Creating high-performing landing pages will help you connect with your target audience in a way that is personal and aligns with their core values – enhancing your advertising campaigns and driving results.
You’ve done all the hard work of developing a comprehensive, combined SEO and content marketing strategy to help your target audience find your brand and visit your website. The next step is to get them to convert. A great landing page can play a critical role in convincing high-intent visitors to take the action you want them to take.
Often overlooked, a landing page is an essential marketing tool. Here’s how to make sure the landing pages you create are high performing.
What is a landing page?
A landing page is a stand-alone web page designed for a specific purpose. It is where visitors “land” after clicking on an ad, promotion or email campaign.
An e-commerce landing page serves as a digital storefront and exists to convert potential customers into actual customers. It should have a clear and visible call to action (CTA); strong, high-quality and compelling visuals, headlines and copy; and customer reviews and testimonials that work together to encourage people to make purchases.
Landing pages can also be created to encourage visitors to click a link to go to another page on your site or another site altogether; to share their contact information so you can follow up with them; to tell other people about your brand; and to post a comment, rating or feedback on your products and services.
Benefits of landing pages
- Landing pages designed to support marketing efforts are more likely to convert paid traffic to actual sales. That’s because they take users to exactly what they’re looking for and have a clear CTA to buy.
- Landing pages provide brands an opportunity to test different marketing campaigns to see what works and what doesn’t. This helps you determine which pages convert best. You can use this information for other marketing initiatives.
- Landing pages can be personalized to target specific audience segments.
- Landing pages allow B2B companies to capture a visitor’s information through a lead-capture or conversion form.
Five tips to create great landing pages
1. Stay focused
Keep the page simple and focused on the end goal. Provide one solution and clearly communicate its value, its benefits and how it can help. For example, a marketing-aligned post-click landing page is a stand-alone page on your e-commerce site. Its purpose is to keep people on the page and provide them with everything they need to help them decide to purchase. You don’t want visitors to get distracted by a navigation bar that leads them to other offers and away from making a purchase. Instead, focus the page on getting visitors to engage. This will encourage your target audience to convert.
Tip: Build separate landing pages for each of your promotions. This is particularly important for e-commerce sites. According to Hubspot, having 10 to 15 landing pages increases leads by 55 per cent.
2. Create strong copy and make sure it’s prominently displayed
Start with the headline. Invest the time and effort to create a headline that is clear, concise, engaging and showcases how visitors will benefit from your product or service. Optimize the page title for search by using keywords to help earn a top spot on search engine results pages. Be sure your headline is consistent with the headlines you’re using for your email and ad campaigns. This will give your target audience a seamless view of your brand. Make sure the rest of the information on your landing page flows naturally and users can easily find what they’re looking for and have all the information they need to convert. Equally important is positioning. Specifically, make sure the most important information – including your CTA – is at the top of the page above the fold. This will help ensure users can quickly see what you have to offer, regardless of where the fold appears on their browser window.
Tip: Use local search marketing or local search engine optimization to improve your business’s visibility in searches that include a geographic descriptor, such as the city, postal code, service area or term “near me.”
3. Include a persuasive, visible CTA
A clear, engaging, personalized and action-oriented CTA — like “Start my free trial” — is critical to encourage visitors to convert. Make sure the CTA is prominent, easy to see and use, and designed to appeal to your target audience. Use A/B testing to determine where to place the CTA button, the right colours and look, and the language that will ensure it gets the attention of users and helps you achieve your marketing goals.
Fast fact: Research shows that landing pages with one clear CTA have higher conversion rates than those with multiple CTAs.
4. Use visuals strategically
Images, infographics, illustrations and videos offer an important opportunity to boost the impact of a landing page and ensure people remember the information you’re sharing. Research shows when information is paired with relevant images, they are able to retain 65 per cent of the information three days later. This compares to just 10 per cent when people only hear the information. The key is to make sure the visuals you use are inspiring, impactful and illustrate to viewers what they can expect.
Fast facts about the power of video: According to research by Wyzowl, 89 per cent of consumers want to see more videos from brands in 2024; 77 per cent say they’ve downloaded or purchased an app after seeing a video about it; and 82 per cent say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video.
5. Streamline B2B lead capture landing pages
Asking for too much information and requiring users to fill in a number of fields will drive prospects away after you’ve already succeeded in capturing their interest. Be clear about your purpose and follow the tips listed above to create a well-designed capture form that will engage potential customers.
Landing pages are an important part of an effective marketing and sales strategy but too often they are overlooked. This is especially true in the B2B space. Nearly half of visitors to B2B sites land on the business home page – not a landing page with a clear call to action. This is a missed opportunity. Creating landing pages allows you to target your audience, capture important demographic and transactional information you can use to fuel other aspects of your marketing campaigns and convert more visitors into leads and customers.
