As a digital marketer, getting your audience to click on an ad is the first step to driving real results. With that being said, if you don’t have an effective landing page, your advertising efforts – and your audience’s time – will be wasted without a landing page that’s optimized for action.
In order to design a landing page that turns potential customers into conversions, you need to think like your audience. They’ve taken the time to engage with your business, now help them across the finish line.
In this post, I’ll lay out 6 things to consider that you may have overlooked when building your landing page.
1. Consistency is Key
If your ad is focusing on a specific service or product, the landing page to which your call-to-action links should be designed around that one thing.
For example, if you click on an advertisement for an oil change and the landing page displays all available services at a mechanic, it’s going to be much harder to get a conversion.
Not only should the product or service featured in your ad be the same on the landing page, but messaging, graphics, and overall feel should be the same too. You want to create a seamless experience where very little work is needed from your audience.
Think of your landing page not just as a destination, but as an extension of your ad.
2. Test Often
One of the best aspects of digital marketing is that you can test out different strategies and adjust based on the response you get from your target audience. By setting up two different landing pages to use in an A/B or split-test, you’ll have real evidence upon which to build moving forward.
The next step is figuring out which parts of your landing page to play around with. At the top of the list should be the position of the form on your landing page.
Try positioning lead forms in the top and middle of your page and see which produces more fills. It’s possible that including additional information at the top of the page might lead to more fills with the form in the middle of the page. It may also be the case that putting your form at the top of the page gets more because it increases urgency to act.
3. Mobile in Mind
In case you haven’t been reading up on advertising in the last 5 years, the majority of web traffic is coming via a mobile device. Most marketers design ad creative with that in mind, but the landing page can get overlooked.
When it comes to mobile design, simple is almost always better. Adding extraneous imagery or wordy paragraphs doesn’t just make your page look crowded, it can also slow down load times which significantly reduces user participation.
It’s not often where you can apply one general assumption to your entire audience, but this is one of them. When it comes to mobile design, less is best.
4. Use Color to Your Advantage
Just as an effective digital ad needs an eye-catching CTA button, your landing page should incorporate color in a similar way. If there is a particular area of the page that you want your audience’s eyes drawn towards, use contrasting colors to direct their attention.
Think of it this way: if you looked at the landing page and it was in a language that is foreign to you, would you still know where you’re supposed to look? Your audience’s actions are more likely to be driven by visual cues than the words on the page. Do your best to lead them to the place where they can execute the desired result.
Obviously not every user who views your landing page is going to turn into a conversion. With that being said, it should be your goal to make sure everyone who sees the page knows exactly where to go in order to convert.
5. Choose Headline (and all other) Words Carefully
As I’ve laid out above, a perfect landing page uses the least amount of copy necessary to convey the intended message. You want to de-clutter your page, but you don’t want to do it at the risk of not providing enough information to your audience.
Carefully planning out both your copy, and its location on the page can make all the difference.
Use big headlines at the top of the page to consistently reinforce the overall message of your ad. Use concisely-worded sub-heads to explain the details.
Another wording consideration on your landing page should be your CTA. Try using phrases that relate to the audience which feature words like “I,” “me,” and “my.” For example, your button might say “Sign me up” or “I’m ready to book.”
6. Consider a “Conversion Clock”
One of the buzzwords floating around digital marketing (and advertising in general) is urgency. When people have something that’s constantly available, they tend to put it off until another time. When it’s now or never, FOMO (fear of missing out) kicks in and inspires action.
You’ve probably noticed on some sign-up or payment pages that there’s a ticking clock which indicates the amount of time you have to complete the desired action. Your rational mind knows that even if the clock expires you can simply restart the process in less than a minute. However, the psychological trick still causes us to take the final step before time runs out.
I would link to examples of marketers testing the clock theory, but the examples are so numerous that it has surpassed being a theory and can almost be used as a statement of fact. Find out how much it could help you by giving it a try on your next campaign.
Conclusion
Don’t let a good ad go to waste just because you didn’t spend enough time on the landing page. Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to driving conversions and increasing overall ROI.
If your business needs assistance in designing a landing page optimized for results, get in touch today!
