When it comes to making a sale, much of your success counts on the first 5 seconds during which you make your pitch. No matter whom you are pitching to, the first few seconds are a deciding factor in gaining or losing a client. This implies that you need to make your landing page very effective and efficient because your lead is going to see the landing page first. If the page quickly gets the message across in a plain way, consider a bigger portion of your sale already done.
You need to keep in mind that a majority leads would not come to your homepage; instead they would visit a landing page by finding it on a search engine for specific keywords. Even if they come to your homepage, they would immediately click on the relevant landing page and see whether you have what they were looking for.
Now here’s how things proceed when a user clicks on your landing page: upon arriving on the page, the timer begins for you, and your success depends on how you have developed your landing page. If it is well developed, the user will read the complete page with motivation. If not, he or she will exit.
If your landing page is well developed, chances are the user will click on other pages of your site. However, majority users will use the call to action on the landing page to buy your product or service, and may not click on other pages. So how do you make your landing page effective and efficient?
Useful, Interactive And Timely Landing Page
The landing page should contain useful information for users. Remember, every landing page should be created with SEO and PPC goals in mind. They should contain information users are looking out for in search engines. You have to make your landing pages resourceful, even if it is simply a product or service information page. To make each page useful, use the journalists’ approach (listed below) to write your content:
- Who – Who should use the product or service?
- What – What problem of the user does the product or service solve?
- Where – Where can the user get the product or service?
- Why – Why should the user use the product or service?
- How – How is the product or service developed and how should it be used?
Your customer does not have much time to read a verbose wall of text does, so making your landing page easy, yet resourceful will not only delight the users, but also increase your chances of making a sale.
Secondly, make the landing page interactive, and motivate users to click through other linked pages, such as a link to your Facebook page. Also give them room to interact with the page and other users of the product or service. For example, you can allow users to post comments or reviews on the page. You can even link your company contact page with the landing page, so users can easily reach out to you.
Here’s an example of a good landing page:
Always try to put yourself in the user’s shoes, and think of why he or she used a specific keyword or key phrase, which landed him or her on your page. Get answer to questions like what type of page, information, content, product or service they might be looking for.
Never forget to add a call to action on the landing page. Depending on the nature of your business, it could be anything like buy now, download now, contact us, sign up, or register now button. The call to action shall follow the resourceful content.
Logo On The Landing Page
Putting up your company and brand logos on the landing page can help build trust and positive association. If you already have a logo, put it up. If not, then design a logo. It would not come at a huge cost, but try to make it appear professional, simple, memorable and beautiful. Users will appreciate you for this. Over time, your logo will help users relate with your brand and business values.
See this example:
The Offer
No doubt, creating an informational page is easier than creating an offer page, and this is where the real test begins. Studies show that triggering emotional responses from users really works. Below are some tips to incite emotional reactions from potential customers:
- Create urgency by offering a discount
- Make limited time offers by emphasizing on limited stock availability
- Let the user know how the product or service will make them feel
- Tell users what needs the product or service would satisfy
- Tell them what problems will they face if they don’t use your product or service
Below is an example of an effective, offer-based landing page:
Using Images And Videos
We live in a world of visuals. If you are selling a product, make sure to add some creative attractions to it through images and videos. For example, you can put up images of users using the product or a video of how the product is manufactured.
Remember, your images and videos should also be optimized for search engines; always label them, and use alt text, captions and descriptions to make them stand out in search engines. Images and videos can also help to make your landing page interactive and attractive. However, adding irrelevant images can turn off potential customers. So, keep the images and videos relevant, professional and clean.
Below is an example of how video has been used on a landing page to make it effective and efficient:
SchoolLockers.com is another example of using videos on the landing page which tells about the variety of products they offer.
References And Testimonials
References and testimonials can help sell your products. If your product has been positively cited or recommended on other websites, you can use them as reference by linking to them. You can also use testimonials from your existing customers; however, they are less effective (see the example below). Always link your landing page to your product reviews on third party sites.
Contact Information
The landing page shall have your contact information clearly written, so users can easily get in touch with you. It can also help build trust and long-term relationship. So, make sure to give users your complete contact information like email address, phone number, social media links etc. Below is a good example of how to put contact information on your landing page.
Guest Post by Kyle Gustin. He is President of Executive SEO Inc., a Winnipeg-based search engine optimization company.
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