A successful landing page has a very specific purpose. The idea is to capture leads through form submissions. Earning that form submission is the real challenge. We wanted to provide insight into how we create our most successful landing pages to help you when you're building your next campaign.
LAIRE is in the business of attracting, converting, and closing leads for our clients and ourselves. In digital marketing, much more goes into creating a great landing page than putting words onto a website. Follow these guidelines and your landing pages will help you convert visitors into leads.
Build a Winning Landing Page
What makes a landing page successful? There’s no definitive conversion rate you need to hit. An exceptional landing page usually has a conversion rate of around 12% (source). Keep in mind, a "good" number is different for every business. In most cases, a 5% conversion rate is considered very successful.
Here’s a peek behind the curtain. This is a screengrab from our HubSpot portal. Some context… this page was published in March 2018. The page has been continuously updated and improved over the last three years to ensure we are reaching the right people with the right content. These stats were captured in September 2021.
This is the story behind our construction marketing checklist and how it’s been one of our most successful landing pages since 2018.
Let’s start at the beginning. The offer was designed to be extremely specific. We wanted to provide a helpful piece of content for the home construction industry. This allowed us to use specific copy and images to speak to our target audience and appeal to their pain points.
We learned two very important rules while crafting this page. The first being that you should always maintain the focus of the landing page on your content and never be afraid to make mistakes when you’re figuring out what landing pages your audience wants to see.
Maintain the Focus of the Landing Page
When building your landing page, you need to remember the form is the star of the show. Everything on the page should support the form and never distract from it. It's why it's best practice to not have navigation on a landing page. You can keep a button to direct the viewer back to your homepage, in case they came to your landing page by accident, but you want to refrain from cluttering your landing page with distractions, such as navigation bars.
The form should be above the fold. Don't make people have to scroll and search for it. The further down on the page people have to search for your form, the less likely they will be willing to convert and the more likely they will bounce off of the page without taking any action.
Any copy, images, or videos need to compliment the form. If your copy or graphics do not directly relate to your form or do not support your form, your reader might think they are in the wrong place.
You also want to intrigue the reader and make them think your solution is the perfect answer for them. Finding a balance between telling the reader why they need your offer without giving too much of the content away will be a key factor in boosting your conversion rate. Also, they need to trust you enough to give you their name and email. By offering up small bits of what they can expect, they will be more likely to trust you with their sensitive data.
Remember, landing pages are ineffective when the main focus is polluted. Keep your focus clean and clear. Look at the page from your viewers’ eyes. If the message does not accurately describe your offer, they most likely will not convert
Don’t Be Afraid to Make Mistakes
Your work isn’t done after you publish the landing page. It needs to be someone's responsibility to refine the page as needed. This is the foundation of Growth-Driven Design. If you’re new to GDD, be sure to check out this article for the basics on why you should continually update your website, including your landing pages.
Every business is different and has different audiences. What appeals to one group, might not work for another. We suggest starting with the basic elements: images, messaging, formatting. Your first step in optimizing your page is adjusting the copy with additional keywords or SEO lift, changing up images, or formatting the entire page layout if people aren't converting or are bouncing away too frequently.
Only change one element at a time to truly test what change makes the biggest effect. You might find that your format is great, but your copy can use some work. You can always change these elements back to their original state if they are not having the desired effect, or make things worse.
Switch Up Your Design
Every landing page doesn’t need to look the same, we try to change up every new landing page we create. They all follow the same concept or outline, but the form is always the most important thing on the page. Everything else plays a supporting role.
Giving a variety to your audience creates new and exciting experiences that can help convince leads to complete your form. If someone happens to want multiple downloads from your company, keeping the pages the same might deter them from converting on additional forms.
Ultimately, you should be aiming to connect with your audience. A sure way to do this is by keeping your content creative and being critical of the ways you are delivering said content. Try a different method for creating your landing pages, the results might surprise you.
If you’re working on your entire website, in addition to your landing pages, be sure to check out our 25 Website Must-Haves eBook. You might find additional tips that will improve your overall site.
