- A landing page should follow from the sales conversation that begins with an ad, social post, or other promotional item.
- Every landing page should have a clear message undiluted by fluffy or inconsistent language.
- Effective landing pages build a trusting relationship between the brand and the consumer.
A landing page is a crucial part of your digital marketing strategy. Without it, you’re missing out on a powerful opportunity to link your ads and social posts with your actual offerings. Think of it this way: if your promotional content (PPC, sponsored posts) is a billboard, and your business is the destination, a landing page is the navigation app that gets people to you.
To effectively drive traffic to your products or services and convince people to buy them, a landing page needs to be clear, concise, and compelling. As a critical juncture between the initial touch point and the action you want your audience to take, your landing page needs to take people by the hand. Unfortunately, it’s easy to get lost in the details or play it safe with your landing page — and neither of those approaches will achieve results. Here are the 5 elements that make a landing page perform well.
Unique Value
In the marketing world, we talk about value propositions, unique selling propositions, and so on. Nowhere are these more important than in your landing page. People encounter dozens of landing pages every day. Does yours instantly communicate why your business is special and why customers should care about it?
Before you start building your landing page, decide what unique value you are pitching to your visitors. This isn’t the place to share all the great qualities of your company. When people arrive at a landing page, they’re coming from something that piqued their interest: an ad, social post, etc. They want a problem solved or a question answered. Use your landing page to continue the conversation and show them why they should do business with you.
Trustworthiness
As we all know, the Internet is rife with scams. Today’s consumers are especially cautious, and they’re used to seeing bloated landing pages full of empty promises. Unfortunately, it’s easy for reputable businesses to accidentally make their pages trigger the “scam” warning.
A landing page that’s full of fluffy language, competing or contradictory calls-to-action, or poorly designed elements will raise red flags for visitors. It’s well worth your time to streamline your copy and create a user-friendly experience.
All calls-to-action should be clearly labeled — and you definitely want to choose a single primary action for people to take. (One secondary CTA that relates to the primary one is okay.) You should also consider rolling social proof, e.g. testimonials, into your page. Content and design work together to instill a feeling of trust in your visitor.
Conscientiousness
It’s a mistake to pretend that all your visitors will respond to your persuasive copy without skepticism. Consumers will have questions and concerns. Rather than sweeping those under the rug, open up a conversation about them. It doesn’t have to occupy a large portion of your page, but devote some space to addressing potential objections.
For example, many landing pages feature a “Frequently Asked Questions” section. Hint: you don’t actually have to wait for these questions to be asked. FAQs are a great way to lay out some potential objections and give a constructive response.
You should also roll some common concerns into any copy describing your benefits. Focus on how your offering can solve problems, and if your competitors fail to address an objection, explain how your company uniquely resolves the issue.
Consistency
Ever seen a landing page with glaring shifts in design, tone, or messaging? It’s easy to tell when a page has been cobbled together from disparate elements. This can be jarring for the user, who might be hooked in by a strong opening only to find themselves bored to tears by generic copy. Or the page starts with a highly demanding sales pitch, then shifts to a conversational tone. By then, you’ve scared off half your users.
Work with your copywriters and designers to develop a consistent look, feel, and tone for the page. Remember, your landing page needs to express a unique value with a strong call-to-action, rather than serving as a catch-all promotional page that extols your company’s virtues. (That’s what your website is for.) Think of the page as a first date.
Which is more effective: introducing a topic of conversation to your date, then progressively discussing that topic and listening to your date’s input? Or throwing out random expressions of how great you are without regard to your date’s interests? Be focused and consistent in your landing page copy, and you’ll cultivate trust in your audience.
Relevance
The final and most crucial element to a compelling landing page is relevance. After all, a landing page doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s somewhere your audience goes after they’ve engaged with promotional content, a link in an email signature, a QR code, etc.
Never forget the reason they clicked on the link: they liked what they saw. Your landing page should follow from that content, which is why many landing page builders allow you to deliver a particular page for a given campaign.
For example, if you run a Google ad promoting your line of cocktail dresses, users will expect to land on a page showing said dresses. If they land on the homepage of your apparel site, they might be confused and annoyed that they now have to navigate to the “Dresses” section of your website.
And if the ad takes them to a landing page promoting something else entirely? Chances are they’ll never do business with your company. Your landing page should be highly relevant and targeted to the thing that got people to click in the first place.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, landing pages require a careful blend of content and design, but they also need to provide a trustworthy experience for visitors. That entails consistent tone, a user-friendly experience, social proof, and a relevant message.
It can be challenging to strike the perfect balance, which is why even experienced marketers test their landing pages extensively. Measure your results, A/B test different versions, and don’t be afraid to pare down your page to make it more effective.
Ultimately, a compelling landing page is one that resonates with your target audience for the unique offering in question.