Landing Pages 101: A Comprehensive Guide to Creating Effective Landing Pages

In the world of online marketing, landing pages are a crucial tool for converting visitors into customers. 

But what exactly is a landing page, and how can you create one that drives conversions and sales? 

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll answer these questions and more, providing you with the knowledge and tools to create effective landing pages that deliver results.

What is a Landing Page and Why is it Important?

First, let’s define what a landing page is. 

Simply put, a landing page is a standalone web page that is designed to convert visitors into leads or customers. 

Unlike a typical website page, a landing page is focused on a specific offer, such as a free trial, a discount, or a download. 

The goal of a landing page is to persuade visitors to take a specific action, such as filling out a form or making a purchase.

So why are landing pages important? 

Because they help businesses to convert visitors into leads and customers. 

By providing a clear and focused offer, a landing page can increase the chances of visitors taking action, ultimately leading to increased conversions and revenue.

Why and When to Use a Landing Page

So when should you use a landing page? Here are a few scenarios where landing pages can be particularly effective:

• When launching a new product or service: A landing page can help to generate interest and excitement around a new product or service, and can be used to capture leads before the launch date.
• When running a promotional campaign: Whether it’s a discount, a free trial, or a limited-time offer, a landing page can be a powerful tool for promoting your offer and converting visitors into customers.
• When targeting a specific audience: If you’re running an advertising campaign, a landing page can be used to target a specific audience with a tailored message and offer.

The Anatomy of a Landing Page: Key Elements that Make a Landing Page Effective

To create an effective landing page, you need to include certain key elements. Here are the essential components of a landing page:

• Headline and subheadline: The headline and subheadline should be attention-grabbing and clearly convey the offer and its value.
• Hero shot or visual: A high-quality visual that supports the offer can help to grab visitors’ attention and communicate the value of the offer.
• Copy that supports the offer: The body copy should provide more details about the offer, including its features, benefits, and why it’s valuable.
• Call-to-action: The call-to-action (CTA) should be prominent and clearly communicate the action that visitors need to take to claim the offer.
• Social proof: Including social proof, such as testimonials or customer reviews, can help to build trust and increase the likelihood of visitors taking action.
• Trust indicators: Adding trust indicators, such as security badges or money-back guarantees, can help to reassure visitors and increase their confidence in the offer.

How to Set Goals for Your Landing Page and Track Its Performance

To ensure that your landing page is effective, you need to set goals and track its performance. Here are some tips for doing so:

• Setting SMART goals: Make sure your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
• Measuring and tracking landing page performance: Use tools like Google Analytics to measure key metrics, such as conversion rate and bounce rate.
• Using analytics to make data-driven decisions: Use the data you collect to make informed decisions about how to improve your landing page.

Bespoke Landing Pages vs. Normal Landing Pages

Another consideration when creating a landing page is whether to use a bespoke landing page or a normal landing page builder. 

A bespoke landing page is a page that is specifically designed for a particular campaign or audience from the ground up from a blank paper. It is where the customer journey and content is considered before the design. A normal landing page or a landing page software approach typically starts you with a base template and you design around a previously proven landing page template. While this approach is completely viable, we have found that many people attempt to create the story to fit the design and not the other way around.

CRO Landing Pages

Conversion Rate Optimization or CRO is the process of optimising your website or landing page to increase the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, such as filling out a form or making a purchase. 

CRO can be used to improve the performance of your landing page by identifying and addressing areas that are causing visitors to leave without converting. Hubspot provides some data in this article that showed that businesses using optimisation software and testing see an average improvement of 30%.

There are several CRO techniques that can be used to improve the performance of landing pages, such as A/B testing, personalization, and reducing friction. 

For example, you could test different headlines, images, or calls-to-action to see which combination drives the highest conversion rate. 

Personalization could involve showing different content to visitors based on their location or behaviour while reducing friction involves streamlining the checkout process or minimising the number of form fields.

Mobile Optimization for Landing Pages: Why it Matters and How to Do it Right

Mobile optimization is critical for landing pages.

Around 55% of website traffic comes from mobile devices, with a whopping 92.3% of all internet users accessing the internet via mobile.

Without proper mobile optimisation, you could be deterring over half of your potential traffic.    

If your landing page isn’t optimised for mobile, it can be difficult to navigate and may deter potential customers from converting.

To optimise your landing page for mobile, you need to ensure that the design and layout are mobile-friendly. 

This means using a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes, minimising load times, and ensuring that buttons and forms are easy to tap. 

You should also consider simplifying the content and ensuring that it is easy to read on a smaller screen.

The Role of A/B Testing in Optimising Your Landing Page

A/B testing is the process of comparing two variations of a landing page to determine which one performs better. 

This technique can be used to optimise your landing page by identifying which elements are driving the highest conversion rate.

To conduct an A/B test, you need to create two variations of your landing page with one key difference between them. 

For example, you could test two different headlines or calls-to-action. 

You would then split your traffic between the two variations and measure which one drives the highest conversion rate. 

Based on these results, you can then make changes to your landing page to improve its performance.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Creating Landing Pages

There are several common mistakes that businesses make when creating landing pages.

Too Much Text

One mistake is including too much text, which can be overwhelming for visitors and deter them from converting. It’s important to keep your messaging clear and concise.

Unclear Value Proposition

Another mistake is having unclear messaging, where visitors may not understand what you’re offering or why they should convert. It’s important to have a clear value proposition and to communicate it effectively.

Poor Design

Poor design and layout is another common mistake, where the landing page may not look professional or may not have a logical flow in terms of the product/service story and how users would want to absorb information.

Ensure that your landing page is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and uses design elements that reinforce your brand. Most of all, ensure it tells the right story.

Lack of Trust Elements

Finally, not having social proof or trust indicators can also hinder your landing page’s performance. 

Including customer testimonials, awards, certifications, or security badges can help build trust with your visitors and increase the likelihood of conversion.

Make the Perfect Landing Page With Converted

We hope you’ve enjoyed our in-depth guide for creating the perfect landing page.

But if you still help crafting the ultimate landing page that converts, then Converted is here to help.

We’re an award-winning digital marketing agency that specialises in creating bespoke landing pages.
Our work has helped clients increase conversions by almost 130%. If you want to learn more about the work we do, be sure to follow the link to learn more.