Tag Archives for " Landing Page "
12 Best Landing Page Examples
Would you rather have a beautiful website or a website your customers love?
From a business perspective, you shouldn’t go for either.
Your answer must be 100% I want a high-converting website.
Because if people buy, then they both like it and you can safely and predictably scale your business.
Disclosure: This content is reader-supported, which means if you click on some of our links that we may earn a commission.
Many people get in the trap of creating designs they like while their perfect client avatar is so much different than what they would imagine.
And that can be easily noticed when you click on ads you see on social media.
You might like the ad itself but most times the landing page on the other side is not what you want to see.
The connection between your traffic and your landing page is called an accurate message to market fit.
You want your message to perfectly fit your market so you can start with a winning funnel that’s only bound to go up from there.
Because if you mess up there, you would be optimizing and tweaking little components that will barely get you to break even.
But if you nail your message you would be getting customers left and right without even knowing why or how they came to you.
It’s your most powerful weapon and most businesses do it completely wrong.
So to help you out and guarantee your immediate success, we’ll be going over the best 12 landing page examples that you should use to scale your business.
We’ll go over each one’s strengths and weaknesses while making sure you find one that fits your exact business.
After this post, you’ll be able to come up with high-converting landing pages like magic.
But before we do that, we must go over…
What Makes a Great Landing Page?
In general, a great landing page includes:
- a strong heading that includes your main keyword
- a subheading that clarifies the heading
- a copy that explains the offer
- an image, video, or illustration that supports the offer
- a form or CTA button where the user can convert
You might also include social proof or trust symbols, such as reviews, testimonials, or logos of your past customers.
The exact design, however, will depend on your goals, your business, and your industry.
Let me ask you a couple of questions that will guide you in the right direction.
What do you want to accomplish with your landing page?
Your most common options are:
- Getting people to opt-in in exchange for free value on a subject.
- Directly selling a low-ticket product like a book or a mini-course.
- Free Trial offer for a monthly service or software,
- Free + Shipping offer where you count on upsells to make a profit.
You’ve got to know exactly what offer you want to present on your landing page before creating it.
Of course, there are other offers you can make but the idea here is to clarify what is the one that you want to use for your business.
If you’re not sure, there are multiple examples further down the post.
Are you committed to this project or are you just trying out an offer?
Building a high-converting landing page is not an overnight hustle.
You might find yourself optimizing a non-profitable landing page for months before it starts generating real returns.
If you’re not ready for that, then I recommend you quit before you even start.
Yes, you can get a lucky shot and hit a homerun from your first try, but don’t count on it.
Be ready for the long game so you catch the long-term gains that are so much sweeter than the momentary satisfaction.
What’s your budget?
Before you begin designing your high-converting landing page, you need to prepare a solid budget.
You can’t expect everything to go smoothly throughout the process.
Problems are going to occur and most times the easiest and fastest way to solve them is to pay someone who is an expert in the field.
That can be a developer, a funnel designer/builder, an Ad specialist, or a CRO consultant.
Either way, you should be ready to pay someone to do it right so you don’t face the same problems over and over.
In marketing and life, there’s a rule of thumb that suggests you should finish your work and then let someone else judge it.
Obviously, for landing pages, the way is to run some ads and see if the traffic converts.
If it does, you raise your ad budget and try to scale.
If it doesn’t convert initially then you should let a professional take a look at it.
Even if you already hired someone to build it for you, don’t expect him to help you here.
Yes, they can optimize your page but you’ve got to keep in mind that people have an emotional attachment to their work.
That’s why you need a third party to help you out.
When it comes to optimizing a landing page for conversions, you must consider the idea of hiring an agency.
Big marketing agencies nowadays have had hundreds if not thousands of clients who had been in your exact situation.
That’s why hiring a marketing agency to help you increase your conversion is the best bet.
Talking about CRO (conversion rate optimization) there’s no better choice than NP Digital.
It is simply the best marketing agency for both SEO and CRO.
If you’re at the stage where you want to optimize your existing landing page but you don’t know exactly how to do it, then book a quick call with a professional where you’ll unravel the secret conversion optimization methods your business needs.
Now, let’s look at some landing page examples.
The Best 12 Landing Page Examples
These are the 12 Best Landing Page Examples we could find.
We’ll be judging them for conversions, offer, design, and customer experience.
1. Get Response
Get Response is a simple yet interactive landing page example.
You can see the Get Response team is bold as they’re the only software in the industry that uses an interactive headline.
The yellow sign you see on the image below changes between the words growing, leads, and sales.
That makes it for a great attention-grabbing headline that just makes you read on.
Also, they use a friendly, positive face which is something we don’t see very often in business that is not centered around a personal brand.
That of course is not a bad thing. It automatically builds trust and makes it easier for people to sign up for their software.
2. Slack
Slack is always on the top of its game when it comes to landing pages.
They are constantly optimizing for conversions and that’s the best way to find your winning landing page.
Their current one is extremely interactive, has a big eye-popping headline, and also shows how easy it is to use the software with a quick five-second gif.
Straight from the get-go, you can see they value customer satisfaction and if you’re still not sure, scrolling down will lead to non-stop credibility and results that prove their authority in the marketplace.
3. Intercom
Intercom’s main objective on this landing page is to get you to sign up for their email list.
Keeping it to email is a great way to increase your opt-in rate.
A big, positive headline that puts you in the right state of mind to act now.
The images they use perfectly represent the headline’s main unique selling proposition.
You can see an overall friendly environment and you just have to opt-in if you got to this page.
4. Lyft
Lyft has been growing in the past years, and its website, landing page, and overall online funnel is a driving force.
They focus on attracting new drivers that want to control their own life.
Promising your workers’ freedom while working for you is the best way to snap the best candidates from your competitors.
Lyft has used multiple landing pages in the past, but their current one shows real professionalism.
Once again, we see a giant, attention-grabbing headline. This time with a question to anticipate curiosity and thought process in their prospects.
Check out the button “APPLY TO DRIVE”. It implies that it’s not 100 percent sure you’ll be able to get the position.
Making it so your clients have to compete to get a hold of your attention makes it so they try harder in the job itself.
5. Zoho
Zoho’s landing page is a great example of a more complicated but still extremely powerful messaging.
They use more text than the average software in the industry but that’s not necessarily bad.
For their specific case, they need to convert the prospect to begin a free trial which automatically builds tension in a prospect because he knows it will come a time he’d have to pay.
Converting someone to pay is way harder than just getting their email.
That’s why using more text in their messaging makes it for a powerful copywriting punch that maximizes free-trial registrations.
6. Squarespace
Squarespace tops the list for the least amount of text in their landing page design.
You might think that copy is not enough to convert someone.
However, once you see that they’re a website builder, you can see how the design and the quick and powerful messaging are all you need to sign-up.
They know their prospects mainly struggle with complicated codes and want to show a safe space where they can relax and drag and drop their winning website design.
7. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign solely focuses on showing you how their software brings the best customer experience possible.
If you’re a business owner, you both want to be treated well and want to help your customers in tough times.
Their headline hits two birds with one stone and, once again, there’s no useless text or design.
Everything leads to the big green button and you starting your free trial.
8. Hubspot
Hubspot is one more CRM that tops out the list today.
Just like ActiveCampaign, they show you that using their software will both help you and your customers feel better throughout the process.
Knowing that their ideal customer’s main objection is that learning a whole new CRM from scratch might be hard, tedious, and maybe even impossible, helps them narrow their message straight to the point.
9. Shopify Plus
Shopify is one of the most well-known platforms in today’s online space and they know it.
As they’ve grown, they’ve been able to test out multiple landing page designs to find one that converts.
And Shopify Plus’s landing page shows for it.
Their main goal is to book a consultation call with their prospects, which takes more than just a couple of words.
They have the budget to shoot professional videos for all of their products and services which helps transfer valuable information to their prospects in the fastest possible way — video marketing.
Down below you see powerful credibility and if you take the time to watch the video, you’re most likely going to book a call with them.
Videos are a deadly weapon in the right business’s hands and Shopify proves that here and pretty much with anything they do.
10. Webflow
Webflow shows the insights of the software immediately when you land on their landing page.
You can see instant credibility from big websites that have used their services and also you can begin for free.
That breaks any tension the prospect might have.
On top of that, you can see that their software is similar to Photoshop.
So if you’ve ever used Adobe’s products, you immediately know this work will be a piece of cake for you.
11. ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels uses its software to convert you for a free trial.
Even if you’re skeptical, you can play around with the funnel pages and buttons to see the responsiveness of their tool.
You can see that they use more text than the average website/funnel builder.
Once again they’re trying to convert people to start a 14-day free trial which is not an easy task.
They also use powerful videos that sell directly to their ideal customers.
The best part is the analytics they’ve added to their landing page.
It’s a bold and powerful move if done correctly.
The way these analytics are crafted makes it so they are constantly being updated and it’s not just 100K+ users as you might see on other platforms.
ClickFunnels values its customer’s success stories and is always there to record each result.
It’s one of the harder landing page designs to pull off but if you do it, your conversions will skyrocket.
12. Conversion Lab
Conversion Lab has been using this landing page design for years now.
We’ve noticed they split test different button CTAs, like book a call, get a free consult, and many more.
Keeping their Founder on the main page of the website builds a long-term relationship many businesses nowadays miss out on.
They clearly state their services through their persuasive headline and, even if you’re not ready to book a consultation, a pop-up will appear collecting your email.
Email follow-up is a great way to ensure that a high percentage of prospects that land on your website will end up booking a call with you.
Landing Page Examples: Frequently Asked Questions
What is a landing page and how does it work?
A landing page is a specially designed page intended to encourage users to complete a specific task (i.e., convert.)
They work by highlighting key points, using social proof or case studies to build trust, and providing a CTA to encourage conversion.
What should a landing page include?
While the exact format may vary, landing pages should include:
- a headline that includes the main keyword
- subheading that clarifies the heading
- a description of the offer image, video, or illustration CTA button or form (optional) trust elements such as customer logos, reviews, or testimonials
Who needs a landing page?
Any business with a website should have a landing page of some sort to encourage users to take an action, such as book a demo, call for a quote, sign up for an email list, etc.
Do I need to A/B test my landing pages?
Absolutely. A/B testing should be an ongoing process to increase your landing page performance.
Landing Page Example Conclusion
These examples can serve as an inspiration to create a high-converting landing page.
To get the most out of your landing page, be sure to:
- Find what your best customers struggle the most with and then directly destroy this objection with a short and punchy headline.
- Use credibility and videos if possible.
- Know your goals — Is it to get their email, phone, ook a call, start a free/paid trial, or something else?
- Use clear and follow Call to Actions.
Finally: always, always, always optimize your landing pages.
You can NOT be perfect from day one.
Every business on this list tests their pages dozens if not hundreds of times before finding the winning landing page.
Even then, they still optimize.
Have you tried building a landing page before?
How’d it go — did it convert well and what were your biggest breakthroughs?
Source: feedproxy.google.com
Why Good Site Architecture Is The Only CRO You Need
When you hear the words “site architecture,” the first thing that comes to mind is probably SEO. It doesn’t take much digging into SEO best practice to learn that Google loves a site with clearly defined architecture that’s easy to crawl and index. But if you stopped your site architecture planning with just your SEO, then you’ve missed out on the greater picture.
Site architecture isn’t just an effort to game search engines into ranking your site higher.
It does help with SEO, but it’s so much more than that.
Ultimately, your site architecture should be a strategic effort that allows your organic or paid visitors to navigate easily and use your site for its intended purpose.
That means that site architecture is the older brother of conversion rate optimization.
So in this post, I want to show you exactly how site architecture simultaneously supersedes and enables traditional conversion rate optimization efforts.
And to start things off, I want to dig a little deeper into why so many conversion rate optimization efforts fail.
Why conversion rate optimization doesn’t always work
When dialing in your conversion rate optimization, it’s easy to want to focus on the more traditional efforts.
Typical conversion rate optimization efforts require brands to set up competing versions of the same page in order to see how they can improve them.
It’s like a battle royale for website pages.
After a week or two of waiting and measuring, the best-performing page wins.
One of them stays up, while the others are discarded for all eternity.
From there, more experimentation occurs based on the winning page’s performance to see if anything else can be improved.
Sometimes, brands will even get brave and conduct some multivariate tests to see if changing multiple elements can yield improvement.
Much like a traditional A/B test, the results hinge on a last-man-standing approach.
Brands can be the loser, and the winner stays up as the subject of more experimentation.
All of this is an ongoing effort to see how you can improve conversions over time.
Many frequent blogs about this practice, which even has its own career field in the marketing industry.
But these types of tests aren’t always the most dependable for small brands that need to optimize as efficiently as possible.
And even some large businesses fall prey to common A/B testing mistakes.
For example, elements like sample size can drastically skew the results of conversion rate testing.
Simply put, if you’re not getting enough traffic, then you’ll be making changes and concluding off of insufficient amounts of data.
That means you could be making the wrong moves and ultimately hurting your brand’s performance.
Or you could also be testing something silly, like colors on your website.
To put it in ConversionXL’s Ott Niggulis’ words:
“There is no universal best color. What works on one site, doesn’t necessarily work on another.”
And that’s part of the point as well.
Many conversion rate optimization trends rise on the backs of a brand or two saying they saw good results from a particular experiment.
Then everyone does it, and confusion results when improvement doesn’t follow.
And then to make matters worse, many brands often don’t allow a proper amount of time to see if their results end up sticking.
If your variable regresses back to your control’s average, then there’s a good chance that dropping your control could be a bad idea.
Many brands will prematurely make a decision in the first few days, which ultimately hurts them in the long run.
People call this the small win mentality. It ultimately leads to poor optimization and potentially undermines your results.
So with all of the potential pitfalls of traditional conversion rate optimization, can site architecture create a more foolproof way to ensure that your website sees plenty of conversions?
To answer that, I want to break down some of the basics of site architecture and show you how it correlates to your conversion rate optimization.
How site architecture creates conversions
Your site’s architecture focuses on building a platform that is easier for your users to navigate.
When you look into what site architecture actually is, you’ll typically see a graph that offers a genealogy-like depiction of how pages on your site interact.
While there’s a good chance no two sites will be exactly alike, this hierarchy style is a pretty standard example.
You start from a homepage and then navigate through a series of categories and subcategories until you’ve found what you’re looking for.
If this process is fluid, as in the graph above, then your users will have no issues.
But if the architecture is muddled, and it’s hard to find a page that should fall under a natural category, then it’s increasingly more likely that your users will leave.
In other words, the idea is to create a fluid user experience that ultimately leads to trackable and accurate conversion testing.
If you implement this correctly, you’ll have a site that’s easier to improve on in the long run.
But does site architecture have a genuinely positive effect on your conversions?
A brand called Voicer reported a 75% increase in conversions by correcting some “small” user experience flaws in their site.
If they can see that kind of improvement from small changes, imagine what would happen on a site that has significant user experience problems.
And yet another brand reported a 112% increase in revenue by improving the usability of their site.
So, good site architecture that leads to a good user experience can clearly act as a solid basis for conversion rate optimization.
But breaking down the user experience of your website isn’t a simple process.
It requires a great deal of data gathering and analyzing to get to a point where you can indeed create a site architecture that works well for conversions.
Thankfully, there’s a method called the honeycomb model that shows you how exactly user experience can be broken down to help optimize your conversion rates.
This methodology provides a simple framework that helps brands create websites with the following characteristics:
- Useful: Serve the purpose for which they created it.
- Usability: Simple and easy to use.
- Accessible: Anyone can use it.
- Desirable: Provides positive emotion and is pleasant to use.
- Findable: Navigation is intuitive, and solutions are easy to find.
- Credible: Conveys in a believable or trustworthy manner.
- Valuable: Delivers on a promised value.
If you can fulfill all of the requirements in the honeycomb model, then you optimize your sales funnel paths naturally for conversions.
So for the rest of the article, I want to show you some ways that you draw a direct line between user experience, site architecture, and conversion rate optimization.
Site Architecture for Lead Generation
You’ll see without a doubt that site architecture is a viable path to increase your lead generation.
Reason #1: It gives your site utility
The first steps of the honeycomb model rely on creating a website that is useful and usable.
This addresses the utility and the function of your site in a few ideas that are easy to understand.
But just because they’re easy to understand doesn’t mean they’re easy to implement.
When building out your site’s architecture, you need to create an experience that helps your user find what they came for.
This natural flow is the first place to start when addressing the usability and usefulness of your website.
This ultimately determines how people interact with your website.
And how they interact with your website will, in turn, determine how many conversions you get in the long run.
Think of it in terms of an example involving a site that sells power tools.
On a well-designed website, this would be a logical flow of thought:
Users can navigate based on the type of tool that they want to find. The site then presents individual products according to whether they are cordless, electric, or gas powered.
Now imagine if you were to switch some of the products around.
In this case, if you were trying to find a gas-powered saw, you would naturally look under the gas-powered tools.
If you misplace this in your site’s architecture, a user might navigate to the logical page but still be unable to find a product you actually have.
That means no matter how much you optimize the page, your organic traffic will struggle to navigate your site and may ultimately leave.
So when linking site architecture to conversion rates, the first place most brands start is with a mockup of what they want their users to achieve.
The purpose is to base the entire website design process on actual data and user behavior.
In the words of Paypal UX designer Larry Sawyer:
“They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a mock-up is worth even more than that.”
So this design process typically follows a flow of testing, analysis, definition, ideating, prototyping, and then validating.
If you follow this particular model, you’ll be able to create a website that is usable by anyone in your audience and thus inherently useful to all parties.
So your initial goal is to optimize your site according to what visitors are doing.
You then take that information and analyze their behavior to see what stands out.
How they use your site defines what is essential, which further provides you the ideas you need to test if you want to improve your conversions.
From this information, you create a prototype of your website, and then validate your findings with additional testing.
If the prototype is invalid, you rinse and repeat until your site is in complete working order.
Keep in mind that this style of UX design does typically involve more design than just site architecture.
But for our purposes, we want to focus on the bigger picture.
So when finally creating your site’s architecture mockup, many brands start with a comprehensive markup of how the elements of every page contribute to the user experience.
As this professional breakdown demonstrates, you can draw out and improve every aspect of your site.
From this exercise, you can create a basic outline of what your users should achieve on every page of your site.
The purpose here is to take a vast amount of data from your original design and then strip it away until only a series of user actions remain.
This, in turn, dictates your site’s architecture as it is a direct representation of how you want your user to use your site.
From this simplified design, one then typically creates a more comprehensive wireframe mockup.
Once you’ve completed the wireframe, you only need to finalize your imagery, copy, and calls to action.
You can then test your new prototype site to see if your user experience is positively affected.
If this simplifies the actions your users take, then you truly aligned your site’s architecture with the intent of your audience, thus fulfilling the usefulness and usability criteria.
This process can be tedious, but it’s a great illustration of how data-backed and conversion-oriented your site architecture really is.
If you can successfully do this with your site, you’ll be one step closer to creating a better overall conversion funnel that will help your brand for years to come.
Reason #2: It creates positive momentum
As we move deeper into the user experience and site architecture connection, the next layer according to the honeycomb model hinges on creating positive momentum.
That means according to the honeycomb model it needs to be desirable, accessible, and findable.
So once you’ve established a flow and created a site that’s usable on any device, the next step is to move beyond and create a pleasant experience.
It may surprise you to learn that one in three users will leave a site because they can’t find a product.
That means your site architecture can hurt conversions in a very direct way.
So your goal at this point should be to create a site that’s both easy to navigate and that builds natural forward momentum.
If you strive to emphasize the architecture of your site with compelling storytelling, the natural result will be that more users complete actions on your site.
That means finding a way to create a site whose architecture naturally lends itself to being informative, interactive, and even at times entertaining.
Consider the example of the site My Grandmother’s Lingo.
This award-winning website helps users learn new words from one of the oldest language in the world.
The creators designed the website for use and utility but even took that effort a step further by making it compelling and engaging.
The tantalizing idea of learning something both old and new hooks the user, and then sends them on a 10-minute journey where they learn something.
In the end, the primary goal is to help spread awareness of these ancient languages and provide a platform for future preservation.
How do they achieve this? Through vivid storytelling and clear site architecture that’s geared toward positive momentum.
But momentum isn’t just about storytelling.
It also relies on where you position yourself, like on mobile.
More than ever, users are browsing with a mobile device.
That means that the architecture of your site needs to be conducive to both a desktop user and a mobile user.
If you only focus on one or the other, you are missing a significant portion of your potential audience, and thus you are losing conversions.
And if someone comes to your mobile site only to find it isn’t optimized, then all positive momentum is gone.
But momentum has to start even further back with your SEO.
And site architecture plays a critical role in bringing organic traffic to your site and providing forward momentum.
In one study, a brand was able to increase their site’s organic traffic from 800 visits per month to over 3,600 per month by focusing on the user experience their website gave.
That’s a growth of 350%.
They achieved this by focusing entirely on the information architecture of their site and its contents.
So it’s clear that site architecture can lead to more traffic.
If your traffic can access across any device, then your momentum continues.
Moreover, if your storytelling is engaging, you further the momentum again.
And all of this links back to your site’s architecture and how well both Google and your audience utilize it.
Reason #3: It ultimately clarifies the value
The final reason that links your site’s architecture to your efforts concerning conversion rate optimization hinges on your site being credible and valuable.
Another way you could say that is, “How does your site’s architecture help you deliver on your promise?”
If you fail to deliver a promise by creating a muddled and confusing site, then you’re never going to be able to see any real improvement from an A/B test.
And according to the LIFT model of CRO, the clarity and relevance of your value proposition will ultimately take your brand to new heights.
The key to remember here is that users don’t always come to your website via your homepage.
There’s a good chance they could enter at any given point, so long as they have the right URL.
For example, how do you potentially sell – via your site’s architecture – to a visitor who first visited your blog?
If you don’t have a way for them to get their bearings and navigate your site immediately, you could potentially lose a lead before the process even begins.
Your goal then, with your site’s architecture, is to provide value at every stage.
That means that when someone comes to your site, they should immediately know where they are.
Elements such as your permalink structure even play a role in helping your visitor understand where they are and what value your site offers.
If you parse your site out into easily understandable silos, like the example above, users will see your site as much more credible and ultimately more useful.
Take for example the Merge and Purge case study that sought to boost organic traffic and improve user experience.
In this case, the focus was on taking disparate pieces of content created over many years and compiling them into understandable content silos.
When the site was simplified, they saw a 32% increase in organic traffic.
And as we’ve already seen, organic traffic is part of the site architecture conversion machine.
So in this case, by clarifying the value of their site by creating a cleaner content architecture, the brand was able to achieve a big win.
Brands should always seek to clarify their value proposition, and in this case, the answer is simple:
Your site architecture is the best place to start.
Conclusion
Conversion rate optimization is a nuanced and technical field.
It takes a lot of time and effort to learn the ins and outs of what works and what doesn’t, and that often trips up brands that seek to experiment and grow their online presence.
A/B tests fail very often, and the resulting frustration often turns businesses away from conversion rate optimization as a whole.
But if you were to focus on creating robust site architecture, the results can be very different in the best possible way.
Site architecture is the backbone of conversions, and following the honeycomb model to help improve your user experience is the best course of action.
If you do, your site will have much more utility, and your site’s users will be able to navigate with ease.
From there, you can use your architecture to build positive momentum and keep people engaged with your brand.
And finally, you’ll have a clearer and more appealing value proposition that users can find from any entry point.
You’ll be much better suited to grow and convert new leads by merely creating a solid site architecture.
How has your site’s architecture helped or hurt your brand?
About the Author: Neil Patel is the co-founder of Neil Patel Digital.
Source: feedproxy.google.com
Landing Pages Are Overrated. Here’s Why and What You Should Do Instead
I used to hate building landing pages.
I’ve certainly made mistakes and had to learn some things the hard way.
For a long time, my landing pages just didn’t work. They were weak and barely converted.
Landing pages are being praised as the magic answer to all of our conversion problems, but it’s not as easy as some people think.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you can build a landing page and presto, your conversions will skyrocket.
The conversion rate from a landing page varies across industries, but the average is only 2.35%.
This means that for every 50 people you get to your landing page, only one will actually complete the action you’re trying to get them to do.
That’s a little depressing right?
I have good news for you though. I’ve learned from experience that most landing pages can do better.
The majority of landing pages aren’t really optimized to achieve conversions. They look “pretty,” but they’re not living up to expectations because they’re flawed.
I’m going to show you why landing pages are currently overrated and how to change your game to boost your conversions.
But first, let’s talk about what a landing page really is and what it’s meant to be for.
What is a landing page, really?
In the simplest sense, a landing page is a page you land on.
The problem with that answer is that it’s much too simple.
If someone clicks a link in one of your ads and it takes them to your home page, then by this definition your homepage is a landing page.
Some companies are making that mistake.
Let me show you an example.
I’m searching for “cleaning services seattle” in Google. I click on the paid ad:
That takes me to their homepage:
Now, here’s an example of a landing page done right.
I click this search result:
And, here is a landing page tailored to my search preferences:
Your homepage might be a good place to send people if you’re just trying to build general awareness, but it’s not where you’re going to have success with conversions.
A landing page is meant to have one singular goal: To convert.
That’s it. It shouldn’t do anything more than that.
Check out this definition from The Landing Page Course:
There are two key points here:
- They are individual pages with one, singular goal.
- They are meant for the single purpose of receiving “campaign traffic,” which means the click-throughs from your Ads and campaigns. This could be social media ads, PPCs, or emails.
This means that first, you need to be running a successful ad campaign that is causing the right traffic to click through to your landing page.
After all, if no one is “landing” on your landing page, it’s going to be pretty useless, right?
Assuming that your ad campaign is successful and your CTR is good, then the landing page should have one of two possible purposes:
Capture leads for further communications and to allow you to market to them in the future when they’re further down the sales funnel.
Warm-up your potential customers to get them ready and eager to purchase your product or service before sending them through to close the deal.
Each of these purposes requires a different type of landing page.
Good landing pages can provide a number of benefits:
They help promote a positive first impression.
Ion Interactive says first impressions are formed in just 1/20th of a second. Landing pages can be customized and designed to help provide strong positive visual impressions quickly.
They can take advantage of trust elements.
Landing pages with images, videos and graphics can not only help attract people, but they will help you make a lasting impression.
People only remember 20% of what they read, but they remember 80% of what they see.
Landing pages promote customer focus.
It’s easier to capture conversions from a well-designed landing page than it is from a homepage or blog post because they have one singular goal. There is less noise to distract your audience.
All of this means that landing pages are the ideal place to get your audience to convert if they’re done right.
Conversion Rate Experts generated $1 million/ year for Moz simply by improving their landing page and doing some email promotion.
So why are landing pages overrated?
Well, it’s not because they can’t work. It’s just that too often people use a generic template or slap something together that just doesn’t get the job done.
Don’t worry if you’re one of those people. After all, when I started out my landing pages limped along too.
Avoid Common mistakes to Make Sure Your Landing Pages Are Doing Right
But now I’m going to share with you what I learned and what the most common mistakes are so that you can make sure your landing pages are doing their job.
1. Sync it with your ad campaign
Like I mentioned above, the very first step if to have an effective ad campaign.
You need to be targeting the right audience for your landing page, or nothing else matters.
After all, sending people ready to buy through to a lead generation page is not going to be very successful.
But syncing intent is not the only thing you need to focus on.
Your ad and your landing page need to have a consistent look and feel.
Here’s a great example of consistency:
You can see in this campaign from Highrise that the ad and landing page look very similar.
Here are some of the things they made sure to keep consistent:
- The image of the woman is the same.
- The theme is the same, including the background color, logo, font, and look of the CTA.
- The testimonial is the same.
Now, check out this example:
The ad talks about the “lowest taxation in the EU,” then you click through to a page talking about Bulgaria. What?
After reading the fine print, you can see how they tie together but remember that first impressions happen in seconds.
My guess is a lot of people click that end, see a landing page that doesn’t seem to match and instantly hit their back button. I know I would.
2. Make it mobile-friendly
Mobile landing page optimization is vital now that Google has switched to a mobile-first index.
The number of mobile users increases every year. Last year 66% of the population had a mobile phone.
That’s up 5% from the year before. I’m sure when they come out with this year’s stats it will have increased again.
Mobile users are beginning to dominate web traffic.
As of last year, over half of all web traffic is mobile.
Not only that, look at the breakdown by time of day:
Mobile is dominating the hours when people are typically outside of work.
These are the times people are most likely to be using the web for something other than work, such as browsing the net or shopping.
This means if you want to capture your audience, you need to plan for them being on a mobile device.
When it comes to mobile traffic, the two most critical aspects of your landing page are speed and simplicity.
Let’s talk about keeping it simple first.
Take a look at these two examples:
It needs to cut out everything but the absolute necessities, and it needs to be designed for mobile.
Having a CTA that’s only partially visible is going to lower your results.
Making it too difficult to read on a small device is also going to hurt your conversions.
3. Check that your load speed is fast
Page load speed might not be something you first thing of when designing a landing page, but it’s critically important for mobile and desktop traffic.
In fact, Google announced in January that starting July 2018 pagespeed will become one of their ranking factors for mobile searches.
40% of your audience will leave your landing page if it takes longer than three seconds to load.
It won’t matter if you get every other step right if no one ever hangs around long enough to actually view your page.
A lot of businesses are struggling with this, especially for mobile.
According to Google, the average time it takes to load a mobile landing page is getting better, but it stills takes an average of 15 seconds.
I just told you 40% of people will leave if it takes longer than three seconds.
When you isolate mobile traffic, that number actually increases to 53%.
So over half your audience will leave in three seconds or less and the average site takes 15 seconds…
Simply fixing your page speed could have a huge effect on your conversions without changing any other thing about your landing page.
Google also found that bounce rate continued to increase the longer page load took.
Here are their findings for mobile traffic:
How do you know if your page is too slow?
For desktops, you can test with Google’s PageSpeed Insights.
For the mobile version of your site try Test My Site.
If your speeds are not where they should be, then make sure you take the right steps to boost them before worrying about anything else.
4. Make sure your headings work
Once your page loads, one of the first things your audience will notice is your heading and subheading.
When thinking about landing page design, always keep in mind that first impressions count.
Your headline is one of your first impressions. It needs to be clear, attention-grabbing and reflect the purpose of your page.
Check out this headline:
It’s simple, straightforward and you know what they’re selling.
Their subheading reinforces the message and adds more information, without being too long or distracting.
Now take a look at this one:
The title is catchy, but it doesn’t give you any idea what the product is.
The only thing that saves this is the subheading is perfect. It provides the context that they’re missing in the headline.
The subheading needs to complement and build on the main heading.
Its purpose is to give your readers a little more information while keeping them engaged and enticing them to continue down the page.
Check out Slack’s homepage:
While this is actually a homepage, it captures the key aspects of headings that you should use on your landing pages.
5. Remove all the distractions
One of the key distinctions of landing pages is that they only serve one purpose.
Even though Slack’s homepage is pretty clean, it would fail as a landing page for a couple of different reasons.
The first is that, like any homepage, it has distractions.
Your landing page shouldn’t have a navigation bar.
Why?
It’s been shown that removing the navigation menu on your landing page can increase your conversions by 100%.
But only 16% of landing pages don’t have navigation bars.
This is a simple fix that more people should be taking advantage of.
Another way you’re distracting your audience is with too many words.
There’s a direct correlation between lower word counts and higher conversions, especially in the health and travel industries.
Don’t put too much text on the page. Keep it as visual as possible with bullet points or infographics.
You need to include enough information to make it clear what problem you’re solving for your customer, but in as few words as possible.
I know it’s a bit of an art, which is why it’s crucial to test your landing pages (we’ll get to that later).
6. Use the right CTA
A landing page should have one call to action.
Over 68% of businesses have five or more CTAs and links on their landing page, yet stats show that having only one CTA boosts conversions.
Choose one specific goal and CTA for each landing page and stick to it.
Make sure that your call to action is relevant and consistent with your offering.
Using something vague such as “click here,” “submit,” or “continue” will not convert as well.
Your CTA is the whole reason for a landing page. It is the most important element.
You need to make it stand out.
Choose a bright color, make it a large button with a bigger font.
Draw attention to it, with arrows or other visuals. You want your audience’s eyes to be drawn to it naturally.
7. Limit what you ask for
Landing page abandonment can happen in the same way as cart abandonment.
One of the big triggers for abandonment is asking too many questions.
Most companies want to get as much data as possible. However, there are conflicting results when you reduce form fields.
You don’t necessarily have to limit form fields to some artificial number. But you should just focus on what’s important.
For example, asking your audience for their age immediately drops your conversion rate.
There’s often no point in collecting that data up-front!
Here’s a simple example from Optimizely:
You can also use interactive screens, like Oscar Health, to break up the questions.
This increases your chances of your audience interacting and completing the form fields without abandonment, since it breaks up the fields, making it seem like less.
Consider adding a progress bar so that your audience knows they’re getting close to the end and the screens don’t actually go on forever.
Also, keep in mind our fields need to be optimized for mobile. If it’s painful to do on a phone, people will flee.
8. Have the right visuals
First, I should be clear that visuals aren’t just images anymore.
I’ve seen video landing pages convert at 56%!
Here are just some of the benefits of putting a video on your landing page:
They increase audience retention. An engaging video keeps people hanging around longer, which allows your message to penetrate.
They also increase trust. Assuming your video includes a real person, it gives your product a life and voice. This will immediately increase your audience’s trust.
Your audience wants to watch videos. Unbounce found that people prefer to watch a video over reading an article, as long as the video is 5 minutes or less.
If you’re going to incorporate a video, make sure you embed your call to action within it (as well as elsewhere on your landing page).
Take a look at how Derek Halpern included his CTA:
Videos are also a great way to demonstrate your product.
If you have something that is difficult to assemble or use, videos are ideal.
For example, Long Tail Pro includes a video that walks you through exactly how to use their software.
Don’t make it too long; keep your video short, to the point, and useful.
Any images on your landing page should be relevant to your product or service.
Try to choose pictures that meet the following criteria:
- They should be large.
- They need to be relevant to your product or service. Make sure that if you sell a product, there is an actual picture of it on your landing page.
- Don’t ever use stock images.
- All your images need to be high-quality.
Including an image of a person looking directly at your call to action is an easy way to boost conversions instantly.
When we see someone looking at something, we’re naturally drawn to look at it as well.
It’s a simple yet effective way to direct the attention of your audience to where you want it.
9. Include reassurance and testimonials
Want to hear something controversial?
The best salesperson in your company isn’t actually the best in my experience.
Instead, the best salespeople are often your past customers.
People want to hear from other people’s experience.
That’s why always make sure to use clients’ testimonials on every single landing page I create.
Testimonials help to build trust in your personal brand. People trust other people more than they trust a company.
More than three out of four marketers don’t include social proof, yet it can boost your conversion rate by more than 1%.
1% might not seem like a lot, but the average landing page conversion rate is only 2%.
If you’re new and don’t have many testimonials yet, there are other ways to reassure your customers.
Consider showing your trust indicators to reassure users that your site is safe.
You can also build trust by sticking to the facts and using precise numbers whenever you state any statistics.
Make sure you don’t overstate results.
Saying something is the best without backing it up will make people think you’re trying to trick or scam them.
Avoid superlatives like “best,” “fastest,” “cheapest” unless you can prove it with research.
Another way to reassure customers is by offering a guarantee.
Free trials or money-back guarantees help build trust and boost conversions since they’re low risk.
You can also increase customer confidence by providing contact info.
Simply giving people a way to reach you can help reassure them your site and product or service is trustworthy.
10. Add a little pressure or incentive
An additional incentive to encourage customers to click your CTA can help boost conversions, particularly if your landing page is for lead generation.
Offering a free e-book or guide can help increase sign-ups.
Just make sure the content you provide is valuable, or any future marketing efforts toward these people won’t work well.
Whatever free gift you choose should be seen as an investment toward later paid conversions.
Remember the old saying about the carrot or the stick?
The gift is a carrot to entice conversions. You can also use a stick or “threat” to scare people into action.
Now, I don’t mean a real threat.
I mean use language such as “limited time offer,” “only 24 hours left” to increase your conversion rate.
11. Test, test, and retest
There is a science to landing page structure, but there is also an art to it.
To find the best landing page design for each of your campaigns you need to test them.
Many marketing blogs will rave about long-form landing pages. But guess what? Those don’t always convert the best.
The catch is that some companies, like Conversion Verve, have found that shorter pages actually converted better for them.
So even when you read about what works best on average, it doesn’t mean it will work best for you.
Sadly, barely half of companies actually test their pages today.
But testing has proven to boost conversion rates.
The companies whose conversion rates have improved year over year are executing 50% more tests on average.
A good way to test your pages is with heat maps.
A heat map gives you a simple visual of where your visitors are looking and clicking when on your landing page.
You can see what areas of your page people are paying attention to and what’s not working.
Of course, I’m a little biased, but my preferred heat map software is Crazy Egg.
All you do is enter the URL of your landing page, create an account, and check out your heat map.
Here’s an example of a scroll heat map:
The areas in red are getting the most attention.
In this example, you can see that not a lot of people are making it down to the bottom.
If your CTA were at the bottom, this would be a problem.
You can use heat maps to see where people are clicking:
Heat maps can quickly show you if your headlines, content, or CTAs aren’t getting enough attention.
Conclusion
Landing pages are often expected to convert people effortlessly, yet the average rate is around 2%.
Of course, the problem isn’t with landing pages exactly. It’s with how they’re being built and used.
A landing page needs to have one singular goal, and every part of it needs to be designed to move viewers toward that goal.
First, make sure your landing page is consistent with your campaign, then make sure it’s optimized to be fast and mobile-friendly.
Your headings need to be attention-grabbing, and all distractions, noise, and clutter need to disappear.
Use an effective CTA and limit the amount of information you ask customers to provide.
Make sure you use great visuals and provide social proof or guarantees to reassure people it’s low risk to convert.
Remember, you can always offer an incentive or a little pressure to encourage people to click the button.
Finally, always make sure to test your pages. Use A/B testing or heat maps to see what’s working and improve what isn’t.
What tips or tricks haven’t I mentioned that helped boost your landing page conversions?
About the Author: Neil Patel is the cofounder of Neil Patel Digital.
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