No matter in what direction your marketing strategy goes, there is only one direction your ads should take prospects: to a landing page. Landing pages are special web pages added to your website, where visitors are presented with an offer and prompted to take action.
Landing page design is continually changing. For this reason, whenever we notice substantial changes in the best practices for high conversion landing page design, we return to this topic and share the information with you.
And right now, we feel that it is time to share with you the most recent tips for effective landing page design. In 2018, customer acquisition and retention will be more difficult than before, because customers are increasingly fastidious and have higher expectations from companies they do business with. A great landing page is the first step towards a sale, and you should make it with confidence. Here are the key tips you should know of:
- Incorporate Branding Prominently
A landing page must have a simple design, but you should not forgo your key branding elements: the logo, the tagline, and the corporate colours. Since a landing page is a very simplified version of your website, without the regular menu and page elements, visitors need these branding elements to be certain that they have landed on the right page.
The customer’s journey must start with a clear idea of whom they are interacting with. Without creating a strong connection between your brand and the prospect from the very beginning, it will be difficult to build customer loyalty.
- Create a Logical Flow for the Key Elements of the Page
The key elements of a landing page are: the offer, the incentive, the proof, and the call to action. These elements are closely linked together, but they must have a specific logical flow. The page visitor will not be immediately excited about the offer–they must be persuaded with the incentive. Then they have doubts and objections–the proofs (social proofs work best) will remove them. The prospect will be willing to follow through with the call to action only after this logical flow of events.
- Place the Call-to-Action (CTA) Above the Fold
Above or under the fold–the debate has been going on for years. But mobile internet has finally put it to rest. Since most people use their mobile phones to browse the internet, the call to action needs to be placed above the fold. Very few people are willing to scroll down on a landing page. If they do not see the CTA, they will move on to another web page, or go back to the social media platform where they tapped on your ad.
- Optimise Your Forms
Once again, mobile internet dictates the ideal structure of a fill-in form on your landing page. There is a huge difference between typing on a computer keyboard and tapping on a mobile screen. No matter how large the screen is, tapping with the thumb is uncomfortable. Thus, if your landing page visitors see a long fill-in form, with many fields, they will not take the time to fill it in.
Plus, they will become uncomfortable if you ask for too much personal information from the start. Their name and email address (phone number in exceptional cases) are quite enough at this point.
- Include Several Contact Options
Here is something that many companies forget: the landing page should not have the sole purpose of obtaining your prospects’ contact data. It should allow the prospects to get in touch with you if they want. While some of them have the time to write an email, others prefer making a phone call. For this reason, you should include your phone number and email address on the landing page. It is possible that you may close the sale just after clarifying an aspect concerning your product over the phone.
Last, but not least, you should optimise your landing page for fast loading. If it takes more than 2 seconds to load, your prospects will move on to doing something else and forget about your offer.