There are 2 terms that are said a lot in this article that I want to make sure you have a clear definition of before reading on. Those 2 terms are “landing page” and “conversions”. You’ve heard it before but, what exactly is a landing page? A landing page is simply any page that a user lands on your website from another. A landing page could be reached through search results, a link from another page or paid advertising.
A conversion is an event that happens any time a user performs the call to action or completes a desired goal. A conversion could be a user subscribing to a newsletter or it could be a product purchase, but whatever it is it’s completely defined by you.
Now that you’re up to speed, what can you do to get better conversion rates on your landing pages?
1 – Have a clear conversion goal.
Before making a landing page, the most important thing to build around is whatever your goal is. What is it that you want people to do on your landing page? Do you want them to subscribe to a newsletter, download a guide or maybe you want them to buy something? Whatever it is, it must be known at the beginning as this goal will drive all decisions (including visuals).
When coming up with a goal, be sure to reference the sales funnel as a way to make sure you’re not asking for something too soon or too late. Much of that depends on how a user gets to your landing page. If they’re coming from a paid ad, you likely haven’t built up enough trust to make a sale just yet, but they may be willing to subscribe to more information.
2 – Keep it simple
When people actually land on your page the first thing they’ll notice is how simple or complex your design is. If there are paragraphs and paragraphs of information with no real focus, it’s likely you’ll scare some people away and won’t make very many conversions.
The fewer possible things a person can click, the better. You don’t want people to question even for a moment what it is they’re supposed to click on your landing page. Remove clutter and be vicious about the content you decide to include.
The fewer possible things a person can click, the better.
As a general rule, if it doesn’t relate to your value proposition, then don’t include it.
A value proposition is the promise of specific information a user should expect to find after they perform an action like clicking, reading, signing up or buying.
3 – Effective headline and supporting copy
8 out of 10 people will read a headline, while only 2 out of 10 will convert. A headline is perhaps the most important part of not only making conversions on your landing page but also getting people to your page in the first place.
Your headline will be the first part of convincing a person to convert. A user should be able to quickly take in information in steps. The headline should be the shortest in length but biggest in size as it will be seen first. If they’re still interested they may read the subheadline and then on to the body content.
Here are the elements to a great headline:
- Honesty. If you promise something that doesn’t exist, you’ll make a lot of people very angry and trust in your content will take a significant dip.
- The headline should focus on the user and tell them how they can be better at something.
- Use the call to action inside your headline. (Learn more… Try this… Buy now…)
- Check out Hubspot’s post and try out some of their great headline formulas.
4 – Use video
Theoretically, you could use all the elements above and create a decent landing page that converts a good amount of people. However, there’s one big thing you’d be missing — and that’s an opportunity to really connect with your audience and to help them understand your product through video or animation.
How important is that connection to people? In a recent article by Hubspot, they report that using video on a landing page converts up to 80% more than a page without video.
Yeah… 80%. Think about that for a moment.
No, it’s not as simple as making a goofy explainer animation and watching profits soar, but if done in a story-driven way at a high quality, you could get 80% more subscribes or even 80% more sales by using video on your landing pages.
So, what makes a great video? We’ve got you covered, get our free guide below and continue learning about how to use video to make more customers for your business.
[gravityform id=”2″ title=”false” description=”false” ajax=”true”]
