Most businesses spend a lot of time driving traffic to their sites and blogs in the hope that visitors will convert on their own. However, if these destinations don’t attract prospects into the sales funnel, engage and convert them into paying customers, all your effort is going to waste.
That’s where landing pages come into the picture. They are an important part of inbound marketing. Landing pages are aimed at persuading visitors to take a specific action upon landing there. These goals differ with industry. For a software company, it could be a ‘free trial’ whereas, for an online store, it could be ‘buy now’.
A great landing page converts your visitors into qualified leads. But receiving a ton of traffic isn’t enough. Your landing pages should convert your visitors. In this guide, we look at some techniques to help increase your conversion rates using landing pages.
Write Attention-Grabbing Headlines
The headline is an important element of your landing page.
You have all but a few seconds to impress your visitors and grab their attention. So be sure to keep your headline on point, bold and benefit-driven. That’s the easiest way to gain your visitors’ attention.
Blogs with catchy and useful headlines see the most shares on social media. This holds for landing pages as well.
When you want to keep your landing page conversion rate high, your headline should be short, creative, solve a specific problem and create urgency.
Include Testimonials and Reviews
Testimonials are known to increase sales. When done right, a positive endorsement from other people will assure your visitors about your credibility and legitimacy.
There’s nothing more powerful than word of mouth marketing; reviews and customer testimonials are the closest form of social proof on the digital medium.
However, be sure to use testimonials only after you have delivered results.
A lot of businesses use reviews and testimonials that are weak and highly generic. Avoid writing the testimonials yourself or paying someone for them.
Use CTAs that Compel Visitors to Take Action
CTAs or calls to action are a crucial element of your landing page. It’s not just a button; after all, this is where the action happens.
Think about the relevance and value for the visitors when designing your CTA. Generic CTAs like “sign up”, “submit” or “click here” don’t tell your visitors what they can expect to receive by taking the desired action.
Every landing page you build should have one call to action that tells your visitors what they must do next. Avoid placing more than one CTA to avoid confusion, which can affect conversions.
Include Relevant Videos
Your landing page must engage your visitors until they convert. Videos are a great way to engage your landing page visitors.
When done right, videos can help boost your landing page conversion rate by 86%.
One idea is to create an explainer video where you explain what your organisation does or what your offer is all about. A face-to-face, honest, conversational video that addresses your prospects can go a long way in improving your conversions.
When creating a video, be sure to follow some basic best practices.
Use low volume music in the background. This can improve engagement and help hide any audio inconsistencies.
Use captions. This can help engage users who keep their devices muted.
Get Rid of Distractions
When designing the landing page, avoid going overboard.
Keep distractions to the minimum and focus on getting to the point right away without leaving any room for the visitors to be distracted from the end goal of your landing page.
Here are some tips to remove distractions:
- Use minimal navigation elements. Avoid putting too many links in the navigation bar or the sidebar. This can distract your visitors and adversely affect conversions.
- Limit form fields. Take a good look at your lead capture form. Ensure you are not trying to collect a lot of data at once. If visitors feel that they are giving up a lot more than they are receiving back, they are unlikely to convert.
- Avoid pop-ups. Pop-ups are annoying and distracting, especially when you want your visitors to focus on your offer.
- Avoid information overload. In your copy, avoid giving information about anything other than your offer.
Place Important Information Above the Fold
The phrase “above the fold” originates from the newspaper industry. The most attractive stories would be placed on page one above the fold so people could see the headlines and would be enticed to buy the newspaper.
You can follow this technique for your landing page by placing the most important elements above the digital fold – the point where the visitor must scroll down to read further.
Keep Testing
Every little detail on your landing page can affect your conversion rate. So it is imperative to test your landing pages as frequently as you can to determine what’s working in your favour and what’s not. Look at these numbers to understand the benefits of constant testing:
- Businesses that test 50% more than others and use 47% more techniques to improve their conversions saw an improvement in conversions.
- 82% of Companies that use a structured approach to conversion rate optimisation have exp0erienced dramatic improvements in conversions.
- Comp0anies that try nine or more conversion optimisation strategies are very likely to see an increase in customer satisfaction as well as conversion.
Conclusion
Landing page optimisation is not an easy job. What’s more, there’s no set formula to getting your landing page right. It’s a proactive process that calls for your time, attention.
There are a variety of errors that could mar the performance of your landing pages. The above tips and techniques can help counter the most critical ones. However, we hope by sorting these common issues, you can improve your landing page conversions.
Don’t have the time or the resources to improve your landing page for conversions? Get in touch with our landing page conversion optimisation specialists today.
