If you’re already struggling to turn website visitors into paying customers, don’t worry—there are plenty of others who have been there too. Your landing page can play a massive role in customer acquisition—so is it doing its job? A poorly optimized landing page can completely derail your marketing efforts, while an incredibly well-designed one can significantly increase your conversion rate. The good news? Building a high-converting landing page is not rocket science—it’s simply a case of paying attention to a few key details.
This guide will take you by the hand and walk you through the fundamentals of a successful converting landing page. From crafting a headline to showing visuals, you’ll learn step by step how to create a landing page that isn’t just attractive but converts visitors into action-takers.
What Is a Landing Page and Why Is It Important?
A landing page is one web page with a specific intention. Unlike the website’s homepage, which is a broad overview of your company or brand, a landing page is about triggering one, specific action. That might be subscribing to a newsletter, downloading a whitepaper, or purchasing a product.
Why are landing pages so important? Here are a few reasons:
- Focus: Undivided attention, a landing page is utilized to drive one single call-to-action (CTA).
- Better ROI: Conversion-based landing pages optimize the return on your marketing investment.
- Easy A/B Testing: Landing pages are a perfect location to test different messaging, imagery, and CTAs to figure out what performs best.
Now that we have a understanding of what a landing page is, let’s discuss how.
Writing a Killer Headline
Your headline is the first thing that visitors see, and it makes (or breaks) their first impression. A good headline gets attention, delivers value, and invites the visitor to scroll down.
What makes a great headline?
- Clarity: Declare the key benefit or purpose upfront. Don’t get too word-smart at the expense of meaning.
- Relevance: Address your audience’s pain point or interest directly.
- Urgency: Create a sense of urgency that forces the visitor to act immediately.
Examples of high-converting landing page headlines:
- “Double Your Sales in 30 Days With Our Proven Strategy”
- “Streamline Your HR Workflow in Just One Click”
- “Say Goodbye to Stress With Our All-in-One Productivity App”
These are clear, benefit-driven, and achievable, calling the visitor to find out more.
Pro Tip:
Accompany your headline with a subheadline that supports the primary value proposition. For instance, if your headline is “Unlock Unlimited Streaming for Just $5/Month,” your subheadline would continue with, “Access thousands of movies, TV shows, and original content.”
Writing Compelling and Persuasive Copy
Your landing page body copy must follow up on your headline, and present an argument for action. Here’s how to make your copy do more:
1. Speak Benefits, Not Features
Your product or service might have great features, but customers are actually interested in how it addresses their needs. Restate every feature as a benefit. Example:
Feature: “Unlimited cloud storage”
Benefit: “Worry no more about losing critical files.”
2. Leverage Social Proof
Customer testimonials, case studies, or user statistics provide credibility to your claims. Example:
“4.9/5 rated by over 10,000 happy customers.”
“87% of marketers rely on our platform to grow faster. Find out why.”
3. Keep It Brief
Your web visitors probably scan more than they read. Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and headings to make your content easy to read.
Remember:
Speak your people’s language. Leave the jargon behind, and speak the way your customers speak.
Making Use of Images and Videos
Too much text on a landing page can quickly become cluttered or unnoticed. Images and videos can spread out the content, engage with users, and convey meaningful messages faster than words.
Selecting the Right Images
- Relevance: Use imagery that supports your value proposition. For example, display screenshots of your SaaS company’s product user interface.
- Quality: Do not use generic or tacky-looking stock images. Clean, professional-looking imagery supports trust and professionalism.
Videos = More Engagement
Including a video on your landing page can increase conversions by up to 80% (HubSpot). Use a short explainer video to introduce your product, share a demo of customer success, or show how your service works.
Designing High-Converting CTAs
Everything on your landing page is leading up to one thing—to guide users to click the call-to-action. An effective CTA will:
- Be Actionable and Clear: Include verbs such as “Download,” “Sign Up,” or “Start Now.”
- Stand Out: Employ inverse colors and strong fonts in order to make your CTA button stand out.
- Create Urgency: Include statements like “Limited Time Offer” or “Join Today to Receive 50% Off.”
Example of a good CTA:
“Start Your Free 30-Day Trial >”
Direct, clear, and linked to one specific action.
Placement Counts
Think about placing your CTA:
- Above the fold, so your visitors do not have to scroll to see it.
- Repeated a few times throughout the page without being too obtrusive.
Giving a Responsive Design
Your visitors are accessing your landing page on an array of devices, ranging from desktop to smartphone. To not lose your visitors, your landing page must be able to provide a seamless experience on any screen size.
Best practice for mobile optimization
- Fast Load Times: Minimize large image or video file sizes to load pages quickly.
- Thumb-Friendly Buttons: Make CTAs large enough to tap easily on smaller screens.
- Vertical Scanning: Design layouts so all content is readable on mobile devices.
With mobile traffic now surpassing desktop in most niches, responsive design is not a choice.
Testing and Optimizing Your Landing Page
Even a landing page that is well designed can be optimized. How? Through A/B testing. That is, through running experiments in which you compare two versions to see which works better.
What Should You Test?
- Headlines: Try out different ways of communicating.
- CTA placement and color: Small tweaks can make a huge difference.
- Visuals: Try out different main images or types of videos.
- Copy length: Certain segments respond to longer descriptions, but others prefer short and succinct copy.
Use the likes of Google Optimize or Optimizely to run A/B tests and track the result.
Track Key Metrics
Keep an eye on metrics like:
- Conversion rate (percentage of visitors who convert)
- Bounce rate (visitors who bounce away without engaging)
- Time on page (amount of time visitors spend on the page)
Optimize based on performance to keep the improvement going.
Create a Landing Page That Converts Today
Every element of your landing page—headline, call-to-action, and the rest—is collaborating to lead visitors to the same conclusion. Keep these tips in mind, and you can build a landing page that not only is visually appealing but also converts. Need a hand in taking your landing page to the next level? Check out our template library or talk to our experts.
Remember: Perfection is not the secret to a high-converting landing page, but continually testing and optimizing.
