Landing pages are web pages that can help convert potential customers into paying customers. These stand-alone pages typically look similar to a page on your website, but they are focused on selling instead of information or educating. People click through to landing pages from emails, advertisements, or other locations online. A landing page can capture information to generate leads or sell products.
Building a landing page is easy if you invest in the right landing page software. However, many business owners aren’t designers, so they don’t understand how design can impact conversion rates. A lack of web design skills could prevent your landing page from helping you generate more leads or make more sales. If your landing page isn’t generating as many leads as you’d like, consider these design principles to revamp your landing page and increase conversions.
1. Find Focus
When creating a landing page, you’re trying to get customers to focus on your brand and its offerings. While there are many things on your customers’ devices that you can’t control, such as text messages from their friends, social media notifications, or emails, there are some distractions you can control, such as the links on your page, navigation, and options available to visitors.
Your landing page should have one focus, which means one offer that allows your visitors to understand what you’re offering and why they should buy into it. Giving your customers too many options or calls to action can be confusing and distracting, so it’s typically best to remove navigation from the equation and focus on only one thing.
Ultimately, the more links or calls to action there are on a landing page, the lower your conversion rates will be because it’s too distracting and forces your visitors to think too much. This might not be true in every case, but if you want your customers to download an e-book, that should be the main focus of your landing page.
2. Design With A Single Goal in Mind
Your landing page should have one goal. Consider the main action you want users to take on this page. Users can download an e-guide, make a purchase, or sign up for a webinar, among other things. The action you want users to take will help guide your design. By aligning your page with only one goal, it will be more likely to convert because it doesn’t force your visitors to think too much about what their next actions should be. This is similar to considering the focus. Again, you should remove navigation links and menus and take out links to social media. The goal here is not to inform or let people know to follow you on social; the landing page has one single purpose.
Additionally, ensure it’s obvious what you want users to do on this page. For example, if you want them to fill out a form, tell them to fill out the form. While you might think it’s obvious what you want them to do, in marketing, you should always tell your audience what the next steps are to make it as easy as possible for them and improve your chances of getting conversions.
If you can’t choose one goal, you can create different landing pages for different goals. Of course, doing this will also impact the types of ads or emails you’re using to get people on the landing page.
3. Create Structure
Consider your information hierarchy. Instead of choosing a templated design, it’s important to consider the most important information and put it right in front of your audience. Developing an information hierarchy can help you understand what’s most important for the landing page, which will include copywriting.
From there, you can start to build a wireframe using wireframing tools. However, for some designers, having an information hierarchy and copy should be good enough to start designing. In most cases, a wireframe is a good idea because it can help you visualize which elements go where and how much copy you’ll need to change to make everything fit together just right. In case you are a company looking to hire new designers, a freelance designer hiring guide would make your work easier.
4. Be Consistent
While landing pages often appear as though they’re offsite, they’re still an extension of your website and your brand. Basically, they exist on your website, so there’s no reason to design them differently than you would any other web page because that would create inconsistent and confusing branding.
Keep everything consistent with your website, including fonts, images, and colors. Consistency can help your visitors feel like they’ve come to the right place to see your offer. You should also match your ad to your landing page, no matter how you’re getting people to the page. For example, if you’re using Google Search Ads, you could use the same copy so people know they’ve landed in the right place. If you’re using visual digital ads or emails, you can match the design of the ad with the website design to make it a more cohesive experience for your visitors.
5. Consider the Benefits
Landing pages should help visitors understand why they should take you up on your offer, which they can do using copy and design. The visuals on a landing page are your opportunity to demonstrate to visitors why they should take action. You can use photography, illustrations, videos, and icons to tell a story and help people easily understand what benefits you offer customers.
Your hero image is the main image your customers will see. In fact, in many cases, it will be the first thing they see, so it must stand out and help visitors understand what the landing page is trying to say. Keep it simple and unique while allowing the image to speak for itself and provide visual information about what the landing page is trying to offer.
If you’re not sure what we mean by keeping it simple to tell a story, check out SmartMove’s home page, which provides a clear hero image that demonstrates the benefits of their services while making an impact on visitors.
Final Thoughts
These principles will help you convert more visitors and enhance the look and feel of your design. However, landing pages are a great opportunity to learn. Instead of stopping once you’ve reached the desired conversion rate, keep experimenting so you can learn what types of features, copy, and even buttons work best to help convert your visitors. You can take what you’ve learned from the landing page and apply it to other aspects of your marketing strategy.
About Guest Author: Julia Olivas
Julia is a contributing writer at 365businesstips.com where she loves sharing her passion for digital marketing and content creation. Outside of writing, she loves cooking, reading, making art, and her pup Ruby.
