Landing Pages
If done right, landing pages can become an excellent lead and sales tool for virtually every type of business with an online presence. Implementing these could be very effective for you, especially for an eCommerce website, and you could increase your leads and convert them into customers as a result.
They are very useful for generating warm leads and email subscribers, in addition to being another method of promotion depending on how your landing page is set up.
But before understanding how to do it, let’s try to understand what a landing page is specifically for.
What is a Landing Page?
“A landing page is a web page specifically set up to generate leads.”
It’s called a landing page because it is the page that a user first “lands” on. This is commonly achieved by the user clicking on an advertisement, a banner, or a link that they have seen.
Have you ever clicked (even just by mistake) on a banner ad for a site? Well, if you have done it you will surely have found yourself in front of a page with images and concise content and advertising.
That is a landing page: a promotional web page created ad hoc to push the user to carry out a specific action, which can be the completion of a form, such as a subscription to a promotional newsletter, or even downloading an eBook.
A landing page isn’t necessarily the home page of a website, but it can be if that’s where the majority of the visitors will arrive as you will see in some examples below.
You can use a landing page builder like LeadPages to make your own.
Landing Page Examples
1. Shopify
Shopify is an eCommerce platform that enables people to build their own online store with ease. Like all the best landing pages, it’s simple and straight to the point. You can immediately see that to get started you just need to enter your email address and there’s a 14-day free trial with no credit card.
2. GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is a very well-known web hosting provider and is particularly useful if you’re using WordPress and WooCommerce.
Their landing page shows you their most-used and popular services at the top of the page and buttons you can click on to sign up for those services. As you scroll down the page, it then goes on to list some features and benefits of using their services.
3. ConvertKit
ConvertKit is a very popular platform for email marketing and has a host of features and detailed analytic reporting for you to utilize.
This landing page immediately presents you with the option to start a free trial or watch the video demo.
The rest of their page is just the footer so this whole page has been specifically designed to generate signups with minimal distractions.
Landing Page Best Practices
Creating a landing page is not hard, but creating an effective one that meets your goals and expectations can be. In order to create the best landing pages for your website, you should always define the goal first and then plan everything around that.
So if you want to create an eCommerce product landing page, then you should have a good offer that makes people want to complete the action such as a discount code.
This is the trick to creating a high converting landing page, and if you’ve noticed from the examples above and visited their pages, you can see that they are very clear, concise, list the benefits, and do not distract from the goal. Here are some of the landing page best practices you can follow:
Have A Clear Call to Action
The Call to Action, or CTA, is the part that makes the user do what you want them to.
You can have a newsletter subscription box and the CTA could be “Subscribe For The Latest!”, or you could have a free eBook about sales and the CTA could be “Boost Your Sales Now!”.
Aside from the call to action being clear and to the point, it should also be displayed in a prominent position. As you can see from the examples above, all of the CTAs are displayed right at the top of the page, where the user will most probably notice it first.
There’s not much point having 1000 words of sales copy and only having the CTA right down the bottom underneath it all. Not everyone is going to read that many words, so you could be losing a lot of leads.
Previews
If you’re selling an eBook or something similar it’s a good idea to let the user have a preview of what’s inside.
Not many people would purchase this without knowing what they’re getting, and even Amazon Kindle allows you to preview a few pages before you make a purchase. You could do the same with courses and guides as well and even make a video which can be the preview too.
Pay Attention to The Title
On the internet when you open any page, what is the first thing you look at? Most likely the title.
A great title captures attention and makes the reader want more.
Do not be satisfied with the first title that comes to your mind. Be original, impactful, and out of the box.
If you are promoting a specific product, play on the concept of the visitors wants and needs for that product.
Try to stimulate the nerve of the visitor’s curiosity and above all find a title that makes them understand and relate to your copy.
Offer Value
The people who complete the actions on your landing pages should always be rewarded with something of value.
If you are offering a free eBook, don’t make it some crappy 1000 word PDF file that was just designed to capture an email address. Put some real effort into what you’re offering and don’t worry about the fact that you’re giving it away for free.
Free content for your users is the best kind of content that can generate leads and sales for you, such as having a blog, YouTube videos, eBooks, and much more.
Use Credible Content
On a landing page, the content is really fundamental because it represents one of the leading elements able to generate or decrease leads. You have probably come across a lot of dodgy landing pages in your time that just wants you to perform an action without any real encouragement.
Write informative content, explain everything exhaustively but do not be too verbose. The landing page is supposed to pique the user’s curiosity, in order to push them to contact you and ask for more information about what you sell or to subscribe to your offer.
Obviously, do not make the mistake of promising the moon. Be credible, and add content to the page that backs up what you’re saying. This way, the user can begin to trust you and contact you with even more confidence.
Trigger The Response
Encourage the user to act fast by taking advantage of different methods.
Limited promotions can get the user not to waste time and contact you or sign up immediately.
Example: If you are promoting a gym membership, make the promotion more limited in order to hurry the user and encourage them to fill out the form as soon as possible.
A typical phrase could be: “Act now! Promotion only lasts until midnight”. In short, simple persuasive phrases that are able to trigger emotions and encourage someone not to think twice and act now.
Be Relateable
Your landing page should speak to the user, rather than speak to a generic audience. Word the content in a way that it neutrally addresses someone, touches on subjects that the reader would genuinely be concerned with, and make them feel as if that page was written specifically for them to read.
The more that someone can relate to the content, the more inclined that can be to complete the action on your landing page.
If you have a weight loss product for example, the content should cover the problems that people who want to lose weight face and can instantly relate to. Then, you present them with a solution (legitimate of course) and a section to complete the desired action.
Make The Page Responsive
An excellent landing cannot fail to be responsive. This means it’s optimized for any device, from mobile phones to tablets and computers.
Assuming that the majority of users prefer to surf on a mobile, it is easy to understand how important it is for the users experience to create pages that are easily legible and navigable even from smartphones. Take care and perfect them for any device in order to be effective and utilize a quality landing page builder such as Leadpages.
Make Use of Video
Depending on what type of landing page you’re creating, a video could be your best option to capture the lead. Video marketing can be incredibly effective and is no different when it comes to landing pages.
Sometimes, the action that you are trying to get your visitor to do is best accomplished by them viewing a short video. This is perfect if something needs to be visualized or better consumed in video format rather than a long article.
You can still have sales copy, even a long page full of it. But the video is there if the visitor wants to watch it and this way you are increasing your chances of converting them into a lead. Some offers would be best suited to just a video and a bit of text so you don’t distract the visitor, so it really depends on your product or service.
Use Bullet Points
Landing pages are designed to get the visitor to complete an action. So, it can be better to make your landing pages as short and concise as possible in order to garner this action.
You could have a sign-up form on the right side, a heading on the left, and a list of summarized points underneath outlining what the user needs to know. Sometimes, you just need to keep it simple and straight to the point.
Do Landing Pages Work?
Absolutely.
To get down on a winning landing page, always ask yourself what your purpose is and how to achieve it.
Do you want to sell your flagship product? Then work on the needs of the customer, write content that intrigues them and feel understood then facilitate the action for them.
The action that you want the user to complete, coupled with pain points, wants, or needs will help you to effectively create a good landing page and copywriting to persuade the visitor.