Landing Page Essentials and How to Design One That Converts
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a web page created to be the first page a visitor sees when they follow a link from things like a promotional ad, Google results, social media content, etc. However, landing pages are more than a place to land. They often have a goal in mind: to convert the user into taking an action. Some examples of this conversion could be the user signing up for something, gaining user information such as name and email address, or even clicking a button that moves the visitor to shop.
Marketing guru Neil Patel said it best: “A landing page is a good way of directing visitors to what they are looking for instead of leaving them to look for what they want around your website.”
Preparing for Design
Information Scent - What it is and Why it is Important
Information scent is a trail of information that remains consistent from one channel to the next, indicating to a user that they are on the right path. Strong information scent is achieved through consistent design and messaging across all channels of your campaign. This is similar to how the scent of food can guide an animal to their next meal; information scent can guide a potential customer to the information they are looking for.
Weak/No information scent can cause setbacks and frustrations for the user:
- They can have trouble finding the content they are looking for.
- They can spend a longer time evaluating the options they have.
- There is an increased chance that they will select the wrong option, forcing them to click the back button or, even worse, leave your page.
Pre-Populate Cursors
One of the quickest tricks to implement into your landing page design is by pre-populating the cursor to the first form field. Guiding the user in this simple way can help reduce friction and helps to create a higher rate of conversion.
What/Why/How
An important practice in creating a landing page is following the “what/why/how” format to provide everything your visitor needs to convert.
- What – What is it that you are offering the visitor?
- Why – What value does this offer to the visitor?
- How – How can I subscribe, buy, or try out this product or offer?
Conclusion
Landing pages are great tools to have when trying to convert a website visitor into a customer, whether that is by selling them a product or simply getting them to sign up for a newsletter. When creating a landing page, decide what your overall goal is and incorporate some of the elements you just read about into the design. If the goals aren’t being achieved, it’s much easier to tweak and test out different strategies with a landing page than it is with your entire website.
Download the Landing Page Essentials Infographic
Here's an infographic I created to show the breakdown of various components and best practices used in successful landing page designs.