Whether its purpose is lead generation or to serve click-through traffic, the design and composition of a landing page will determine the conversion rate and the overall success of the advertising campaign.
Even small changes can produce significant results: Mozilla Firefox changed their landing page’s call to action from “Try Firefox 3” to the more proactive “Download Now – Free” and saw the effectiveness of their page increase 3.6 percent.
Therefore, understanding the conventions of landing page designs can lead to more effective campaigns.
Determining the Purpose of the Landing Page
Companies that build lead generation landing pages want to obtain contact information from prospective customers. They do this by offering a free trial, gift, discount or contest entry. Other businesses collect information from users who sign up for a webinar, accept a free consultation, ask for a copy of a white paper, or want to know about a future product launch.
A successful lead generation landing page just needs to collect consumer information. Advertisers should also beware of asking for too much information, which may trigger a user’s privacy concerns.
Click-through landing pages create an opportunity for businesses to encourage consumers to buy a product. These pages are usually an intermediary step in an e-commerce sales funnel and typically direct consumers to a registration page or shopping cart. The goal of this type of landing page is to further sell the product with more information and a carefully crafted call to action.
Anatomy of a Landing Page
Effective landing pages use only a few components to complete their goal of information collection or selling:
1. The Call-To-Action.
This important section prompts users to submit their information or buy a product. Each call-to-action should be completely unique and tailored to that specific page. The button used to complete the call-to-action should be identifiable with a glance, and the call-to-action should be above the website fold.
2. Headline, sub-headline, text, graphics and any necessary video.
One case study suggests that video can increase conversions by 68 percent. Advertisers should eliminate excessive links, superfluous text and busy graphics in favor of a clear design where a few well-chosen elements focus on converting the visitor.
Landing page users should never need to scroll down for more information, so all of these elements must be above the fold.
3. Half of the information is delivered to users subconsciously.
Consumers may not know why they stay on certain landing pages, but certain design decisions cause them to form intuitive opinions about the product and page as a whole. For example, advertisers should consult color theory when choosing a color scheme for their landing page. Certain colors prompt different emotions and actions: A company that changed their call-to-action button from green to red experienced a 21 percent increase in conversions.
4. The Landing Page should display trust indicators.
Subliminal trust indicators include the use of impeccable grammar, top-of-the-line web design and professional advertising techniques. Visitors see these components and believe they can trust this company with their money. Overt trust indicators are items such as testimonials, third-party reviews and press mentions. One company boosted their conversion rate by 41 percent when they displayed a Verisign badge.
Constructing an effective landing page requires an intimate knowledge of design theory and advertising techniques. Optimizing the page and employing A/B tests will further refine conversion rates, but building more landing pages will often yield the best possible results.
Not only will the advertising team better grasp what works for their specific audience, but studies indicate that companies that increase the use of landing pages from 10 to 15 pages experience a 55 percent increased conversion rate.