One of the biggest challenges that businesses face - whether in person or online - is how to convince people to buy from you, or at the very least give you permission to get in touch with them. This is precisely what a landing page is for. When configured optimally, a landing page should be a friend to your business. Here are 5 essential functions that an effective landing page should do for your website.
One of the biggest challenges that businesses face – whether in person or online – is how to convince people to buy from you, or at the very least give you permission to get in touch with them. This is precisely what a landing page is for. When configured optimally, a landing page should be a friend to your business. Here are 5 essential functions that an effective landing page should do for your website.
1. It Should Grab Your Visitors’ Attention
Studies suggest that a person will make a decision or form an impression of whatever it is they’re looking at within 6 seconds, including a website’s landing page. This means you’ve got to grab their attention immediately. Think about all the webpages at their fingertips at any given moment. If your landing page fails to draw them in right away, they’ll be quick to back out of your page.
Within the first few seconds of landing on your webpage, visitors need to understand how unique it is, and what they can get out of your website. Talk about the end-benefits for the visitor, preferably in one short, powerful sentence and graphic.
2. It Should Communicate in a Clear and Concise Manner
The first question visitors to your landing page will ask themselves is, “Am I finding what I’m looking for, or should I get out of here?” Help them answer this question the way you want them to by capturing their interest and attention in a clear manner. Visitors need to fully understand the message you’re giving them immediately, without them having jump through hoops to get it.
Make sure to explain in simple terms what your website/product/service is all about using concise, unambiguous language. Don’t use “fluff” to make yourself look smart – visitors aren’t attracted to your website because you look like an Ivy League-educated individual. Instead, write in a way that even a 10-year-old would get it.
3. It Should Include a Strong Call to Action
A lot of work goes into building traffic to your website, but that’s only the first part of the equation. Your real end goal is to convert visitors to actual customers, which means your landing page needs to include a clear call to action. An effective landing page must include one clear, main objective: to get your visitors to perform a specific action, such as signing up for a weekly newsletter, making a purchase, and so forth.
Don’t include a bunch of actions or links – only one is the key. Make sure this button stands out, and is designed and written to entice a call to action. For instance, start the sentence with a verb, such as “Start,” “Sign up,” or “Get.” Just make sure that your visitor is easily able to understand exactly what they are getting once they act on your offer.
4. It Should Develop Credibility and Build Trust
In the anonymous world of the internet, it can be tough to identify exactly who can and cannot be trusted. It’s well documented that people are much more likely to buy from other “people” who they have come to trust. For this reason, you need to do your best to develop credibility and build trust with your visitors so they eventually turn into loyal customers.
Consider including testimonials, press articles (e.g. “as seen in…”), social media (“X number of people have tweeted about it…”) and content marketing. With this last strategy, you essentially produce and give away helpful content, which will help you establish yourself as an expert and authority within your industry.
5. It Should Look Great
This might be a no-brainer, but your landing page needs to actually look credible through its layout, graphics, font type, and so forth. Clients need to have the impression that you spent a lot of time (and possibly money) putting your landing page and website together.
Putting in this type of effort will give your visitors the impression that you are a professional and are serious about your products or services. No one wants to do business with someone who looks like they couldn’t be bothered to spend the time necessary to put together a credible website.
You’ve put in so much work and effort into building up the traffic to your landing page – why not take things a step further and tweak it so it does everything you want it to do for your website and your business?
