Tricks & Tips: how to create the perfect modern landing page

You’ve built most of your site’s pages, and you’ve got your message (sort of) figured out. You can now start to think harder about conversions. How to turn your visitors into subscribers, evangelists or customers? What you need are landing pages – pages with a singular purpose: converting visitors into customers.

One page – one task

When creating landing pages, the key is one page – one task. What is it that you want the visitor to do? Download an e-book? Buy a pair of socks? Subscribe to your newsletter? When they’ve touched down on the landing page, they should not have to make any choices, just receive acknowledgement that they’re on the right track.

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Landing page checklist

Headline

The landing page headline must correspond with the link that led the visitor there. If an advertisement such as AdWords points to the page, it’s even more important since the relation between ad wording and page content affects your AdWords score. If you are interested in high conversion rates (and you really should be!) then phrasing in either such an ad or a banner on your site should not just convince people to click, it should convince the right people to click.

Purpose

What’s the purpose? Try to remove everything that is not relating to the purpose of the page (i.e. buy socks, subscribe to newsletter). Don’t make that extra point or play safe by adding in other offers as well. The visitor have their eyes on the prize, don’t confuse them. Some claim you should not even distract your visitor with site navigation. Such luxuries, they seem to think, should be withheld until the visitor has completed their task. On the other hand, if they end up on the landing page by mistake, do you really want them to just go back or close the window instead of moving on within your site?

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Video, images, graphics

If what you want to say can be said in a couple of words, that’s perfect. If not, the use of appealing infographics, illustrations, photos or videos is a great way of getting your message through. Imagery becomes the obvious option for complex topics. It also requires less effort on the part of your readers.

Call-to-action

If you have your message and your purpose figured out, you’re homing in on your CTA. It should be clear and appealing and correspond with expectations and the landing page content. Depending on the patience of your visitor and the complexity of the offer it should be placed “above the fold”. That means before having to scroll on a normal screen. On a mobile site this is a bit trickier, since you might need a little scrolling to get your message through. However, what you want is something that stands out, both in message and in design so that it’s not missed.

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Follow up

When the visitor converted to a customer or subscriber, don’t miss the opportunity to keep build on that relation. Is there a subsequent offer they could be presented with? Is this the right time to suggest interaction on social media or reading a related blog post? Assure them they made the right decision, and point them in a mutually beneficial direction within your site. Remember, the people converting on your landing page are VIPs.