In our ultimate guide to landing page optimisation we’ll go through the whole process and highlight some of the best practices that you can follow in order to convert viewers to customers.
A landing page can be a vital part of any marketing strategy for your business. Whether your objective is to catch leads or make sales, a landing page that is optimised fully can make or break a campaign.
Having such a page can also help with improving your site’s overall web traffic and organic SEO efforts.
So, without further ado let’s get stuck in…
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page refers to a standalone web page that a user comes to via a web link. This link could be embedded into an ad, email or other digital location and its sole purpose is to get you to take action.
If you’ve ever clicked on a Google Ad, for example, and were taken to a page that is just littered with sales writing and loads of big buttons that say something along the lines of ‘Buy Now’ then you’ve arrived on a landing page.
A lot of them look quite spammy and untrustworthy, especially ones that have outrageous claims like ‘Grow your hair back in a matter of days using our new anti-baldness serum’.
Then they proceed to show pictures of before and after photos which are definitely of two separate people…don’t worry we’ve all seen them!
What is Landing Page Optimisation?
When we refer to landing page optimisation we’re referring to improving elements of the landing page so that the overall conversion rate improves.
If your conversion rate improves then your landing page is doing its job.
A higher conversion rate means more success for your marketing campaign.
Hooray!
Although other metrics should be considered too (read on to find out more on this).
Landing Page Optimisation Best Practices
Let’s take a look at what you can do to optimise your landing page.
Make Your Offer Crystal Clear
Okay, when someone lands on your landing page they need to know within the fist five seconds what is in it for them.
Therefore your message needs to be very clear and easy for them to understand…otherwise you can say bye-bye to that potential customer.
Simple is Better
Your landing page doesn’t need to be a work of art like one of Pablo Picasso’s cubism paintings. Although, that would look extremely cool!
When it comes to the design of a landing page it’s better to have a simple design that isn’t littered with visual clutter.
Take our PPC guide landing page as an example. It’s very simple in design but looks visually appealing and gets the right message across.
A perfect example if we do say so ourselves!
Keep the Important Part of Your Message Near the Top
When a potential customer lands on your landing page you will want them to exercise as little effort as possible.
The more effort they have to make then the less likely they are to stick around. That’s why you need to ensure your main marketing message is near the top of the landing page.
Don’t make them scroll all the way to the bottom to get to the good stuff. Serve it to them on a silver platter as soon as they land on your page.
Use Scarcity
Scarcity is what they teach people in marketing 101.
It’s a tried and tested method that’s been going since the dawn of time. Us humans get a little freaked out when we know that something we want/need is in limited supply.
This is why when you see ads it will say things like ‘limited supply’ or ‘one time offer’. If we know we’re potentially about to miss out on a good deal we can’t help ourselves.
We must make the decision to buy there and then.
Unless you’re some sort of zen Buddhist monk who has complete control of their mind, then I imagine you’re as much of a sucker for FOMO messaging as we are!
Clear CTA’s (Call to Action)
You know those huge colourful buttons that are dotted all over a landing page?
Those usually prompt a CTA.
Don’t stress your viewers out or make them confused. Tell them exactly what will happen if they click on that button.
After all, the whole point of a landing page is for you to make them do exactly that.
Some text to include could say:
- Download now.
- Join now.
- Pick up here.
- Try our demo today.
Test, Test, TEST!
How are you going to know your landing page has been a success if you haven’t got any past results to go off?
When you test your landing page, you’re testing whether the changes you made are actually working.
If you don’t compare results then you could be making changes and the landing page could be doing worse.
Checking previous results lets you know you’re going in the right or wrong direction. But by reading this guide you’re already on the way to improving your results, go you!
Add Testimonials
When a friend recommends a restaurant to you, you know the food is going to be amazing.
If it isn’t then I think it’s time to get some new friends because that ain’t cool.
Well the same applies to potential customers who want to buy your products or services. If you show the great things previous customers have said then this can have a huge influence on people’s buying decisions.
It’s the very reason Amazon has reviews for their products. In fact, nearly all ecom sites will have reviews for their products…that’s because people buy from brands they trust.
And what better way to build trust than a positive review.
Who doesn’t want to hear about Barbara from Nottingham’s lovely experience using one of your new products. Barbara’s opinion could be the difference between a successful or unsuccessful sale.
How to Measure Optimisation on a Landing Page
Measuring optimisation on your landing page will help you determine the success of your efforts. There are a few metrics that you can measure which will paint a pretty good picture of how well your landing page is doing, these include:
- Bounce rate.
- Traffic Volume.
- Click through rate (CTR).
- Conversion rate.
- Pages per session.
- Average session duration.
Blaze Media – The Wizz Kids of Landing Page Optimisation
We hope you enjoyed this in depth look at what is involved when it comes to optimising your landing page.
At Blaze Media we have a dedicated team of marketing professionals who are experts when it comes to landing pages.
So whether you need a brand new landing page or want to optimise your existing one, then contact us today.