Higher leads, more conversions – live the life of a high-converting digital marketer.
You have been forever trying to squeeze more juice out of your existing campaigns that ensure flowing traffic to your neat and suave-looking landing pages.
As a result, you are looking at more conversions, more sales, perhaps. After all, who doesn’t like more customers and the resultant extra moolah? Meet your dear friend—”landing page optimization.”
Truth be told, a well-optimized landing page is crucial for your paid media campaigns to convert well.
More often than not, solving your landing page woes could set your business on the path to profitability in terms of ad spending and what you get back in return. For instance, a simple thing such as personalizing your landing page’s call to action (CTA) converts 202% better than basic CTAs.
If that sounds promising, keep reading to learn landing page optimization practices online marketing experts swear by!
What is Landing Page Optimization?
If that sounds promising, keep reading to learn landing page optimization practices online marketing experts swear by! Anything you do under the guise of landing page optimization involves getting your landing page visitors to complete a desired action on the page. For example, submit an email address, register for a webinar, buy your low-priced lead magnet product, purchase your high-ticket consultation, etc.
A “bounce” is when the traffic you just paid to see your landing page ends up abandoning it without completing the desired action. Therefore, it’s wrong to think that a landing page is one place where a “bounce” is no good.
While it’s a given that most website visitors will not take action, the goal of all landing page optimization techniques is to ensure we “optimize” and get maximum people to act.
At its very simplest, landing page optimization involves improving the visual, textual, and overall contextual elements of your landing pages so they end up engaging with your target audience better, resulting in:
- increased number of leads;
- better quality of leads;
- increased number of registrations;
- conversion rate optimization.
Whether your objective is increased lead generation or targeted landing pages, landing page optimization is the general path you will choose to walk in the direction of.
Check out these 5 lead generation strategies to see which one suits your business best.
When Should You Use Landing Page
While highly praised, landing pages don’t need to be created for every little marketing deviation from your regular communication. Yet, there are several situations in which landing pages can be pure gold:
- When you have a paid ad or an email campaign running. You don’t want to direct the good people who clicked on your CTA to a generic homepage and make them search for the product the ad was promoting. Do you? Make the process pain-free for both you and your prospects by giving them the straightest way to convert, i.e., through a dedicated landing page;
- When you have multiple inbound traffic sources. Consider creating a separate landing page for each website traffic source you have (organic search, social media, affiliates, Google Ads). Why? For the same good reason – it simplifies the funnel and makes distinct testing more valuable.
- When you’re targeting mobile users. 56.2% of all website traffic are people on phones. If the website looks good on their phone, that is another question. To ensure that Google Analytics doesn’t show an average duration session at 5 sec (enough time to get irritated by an unresponsive page), make your landing page mobile-first and lead your visitors straight to the conversion goal.
- When you launch limited-time and special offers. Websites can be confusing beasts, and sometimes, it’s easier to create another page on top than customize the carefully orchestrated homepage. So, if you have a promotional campaign you need to launch, like now, creating a dedicated landing page is a good option. Afterward, you can turn it off.
Why Landing Page Optimization Matters
Wondering what sets other landing pages with impressive conversion rates apart from yours? Well, the secret is regular optimization. But don’t worry, it’s easier than you think!
To optimize your landing pages, you don’t need to break the bank or navigate complex landing page optimization tools. With a few simple tweaks and some know-how about best practices, you can fast-track your visitors through the sales funnel.
The best part? You won’t need any expensive or complicated optimization tools. Just a good understanding of what works and a straightforward approach can make a significant difference in no time. This leads to:
- Enhanced user experience. Your visitors will enjoy a smoother, more enjoyable time on your landing page thanks to better, well-structured, and relevant content.
- Conversion optimization. Regularly optimizing your landing pages can lead to conversion rate improvements, whether in lead generation or ecommerce sales from your website traffic.
- Lower customer acquisition costs. Optimizing landing pages enhances the user experience and delivers more value to your targeted visitors, leading to lower cost-per-click (CPC) and reduced overall customer acquisition costs (CAC).
Landing Page Optimization Strategy and Best Practices
Trying every recommendation and best practice available online is a sure-shot way to doom your conversions. So, instead, ensure that the below fundamentals of optimizing landing pages are in place before considering anything else.
Complete Pre-Work
Pre-work is what you must have already done before strategizing that landing page for Facebook or Google ads (PPC) campaigns. So, let’s revisit these fundamentals anyway.
- Solid audience research. You should already have your Buyer Personas (Customer Avatars) in place and be aware of your prospects’ likes and dislikes, fears and frustrations, and ambitions and aspirations.
- Understand your own business. You must have a clear idea about how your business helps your target audience. What pain points does it solve? How it’s so much better than the competition (i.e., USP or Unique selling point)?
- Clear business objectives. You must know your overall business goals and how this current campaign is aligned with those goals.
Make Sure Your Campaign Has a Singular Focus
- What are the motivations of a visitor who ends up on your landing page?
- What do you know about your visitors, and what do they know about your business or the product you are likely selling them?
- Ultimately, what do you want out of this campaign? More leads, more signups, or more conversions (sales)?
It can be anything, as long as it’s just one thing. And that too in a highly targeted fashion.
For the same reason, generally, your website’s home page is the wrong choice to drive traffic since the prospect will likely be overwhelmed by all the information there. So think of it as one aim, one message, one action.
Want prospects to download your ebook if they don’t register for that webinar? It might be a bad idea to club both goals together. Instead, why not just set up another landing page to promote that download?
Also, it goes without saying that if you have multiple customer avatars, segment them out and have a separate ad instance and landing page for each. This will help you understand which segment converts the highest and needs your maximum attention.
Ensure Consistency Throughout the Funnel
Everything from your Facebook or PPC ad to your landing page and then your “thank you” page should be uniform and consistent with the expectations you set for your users when they first clicked on the ad. That is:
- Logo & branding (most important);
- Landing page design (color palette, typography, images);
- Messaging (what are you talking about, CTA);
- Tone (how you are talking about it, brand messaging).
Any inconsistencies will create distrust in the prospect.
While keeping all other design elements consistent between the Ad creative and the landing page, repeating the original core message on the landing page helps increase trust and recognition.
Make the “Above the Fold” Section Stand Out
The entire section of your landing page that is first viewed by the prospect without the first scroll is referred to as the “above the fold section.”
The most important part of your message or offer needs to be here. If not, and you choose to bury it between paragraphs of text, it may miss getting read.
For business, this is a make-or-break moment since generally uninterested prospects are not even likely to scroll through in the first place, let alone complete the desired action.
Your most crucial landing page elements in this section will undoubtedly be:
- A prominent headline that speaks to the audience’s pain point or highlights a benefit
- Lead text (a sub-headline or paragraph just below the headline in smaller font that expands on the headline)
- The CTA urging the prospect to take action.
Make your “above the fold” portion the juiciest part of your landing page, and watch your conversions skyrocket.
CTA Tips: Make your visual elements (buttons) big and colorful and surround this with whitespace so the prospect doesn’t miss it. The importance of call-to-actions is crucial for websites.
Inject Endorsements & Social Proof
Everyone likes to talk nice about their own business.
Do you have happy users? Let the whole world know about it in their own words. Are you already done and looking for the next level? Try and A/B test your landing page with:
- Picture vs. video testimonials
- Few vs. multiple testimonials
- Long vs. short testimonials
Are you looking for something even more extra? Endorsements from celebrities and influencers can build up credibility quickly.
Remove What Could Hurt
You don’t always have to add something to your landing page. Exactly, sometimes removing the wrong elements that are hurting conversions could help more.
- Navigation menu on top. Landing pages generally do not need navigation. When on that page, the prospect came to complete that one action. So, there’s no reason to tempt them with links to your website pages.
- Social media icons. Avoid using these for the same reason. Generally, once you lose them on your Instagram, they do not return to your landing page to give you their email address.
Maintain Simple Layouts and Welcome White Space
Landing page design is as important as what content it is wrapped in. That’s why when optimizing your page, you need to take a long, hard look at how it looks.
The rule of thumb – less is more – perfectly aligns with what you should aim for in your design. Leave ample whitespace, which will help keep the landing page uncluttered and draw the eyes to the elements you want.
In line, keep your layout simple by not overcrowding the landing page with elements and keeping the CTA concise.
Ensure All Crucial Information is Visible Above-the-Fold
Don’t play hide and seek with your visitors. If they don’t find what interests or motivates them without scrolling the landing page, they’ll leave.
That’s why you should keep the following information above the fold, i.e., at the top of your landing page:
- The headline;
- A value proposition;
- An actionable CTA;
- A form (optimal).
Craft Relevant Content that Resonates with Your Target Audience
Wanting to fit all the things you want your visitors to do in just one landing page is only a human thing to do. Yet, getting only what you need without searching through distractions is also human. That’s what your visitors want, and you should listen to.
When crafting your landing page’s content, remember that ones rule: stick to one proposition in exchange for one action and be clear on it. For instance, if you want your visitors to subscribe to your newsletter, tell them to do it, as they’ll receive a discount and a biweekly newsletter for it.
Make Your Calls-to-Action Clear and Straightforward
Even if your landing page is a golden mile of beautifully crafted storytelling, leave the bedazzlement out of CTA. It’s the one place where you need to be bland and straight to the point. If you’re offering a discount, write “Claim 15% off”. If you’re offering mind-blowing, life-changing, professional face massages, go with “Register for a massage.” You get the gist.
The button, on the other hand, is where you can show your boldness. Contrast its’ colors with the background and leave it alone to catch attention.
And consistently deliver what you promised. It’s better to have your CTA button untouched than clickbaity, as the latter leaves no chance of visitors returning.
Capture Leads Using an Optimized Form
Avoid asking any questions in your form that are irrelevant or necessary or whose answers you have no idea what you will do with. Most forms only need the First Name and Email address fields and the Phone Number if you want to call them back.
Not only will this make you look less nosy, but the visitors will feel less objections to telling you about themselves as they’d know what to expect from giving away this information.
Other nice things you can do to optimize your forms is to consider the following:
- What stage of the buyer’s journey the visitor is in. The higher the funnel the user is, the fewer form fields you should include.
- Mobile-friendliness. With a growing number of mobile users, it’s crucial to have your forms look good on any device.
- The value proposition. What you offer in exchange for the visitor’s action should be of the same or more significant value. For example, a 5% discount is not enough to motivate a user to give away their name and surname.
Employ Contrasting Colors
We’ve mentioned that contrasting colors work great when you want to draw gazes to your CTA button. But it’s not their only beneficial use. Contrasting colors can highlight other essential parts of the landing page, like headlines or limited-time offers.
However, don’t think you use neon yellow, and your work is done. Even if contrasting, the colors you use should match your brand colors. This consistency ensures an aesthetic look and increases trust in your brand.
Utilize Visual Media like Images and Videos
Imagine describing how your product looks on the landing page. It feels weird, right? Not only do visuals feel more pleasant to us, but they can sometimes convey the message much better.
It doesn’t mean that you should start thinking about how to draw a benefit from the shampoo you sell. Instead, you should additionally illustrate what you’ve said with images.
The same goes for videos. For example, you can slash the time to understand how your product works by explaining it briefly over a demonstration video.
Build Trust through Social Proof
Trust is one of the most important factors when deciding to buy from a brand.
So, don’t be shy with glowing reviews from other brands or shining testimonials from your customers. Showcase them proudly on your landing page!
Seeing that other people like them like you builds trust and entices the visitors to experience the pleasant the others had with your products or service.
Stay Attentive to Landing Page SEO
You might have the best landing page ever, but if search engines don’t show it, you won’t see any organic traffic.
That’s why search engine optimization (SEO) should also make your optimization a to-do list. Here’s how you take care of your landing page SEO:
- Think of relevant keywords your prospects might enter when looking for what you offer. Add those keywords in your title, meta description, and URL.
- Include these keywords naturally in your landing page content to show Google and other search engines that your page is relevant to the searchers.
Minimize Page Loading Time
You might be losing 40% of your landing page visitors if it takes more than 3 sec to load. But that’s not the most hurtful part. It’s that optimizing your page loading speed is all that it takes to avoid it.
To minimize the loading time, turn to your trusty developer. Some sacrifices like removing high-resolution images or embedded videos might be asked for, but it’s all for a higher cause.
What is a Good Landing Page Conversion Rate
Your landing page conversion rate is simply the number of people who executed the desired action divided by the total number of landing page views (people who visited your landing page).
According to a study by Databox, most landing pages have a conversion rate of 10% or less. So, anything over is a benchmark for a reasonable conversion rate.
However, note that the digital marketing landscape being as vast as it is, landing page conversion rates will vary across different niches, industries, and sub-niches, and despite everything you do, sometimes even from business to business.
Landing Page Optimization – The Bird’s Eye View
As you’ve probably guessed by now, landing page optimization is not a one-time exercise. There’s simply no such thing as ‘a perfect landing page’. You have to keep returning now and then to improve your landing page and website conversions.
Nor is it about a set of quick hacks, tips, and tricks that no one told you about. Instead, view landing page conversions as an expression of your user’s web page experience.
Make it a genuine and authentic experience for the prospective visitor, and all statistics that matter will start looking up!
If you have already warmed up your knowledge about landing page optimization, but want to dive deeper, check out these articles:
- 8 Landing Page Examples PROVEN to Convert
- What is Email Subscription: Definition & All-Inclusive Tutorial
- Landing Page Best Practices to Follow in 2023
- 10 Professional Product Landing Page Examples that Convert
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Content contributors – Santosh Balakrishnan and Vesta Oldenburg.
