Business owners spend time and resources directing traffic to their website. They may use a range of marketing tactics, including search engine optimisation and search engine marketing. But attracting more visitors to a website, is only the first step in achieving more sales.
Make an excellent first impression
What happens when visitors arrive at your website? Do they make a purchase or perform the action you want them to? A campaign that boosts traffic will instantly fall apart without a high-converting landing page.
A boring or unhelpful page will have a high bounce rate. This means visitors will not continue to explore the site, or take action. They will instantly click away, to find another website that has exactly what they’re looking for.
Landing pages have clear goals
A landing page is specifically designed to guide visitors through a particular process. The website owner might want them to make a purchase, but there are many other desirable actions. Website owners need to decide which action is most important for their business.
Visitors could choose to sign up to an email newsletter, or join in a free course or webinar. They could also communicate with a sales representative, either via email, telephone, or website chat. All of these actions are helping them take one step closer towards making a purchase.
Most consumers are not ready to purchase when they first visit a website. But a great landing page can collect their contact details, so the business can remarket to them in the near future.
Be extremely relevant
The first consideration for a highly effective landing page, is that it must provide exactly what visitors want. Be ultra specific. If you created a PPC advertising campaign for blue and yellow spotted shoes, the landing page should be selling that exact item. A web page featuring different types of shoes is too generic, and potential customers may click away.
Conduct thorough market research
Talking to people within your target market can give you important information. The best landing pages are built with consumers in mind, every step of the way. Conduct market research to learn exactly what they want, the questions they have, and the barriers that may prevent them from making a purchase.
A high-converting landing page will answer all of these questions, without fuss. The content will be exactly what visitors want to read, and provide them with feelings of trust and optimism. Landing pages don’t need to be complex, or even long. There are many examples of short and simple pages that can achieve high conversions. Their content is precise and perfect.
Keep a narrow focus
Internet users get distracted easily – too easily. A landing page that is rich with information on a variety of topics is too distracting. Visitors might find something that interests them, but it might not be what YOU want them to be interested in.
Successful landing pages minimise distractions, including menus and social media buttons. Avoid adding unnecessary links, or information that does not relate directly to your goal. Some landing pages look like a path. They take visitors through a journey from top to bottom, and keep their attention on what matters most.
Create an exceptional user experience
Even if your web page does have a narrow focus, it does not need to be highly salesy. Some landing pages can be too overwhelming and pushy, and this will most certainly send users away. Keep returning to what you learned from your market research, and give your audience exactly what they want.
Help them make a purchase with confidence, because you provide them with the information and reassurance they need. Consumers are intelligent, so work with them to answer their questions and ease their doubts. Landing pages that are easy to navigate and provide relevant information, provide users with a great experience.
Pay attention to the details. Ensure all hyperlinks work correctly, and the layout adapts seamlessly for different devices. Use a service like Responsive Design Checker, to test your landing page on a wide variety of mobile phones, tablets and desktops. The user experience and consumer journey should be almost identical on all devices.
Refine your content
Many features of great landing page content have already been identified. Content should be relevant and meet the needs of all visitors. Also, content is more than written text, and includes images and videos.
Think carefully about every image you include. They say a picture paints a thousand words, so what are your pictures communicating? Consider using product diagrams or quality custom photos. These might require more time and money than stock photography, but they could assist you in achieving higher conversions.
Consider demonstration videos, or videos of happy consumers using your products. Videos can provide prospective customers with an understanding of your business, in ways that text cannot.
Always aim for conversions
As previously mentioned, a landing page aims to convert. It should not have any other purpose, other than guiding visitors towards completing an action. Every feature of the page and every piece of content, should contribute towards this goal.
Revise your landing page several times, and ask for feedback from people who match your target market. Analyse each element on your landing page, to ensure it is necessary and useful. Remove all potential distractions.
Test, if possible
Quite often, website owners will test their landing pages in action. They may build several similar landing pages, to test which ones convert best. A/B testing can provide useful knowledge to improve your campaign.
Small businesses however, may not have the volume of visitors needed to test accurately and quickly. If this sounds like you, do not worry. High-converting landing pages can still be achieved by satisfying the fundamental requirements. Know your goal as a business, know your target market, and help visitors to complete your desired action.
Need help? Talk to our web design team
Our Melbourne web design team understand what makes a high-converting landing page. We can support your business with quality web design, pay-per-click campaigns and search engine optimisation. Contact us today.