Landing page design needs to optimise every last detail to maximise conversions. When the focus of your page is lost, you risk losing a valuable lead, sale or subscriber. In this article we have listed thirteen factors which a landing page should have to encourage conversions. You should always be looking to improve the effectiveness of your overall design. While each factor aims to guide you, creativity and intelligent marketing paves the way to success.
1) Clean, Minimalist Layout
Your landing page needs to have a fixed focus. Studies show that your viewers form a first impression within just 1/20th of a second. You need to make your landing page appeal to your customer from the get-go. A clean layout, free from unnecessary details and a cluttered style, is the best way to instil a sense of professionalism from the start. When your layout reflects nothing but the essentials, there is far less of a chance that your reader’s attention will wander.
2) Include Clear Trust Signals
A trust signal is a design element which eases away buyer anxiety through showing a connection to a well-known brand or person. Firstly, it is highly beneficial to switch your site to an HTTPS, SSL enabled URL. Cloudflare is a great way for sites to enable their SSL for free. A secure connection is a clear signal of trust and is essential to any business carrying out any form of ecommerce or collecting personal contact details. A privacy policy, contact page, terms & conditions and perhaps frequently asked questions are the second type of trust signal which you need. Thirdly, graphics showing the technology which you use to power your site are another great way to establish trust.
3) Optimise For Mobile
Mobile browsing is more prevalent than ever before seen. 80% of all internet users own a smartphone and half of all Millennials use their mobile device exclusively to watch online videos. This shows a trend that enterprises need to take advantage of. Responsive design and split testing on multiple platforms is essential to good landing page design. When designing for mobile, it may be wise to include a video, seeing that this is the primary use of mobile browsers.
4) Always Design Short Forms
Long, invasive forms, requiring information that people are not open to share, will do nothing other than deter your customers. Whenever you capture leads from your landing page, allow the forms to request the bare minimum data needed. A customer gained is a customer held. You can always diversify you data acquisition at a later stage once you have a customer on your list.
5) Design Each Landing Page For An Individual Audience
If you are marketing a specific product or service to a range of different demographics, then you need to develop a landing page for each interest group. All good landing pages play on the associations which match their target audience the best.
6) Convert Viewers In One Click
Your conversions should be as streamlined as possible. Once your prospective customer has acted on your call to action, try to make sure that your lander is setup to facilitate a one-click conversion. Leave any room for anything else, and you viewer could easily change their mind or become distracted. Always structure your call to action to result in a conversion. There is no better way to guarantee acquiring a new lead, sale or subscriber.
7) Remove Or Limit Site Navigation
If you must include site navigation on a landing page, be sure to keep your menu as minimalistic as possible. Site navigation should rather be omitted or hidden. Your landing page needs to capture the attention of your readers while leaving nothing that will divert their focus. The last thing that you want is to dissuade a viewer from a purchase that they were already convinced of, through an aspect of site design which was overlooked or targeted to another audience.
8) Include Testimonials And Customer Feedback
When a visitor arrives at your landing page, they are already almost convinced of the credibility of your brand. All that is needed is the extra push to convince your visitor of the value you are providing. The easiest way to accomplish this is to include testimonials and customer feedback reflecting the positive purchase experience of others.
9) Maintain Design Consistency
Consistency is integral to the success of your landing page. Always take the time to consider where your viewer will be arriving from and carry across elements of design from the referring site. For example, if your lander is set in place to capture leads from Facebook, be sure to carry across colour and/or layout elements from your Facebook Company Page.
10) Use Offers And Discounts
A promotional offer or time-limited discount conveys a sense of urgency while also helping to capture the attention of your viewer as they scan your landing page. Try not to overplay any promotion as this makes buyers doubt the authenticity of your discount.
11) Lightning Quick Page Load Times
The prime prerequisite to a landing page which converts is lightning quick page load times. An un-optimised, slow landing page will increase your bounce rate and thus chase away many prospective leads. Many marketers even opt for text-only landing pages in order to have the page be as quick and mobile friendly as possible. Any media used should be compressed as much as possible, as waiting times chase away customers.
12) Single Product Promotion Only
A good landing page holds a singular focus. Your design should never stray away from the one product or service which you are promoting. The inclusion of unnecessary details and other products from your line affects your conversions. You want your viewers to develop “tunnel-vision”, motivated towards taking an interest in one thing only.
13) Include Videos On Your Landing Page
With video marketing being more popular than ever, any business would do well to consider placing an explainer or pre-sell video as the focus of their landing page. Videos allow you to capture both the interest and the trust of your viewers. A good video will entice visitors to stay on your page for longer, thus increasing the chances of a successful conversion. Multimedia content such as images and videos resonate with customers due to 40% of all people responding better to visual stimulus than to text.
Fixed Focus Marketing
Simply put, a landing page needs to draw attention to a single focus, presenting a powerful call-to-action which compels the user into completing your form. Design can vary from subtle to wild, as long as you ensure that your strategy is working and conversions are happening. Testing is critical to the success of any landing page.
Always test multiple versions of your lander, and make slight adjustments once you have found a successful formula. The sky is the limit and there is always room to improve. In order to maximise your conversions and revenue, you would do well to seek partnership with an experienced marketing agency such as ourselves. The resource and insight we can provide will fine-tune your landing pages into consistent lead generation tools.
