7 Tips To Write The Perfect Landing Page Headline
The first thing that a user sees on your landing page is your headline. Your headline will make or break your conversion rate. If you can’t write an effective headline that pulls your prospect in, there’s no way they’re making a purchase.
“5 times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.”
– David Ogilvy
An effective headline grabs a prospect’s attention and draws them in.
An effective headline speaks to fears, pains, desires, and dreams.
An effective headline creates a sense of urgency, getting prospects to take action NOW.
But most people don’t know how to write persuasive landing page headlines…
Why Most Landing Headlines Aren’t Effective
Most people will craft a landing page (and ad) with one goal in mind:
Make a sale.
And that’s exactly where they go wrong.
The goal of the landing page (and the ad) is not to sell.
The goal is to create intrigue.
Let’s say you’re in the market for new running shoes and you come across an ad. Which of these options is more enticing?
“Run Faster With The New [Brand Name] V10”
OR
“5 Fatal Mistakes You Need To Know Before Buying Your Next Running Shoes. Why You Can Never Get It Right.”
The second brings out so much more emotion.
Is it long? Yes. It can probably be workshopped.
But it speaks to the the prospects pain points and fears.
Almost everyone hates buying shoes, scared that they won’t be a good fit after wearing them outside for the first time.
The headline provokes prospects’ fears.
It gets them intrigued.
And curious.
The headline is persuasive because it feels like something they NEED to read.
The perfect headline pulls in the prospect, making them read more. And only then can you start to sell your product or service as the solution.
The simple mindset switch of looking at your ad and landing page as a means to create intrigue, rather than just to make a sale, is ultimately the best way to increase your landing page conversion rates.
7 Tips To Craft The Perfect Landing Page Headline
So now that you know the goal of a headline is to create intrigue, here are 7 tips on how to craft persuasive and effective headlines that create that curiosity. Creating curiosity will improve your landing page conversion rate.
- Keep it simple. A headline should be concise and to the point. The shorter the better, as long as the meaning is not lost in the process.
- Use actionable words. Words like “discover”, “unlock”, and “transform” can give readers a sense of positive emotions. Words like “stop”, “quit”, and “lies” can give reads a sense of fear. Focus on sparking curiosity and urgency.
- Use strong language. Using strong language in headlines can help to emphasize the message and emphasize the importance of the product. In the example above, the headline isn’t just “things you need to know before buying running shoes”, it’s “5 FATAL mistakes.” It uses strong language.
- Make use of numbers. Including a number in a headline can add credibility to the message and give prospects a sense of the value proposition or what to expect on the landing page. Once again, this is done in the example above and even in the headline for this article.
- Speak to a burning issue. Your landing page should speak to the prospects most burning issue to capture readers’ attention and increase the chances of continuing to read and take action. In the example above, I specifically called out “why you can never get it right” because that’s an issue that many people fear and face when buying new shoes.
- Use psychological triggers. Utilizing psychological triggers can be incredibly effective in persuading users to take action. For example, people are motivated more by pain than they are by pleasure. It will “hurt” you more to lose $100 than it would feel good to gain $100. That’s why in the example above I wrote “why you can never get it right” — it provokes a sense of fear. Reading the landing page feels like the solution to subside that fear.
- Speak to emotions. I always revert to this wheel of emotions when crafting ads to pick out some emotions I’m trying to hit — I can make one headline that takes a fear-based approach and another that takes an inspired-approach. Test them and see which performs better. The wheel gives me a direction to base my ad and landing page around.
What’s a Good Conversion Rate?
According to WordStream, the average landing page conversion across industries is 2.35%, with the top 25% converting at 5.31% or higher and the top 10% with conversion rates of 11.45% or higher.
But you should focus on improving YOUR conversion rate, whatever that may be.
By following these tips, you can create persuasive and effective headlines that will help to capture readers’ attention and increase your conversion rate.
