No matter what your industry, it’s a competitive world out there! With so many businesses offering similar products and services, digital marketing techniques help different brands set themselves apart. One of the best ways to do that is with a killer landing page.

A landing page is can be linked to from your digital (or even offline) marketing. It is disconnected from the main site’s navigation and is meant to lead visitors to complete a particular action. Other than converting leads to customers, a good landing page increases SEO, collects user data, improves credibility, and increases brand awareness.

Landing page design is just as important as your overall site design. But because is incredibly diverse, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to designing your landing pages.

There is great opportunity for attracting and converting customers with these simple web pages. The conversion rates of the best landing pages in the travel industry, for example, can be as high as 25.1 percent. Significant!

Whether an airline is selling last-minute flights or a locally owned accommodation business is looking to fill last minute availability, businesses can take advantage of this well-known digital marketing tool.

When designing a new landing page to attract and convert visitors to your site, keep these five tips in mind.

Tip 1: Use a simple design

The purpose of the landing page is to entice visitors to complete one key action. What that action is should be easily understood by viewers and easy to complete. Because the purpose of the landing page is so narrow, it is important to eliminate anything that distracts the user from completing the desired action. Unlike other pages on the site, the landing page should be free of a navigation bar, side menu, or footer. Instead, all content on the page should focus on the call-to-action.

Simple design with deliberate placement of basic elements gets rid of visual clutter and draws visitors to reaching for the offered value.

Tip 2: Create a time-sensitive call-to-action

When a potential customer views your landing page, they should feel like they discovered an exclusive hacking secret that even the most elite web surfers have yet to find. But rewards are most satisfying when scarce and time-sensitive.

A call-to-action can entice a customer to sign up for a mailing list to receive the best deals, download an e-book with helpful tips about your industry, products or services, or to even purchase additional products to complement a previously made sale. Ways to encourage visitors to act on the call-to-action immediately include using a countdown timer or deadline for a particular sale, or offering limited quantity of what they were looking for.

Tip 3: Calls-to-action are mutually beneficial

Even though calls-to-action are meant to provide value to the customer, they are equally beneficial to the business making the offer. Asking a lead for their email address or Facebook profile is a great opportunity to collect information on who the typical customer is and what they want. Visitor data goes far beyond collecting email addresses and basic information. Calls-to-action allow businesses to gather data on user interests and demographics and predict what products or services customers would need or want in the future. This helps create efficiency in marketing and savings in advertising.

Make the most of what learning opportunities come with an effective landing page.

Tip 4: Always be testing, A/B testing

As consumer trends change, the content on any site should adapt. A/B testing is widely used to make sure that the content and web design of any page is optimal for attracting and converting visitors.

As landing pages are meant to convert leads into customers, they should always be included in A/B testing. From background color to headline copy, changing individual elements of a landing page can have a surprisingly major effect on conversion rates.

With frequent A/B testing comes more accurate data. With more accurate data, a business can better know its customers and provide a more personal experience.

Tip 5: Optimize landing page for search engines

Whatever product or service someone is looking for, they will most likely use a search engine to find the best deal. There is no reason a landing page that offers what they are looking for should not be one of the first search hits.

As with any page throughout a website, applying SEO best practices to landing pages is important. Keywords that potential customers search for should be included throughout the general content of the page, including the URL and image text. With a landing page making the first page of a search query, a business can guarantee more conversions.

So, in summary…

Creating an effective landing page is no easy task. Although there are several guidelines for design, digital marketers are always finding new methods to attract customer leads. Because the business environment is so diverse, there is no cookie-cutter template for landing pages.

When creating a landing page, remember to keep the design simple, create a clear call-to-action, use collected data to better understand customers, frequently A/B test elements of the landing page, and optimise it for search engines.

Following these simple and broad best practices can help turn casual site visitors into dedicated customers.

Next steps…

If you would like us to work with you to design and build your own unique landing pages, call us now for an initial chat. We promise not to blind you with any webby science and there’s absolutely no obligation! Call us now on 01548 857774.