Essential Elements of a High Converting Landing Page
The goal of every landing page is more or less the same. To convert.
The problem of creators is usually the same too. What do I need to include?
You want people to land on your special page and take the prescribed action you’ve chosen for them.
Maybe that’s to sign up for a webinar, or join your email list or perhaps, even to download an ebook.
Either way, you need to convert.
What many people fail to realize is in order to have a high-converting landing page, you need to incorporate some key elements.
Each niche is different. Each business is different. Each prospect is different.
But despite this, there are essential elements you need to think about if you want your landing page to succeed.
The figures vary from industry to industry. But a conversion rate of anywhere between 2% and 5%.
In this post, we’re going to break down the elements needed for a high-converting landing page and provide you with actionable tips for how you can improve yours today.
What’s the point in a landing page?
A landing page is a hyper-focussed webpage designed for an individual purpose: to convert.
You do this by strategically arranging different elements on a webpage that all work cohesively together to encourage prospects to convert.
They work differently to other pages on your website where you’re telling your prospects more about you. Landing pages aim to have a much more persuasive element to them.
Landing page headline tips
It all starts with a headline. Not just any headline. A compelling headline.
The headline is your chance to grab your prospect’s attention, explain your main idea and pique their interest.
The headline is often the shortest part of the landing page, but it’s the hardest to get right.
Afterall, it’s normally the first thing a reader will see and your first opportunity to convince them to convert.
If you want them to continue reading and have a chance of converting, your headline needs to be strong.
Like this example from Hubspot. Anyone who was looking for a guide about how to create design graphics that convert has come to the right place.
They use big bold text to grab their prospect’s attention.
If it’s relevant for your industry or landing page goal, you might consider a persuasive subheading too. Hubspot does this to convince people by highlighting exactly where they can place their graphics.
When you put together your headline, think about the problem your prospect has and outline exactly how your business can help solve it.
In this example the problem: their prospects want to know how to create images that convert.
The solution: The ebook that teaches them how to create optimized graphics for promoting content.
It’s not surprising that we’ve featured Wordstream’s landing page. The simple, but effective headline gets straight to the point in explaining what the reader will be able to do, after reading the e-book.
The aim of a headline is to grab your reader’s’ attention. The aim of a subheading is to keep them reading.
You have a chance to take your original headline and provide more information and convince them to keep reading.
In this example, Wordstream let their prospects know they can compete in AdWords without raising their bids. Something most AdWords users will be keen to know as raising bids often requires spending more money.
The body content, make it count
The body content of your landing page is where you can really test your creativity.
The body content, plus your headlines act as your unique selling point (USP). Your unique selling point should act as an opportunity to highlight the benefits of your offer to your prospects.
Key point: your prospects don’t care about you. Not really, they just care about what your business can do for them. How will taking your action improve their life?
When you include your benefits, make sure they are not actually features disguised as benefits.
No one cares about the features. People only care about the benefits for them. The benefits should be focussed on the prospect.
In the example below from Uber, they begin by outlining three key benefits of signing up to Uber as a driver.
For anyone who still needs convincing, Uber outline more benefits of signing up with the company listing information their prospects would care about like the deposit amount.
Covering this information on your landing page quells any doubts prospects might have and encourages them that taking your action will only bring about positive results.
In your body copy, don’t waste time getting to the point. You only have once chance to get your point across so make it as direct as you can.
Separate your text into manageable chunks so it doesn’t feel overwhelming for a prospect to read.
Normally, prospects only buy, sign up, or engage with companies they trust.
If they’ve already done business with you this isn’t a problem. But, if you want to get new people to engage with your landing page then you need to show you’re trustworthy.
When you buy from a new business, you often ask your network for recommendations. If you can’t do that, you’ll look online to see what other people thought of the service or product.
This is known as social proof.
People are much more inclined to buy when they can see there have been other people who have used the service or taken the action and benefitted from it.
Taster’s Club uses social proof or testimonials on their landing page as another persuasion tactic. Up to 95% of prospects make decisions based on online reviews. Doing so improves their credibility and increases trust within their brand.
Did you know we take in images much quicker than we do words? It’s true, and for that reason try and include some sort of imagery on your landing page.
Visual aids are more easily processed than text, so if you want a quick, efficient way to get information across to your prospects, you need to incorporate images onto your landing page.
Just like Jeff Bullas does. The image shows the cover of the book and gives him an opportunity to reinforce the messaging from the text element of the landing page.
The all elusive call to action
It all comes down to the call-to-action. If your readers have got this far, there should be no reason why they wouldn’t jump at the chance to do what you ask.
Remember one of the core aims of a landing page is to get people to take your desired action.
Having too many call to actions will distract prospects from taking the goal you intend for them to take.
Before you create your page, decide on a clear objective and make sure everything you include on your landing page leads prospects to take that action.
After all, you’ve told explained the problem they’re having and you’ve shown your solution and how their life will be different once they take your solution.
Membership Site Masters use two call to action buttons on their landing page. One at the top for those who are ready to take action, and, one at the bottom for those who need further encouragement.
If your call to action can’t convince a reader to take your desired action then all your previous work has been for nothing.
You want your prospects to take action right away, so be sure to provide them with an offer they can’t resist.
Hubspot offers 13 customizable ebook templates. If you were looking to create an ebook and wasn’t sure how what layout you should use, this is an irresistible offer.
Without a call-to-action button, your landing page is meaningless.
Keeping a logical flow
It’s important that your landing page has an easy-to-understand logical flow.
It should take your readers on a journey.
You should make it as easy as possible for your readers to take the desired action without too many distractions. Don’t give anyone the opportunity to click away.
If you’re utilizing a form on your landing page, make sure it’s succinct.
If you need prospects to hand over their information, you’re already asking for something from them. Remember, a prospect is only thinking about what’s in it for them.
Think about the mandatory information you need at this stage. Normally it’s a first name and email address, sometimes it’s just an email address.
It’s a catch 22. The more information you receive from your prospects, the more personalized a message you can send them. But the more information you ask for, the less chance of a prospect actually filling it in.
So decide what you need immediately and devise a plan to get the rest of the data you require once they’ve given you the minimum details.
Humans have an average attention span of 9 seconds. You only have a small window of opportunity to convince someone to take action.
Paypal uses a clean and simple layout that quickly guides prospects from the headline right to the call to action.
They keep text to a minimum meaning the landing page is easy to navigate. They are therefore able to capture the attention of anyone who lands on the page.
Prospects immediately understand what the business is about what the business wants them to do.
Takeaways
A landing page is a chance to connect a hyper-focused audience to a hyper-focused solution.
It’s a chance for you to outline exactly how your solution fixes their problems.
It’s a great chance to make more sales, grow your email list or even offer your services to more prospects.
But if you want to get it right, you need to put the right combination of elements on your landing page.
Too few and you risk the prospect not understanding what your solution is, or worse, not trusting that you’re the right person to solve their problem.
Too many elements and you run the risk of overwhelming your visitors.
Following this guide to ensure you have your essential elements on your landing page, alongside a series of testing each element will put you in a good chance of creating a high-converting landing page.
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