All posts tagged landing page optimization

Anatomy of a Landing Page That Converts

Businesses create their official websites not just for the sake of displaying online credibility but more like attracting potential customers. Ultimately, the sale is the goal of any venture, and in this digital age, boosting your online presence has proven to be an efficient method to go about this.

However, attracting customers is a whole new, different challenge apart from the setting up of the website itself. It’s a combined effort of marketers and web designers to make sure that what they post online can captivate the eyes of their market.

Landing page exists to do just this. Hubspot defines this as ‘any page on the web on which one might land that 1.) has a form and 2.) exists solely to capture a visitor’s information through that form.’

Marketing experts have their strategies for creating this, but the following are the most common items that make up the anatomy of a landing page that converts.

Unique selling proposition (USP)

This is where you feature a single factor that you can give to your visitors. It includes a killer headline, the supporting statement of a product, offer, or service and a closing argument. It’s basically what gives your readers the needed ‘pull’ to continue looking into your promotion.

Specific benefits of your offer

Once you’ve successfully attracted people through your killer headline, you need something more concrete to convince them that yes, they must consider buying your product. This is where the list of benefits comes in handy.

Effecting landing pages make use of bullet form to highlight the best qualities of the offer and explain its details.

Captivating image / video

Even before one spots text, an image or video already serves as a determining factor whether or not your page deserves attention. This is because a human brain is wired to process images faster than plain letters or words.

Use an image that represents the item you are offering. It must have a high resolution and should ideally be able to present multiple sides of a product for your potential customers to examine. Remember that online shoppers have no way of examining the product in person so your featured image should provide ample of ways to get a grip of the product from their devices.

Testimonials

Featuring actual testimonials from satisfied customers will boost the credibility of your product. It’s a natural tendency for people to find some social proof before buying an item online. If they see a lot of individuals dropping positive notes on a service, then there’s a higher chance of converting them to buyers.

Trust symbols

This is more or less relevant to testimonials but more authoritative in nature. Any recognition from organizations, authority website and even the government belongs here. You can place the logo or badge of these agencies proving the specific recognition you received.

Map / Navigation

Now that it is possible to directly provide a Google Map link to your landing page, there is no reason why you should miss the opportunity. Some customers are very critical when it comes to online stores, and they want to check if you have some offsite office or shop that they can visit.

With this navigation section, they do not need to search manually for your location.

Review links

This is optional, and some marketers would not suggest this especially if your landing page is already packed. However, if the quality of the reviews posted on a different website will help boost your credibility then why not? Just make sure you do not flood your page so much with links.

Choose the best ones and provide two or three different links that customers could check.

Delivery options

This applies to landing pages featuring a particular product. Customers who prefer shopping online are either too busy to make an actual purchase from your shop or just want to rid themselves of the hassle by direct shipping.

It’s best to include the options available for them. Frequently asked questions like the turn-around time or fast delivery service should also be present.

SEO keywords & accurate grammar

No matter how captivating your landing page is, it will not be effective if your grammar and choice of words aren’t that powerful to promote the product. This is exactly why SEO company specifically hire content writers to craft convincing copies fit for the language of an individual target market.

By combining accurate grammar and optimized keywords, enterprises can reap the full benefits in the form of increased page visits from an organic audience.

Call-to-action

Last but not the least is a strong CTA (call-to-action). Now that you have already given the gist of what the product is all about, it’s about time that you help your customers decide on what to do next. Call-to-action is created for this.

Commonly used ones include:

•    Buy Now!

•    Get (amount) percent discount NOW!

•    Join FREE for a month!

•    Give (product) a try!

•    Claim your free trial!

•    Grab the template!

One thing that is also common among these CTAs is the urgency that they project. As a marketer, you  don’t want your customers to be putting you aside ‘for later.’ The landing page is designed to convince them that getting your item has to be done NOW or else….

Effective CTAs encourage customers to make the next move because they feel like if they don’t, they might be missing something very crucial. Experts say that if you can’t make your audience say ‘yes’ to your CTA, then they will most likely find someone else who can offer them something better.

Landing pages are more complicated than what you see on the outside. It requires a lot of planning and few trial and errors before one creates something that is fit for the message they wish to send across.

Moreover, you are not the only one fighting for the attention of your audience. If you don’t craft a knockout landing page, they will sooner or later find another option that could capture their attention.

Try to reassess the current on you have. Is it composed of the factors we mentioned above? Lastly, if you see the call-to-action, will you be encouraged to click?

 

 

Creating Social-Friendly Landing Pages

Any discussion about SEO Philippines will never be complete without the mention of social media marketing. We can only implement a holistic SEO campaign with social media platform as an indispensable tool to obtain the goals of such campaign. The thing is we are able to pique the interest of our readers and entice them towards visiting the site, driving traffic to our branded sites. Unfortunately, all they do is browse.

So, how do we convert our browsing friends into buying customers?

We have yet to reconcile the disconnect between website design and development and social media communication. Most probably, the reason you are not winning over your browsing-but-not-buying friends is the page they land on when they visit the site.

And oh, please don’t forget that most of our readers are on mobile now. The way you craft a post on any social platform should also be the same way you are crafting your landing pages especially when a particular post leads to that landing page.

People expect. We all do. So, expect that the people expect almost the same thing that caught their attention in the first place when on the landing page.

The social media mindset

The social media audience has a very, very short attention span. Before other things distract them, make the call to action more obvious. The more obvious it is, the more likely a user will take action.

The simplicity must be evident particularly when moving from the social media post to the branded website. The number one rule is making the website as simple as possible, which means fewer options and processes, so the user will make a decision.

Distract him, and he will surely leave the site. Even endless browsing itself can distract the visitor thereby competing with the main purpose of the call to action.

If the goal of your website is having the visitors watch a video, download a free software or sign up to an email list, then tell exactly what they should do. Simple. That, my friends, is the job of a landing page.

The social landing page

Each social platform is unique – it has its own language and culture that only the users can understand. Well, for one, these platforms are highly subjective yet relatable. Perhaps, this is the reason Facebook has more than 1.3 billion active users per month. Facebook is very easy to use.

Ideally, create a social-friendly landing page that focus on a simple decision. Here’s a quick guideline.

1) Keep the voice of the landing page consistent with that of the social media channel.

2) Keep the visuals consistent with the social media aesthetics.

3) Ask for only one conversion that the website needs.

4) Put the social media widget on the confirmation page.

Along with these, you can vary the theme so you can create landing pages specifically for a community that you target. Consider the following.

  • The interfaces of the desktop versions of both Twitter and Facebook look and feel similar. You can use the same landing pages for your target Twitter and Facebook communities to boost conversion rates.
  • The landing page for Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube must be minimized and more visual. The same goes with putting visually enticing call to action buttons that resonate better for the communities on these platforms.

The mobile audience consideration

For most of us, social media consume our breaks, scrolling down our newsfeeds to update ourselves about what is happening around us. We update our statuses while at the queue at the grocery store or the train station. We stop for a moment to take a selfie on the coolest and most interesting places that we’ve been.

How should your social landing page fit the always-on-the-go lifestyle? How can it fit the needs and wants of the mobile engagers?

Primarily, take a cue from what you are ACTUALLY offering your market. Here’s an example. If you are offering a mobile app, there is no need to tap into the desktop-loving users. Your primary target should be the mobile-first users. Put simply, the best moments to convert a social connection is catching him or her at the right moment when he or she is on the right device.

Nonetheless, mobile-friendly landing pages is no longer about whether the landing page is viewable on the screen or not and if yes, how does it look. Consider these.

  • Mobile users can only provide the basic information such as name and email address.
  • Mobile users prefer signing up to a website through a social sign up button.
  • Radio buttons and check boxes work better for mobile forms than dropdown lists.
  • Buttons must be big enough so it can be easily tapped.
  • The landing page should only about 20KB so it will load quickly.
  • The content of the landing page must be brief enough.

Further, mobile-friendly landing pages are not enough. What is more important is the landing page contains all the readable information that the user needs. Put simply, the landing page should provide value to the users.

Not just the products and services that you offer themselves, but the landing page itself. It should save your visitors valuable time. For instance, if the landing page has every required details and loads quickly, then there is no need for the user to look for alternatives and substitutes.

Most of the brands tend to overlook this very important aspect. If the landing page fails to add value, conversion will never happen. That is, aside from the actual value of your product and service offerings, you might as well add value to the users through the landing page. We can call this the technical value of landing page optimization.

The social media present themselves as an opportunity for the brand owners to tap into the real and felt needs of their users that MUST be reflected in the landing page somehow for a conversion to happen. The bottom line is that the landing page must be able to provide real and felt value to the users before they convert. If there is one thing that we can learn from social media that is ‘snatched’ times are so valuable they are better spent on the right landing pages.

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