How to use landing pages for your business
Do you know how to use landing pages for your business?
Sending people to your website from your email campaigns or sponsored ads can often lead to some confusion, simply because they expect to find the offered information immediately. So when they land on a product or information page they might search around for this information and if they don’t find it quickly, they leave.
This is where you need to know how to use landing pages for your business, because when sent to a well-crafted landing page, your visitors are more likely to convert. You might think that this is all semantics, but there’s a big difference between a landing page and other pages on your website. That’s because landing pages are designed for one specific purpose and that’s to convert. You might say that all the pages on your website are meant to convert, but that’s not the same as being highly focused on this one outcome.
Once you get the hang of writing landing pages and realise how much better they are at converting, you will appreciate the differences between them and your normal web pages. So here are the GO Creative tips on writing highly converting landing pages.
Step 1: Each landing page needs a specific goal
The first step in knowing how to use landing pages for your business is to set a goal. We’ve already said that your landing page needs to have a specific goal and that this goal is conversions. Now you need to define what you mean by conversions. Do you want to increase the sale of a particular product? Do you want to increase subscriptions to your e-newsletter? What about sign-ups to your webinar or email list?
You also need some way of quantifying the success of this landing page. So do you want to increase sales of your product by 50%? Do you want a 10% increase in subscriptions or sign-ups? With a set goal and a specific number in mind, you can easily measure the success of your new landing page.
Step 2: Each landing page needs a specific call to action
The second important step in knowing how to use landing pages for your business is to craft one CTA for the page (call-to-action). Unlike other pages on your website where you might have multiple CTAs, on your landing page you want one clear CTA that is tied to your goal. This CTA will be supported by all your copy and images on the page and is the single most important element on the page. As you will see later in this post, it’s important that you test different CTAs to find the one that maximises your conversions.
The CTA, such as ‘BUY NOW’ might not do as well as ‘Get Your App Today’ or even ‘Download App’. The only way you’ll know is if you test these variations to discover the one that outperforms the others. You also need to test the location of the CTA on the landing page. Often, the best location is above the fold and even at the top of the page, where you would normally include the most important information. However, there are many high profile brands that locate the CTAs for their landing pages at the bottom of the page, so it obviously works for them. This highlights the fact that you must test the location of your CTA along with the copy.
Step 3: Each landing page needs to be simple
The third important step in knowing how to use landing pages for your business is to simplify everything. Basically, every landing page needs to be hyper-focused on achieving one goal, so you don’t want to confuse people with unnecessary information or clutter on the page. The landing page needs to be clear, concise, well-written, understandable, informative and aimed at achieving your goal. Many people find that this type of creativity is beyond them, which is why their landing pages are not successful or they don’t even bother with them.
Some people may do well creating their own landing pages, however, many of these will either engage a copywriter and developer to help them or use tools specifically designed for making the process easy. If you want to explore these tools, you can check out Unbounce, which is fairly easy to use.
So let’s take a look at all of the different elements of your landing page and how you can make it simple, concise and hyper-focused.
Copy
All of the copy on the landing page must be there for a reason. There can be no waffling, no storytelling, no going off the point. Not unless it’s focused on your goal of conversions. That’s because people don’t want to read lines and lines of unimportant information, not if you want them to convert, anyway.
Always match the font on the landing page to your brand’s font, but also increase the size slightly, so that it’s easy to read. Don’t go overboard with the font size, just make it easily readable. Remember that people who visit your landing page have clicked on a link in one of your emails or sponsored ads because you have grabbed their interest. So your copy on the landing page must push their interest even further, not bore them so they click away. All the copy on this page must be written with one goal in mind – to support your CTA. Tell them what they want to know in as few words as possible and aim your copy at your CTA.
If you’re not sure how to craft compelling copy, our professional content creators can help!
Forms
If you want people to subscribe to your e-newsletter or sign-up for a webinar, you might have a form on the landing page. This is where so many people go wrong, because they ask too many questions. At this point, all you want is for them to fill in the form – that’s your goal. So ask them the fewest number of questions possible. You can get away with just their email at this point and ask for further information later. If you’re not sure how to add a form to your website or integrate it into a landing page, speak to us about our ad hoc web development services.
Layout
Knowing how to use landing pages for your business includes optimising the layout of the page, which needs to be very simple. You do, however, need to continue your branding elements on this page. This includes your branding colours, graphics and fonts. This visual consistency makes people confident that they are on the right page.
When we consider a simplified layout for your landing page we often find that short copy in one centred single column on one page is best. Of course, some landing pages are very long and the reader needs to scroll down the page, but the shorter the page and the copy, the better.
Another option is to create a mini-website with multiple pages where the visitor works their way through these pages. This can work well if you have a lot of information that needs to be provided before people can decide to convert. It’s a big risk, however, because not everyone will wait around for multiple pages to load. We also said that a centred single column is better than a double magazine-like layout and this is because it helps to create a simplified layout to the landing page. This is something that can be easily tested on your page.
Navigation
To keep this page hyper-focused on your goal of conversions, you don’t want to distract your visitors from clicking on the CTA. In fact, you don’t want to give them anything else that’s clickable – no other links or navigation elements at all. So remove all navigation and menu items and only leave the one CTA on this page.
Images
To further simplify your landing page, you only want one or at most, two images on the page. This goes against the grain for many advertisers and business owners who believe that the more images, the better! That’s true in many cases of online marketing, but not for landing pages. These need to be kept simple and uncluttered and remember – your landing page has only one goal – to convert. So select the image that you think will support your CTA and add it to the page. You can also test the location of this image, as well as different images to decide which converts best.
Step 4: Each landing page needs to be tested
The fourth and last important step in knowing how to use landing pages for your business is to test as much as possible. We have mentioned this repeatedly during this post, but it still needs its own mention, because it’s so important. You have gone to so much trouble to create your landing page, it will be a waste if it doesn’t convert well.
The only way to know that your landing page is maxing out on conversions is to test every single element of the page. Does a different CTA make any difference? Maybe a different headline or image? Would a green CTA button be better than a red button? Does the single centred column really convert best? All of this is called A/B testing and it’s where you identify the one combination of elements on the landing page that gets the most conversions.
This combination won’t necessarily work for other landing pages and you will need to repeat this process for every landing page you create. That’s why people who have successful and highly converting landing pages always test their pages until they get it right.
Business landing page examples
There are many excellent examples of business landing pages that are intricately designed, written and constructed to effectively convert. The list below is a great reference point to start with for quality landing pages. Pay particular attention to these different examples:
There’s limited, refined copy and an enticing green button with a clear call to action. Notice in particular the strong use of the words “Your” and “Free” in the CTA. (Source: WordStream)
This example from Video Wizard shows how you can create a simple landing page that still contains information without cluttering the space. The images complement the copy and make the services on offer easy to understand, and the download button is easy to find and designed to stand out. (Source: NeilPatel.com)
This landing page for coaching services by Marie Forleo is an amazingly effective webpage. The copy at the top is bold and to the point, but most importantly it’s engaging. You simply can’t help reading more. (Source: Hubspot)
Now you know how to use landing pages for your business, maybe you don’t have the time to do it for yourself? The team at GO Creative can help you design a high quality landing page for your business – getting you one step closer to achieving your financial goals.
Find out more about our landing page services and get a free, no hassle quote today.
