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Some landing page builders like Unbounce, Instapage & Lead Pages make building a landing page fairly easy and straightforward. That being said, it would be pointless if you didn’t know how to produce a landing page that actually converts.
But fret not, structuring a landing page is not rocket science. All you need to do is be aware of the best practices and why they need to be implemented. Use this as a guide to build all your future landing pages and you’ll soon start noticing the difference.
1. Keep Important Elements Above The Fold
The first rule of building a good landing page is remembering to keep all the action above the fold. ‘Above the fold’ refers to the section of a landing page that users first see when they land on a website.
The human attention span is short – on average 8 seconds short – which is why you’ll want to make the most of it. As a general guide, keep these 3 elements above the fold:
- Headline
- Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
- Call-to-action (CTA)
Notice how this section is not cluttered and all 3 elements are clearly visible. Keep things simple and to the point here so it’s easier for the user to navigate through.
2. Apply the Principles of Persuasion to Increase Conversions
A quick guide to get your landing pages to convert is to follow the 6 Principles of Persuasion from Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.
The author has detailed out how the following principles can transform your landing page drastically:
- Social proof
- Authority
- Scarcity
- Reciprocity
- Commitment and consistency
- Liking
We explore these principles in greater detail below.
Social Proof
Have you ever decided to eat in a restaurant that you’ve never tried before based solely on the fact that it’s full of people? Or found yourself working late in the office only because that’s what most of your coworkers do?
That’s social proof at play. You’re more inclined to follow an action if the majority of people are doing it. You could have the best product or service in the world but to truly convince people of that, you’ll need to back it up with social proof.
Booking.com does this by letting reviews and ratings from previous customers do the work for them. These reviews are proof that customers have enjoyed the experience of booking this hotel and it is likely to convince new customers to book it rather than having Booking.com tell them themselves.
Authority
Users are likely to listen to what you have to say if you display some form of authority on your landing page to add credibility to your words. This could be done by having an authority figure such as a celebrity endorse the brand.
But we understand booking a celebrity to endorse your products or services isn’t always realistic. Instead, you can show authority through trust icons and official certificates. You could even display authority by showing users how widespread your product or services are.
Grow force does this by displaying the logos of their clients, showing that big brands trust them and their services.
Scarcity
The psychology behind scarcity is quite simple – the more limited something is, the more you want it before it completely runs out. Customers’ mindsets shift from being concerned about the pricing to the fear of missing out on a purchasing opportunity.
Companies do this by promoting special offers on products that will expire soon or offering limited edition goods.
But be careful not to fake the scarcity of a certain product or service as this could have disastrous repercussions for your brand image.
Reciprocity
Reciprocity essentially means, you give something to get something back in return. The psychology behind this says that humans naturally feel obliged to return a favour because they don’t like to be indebted to anyone.
Websites play on reciprocity by asking users to provide their email in return for a discount code or a free webinar, among other things. Visitors will eventually feel obligated to buy something from your website after being offered something for free, which will lead to a conversion.
In this example, Lorna Jane offers the user updates on deals and style inspiration in exchange for their email address. Here, the brand is working to reel in the user and keep them engaged if they’re not able to convert them right away.
After signing up for Lorna Jane’s newsletter, users will be updated with information about upcoming deals and style inspiration, which could prompt them to plan their purchase in the future.
Commitment and Consistency
Commitment and consistency refers to our tendency to commit to something even if the motivation to see it through is no longer there.
Say you’ve started a survey but realised halfway through that it’s taking longer than expected. You’re likely to finish it anyway since you’ve already completed half of the survey.
With landing pages, commitment and consistency can be displayed by breaking up your “asks” into manageable chunks/steps.
In the example below, Uconnected does this by breaking up the steps a user needs to take to try their services for free.
Breaking it down into 4 very manageable steps will make it more attractive for users to try out.
Liking
This principle follows the idea that people are more likely to buy a product or service from someone that they like. This is a tough principle to pull online – how do you convince people to like someone even if they haven’t met them in person?
Landing pages typically do this by including conversational copy and speaking just like the target audience would.
In this example, popular Australian brand Sportsgirl uses lingo that only their target audience would understand. “Hue-phoric eyes” refers to a makeup style popularised by a tv show called Euphoria.
The target demographic for the Euphoria audience is 17 year olds and above, roughly the same age Sportsgirl is targeting. The brand has intelligently capitalised on what is on the minds of their target audience and used it to promote their products, which in this case is makeup.
3. Match Landing Pages With Ads & Target Keyword
The whole point of a landing page is to provide further information and opportunity for the user to act on what they saw in the ad. Therefore, what you’re advertising in the ad should match what is on the landing page and meet the users expectations.
People have limited time and will only act on something if the message is clear and goes straight to the point. Don’t waste the time of the visitor and give them the opportunity to act quickly on what you’re offering.
4. Mobile-Friendly Design
When you’re designing your landing page, make sure that it’s compatible with any device i.e. desktops, tablets and mobile phones. Not everything that works for a desktop layout would work for a mobile layout, so be prepared to shrink images or remove them entirely and change the positioning of CTAs.
If you prefer to play it safe, you could keep most of your buttons and forms in the centre of the page to avoid it from stretching and shrinking when it’s displayed on other devices.
5. Have A Clear USP
Why should consumers choose your product or service over what is offered by your competitors? What sets you apart from them? Whatever it is, users need to know this clearly from the beginning because, as we keep saying, their attention span is short.
When considering how to position your USP, you should first answer these questions:
- Who is your ideal customer?
- What are the pain points that your ideal customer deals with?
- How can your product/service be a solution to their pain points?
6. Make It Visual
As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of landing pages, the less words, the better. If you can explain what you’re trying to say through a picture instead of words, all the better.
An added plus is that images contribute to a faster loading time, which will make your website visitors happy. 3 ways to use pictures on your landing page:
- Display images of people
- Show the function of your product
- Represent the target audience and how the service/product can benefit them
Images of people
Pictures are more visually appealing than words and people resonate better with them. Images of people for instance capture the attention of users because as humans, we’re programmed to notice faces first.
We also tend to empathise with these humans based on what they see. When website visitors look at landing pages, their eyes tend to follow the gaze of the people in the image, which in this case is a mobile interface of the Optus App.
Function of product
Another example of how images can be powerful is when they convey the message and function of your product.
Represent target market
Here, EOS uses a video to display their product to the consumer, helping them identify with it. Here, the brand makes it easy for website visitors to imagine themselves using the product through an idealised version of themselves.
The visual displayed here represents the entire target market and how EOS’ shoes can benefit this audience. Sometimes showing rather than telling through words makes it easier for your audience to understand what you’re saying.
7. Maintain An Optimal Loading Speed
Recount back to all those times you’ve visited landing pages that take forever to load. It’s really frustrating, isn’t it?
Making sure that your landing pages load quickly would make a huge difference to the experience of your visitors.
Run the Google Speed Test on your page to see how long it takes to load. Usually landing pages should load within 3 seconds or less or anything that’s as quick as possible.
Now that you know the loading speed, what can you do to improve it?
- Optimise images
This is the most common reason for slow landing pages. 3 ways you can optimise them is by:- Getting your image size < 800kb but of course, the smaller the better.
- Choose the right file type. JPEG works better for images with big differences in colour while PNG is better for simple images with defined shapes.
- Use compression tools like TinyPNG or JPEG Optimizer.
- Host your videos somewhere else
While hosting your own videos on your website can be good for SEO, it won’t help much with loading time.The solution to this is to host your videos on a 3rd party platform so that you can do without some of that extra loading time. - Web host
Where you host your website will play a huge influence on the loading speed of your site. There’s a couple ways to do this:- Shared hosting: Most affordable method but this means you’re sharing your website being hosted there along with others. So you will also be sharing storage space and processing power.
- VPS hosting: Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a mix between sharing and dedicated hosting. While you’re still sharing, you have dedicated resources which means better power but this comes at a higher cost.
- Dedicated hosting: This is the most expensive option because you have the server all to yourself. This is suitable for websites that experience very heavy traffic but it involves some technicality on knowing how to set up and maintain this type of server.
As for the more technical side, like code-related optimisation (e.g. Javascript/ CSS/ scripts/ bloated plugins), you’ll need to consult a web developer for that.
Start Upgrading Your Landing Pages
Most people don’t understand what it takes to produce a landing page that converts well and end up losing out on the valuable opportunity to convert. The best way to start is to understand the best practices required to induce action from users.
Refer to this guide when you’re producing your next landing page to make sure you’re on the right track. If you need professional advice on how to produce a good landing page or just want someone to do it for you, we’ve got you covered. Speak to our marketing consultants to find out more.
