Guest Author:
 | Jason Benedict Keap Certified Partner Automation Agency |
Let’s first start by defining what a landing page is. A landing page is a web page that is published online and should be used to serve a single purpose – to capture and convert leads.
Often referred to as an opt-in page or squeeze page – a landing page is typically used at the beginning of your sales cycle or the top of your online marketing funnel for the sole purpose of lead generation, lead capture, and or re-engagement strategies.
A landing page is one of the most integral pieces of your overall online marketing strategy or marketing funnel to help you convert leads into warm prospects. A high-converting landing page is the centerpiece or foundation to creating a successful lead generation strategy.
A highly effective landing page is targeted, focused, persuasive, concise, builds trust, and grabs the attention of itsvisitor s and compels them to take immediate action through the use of an irresistible offer.
At the Automation Agency, we believe there are 11 key elements that every effective landing page must have in order to successfully convert cold leads into warm prospects and paying clients.
Form A Positive First Impression
The overall look, feel, and design of your landing page will play a critical role in the effectiveness of your opt-in rate and your conversions. Ion Interactive states that people form impressions in just 1/20th of a second, so in this case – looks are everything. Be sure to use eye-catching images that relate to your overall message and make smart use of colors that do not contrast with one another.
Consistency Creates Conversion
Whether you're sending traffic to your landing page from a Facebook ad, email newsletter, or a YouTube video your ability to keep your content, headlines, images, branding, and use of colors consistent will create higher conversions. When your prospects hear the same message, see the same image, and read the same headline (or a slight iteration) throughout each point of contact it psychologically builds a sense of trust, stability, and brand awareness.
Align Your Core Offer With Your Audience
Creating a landing page about your favorite cat video on YouTube and sending an email blast to your list of dog lovers won’t yield promising results. Regardless of how cute your cat video is or how stunning your landing page may be – you absolutely must align your core offer with your audience. One of the most important elements of conversion and optimization is ensuring your product or offering properly aligns with your prospects needs, challenges, interests and or behaviors.
Create A Compelling Offer
A compelling offer with a singular focus is the cornerstone to every successful landing page. And every successful landing page has a compelling offer that directly meets the needs of its intended audience or solves a particular problem. An offer is also sometimes referred to as a lead magnet, which can help increase your opt-in conversions. A lead magnet can be something as simple as an email newsletter, coupon, eBook, webinar, video training series, etc. It’s basically a free gift that you offer in exchange for their email opt-in.
Killer Headlines Command Attention
The headline of your landing page is typically the first thing visitors will see, so making a killer headline that captivates your audience's attention is a must. Be sure to carry the overall message of your ad copy headline into your landing page copy. This will ensure you’re commanding your visitors’ attention while continuing to instill trust that you are the expert and authority on the subject matter.
Remove All Exit Opportunities
One of the biggest mistakes we see across numerous ad campaigns is when an advertiser chooses to direct paid traffic to their website or a landing page that is hosted on their website with all of the navigation options still intact (Home Page, About Us, Products, Pricing, Etc.). A landing page should serve a single purpose and that is to get your visitors to submit their information through the opt-in form in exchange for your core offer. Landing page visitors should not have the option to click other pages, review other offers, or navigate away from your primary opt-in page.
Create A Clear Call-To-Action
Every effective landing page has a clear and singular call-to-action (CTA). A call-to-action on a landing page is typically created by the use of a button or opt-in form. A few examples would be: Apply Now, Sign Up, Download Now, Call Now, Buy Now, etc. A visitor to your landing page should know exactly what they are going to get when they take action. If you have too many calls to action or you don’t deliver on your promise this can drastically reduce your conversions while also leaving landing page visitors with a distasteful impression of you and your brand.
Use A Mobile Responsive Design
According to comScore, 65% of all digital media is consumed on mobile devices. Smartphones alone have contributed to more than 90 percent of the total increase in minutes spent on digital media since 2013 and now account for just over 54 percent of digital media usage. So what does this mean and how does it affect your landing pages? It’s simple really… People don’t want to fumble around with a clunky landing page that doesn’t automatically adjust the size and layout of your landing page to their mobile device. So make sure your landing page is mobile responsive, easy to navigate, loads quickly and highly focused towards your call-to-action.
Keep Your Opt-In Form Short
It’s no secret that reducing your form fields increases your landing page conversions. Are you asking for more than just a first name and email address on your landing page? If so, chances are your conversions are suffering from too many form fields. When it comes to requesting information on your landing page – less is more. Keep your web forms short and simple. We recommend starting with requesting first name and email. Requesting additional fields leaves room for confusion and can sometimes come across pushy. If collecting additional data beyond your prospects first name and email address is necessary we recommend creating a two-step web form. The first step will request minimal data and the second step can request additional fields as needed.
Use An Email Autoresponder Web Form
When someone opts in to receive your free gift or lead magnet on your landing page are they waiting days or weeks on end to actually receive your offer? Or are they receiving this premium gift on autopilot through the use of an email auto-responder? Companies using email to nurture leads generate 50% more sales-ready leads and at 33% lower cost. At the Automation Agency, we leverage the power of Infusionsoft; an all-in-one CRM and email marketing automation software that allows you to quickly and easily deliver your lead magnets on autopilot.
Test & Measure
The last and most important aspect of an effective landing page is the ability to test and measure your overall success. And success for a landing page is typically measured by its conversion. You can measure the effectiveness of your landing page by dividing the number of opt-in’s by the number of unique visitors. For example, if your landing page received 1500 unique visitors and you generated 330 opt-in’s then your landing page conversion is 22%. Lastly, an effective landing page is one that has been A/B split tested to ensure that all of the above attributes are performing optimally. If your landing page is suffering from less than desirable conversions you’ve likely overlooked one of the 11 key elements listed within this article.
About Automation Agency: The Automation Agency is a digital marketing agency which was Co-Founded by Jason & Therese Benedict. The Automation Agency helps small businesses to convert cold leads and purchased emails into warm prospects and paying clients. Their cold-list marketing services help businesses from many B2B industries to produce some of the lowest cost-per-acquisition conversions over any other marketing channel. As a Keap Certified Partner, the Automation Agency also provides marketing conversion strategies and email marketing automation services to small businesses around the world. For more information, visit www.automation.agency