Landing Page Best Practices Experts Never Ignore

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Today’s advertising flyers are the landing page.

How did people advertise their products and services in the pre-internet days? You could advertise your goods and services by placing an advertisement in a newspaper or magazine or stapled to a telephone pole.

What did the one-pager ads need in order to be successful? A well-designed layout, concise, clear copywriting, and a flow that guides the reader to what they want, are all key factors in ensuring your success.

These same advertising lessons can be applied to modern landing page design. We’ll be exploring landing page best practices, examples, and ideas today.

Let’s first address some common questions before we dive into the meat of this article.

What is a landing page?

A landing page is an standalone web page that’s specifically designed for advertising. It is the location where a potential customer “lands” after clicking on your well-written call to action in email, tweets, Google Ad, Facebook Ad, or PPC campaign.

Landing pages have one goal: To convert your potential customer into a real buyer.

Do I need a landing page?

Do you sell a particular product or service? If so, are you using advertising or marketing campaigns to promote it? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then landing pages are an important part of your marketing arsenal.

You’ll likely have multiple landing pages for your advertising pitches.

No matter how you create them, landing pages offer additional marketing benefits. They make it easy to increase your quality score in both Facebook and Google ads.

Instead of letting customer testimonials or trust signals get lost on your website, you can give them a specific service. Your landing page copy can be written to increase search engine traffic through inbound marketing/seo. Before you add it to your site, you can test the functionality of the new lead capture form or CTA buttons.

Landing Page Best Practices

What makes a landing site tick? These are the same principles that made advertising successful in newspapers since the 16th century.

Let’s take a closer view at each principle, then tie them all together to create one cohesive message.

Be consistent with your brand

First, what is your brand’s focus? What is your value proposition to your target audience? Although landing pages serve a different purpose than your homepage, your message must remain consistent across all pages.

This simply means that your landing page should be consistent with the link that brought your visitor to your site. It is much easier to see this in the opposite form, which you don’t want to do.

Imagine receiving an email from a company that you subscribe to their newsletter. The email contains a concise and clear description of a new product that they are offering. It’s a superfood supplement specifically formulated to aid in post-workout recovery.

You click the link at the bottom of the email. The page loads but then is filled with images of naked fitness models and hyperbolic claims about the benefits of the supplement.

Do you still trust this website or this company? No. You’d feel misled. This feeling is what should avoid.

Get rid of all distractions

You can’t afford any that is distracting from your central message on a landing page. You can have cute graphics and personal stories on your main website. But they should not be included on your landing page.

What is a distraction? Anything that does not support the conversion goal of your landing page.

Your landing page should be laser-focused and include stellar copywriting as well as carefully selected visual elements. We’ll discuss this in the following two sections.

Point your reader in the right direction

The first impression a visitor gets when they arrive at your landing page is strictly visual. Every visitor will naturally be drawn to the layout, colors and flow of your page before they read any of the brilliant copywriting.

These are some tips to help you use visuals on your landing page.

Your message should be clear and bold and placed at the top and middle of the page
Avoid large text blocks (AKA make it easy to skim)
Your main point should remain “above the fold” and not be made to scroll.
Make your first Call to Action (CTA), bold and obvious as soon as you load the page
To keep your visitor reading and scrolling, add arrows, shapes, images or videos to the bottom of the page

You can do all these things and still have enough space on your landing page. This will make your advertisement visually appealing and direct your readers to the places you want.

Keep your copy focused and clear

Copywriting is very different from conversational writing that you might use in emails. Its central tenant is this:

Use to communicate your message .

It is much more complicated than it sounds. Famously, Mark Twain was quoted as saying that he apologized for the length of a letter that he wrote because he “didn’t have the time to write one shorter”.

A landing page should have a minimum of words and be well-written. You don’t have to write your own copy. There are many talented copywriters available through agencies or freelancers.

Clear copy is easy to spot. Ask someone from outside your industry to review your landing page and then ask them about what it offers. If they don’t know the answer, it is likely that the copy needs to be revised or reorganized.

Include genuine social evidence. Internet users are smart enough to know when a company fabricates testimonials. This will cause people not to trust you and your landing page.

Include as many details as possible in testimonials and reviews about your product or service. If you think your product is the best, include full names, photos and job descriptions.

A short video showing your product or service in action is a good way to demonstrate social proof. A video should convey at least one million words. It’s almost certain that prospective customers will be convinced if you get a genuine reaction from them about your product/service.

Make it accessible to all your readers

Mobile browsing continues to grow in popularity each year. Mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) accounted for 61% in all visits to U.S. sites last year — an increase of 57% from the previous year.

This means that your landing page should be mobile-friendly. Your landing page must be mobile-friendly in order to be successful.

The majority of the work is done for you if you follow the guidelines. Your page will load faster if you remove distractions and focus on your brand’s core attributes. Mobile visitors will abandon your site if they have to wait for more than 2 seconds before it loads.

Accessibility doesn’t mean making your landing page mobile-friendly. Clear, concise copy should be easy to understand. It is a common recommendation to use a 6th grade level of reading for your web copy. This will ensure that everyone who visits your page can easily understand and read your message.

Last but not least, keep your contact form as simple as possible if it is on your landing page. A contact form that has too many fields will make a potential customer feel uneasy.

Test, test, test

The first step is to publish your landing page. How are you going to tell if your pitch is engaging the most people and leading them towards your product or service?

You’ll need to conduct a lot of A/B testing in order to find out. Amy Gallo from Harvard Business Review will give you the best explanation and explain how it works.

A/B testing is, at its core, a way of comparing two versions of something in order to determine which one performs better. You first need to decide what you want to test… Next, you will need to know how to evaluate it.

The simplest way to do it for your landing pages is to create two versions, randomly choose which page loads when your visitor clicks on your link, then track your data.

Consider this example: Two versions of your landing pages. The bottom has a large, red “Buy Now” button. In the opposite place, you will find a smaller blue “Buy Now” button.

Randomizing the pages visitors see allows you to collect data about which buttons are pressed most often. You can then use this information to create your standard landing page.

This applies to any element on your landing page. You should only change one element at a given time to get an idea of the impact that each change has on conversions.

How to get the most out of your landing page

Success is almost guaranteed if you combine the information in this article and continue to A/B-test your best landing pages ideas. A well-designed landing page can be a powerful tool in sales and advertising that could potentially bring in large revenues for any business.

Let me end with this piece of advice: Never stop revising your landing pages. Advertising and marketing trends and times change rapidly. Your messaging will remain relevant and fresh by making small adjustments. Your audience will be more likely to invest in your product or services if you have a greater impact.

Inspiration and examples

Let’s wrap up by taking a look at some of today’s best landing pages:

Muck Rack is a platform for journalists, public relations professionals and has their home page doubled as their landing page. However, they also have dedicated PPC landing pages. They all rely on the same thing: Social proof, attractive layouts, and an easy-to-find call to action.

Mailchimp is another one that makes good use of the dual homepage/landing pages structure. With clear and concise copy about educators and education, they get to the heart of their work. It works well on mobile too.

Poached is an industry-specific job board that caters to food service workers. It automatically loads a page specific to your location when you click through. It’s easy to find restaurant professionals and businesses looking to hire them.

Flaviar is a premium spirits subscription service that combines captivating imagery with a clear call to action.

Airbnb is an excellent example of a landing site that continually innovates and refines its message. You can check back often to see what has changed and, more importantly, what hasn’t. This landing page is most effective when it sticks to the same things.

We appreciate you stopping by! Please feel free to reach out with any questions about marketing, advertising or website building.

Landing Page Best Practices Experts Never Ignore

What is a landing page?

Do I need a landing page?