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1) Remove Navigation and Other Distractions
Your landing page should have one simple purpose: Get someone excited enough about your offer so that they're willing to hand over their information. For best results, you'll want to remove distractions like navigation and additional offers. Keep your visitor's focus on the offer at hand.
2) Use Your Headline to Explain the Value of Your Offer - What's in it for Me?
People's attention spans are short, especially online. Because of this, you'll want to make sure that your offer is as clear as possible. The best way to achieve this is to have a clear title. Specifically, you'll want to make sure your title contains:
- A clear action (e.g. "Download our Guide")
- A clear description of your offer (e.g. "Download our Guide to Effective Landing Pages")
- An explanation of the value of your offer (e.g. "Download our Guide to Effective Landing Pages and Learn How to Increase Conversions by over 10%")
I've seen many landing pages that miss one of these three key details.
3) Use Caption Text Under Your Image(s)
As far as I'm conceded, you should always include at least one image on your landing pages. Images are engaging, they make your offers more tangible, and people like them.
That said, one of the most commonly overlooked elements on landing pages is image caption text. Behaviorally, people are much more likely to read the caption text on an image then to read the body text of your landing page.
Use your caption text to help underline the value of your offer.
4) Use Thank You Pages & Suggest Next Steps
When someone has finished filling out your landing page, what do they see? You should think carefully about this question.
Your "thank you" page is a great opportunity to suggest your lead's next action and should help them further connect with your company or brand. "Subscribe to our newsletter," "Read our blog," "Connect with us on Twitter," or "Share this offer with a friend are all are excellent examples of things you can suggest on a thank you page.
5) Make Your “Submit” Button Engaging
No one get’s excited about submitting their information to a marketing database. Because of this, you should always change the default text of your "submit" button.
The best practice here is to use an action word and to remind your visitors about what they're going to get. Think about which button you'd rather click below:
Bonus Tip: Avoid “Contact Us,” - Create Stronger Offers
As far as I'm concerned “Contact Us” does not count as a landing page. If this is the only "offer" on your site, you’re just going to attract spam and sales people. Diversify and create more offers.
Specifically, create one early-stage and one late-stage offer. For example, an early-stage offer could be a guide, a kit, or a white paper. A late stage offer can be a free consultation, an estimate / price quote or a free trial.
Next Steps and Other Suggestions
Following these simple tips is an easy way to increase your landing page conversion rate.
If you've had success with other tactics, please share them in the comments below.
An Introductory Guide to Building Landing Pages