7 Must-Haves for a Landing Page

A landing page plays a major role in grabbing the attention of your prospects.

If done the right way, this page can be a dream come true when it comes to generating leads.

What Is a Landing Page?

A landing page, simply put, is an attractive, elegant, and clean page that immediately gets the attention of visitors to your site.

When built innovatively, a landing page can act as the cornerstone of a successful online marketing campaign.

Why So Much Fuss About Landing Pages?

“Landing pages are the new direct marketing, and everyone with a website is a direct marketer.” -Seth Godin

The landing page is the PLACE where conversions happen. Having an effective landing page can turn your website into a money-making machine.

According to MarketingSherpa, 68% of B2B businesses use landing pages to get new leads for conversions in the future.

A business that makes $1000/day could be losing over $25K per annum if the landing page responds slowly, says internet marketing guru, Neil Patel.

Here is an example that is old by now, but which still demonstrates the importance of building a landing page well. In the year 2010, President Obama was able to raise an additional $60 million JUST by A/B testing the landing page that was created for a particular campaign.

Remember: you have just a couple of seconds to make or break the deal.

So…give it all you have!

What makes a landing page function as a converting machine? What are the best elements to be incorporated into your landing page so that even the most reluctant visitor to your site votes in your favor?

To answer these questions, let’s take a look at seven of the top elements you need to consider when designing your landing page.

7 Ways to Captivate Users with Landing Pages

1. Create Compelling Headlines

The headline of your landing page is the first thing that your visitors will see and read. So it makes sense to craft a killer headline that will impact them instantly.

Years ago, Basecamp switched up its standard software benefit/feature driven landing page for a picture of a real customer.

Basecamp made the headline a quote that summarized the major advantages that the customer’s company received.

The result was a massive increase in the conversion rate by 102.5%.

Source: wordstream.com

Here are some pointers on creating killer headlines.

• Be useful

When writing your landing page headline, remember to connect with the fears and wants of your visitors.

According to Kissmetrics, Carelogger boosted its conversion rate by 31% when its headline focused on the fear and desire of its target audience.

Source: kissmetrics.com

• Be Urgent

Encourage users to act right now by providing a deadline or giving out some useful offers. This strategy can easily grow your reader base and compel them to act.

• Command Attention

Your words should trigger emotion among your users. It’s always wise to pick up vivid adjectives for this purpose.

Some powerful words you can use are:

• Astonishing
• Never seen before
• High costs
• Power

2. Use Videos to Tell Your Story

Landing pages with videos can up the conversion rate by almost 80%, according to EyeView Digital. Also, recent statistics reveal that 95% of users retain the messages in videos.

Videos provide passive engagement. With minimum effort, visitors can discover exactly what you want to convey.

The landing page of CrazyEgg best illustrates this idea.

Source: unbounce.com

Many marketers don’t know what a heatmap is. So CrazyEgg hired the Demo Duck crew to point out the reasons why small businesses need more than Google Analytics to improve their conversions.

Do you think visitors will abandon this page?

Never.

Some important pointers to note while creating video on a landing page are:

• Use a tempting thumbnail to engage and convert your audience.
• Put your video above the fold.
• Keep your video meaty enough to be interesting for your target audience.
• Try to include a transcript of the video. Some people might want to watch the video, some might want to read it, and some would love the idea of doing both.

What’s the secret?

According to Entrepreneur, if an image is worth a thousand words, a great video is equivalent to 24k words per second.

People love videos. The Guardian even claims videos will be the future of content marketing.

Cisco states that videos will account for roughly 79% of consumer traffic on the internet by 2020.

3. Create a 3D Effect Using Parallax Scrolling

With the help of parallax scrolling, the background of your landing page moves at a reduced rate compared to the foreground.

This feature results in a 3D effect as visitors scroll down the page.

What’s so great about the scrolling effect?

It allows you to tell your story on your landing page. It allows your visitors to know more about your services or products.

When you use effective copy with parallax scrolling, the result will be a very persuasive and professional page.

Look at how informative and visually appealing the page of Garden Studio is.

The website uses parallax scrolling in a delightful and sensible way at the top of the site, before moving into a more or less static page.

Another example is the page of Lix Pen, which explains their awesome and cool 3D printing pen.

4. Trust Signals

The best landing pages make adequate use of trust signals.

Why do they use this tactic?

Trust signals indicate to visitors that your brand and offers are credible. These signals can take a number of forms, such as testimonials, endorsements from past clients, etc.

FiveStars has done a fantastic job of providing trust indicators on its landing page. The company showcases “proven results” and customer testimonials, as well as some personal information on website activity.

Another robust tool that acts as a trust signal is trust badges. These are nothing but logos of well-known companies with whom you’ve worked in the past.

When utilizing trust signals, always include the following:

• Customer testimonials
• Third-party seals
• Trust badges
• Privacy policy

5. Use Gifs to Demonstrate Your Products

Demonstrating the way your product works is extremely important.

Gifs explain how your product can be used in a faster and more persuasive way compared to videos.

Marketers are now realizing the importance of Gifs. They have become the go-to feature for companies seeking better engagement on social media.

With Facebook allowing brands to post Gifs and Twitter rolling out the auto-play videos as well, they definitely deserve a place on your landing page.

Gifs are the best substitutes for videos on landing pages.

In fact, they are much more cost-effective compared to videos when it comes to demonstrating a service or product visually.

Gifs are also gaining popularity, particularly in this year’s mobile marketing trends, so you should keep an eye on them.

PineGrow uses a Gif on its landing page to explain how users can build responsible websites faster.

6. Give Out Offers

An offer is something you give to your visitors in return for getting them to do what you want.

Offers can include discounts, coupons, a free version of your product, a free trial, a matching gift, or a whitepaper.

There are a few strategies you can use.

A website that pays bills can offer users $10 for the maiden bill they pay. Users would have to sign up for the service and link their accounts to it.

A consulting firm might offer a free consultation of 60 minutes, which could be a meeting to describe how the agency can help people.

Industrial Strength Marketing gives prospective clients a free guide to building mobile-friendly websites.

7. Put the Headline and Form into Two Columns

By breaking up the screen into two columns, you can show multiple page elements with an equal degree of prominence.

Do you think that the form on your landing page deserves the same attention as your headline or sub-headline? Can they have a cumulative impact on your visitors?

If yes, follow what Salesforce has done.

Even though there is no exact formula to creating an ideal landing page, there are some common rules of the thumb to improve your chances of making one that stands out.

Are you looking to achieve a high percentage of conversions this year?

Then don’t forget to follow the steps above when creating your landing pages.

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Pankaj Mondal

Pankaj has been in the writing industry since 2010. Among other topics, he covers real estate, finance, health, and tech.

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• 7 Must-Haves for a Landing Page - May 23, 2017