How to Boost Landing Page Conversions: Don't Overlook These 5 Elements

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Simon MikailProject Manager at 405 Ads

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

When it comes to landing pages, you need to go beyond simply creating pages that ‘look’ reasonably good. After all, you don’t just need visitors to appreciate the landing page design. You need them to convert.

Article 4 Minutes
How to Boost Landing Page Conversions: Don't Overlook These 5 Elements

The fundamental goal of a landing page is to increase conversion rates to help you achieve your digital marketing goals. It can be your home page or a standalone page designed specifically for a campaign, product, or sale.

In this post, we’ll discuss the top five elements for creating high-converting landing pages.

1. An impressive headline

This is where everything begins.

A killer headline right at the beginning of your landing page can evoke interest, hold attention, and inspire a visitor to learn more about the offer.

It’s the first thing that your prospects notice when they land on your page.

Your landing page headline should ideally accomplish the following goals:

  • Grab a visitor’s attention in a fraction of second
  • Inform a visitor what your product/service is all about
  • Explain the main USP to a visitor
  • It should be short (between 7-15 words) and sweet (avoid complex jargon, pompous phrases, etc.)

If the main headline is confusing or doesn’t seem relevant to prospects, they’ll bounce immediately after landing on your page.

The main headline can be supported by sub-headlines that go into the details of the product or service. These are especially important when you don’t want the main headline to be too wordy.

In the following example, the headline clearly explains what’s on offer and the sub-headline goes into more detail.

Headline and sub headline example

If your headline complements an image or graphic, it’s easier to communicate your message.

2. Pictures that tell a story

Landing pages that convert will always have visual content in some form.

This is because the human brain can process visual content significantly faster than text.

You can use high-quality images to:

  • Grab a visitor’s attention
  • Demonstrate relevance to a particular need or want
  • Explain the functionality of a product or service
  • Direct a visitor’s attention to a specific USP or CTA by using the deictic gaze.

A good picture, graphic, or illustration has the potential to shape a prospect’s impression of your brand, product, or service even before they start scanning your copy. So, you need to make sure this first impression is a good one.

For instance, Mixpanel uses graphics on most of its landing pages to demonstrate what it’s like to use their products.

Using graphics on a landing page

3. Compelling copy

If the headline, sub-headlines, pictures, and videos make visitors look and stay, your landing page copy should persuade them to learn more about your offer.

For a high-conversion page, make sure your copy has the following attributes:

  • Provide to-the-point information (no fluff) or get to the point quickly
  • Address customers’ pain points
  • Focus more on the benefits than on the product/service itself
  • Short paragraphs instead of large blocks of text
  • Use short bullet-points to highlight facts, stats, benefits, features, etc.
  • Use a suitable font-color-size combination to make the content and increase comprehension
  • Avoid meaningless buzzwords and use simple sentence structure
  • Use numbers and be specific about what you’re talking about

A well-thought-out copy can help convert readers and increase sales from a landing page. In the absence of a supportive copy, a landing page may fail to convert, no matter how amazing your offer is. 

Therefore, it’s important to hire the best copywriters or work with a professional SEO company that’ll almost certainly have such people on their teams. 

4. A guarantee

Customers love the idea of ‘no-risk purchase.’

This is why they’re more likely to trust an offer backed by some sort of guarantee.

Regardless of how it’s presented on a landing page, it’ll help make a prospect feel reassured while they’re contemplating following your CTA.

Depending upon the nature of business you’re in and the type of products/services you offer, guarantees can take different forms on landing pages.

While some businesses can offer ‘money-back guarantee’ or ‘product exchange guarantee’ to boost their conversion rates, others may provide non-explicit guarantees such as ‘customer satisfaction guarantee’ or ‘no spam guarantee.’

In some cases, a guarantee doesn’t have to be so extreme. For instance, a hosting service provider can explain on a landing page that they provide a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

But, be sure to avoid words that may misrepresent your brand, product, or service.

In a high-converting landing page, the guarantee is placed as close to the CTA as possible. This helps provide a prospect with the required assurance just before they’re finally ready to convert.

5. Social proof

A psychological phenomenon, ‘social proof’ motivates people to subconsciously make decisions based on the actions or behaviors of others. Social proof is the reason why people tend to buy products or choose services their colleagues or neighbors admire or talk about on social media platforms.

To increase the conversion rate, your landing page can include social proof in many forms, such as:

  • Direct quotes from happy customers
  • Review scores from trusted consumer-facing review platforms
  • Statistical evidence
  • Third-party seals
  • Case studies
  • Authority badges
  • Favorable media coverage
  • Celebrity endorsement

Put simply, social proof is a form of positive peer pressure. It helps you justify your ‘pitch’ in the copy and encourage prospects to hit the CTA button.

Simon Mikail

Simon Mikail is one of the founders and head of operations at 405 Ads and serves as an online marketing manager to businesses and agencies worldwide.

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