4 Ways to Optimize Your Landing Page
Well-optimized landing pages are crucial to ensuring that visitors to your website become contacts, but what is a landing page? A landing page is a website page that allows you to capture a visitor’s information through a lead form. Landing pages are how you turn web traffic into leads.
There is a variety of landing pages, anywhere from content offers such as eBooks, guides, or checklists to signing up for free trials or even scheduling a demo. Landing pages vary in design but the one consistent is they must have a form. Never forget that visitors are signing up for the offer, not the landing page design, so make sure the landing page has an offer as valuable to your visitors as the information you’re asking them for. You wouldn’t give your mailing address to subscribe to a blog, but you might for a free $50 Amazon gift card. Make sure the information you request is proportionate to your offer.
Before we get started, don’t forget this simple tip:
Landing pages should rarely have a top navigation menu. You want to guide visitors down the marketing funnel to convert and removing a visible top navigation also helps removes distractions from conversion
So What Makes a Good Landing Page?
1) Effective design
Keeping your audience in mind is very important when it comes to design. Is your target audience tech savvy? Then make the page innovative. Is your audience on the younger side? Keep your copy conversational. The point is that when designing a landing page you want to make sure that it appeals to those who are reading it, whilst still remaining brand consistent. The design also includes the images used and the fonts. Be consistent and choose images and font that help to support the content.
While design should suit your demographic, you always want it to be clear and relatively simple. You want a reader to understand how downloading this eBook will solve some of their pain points, or why they need to schedule a demo with your company.
Finally, add social sharing icons— if it’s appropriate. This lead should be able to share this great offer with friends or peers if it’s something sharable. If you’re curious to see some great examples of landing pages, view this article from HubSpot on their top 12 effective landing page examples.
2) Lead capturing forms
The form sounds like the easy part, yet this can make or break your landing page and the data you collect. Forms aren’t just helpful for collecting lead information, but also for segmenting it. That’s why it’s important to consider what information to ask for on forms. In most cases, it is more beneficial to use checkboxes or a drop-down menu instead of a comment box. By doing so not only are visitors less intimidated and more likely to fill that section out, however, when they choose one of the options in the drop-down menu, they are automatically segmented. This saves you time in the long run. A great example of a form, that is simple and to the point is this one by Lyft.
Another factor to consider with the form is what information you need from the contact. Usually, the name and email are sufficient, however, depending on the offer, or the business type, the form may ask for a phone number as well. When adding a phone number to your form, try not to make it required as that can intimidate some visitors. However, if you absolutely need that information be sure to add in a help text box that explains why you need it and what you will be using it for (i.e. we will call you to schedule our demo).
Not sure how to get started building an effective form? HubSpot has recently added their easy to build forms as part of their free software package.
3) Engaging content
When writing your content for the landing page you want to ensure it is about the visitor. Don’t write about how great your company is and everything you can do, write about how this offer will help the visitor. What solution do you provide to every person that visits this landing page?
Also be sure to keep the content simple and easy to read. You don’t need to use elaborate terminology to get your point across. Let the reader know why they should be filling out this form, how it will benefit them, and what they get in return.
4) A clear thank you page
Once you have perfected the landing page and the visitor has filled out the form, they should be taken to a thank you page. The thank you page can be very simple or it can continue moving the lead through the funnel. I could write an entirely separate blog about thank you pages but for now here are a few best practices:
- First off, it is a thank you page so thank the lead for their interest. You want them to know that their business or interest is appreciated.
- Set clear expectations. When can they expect to hear from you? Will they be receiving the offer that they signed up for in an email, through a link or by mail? For example: “Thank you for reaching out! We will contact you in the next 1-3 business days.”
- Keep the new lead on your website. Add the navigation menu back on to the thank you page. You want your contact to continue exploring your website. You could also add some helpful blogs that relate to the landing page as well as your company’s social icons. You want to encourage them to read more about your company and to continue the lead nurturing.
Landing Pages Take Time
Generally speaking, people look at a landing page and assume that it was quick and easy to put together but that is rarely the case. There is (or should be) a large amount of strategy that goes into the design, form, content, and images used in a landing page. To ensure high traffic efficiency and conversion, every part of the landing page should be carefully thought out.
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