Lesson #6 The Secret To Creating Landing Pages That Convert
In this lesson I'm going to break out some detail on the following for you;
1. What A Landing Page Is
2. The Anatomy Of A High Converting Landing Page
3. Different Types Of Landing Page
4. The Best Landing Page For Beginners
So First Off The Bat, What Is A Landing Page, And Why Is It So Different To Any Other Page?
A Landing Page is a page on your website specifically designed to encourage a visitor to take a single specific action. Options are reduced to one of two usually, and all distractions are removed from the page to make it easy for the visitor to see the Call ToAction (CTA).
The options are usually;
1. Optin
2. Leave the site
The Landing Page is striped down to the bare bone requirements, and it works. Reducing options available to one or two (one of which being the option you wish visitors to take) results in results!
Less Is More peeps!
The scope available to you to create an effective Landing Page is large, so you'll need to decide what will be the purpose of your landing page. For us in this case, we want to capture email addresses of our visitors. That's it.
So our Landing Page will be simple. Check out this Landing Page I use to capture email addresses of visitors interested in Google Analytics as an example.
The Anatomy Of A Good Landing Page
(Check out this example of a good landing page http://larrygmaguire.com/googleanalyticsplanningchecklist )
Open this landing page in another browser tab so you can refer to it as you move through the following elements. Items in the list with an asterisk (*) below refer to this landing page.
There are few, or many, elements to a landing page depending on the job you need it to do.
Generally the more you are asking your visitor to part with, then the more you will need to offer them in terms of your credibility.
A Landing Page may consist of some or many of the following elements depending on the application and desired end result.
Your logo goes at the top. Pretty straight forward really, but it's amazing how many landing pages have left out the branding. Your branding needs to go everywhere that you present your content.
The temptation is to leave the navigation bar in place. Leave the Nav bar out. Your visitors don't want any distraction from what you want them to do.
Draw your visitor in with a large font size. Make it clear in the headline what exactly this page is about, what they will get by engaging with you. In the case of my GA landing page, I made the headline the following;
"Get Your FREE Digital Analytics Planning Checklist"
The SubHeadline*
The SubHead expands on the Headline a little more and is less prominent in font size. Use the SubHead to give the visitor a little more info on your offer, drawing them further into taking action.
The Introduction will be standard font size (a good size so people can easily read it) and will be usually be about a paragraph in length, al owing you to get into a bit more detail on the PDF download you have available.
Remember to keep talking in terms of benefits when writing this paragraph. Maybe pose a question referring to a problem the visitor may be having, then tell them briefly how the PDF will help them solve that problem.
Offer your visitor an image of what they will receive for signing up. Images speak volumes more than text so make this image attractive. Here's a site I found where you can make your own ebook cover image for free I use it all the time.
To make a good ebook cover;
First Go to canva and select the Kindle ebook cover template and then customise it
Then Go to myecovermaker.com and select an ebook template
Next Upload your Canva image to MyEcoverMaker as the background
Finally Follow the instructions to download your .png ebook cover image
List a bunch of benefits to the visitor that your PDF will bring them. Remember that you are solving problems, so speak in terms of the visitors problems when you are writing these benefits. THESE ARE NOT FEATURES!
The Call To Action Form goes on the right hand side of the page. Know why? Not many will tell you why, but the right hand side works better than the left.
It's because the eyes of readers in the western part of the world, generally english speaking people, move from left to right, settling on the bottom right hand corner of the page.
The CTA Form can contain any number of fields to gather visitor info. My advice is keep the number of fields in your CTA form to a minimum. It serves you not by having too many fields for your visitor to fill in. Include the email field and the first name field . That should be enough for most of you.
The Call To Action Button MUST BE ABOVE THE FOLD. This means it must be visible by your visitor without them needing to scroll to see it. It needs to stand out and have clear instruction like
"Download Now" or "Get Yours Today".
Despite what many will say, my view is that the colour doesn't really matter too much as long as it's bright and stands out from your background.
1. Outro*
The Outro is your closing statement. It's where you seal the deal and answer any remaining doubts that the visitor may have. Use this to transport your visitor to the end result.
For your DIY Dad use an outro something like;
"Get the proven installation method I've used for 20 years and start like working like a pro installer today"
3:1 or 4:1 layout ratio
A page layout that uses these ratios of content to CTA area seem to do well . Make sure to employ this kind of layout ration on your Landing Page
White Space helps things stand out better. Don't be afraid to use white space, and allow your content speak for itself. Too much content clutters the page and makes it unreadable.
Ever seen the tradesman with so much writing and info on his van that you can't even see his phone number as he drives past you on the street?
Your landing page is like a van on the road, except it's the website visitor that's moving fast, your landing page is standing still . But the principle is the same.
People are moving through the web very quickly, often making decision to leave a site in under 2 seconds. Make it easy for them to see the important info and make a decision!
Include social share buttons to allow your content go further. I don’t have them on this page but I do have them on the associated Thank You Page.
Link to a thank you page
The Thank You Page is often overlooked. The Thank You Page is where your visitor is brought after they add their email address and complete the transaction.
Here's my Thank You Page associated with this Landing Page. There is an option for the visitor to share the original page and they often do. It gives me a lift every time I see someone sharing the page on Twitter!
Your photo (Hero image)
Get a photo of you in there. Make it personal. People want to know that they are dealing with a real person and not some corporation. Allow people to get to know you.
I mentioned it above and it's worth mentioning again, make sure your CTA Button IS ABOVE THE FOLD!
A/B variation
Test your Landing Page with AB versions. A slight tweak in the Landing Page copy could have a dramatic effect on conversions. Changing the product image could result in higher sales.
Experiment and settle on the page that gets you the best results.
We covered this one earlier. Your Free Resource or PDF is located on your host server and delivered to your visitor via email automatically. When you use LeadPages it's all done in the background and is seamless.
Social Proof (Testimonials)
Use testimonials where necessary. Testimonials can have a big impact on conversions, especially where you are asking people to spend money.
Where it's a simple exchange of an email address for a PDF document then maybe testimonials are not always necessary. However they do help highlight your credibility.
Video is often used in Landing Pages and can also have an increased effect on conversions when used. Video help the visitor know you better, bringing higher levels of trust into the equation.
Countdown timers are used where a Landing Page is being used to promote a webinar with a time limit on registration
Don't lead with features. Lead with benefits. But where you are selling a product, adding features further down the page might be a good idea.
Background image
Background images work well on Landing Pages are striped of almost all other information. Don't use a background image with the Landing Page type that I've used as an example here. You will clutter the page too much.
There are many different types of landing pages which do different jobs. The main thing they all have in common is that they all ask the visitor to make a commitment.
There are many many others and you will become more familiar with the different types as you begin to research and use them more.
The Best Landing Page For Beginners
Using the elements outlined above you can construct a landing page to meet any requirements really, but the best one for you in this case is this one (as we've been discussing above), which allows you to offer a free download in exchange for a visitors email. I've managed 36% conversion rate with this page, which isn't bad at al .
So that's enough on Landing Pages, for now at least. As I mentioned in Lesson #5 you should strongly consider using LeadPages to build your Landing Pages as it make life so much easier.