Landing pages are the first impression of your brand. They deliver the core call to action to that user and feature a range of copy and multimedia to successfully back-up your claims and convince the user to convert. Whether this is a purchase, download or signing up to a mailing list, your landing page needs to be convincing.
Make it sell
Of course, it’s blindingly obvious now we’ve said it, but without clear consistent and tailored messaging for your cause, no one’s going to buy what your selling… or sign up to your mailing list… or download your ebook… the list goes on.
You’d be surprised how many landing pages and ads are not aligned. Too many ads do contain the same keyword strings as their landing pages, making them not particularly aligned with one another.
You should design a specific ad and landing page for each campaign, rather than reusing content and messaging, as this will ensure the promotional message remains the same throughout. This is called message matching.
Reinforcing a positive landing page experience relies heavily on message matching. In order to ensure your ad quality score is high, you need to maintain relevance and quality first and foremost.
Lastly, when it comes to creating clarity on your landing page, make that call to action directly related to your offer. Don’t ask your users to do one thing when you actually want them to do the other — we’re not about reverse-psychology here.
Instead spend time carefully crafting a CTA, testing location on the page (somewhere above the fold), designing a button in a contrasting colour so it stands out and using enticing phrases to encourage the user to take action.
Make it original
As previously mentioned, your landing page cannot be used across multiple campaigns, this is more laziness than anything and you’re not lazy are you? Of course not!
That’s why you should create bespoke content for each landing page. Don’t copy and paste, take the time to think of who will be landing here and what you want them to do and how that differs from your other activities. Include a variety of information, use language most aligned with your persona and include only information that adds value — cut the jargon and waffle out.
Make it engaging
Your landing page has a sole purpose and this is to convert the user who has clicked on your ad or link. Here you’ll do the ceremonial brand dance, also known as the prospects first impression. You’ll need to decide what you show them and what you keep back for later, positioning this information in a way which is intriguing, exciting, engaging, informative, educational or entertaining for the users.
A friendly tone of voice is crucial to drawing in your prospects. You wouldn’t be standoffish with customers in a shop so why should your online customers be any different.
Welcome them in, offer them a digital brew and settle them down to hear all about why they should spend a little time in your world. Research your target audience across multiple locations such as social channels and forums and figure out how they speak to one another and the language they use, then put that knowledge to good use and create some beautiful content.
Snackable content sounds delicious. Unfortunately, it’s not, but it is super useful and ideal for your landing page. Anything from numbered lists, bullet-pointed reasons why your brand is the best or other easily digestible snapshots of information are loved by users simplify how you communicate your message, for those with less time or patience to take it all in.
When you don’t really have something specific to offer, why not make a splash… page. This is a specific type of page which is used to inform users — it’s not flogging products, services or trying to grab hold of these precious email addresses, it’s simply telling you something.
The core aim is to inform, engage with your target audience and encourage them to click-through to the wider website.
Make it unique
You know you love to brag a little bit about your business, what you do better than everyone else or your fantastic workforce. Your landing page should reinforce this and should make an argument for why you’re that much better than your competitors. Are you cheaper? Better quality? Faster delivery times? Smashing customer support? If you don’t tell them how will they know?!
By immersing your users in a full-frontal brag fest, integrating your core selling points into compelling content, you’ll be able to effectively highlight what makes you great to your customers. By doing this, you could see increased ROI, just by showcasing the reasons why your company is that much better than the others in the industry.
Make it trustworthy
Trust is built through a number of channels, this includes making an emotional connection with the core personas. Your target audience needs to trust you and this should be communicated within the trust signals you integrate into your landing page.
If you’re getting started with landing pages, you should know that the two trust signals you can’t leave out are your contact details and social proof.
If there’s no way to easily contact your business, not to mention multiple ways such as email, phone, live chat etc, users will think that you’re not legit and will bounce right off to someone else. Making your business accessible isn’t difficult and should be something that you’re keen to do in order to nurture those sweet prospects.
Your social proof is critical to proving you’re not a scammer/bot/hacker/goblin/whatever. Your social media channels should be packed to the gills with reviews, ratings, testimonials and existing customer interacting with the brand.
You should build out your social channels at the conception of your brand, use them to interact with influencers and customers and, where possible encourage and incentivise them to leave reviews. Just don’t pay for fake reviews, you will be found out.
Make my landing pages amazing
Okay, sure! We’re here to help you make your next campaign as successful as possible. We’ve got the skills to make your landing pages the best they can and take your conversions to new heights. If you want to know more about landing page optimisation and paid search and social media campaigns, drop us a line today!
Originally published at Favoured..
