Advertising your business online is an effective way to get in front of people where they spend most of their time, and turn users into customers. With online advertisements, good ad copy may get users to click on your ad, but that doesn’t guarantee that they will turn into leads. Generally speaking, landing pages serve to increase conversions, but the number of conversions depends on the quality of the landing page. This post will go over the elements that make a good landing page, and how to align each one for campaign success.
What Makes a Good Landing Page?
When designed right, a business can experience the many benefits of landing pages. Of course what characterizes a landing page as “good” will depend upon the action it is centered around and the campaign it is supporting. In general, however, a good landing page is one that converts visitors to leads by effectively providing the information and steps a person needs to perform a desired action. Good landing pages have an attractive offer and strong call to action that is targeted toward the user. A good landing page—especially for Search Engine Marketing or Facebook advertising campaigns—is one that clearly conveys an offer, quickly communicates its benefits, and causes users to contact your business.
What to Put on a Landing Page
What to put on a landing page will depend on the product or service you’re offering, the type of landing page you are creating, and the audience you are targeting. Below is a list of elements that you may put in a landing page.
Offer
A landing page is centered around getting a visitor to perform an action, which is aligned with your business obectives. This action could be signing up for a newsletter, downloading a piece of content, calling for a consultation, or even making a purchase. The offer of your landing page is anything you are giving to your visitors in exchange for their perfoming the desired action. Offers could be coupons, discounts, free trials, a piece of content, or a consultation. Offers are an essential element to put on a landing page, and must be compelling enough to encourage your target audience to act.
Headline
The headline, header, or title, is the key message of your landing page, so it must convey exactly what is being offered. It is also the first thing a visitor reads when they land, so it should be bigger than the rest of the content on the page. The headline doesn’t necessarily have to be at the top of the landing page. As long as it’s easy to find can be consumed quickly by users, it can go anywhere.
Your headline needs to convey the offer, but in an enticing way that grabs your reader’s attention through interest or intrigue, and gives them a reason to continue reading.
Subheadline
The subheadline serves to strengthen and support the headline. It may clarify the offer in the headline, explain core benefits, or provide a supporting statistic. The subheadline should be near the headline as theses two elements are strongly associated.
CTA Button
Your headline, subheadline, and offer inform the reader of the product or service and its benefits in order to get the reader to make a decision. Once they make a decision, they need to know how to obtain the benefits you are offering. This is where the call to action button comes in.
The call to action (CTA) informs the user of the action required to obtain your offer, whether it’s to schedule, sign up, call, or download. However, general terms like these don’t make good CTA’s. They must be highly specific to eliminate any uncertainty for the reader. Examples of effective CTAs for a good landing page are “Schedule a consultation”, “Sign up for the webinar”, “Get a free quote”, or “Download the free eBook”.
Good landing pages have CTAs that are quick and easy. That is, quickly found without having to scroll, and easy to spot amidst the other content on the landing page. Adding urgency with terms like “today”, “now”, or “before it’s too late” can also enhance the CTA.
Image
You may want to put clear, high quality images into your landing page to increase its visual appeal and catch your viewer’s eye. In addition, a good landing page supplies the information needed to make a decision. An image can do this by showing the product or service being used in context. As with Facebook ad images, the person using the product should also be representative to your target audience, so that it resonates with users more. The size of the image will depend upon the other elements of the landing page. In some instances, a simple, appealing image can serve as the background of the entire page.
Video
Video is another element you may want to put in a landing page. Video can be used to show customer testimonials, explain a complex product or service, or showcase your expertise. Videos can be particularly useful because sometimes they eliminate reading, and can capture more emotion and personality of your brand—especially if you’re in the video.
Social Proof
What other people have to say about your business carries more weight than what you have to say about your business. Including social proof in your landing pages is key. Examples of social proof to put in your landing page include user testimonials, star ratings from online reviews, publications and media outlets that have featured your business, or logos of well-known customers.
A good landing page is informative but concise, and goal-driven but not pushy. It requires the right mix of content and images, and the right balance of information with instruction. When pieced together with the main offer as your focus and your target audience in mind, the above elements will make a good landing page. Keep in mind you may not use all of these elements, or you may use some more than once. Consider the primary objective of your ad, the action you are trying to get users to take, and the desired result of the campaign to decide which elements to use and how. Then, with tools like conversion tracking and A/B testing, you can find which combinations and variations of these elements will yield the best results.
