Landing pages: How to Optimize them for Conversions

Merely creating a landing page and driving traffic to it isn’t enough. To get conversions, you must first optimize your page for conversions. You need to be aware of and follow many things when you start optimizing your landing pages. This post will guide you briefly on things you must optimize.

Here’s how to do that:

Keep the landing page layout simple and use white space

Simplicity and minimalism win. And this couldn’t be truer for a landing page than anything else.

Cluttered landing pages don’t work very effectively. Use a clean layout, identify and remove anything that doesn’t serve a purpose, and focus on the call to action.

The goal is simple. Don’t overwhelm potential customers. If you do, they bounce.

Keep important information above the fold

Important information refers to the elements that help the visitor decide if they take action or not. Here are some of these elements:

• A clear headline
• A no-nonsense value proposition
• A clear CTA

Create copy that connects with the target audience

Your landing page copy must be enabling. Visitors should know what they’re getting if they give you their email addresses. The copy should also convince visitors that they will be able to get what they came for. For instance, most pricing pages contain a comparison table that shows the features of product X compared to product Y. This helps convey the value of the product very easily.

Make the call-to-action clear

You cannot get leads without a call to action button. They are the most important element on a landing page.

Make sure there’s just one CTA button on the landing page. It must align with your offer. You can use words like—Learn more, click here, and others. Don’t use other elements that draw attention to them instead of the CTA.

State what you want visitors to do be it downloading the guide or anything else

Lastly should stand alone covered by whitespace.

Use optimized forms for lead capture

Forms have too many questions on them. The average number is between 10 to 11. Research has found that reducing your form fields can increase your conversions. Always use exit-intent popups.

• Where the buyer is in their shopping journey. When you target these visitors use fewer form fields than when targeting people at the bottom of the funnel.
• How your forms will look on mobile devices. Your users are going to browse your site on mobile. The landing page should be mobile-responsive.
• Ask for information based on the value you return. If the offer is a top-of-the-funnel eBook it’s best to ask for the name and email address.
• If the offer gives free consultation, invite to a business proposal, a phone number, job title name, and email address are essentials

Use contrasting colors

You must use a color for your CTA that helps it contrast with the rest of the page. The color of your CTA doesn’t matter except that it should contrast with the rest of the page. The CTA needs to stick out.

It’s recommended that you are consistent with the use of brand colors. The same colors of your website should also carry through to the landing pages.

Content

Consider using a popup maker to create a targeted and visually appealing popup form that can capture user information based on the offer you’re providing. Popups can be especially effective in catching the attention of mobile users and encouraging them to take action.

Images and videos are essential

Use images on your landing page to showcase your product in action. Show human faces and create an emotional connection. Landing pages often use an image for the header of the page. The image should be reasonably sized.

Videos should increase engagement on the page and show that it’s easy to use your product or service.

According to EyeView, embedding a relevant video can increase your conversions by 86%. Now, it’s easier than ever to make eye-catching videos with the help of an online video editor like FlexClip. If you don’t have the time you can always ask a virtual assistant to create these videos for you.

Create trust with social proof

People buy from brands they love and trust.

Whether it’s clients you worked with or actual testimonials you want to show that people care about your business. You can also include links to case studies.

Reduce page loading times

Most people access your site on their mobile and otherwise are experienced with pages that load quickly. If the pages load too slowly that can increase your bounce rate. It’s always better for you if your landing pages load quickly.

Use A/B testing

A/B test your landing page. As the traffic increases you can use heatmaps to develop a better idea regarding how people interact with your site.

There are several conversion rate optimization tools and best practices. However, one size doesn’t fit all. There are unique users, products, and businesses to think of before you start optimizing your landing pages.

Provide customer support options

If you have attracted visitors to your landing page, that’s great. This means your landing page hooks the attention of your target audience, so these people are more likely to convert from leads to customers. However, it’s also important to remember that potential customers may have tons of questions about your company and products. Thus, make sure your landing page offers various contact options like toll-free numbers, live chat, or links to social media pages where people can learn more about you. All these things lead to more conversions. 

Identify the landing page drivers

You should start by identifying what brings people to a landing page and what they hope to gain from coming there. As a marketer, you need to learn this. This is possible by integrating website analytics into your site and determining who’s visiting the site. Another way to make this possible is by running an on-page survey and asking what they hope to achieve with the page. As a business owner, you might find it hard to take care of all these things. I generally outsource some of this work to marketers from Marketerhire or Mayple.

When you start digging through Google Analytics you may find some of these things:

• The services page receives a lot of traffic from the homepage
• People who went from the homepage to the services page show the highest conversions

Let’s say you’re optimizing conversions for your knowledgebase software. You may see that more people are looking for some help with creating a knowledge base from scratch. They want someone to take care of the process without the hefty prices a developer may levy.

This helps you understand that your target personas value speed, convenience, and pricing.

Once you understand this you can use their motivations coupled with demographic information to create online personas. Personas are realistic representations crafted from real client behavior. You get a better understanding of who your customers are in this manner.

Identify problems on the landing page

Heatmaps for the site are a powerful way to understand the path the customers take on your site. You can look at their specific actions to understand how they navigate the site.

When you watch 100 or 200 session recordings, take note of user behavior. You can see the time spent on specific sections of the pages here’s what becomes clear:

• A few elements that you thought were boosting conversions are actually impeding conversions.
• You need to remove them
• You find that a particular demographic says women convert better than men.

Conclusion

What do you think of my advice on landing page optimization? Ultimately, identifying and removing roadblocks to conversions is what you need to start with.