plugins to set up the landing pages; in these cases, it would be advised to utilize other tools in order to process the leads efficiently. To name a few:
- When promoting a webinar you can make use of the automated follow-up or reminder emails of GoToWebinar.
- Use tools like Zapier to connect the landing pages and contact forms with email tools like MailChimp in order to automatically follow up or set up lead nurturing processes.
When you start sending serious traffic to the landing page (for instance through organic traffic as a result of SEO optimization, an email shot, or some lead gen performance marketing campaigns) and the conversions are coming in you need to be prepared and have some automation in place. Best practices are:
12) Use a thank you page
Thank you pages are important for three reasons. First, they deliver the offer that was promised on your website- usually in an instant download format with additional relevant content to keep leads interested and engaged as well. Second but just as importantly thank you pages give us opportunities to show how grateful we are about their purchase by thanking them personally which goes a long way in promoting customers down the line! And lastly, they function as a conversion point for campaign tracking purposes and are so much easier to set up than any Google analytics event and whatsoever.
13) A precise and razor-sharp call to action
A landing page should have one goal, and that is to capture a lead. To do this the visitor must be engaged with your content or product as they will not return if their interest has been peaked by other sites before coming onto yours. You need to give them a reason for your call to action and make it pertinent so that they know what the form is asking of them.
You can use either button on clickthrough pages for CTA’s but these should only appear at certain points throughout each web experience where there isn’t too much going on already otherwise confusion sets in from visitors who don’t know what awaits them next after clicking an option (i e—too many choices).
A good CTA provides compelling content and is exciting, persuasive, or some combination thereof in order for visitors to navigate towards completing their desired action on-site – whether that be signing up for something new via email newsletter, making purchases through social media links etcetera!
You may find this button underneath testimonials if they’re placed prominently enough but keep in mind not all users will see them so make sure whatever type of promotion/special offer you have going doesn’t get lost among other important info by giving its own dedicated space somewhere visible like right next top those gorgeous photos 🙂
14) No navigation menu
Landing pages are great for directing your visitor’s attention to one specific goal, but they can be very detrimental if not designed properly. Your navigation links should direct them away from distractions so that visitors don’t leave before converting on the offer you have made!
Logical navigation links on home- and other pages make sense because visitors have multiple paths to go through and corresponding offers. However, including those same links from landing pages is illogical as they don’t need a roadmap when visiting one-off websites created for single goals only.
15: Analyse the landing pages, traffic sources, and forms with an analytics tool
Needless to say that the conversions and leads resulting from that landing page are only as good as the traffic you’re sending to them. So if you send targeted paid social media traffic to the site make sure you have the right settings for targeting, banners, ad copy, etc.
You also want to know how your landing pages and forms are performing against each other so use an analytical tool to see which components work and which ones do not. Ideally, you a/b test everything.
