Are you looking to increase your conversions on your digital advertising or email campaigns? One element many marketers overlook is a well-designed landing page. Up to 44% of marketers refer their campaigns to their general website because they do not have the resources or time to develop a well thought out landing page. However, they may be doing so at the expense of their lead generation and conversion on sales.

Why You Need to Implement Landing Pages Today

It is imperative that after customers click through on a campaign, they receive information that is consistent with the original message of the ad. This is often described as “message match.” A visitor should know immediately after a click that they are in the correct place. This is signaled through similar content, style, and offer. Otherwise, you are likely to increase the bounce rate of your campaigns and lose valuable leads. A landing page enables you to deliver a consistent message.

Most visitors today will spend only a short time reviewing content after clicking through on an ad, and won’t spend the time to sort through your entire site. An effective landing page will force visitors into making a decision and eliminate distractions in the conversion process.

Picture this: Your business is an airport. Now imagine that airport has no air traffic controller, it would be total chaos. A landing page is like your air traffic control tower, directing traffic to their own unique destination efficiently during a crucial point in their journey. The destination of course, is conversion.

What Makes a Landing Page Convert

1. A Great Headline
A killer headline should catch your visitors’ attention and clearly outline the benefit of the product or service. It should be short and sweet. A good guideline is less than 10 words. Remember you can and should support your headline with a great sub-header that can include additional details.

2. A Clear Message
As marketers, we always want to deliver creative, compelling work. You can keep the message fun and quirky, but always be sure you are delivering a concise, easy to digest message. Additionally, don’t clutter your landing pages with multiple offers or irrelevant information. While it may be tempting to cover all of your bases and cram as much information as possible, this can be harmful to your campaign success.

3. Limited Navigation
Be careful to evaluate all methods of entering and exiting your page. Limit exit points and navigation to guide visitors towards the pathway of conversion. Remember, the number one goal of this page is to make conversion as easy as possible. If possible, a visitor should have the ability to convert with just one click.

4. An Awesome Offer
This one may seem like common sense, but the simplest way to get a lead to convert is by including an enticing offer. Make sure your value proposition is clear and something your visitors desire.

5. Testing
Don’t rely on your gut or personal opinions when it comes to landing page copy, calls to action, design, or images. It is very simple with the tools available today to optimize landing pages through A/B or multivariate testing. Vary and test everything from message, button size, text size and amount of fields received until you hit the sweet spot for your lead conversion. Smart marketers are always experimenting with content and ad combinations.

6. A Clear Call to Action
Your call to action should let the visitor know exactly what you are asking them to do. Your call to action is your chance to grab the visitor’s attention, so you can’t afford to get this wrong. Be sure to deliver what you promise on the call to action. Don’t ask them to complete additional steps that weren’t clear to begin with. For example, don’t offer something free and then ask for a small fee later. Be sure your call to action is also easy to find through a strong color choice and appropriate white space as well.

7. Include Video
Video has been proven time and again to increase landing page conversions. It captures users’ attention and is a quick, engaging way to deliver information.

8. Quick Loading Time
A slow loading page is sure to suffer when it comes to conversions and have higher bounce rates. You can develop the best content imaginable, great copy, great images, but it will mean nothing if your user gives up before they are ever able to see the message. A great resource for optimizing your page is Google PageSpeed Insights.

Ready to start implementing a landing page strategy?

The first step for beginning to implement landing pages in to your marketing strategy is to review your competition and see what you are up against. See what is working for them and how you can use it to your advantage. Then, it’s a good idea to identify the campaigns you would like to begin with, and determine the goals of those campaigns. Is it to fill out a form? Make a purchase? Subscribe to a newsletter?

Don’t forget that there’s no way to show your increase in conversions if you don’t implement proper analytics.

You’ll also want to be sure to research your target market. It is important that your tone and message speaks to your customer. Don’t try and attempt to create a landing page with no understanding of who you are speaking to . Try and uncover your customers’ pain points and desires. A message that resonates, converts!