What’s the point of landing pages?
Aren’t they old-fashioned, and past their sell-by-date? Well, if you ask me, the answer to both those questions is definitely no. Landing pages drive traffic to websites. They’re the first point of contact your business has with potential customers: as soon as users click on your link, they’re directed to the landing page. Isn’t it sensible therefore to make this as effective and informative as possible? After all, if users have shown trust and clicked on your page, shouldn’t your business reciprocate, and provide the quality information that the user is looking for? One thing’s for sure: if you don’t provide the quality information users seek, they’ll go to somewhere that does.
So, what’s the point of a landing page?
It couldn’t be simpler really: you want to convert the reader into a buyer. To achieve this, a landing page needs to retain the reader’s interest and also give them an opportunity to sign up for whatever promotion or product you’re offering. That’s the theory anyway. How you deliver on that theory is an altogether different matter. Nothing is ever as simple as it may at first appear. Optimising a landing page so that it delivers exactly what both you and the customer want is time-consuming and takes a lot of thought.
What’s the best way to make to make landing pages effective?
Are there any sure-fire ways to guarantee your landing pages will always hit the mark? The short answer, unfortunately, is no: no one can guarantee that you’ll always secure the sale you’re after. However, there are certain measures you can take that might help improve your conversion rates.
Keep the page functional.
Make sure your landing pages are simple, uncluttered and functional. There don’t have to be complicated or fancy: it’s best saving that sort of thing for the website itself. Ensure all the links are relevant and function correctly, and that the information you provide is accurate and up to date.
Get the reader Involved.
Prompt and direct your visitors to act or do something specific, whether that’s buying a product, signing up to a newsletter or following you on Facebook or Twitter. Don’t simply hope the reader might twig what you want them to do. Readers like clear direction: if you want them to do something, then tell them. You need to make it obvious, and you have to ensure that this ‘call to action’ stands out.
Aim for clarity.
If you want your visitor to do something specific after visiting your landing page, then spell it out and make it clear. Clarity really is essential for landing pages. You may have provided superb content and put some great offers on your page, but if the visitor doesn’t know what to do after reading it you’ll probably lose the sale. The call to action needs to be clear and obvious.
Keep each page unique.
If your business sells a host of different products or services, then make a separate landing page for each of these. If you do opt for multiple landing pages, then make sure the message and content for each of these is unique.
Make landing pages work for you.
Build the landing page into your website as this will be beneficial. It will then be indexed by search engines just like any other business page of your website.
Avoid using flash if possible.
Flash might look great, but it isn’t always effective on landing pages. Flash animation extends page loading times and that may cause your visitors to look elsewhere. Time is a valuable commodity and no one likes to be kept waiting.
Keep the process seamlessness.
Try to ensure that the action you want your visitor to take is actionable from the landing page itself. The last thing you want to do is send your visitor off to another page if you want to secure a sale. If you want them to buy something, start that ball rolling right there on the landing page.
