Creating landing pages have become a staple of digital marketing education. Everybody knows they have to have one, but few manage to master it. Let’s discover the anatomy of a landing page and learn how to turn your landing page into a money-making machine.
A landing page is all about selling something. But how do you know how to sell if you are not sure who your customer is?
Knowing who your clients are can provide you with a number of competitive advantages. Conduct user interviews, run advanced analytics, and study your Facebook following. This will give you a rough idea of what demographic audience is interested in your product or service.
Create user stories. Let’s say you have two main types of clients. Some of them are highly motivated to buy now, the others want to study the product first. You need to implement different strategies to get these two categories to buy. Your clients should shape your perfect landing page.
If we are talking about someone who heard about your company from a friend and wants to buy, you don’t need a catchy headline. But that’s not a common scenario, is it?
Many people are just exploring. They have dozens of tabs open and just look through them to find the one they really like.
To be the best landing page in their browser, yours should have the best headline. It should be big and eye-catching. Why is it so important? Because this is what shapes your users’ expectations about your product.
You can’t find the perfect formula for a headline on the first try. You’ll have to experiment a lot to see what works best for you.
Being too generic definitely doesn’t work, so you can safely skip phrases like “the best plumbing company in San Diego” in your quest for a selling headline. Well, unless you can prove that you’re the best by showing an award.
Do you know why women’s magazines overwhelmingly feature women’s faces on the front page? Because we are attracted to faces so much, they make for a perfect marketing tool.
If you are choosing between a random picture of your product and a person shown using said product, always go for the latter.
A catchy headline won’t save you if your landing page is a mess in terms of navigation. Keep your design simple and make your page easily searchable. Follow Google UX guidelines to get your desktop and mobile UX design to meet the minimum standard.
UI-wise, it’s a good idea to browse through websites you like to get your inspiration. Anything from apple.com to small essay websites would do. Keep in mind that you don’t need an expensive wow-effect to sell.
Do you believe a man who knocks on your door and says how great his vacuum cleaner is? Of course not, he’s trying to sell you something.
The same goes for people who come to your website and read about your product. People believe other people, not brands.
Use this to your advantage. Include a section with reviews by your clients.
Pro tip: include a link to their Facebook or Instagram. There are so many fake reviews on the web that people do not believe them anymore. However, you can instantly add credibility to your website by adding a link to the reviewer’s social network account. This way you’ll prove they’re real people.
If you can get people to post pictures on Instagram with your product or shoot unpacking videos on YouTube, you should include them on your landing page as well.
Make your call to action as straightforward, appealing, noticeable, and crystal clear as you can.
A huge red button that says “buy now” in all caps is probably an overkill. You will figure out the perfect way to go about it with time.
The bottom line is, you can’t find the ideal formula for your website on the web. How about universal guidelines? Sure, you have seven of them here and dozens more elsewhere.
But the only way to make your landing page perfect is to analyze and improve. Generate theories, run A/B tests, keep your hand on the pulse of the industry. Adapt to what works best.
This is the only way to stay ahead of the competition.