Must Have Elements for Your Companies’ Landing Pages

Marketers create landing pages for a variety of reasons. A landing page may contain an invitation to subscribe to a blog. It may ask visitors to download a whitepaper. Of course, many landing pages exist to directly sell products, or push folks further into the funnel.

No matter why you are creating a landing page, it is important to realize that there are certain ‘must haves’ for every landing pages. Use these elements in your landing pages, and you are much more likely to get the results that you want.

Professional Quality Visuals

Visual elements draw in your visitors’ attention, help to explain concepts, and keep visitors on your landing page longer. That part is old news. What many marketers do not realize is that the bar is set higher than ever for visual content.

It is no longer enough to use the snipping tool on your computer to grab random pictures from other websites, to throw together images from your visual assets, or to use cheap public domain images and clip art. Chances are, your competitors are using professional quality photos, images, and infographics on their landing pages. You’ll need to do the same to keep up. Don’t forget that optimization and editing are important as well. Fortunately, there are several content marketing tools that you can use to ensure top image performance.

Elements of Trust

Let’s face it, you are in a bit of a precarious position when potential customers enter your landing pages. On one hand, you’ve gotten them interested enough to surf into your landing page. On the other hand, you now want them to trust you with something important to them.

Whether you are asking for a credit card number, contact information, or something else establishing trust is very important. You can accomplish this by adding some of the following trust elements to your landing page:

● Your Contact Information - Assures Customers That You Are Available to Them

● Trust Badges - Indicates That Customers Are Safe Conducting Business With You

● Customer Testimonials - Quotes Indicating That Others Endorse Your Products

● Case Study Results - Data Backed Proof of Your Claims

● Influencer Recommendations - Get a Plug From an Industry Influencer

● Short Forms - Asking For Too Much Information Can Make People Nervous

A word of warning about trust badges. Don’t overdo them, and be judicious about where you receive your badges. They should be industry recognized, and act as an indication that you are specifically qualified to offer the products and services that you do, or that your company and your website have been found to use fair and ethical business practices.

Consistent Messaging

When you design your landing page, think about the advertisement, sponsored post, blog post, or other content that is driving people there. It’s extremely important to maintain consistency in your messaging on your landing page.

This is why generic landing pages should be avoided at all cost. Instead, create a landing page for each campaign or offer. This way you can ensure that the catchphrases, offers, or promises that enticed your audience in the first place remain the same. If you fail to do this, your audience may feel confused, even misled.

Keep in mind that content is only part of maintaining consistency. Try to use the same color scheme and related imagery as well.

A Strong Headline

The first thing your audience is going to read is your headline. Make sure it is compelling enough that readers want to learn more. Headlines should be relatively short and contain power words. Using numbers is a proven way to grab attention. Then, consider adding a subheading to add further clarification without watering down your headline.

High Quality Content

No, you aren’t writing a blog post or press release. Still, quality is important. In fact, nothing screams ‘We’re a shady operation that cannot even invest in good content writing.’ than error ridden copywriting. Use grammar and spell check utilities to ensure that basic standards of writing are met. If needed, you might consider translating and editing to a professional translation service like thewordpoint.com.

A Compelling Call to Action

This is really the most important part of your landing page. Your goal is to have people answer your call to action. You have to create one that is so compelling that people want to do just that. Put careful thought into the text you are going to use for your CTA button. Then, consider elements such as color and placement. Be prepared to do plenty of A/B testing until you get things just right.

Here are some things to try:

● Using a Floating Call to Action Button

● Using a Contrasting Color on Your Call to Action Button

● Experimenting With The Shape of The Call to Action Button

● Using Action Words

● Forcing a Negative Opt-Out E.G.: No, I am not interested in becoming a better salesperson

Be aware of your audience and how they will likely respond to your CTA text. For example, snarky opt-out text may be appreciated by some groups, while others will find it insulting.

A Clear Value Proposition

Theodore Levitt once said, People don’t want a quarter inch drill. They want a quarter inch hole! He was right. Rather than focusing on a list of the features of whatever you are selling or promoting, let customers know how they will benefit from taking you up on your offer. In the case of the drill, they might benefit from, ‘A beautiful, perfectly round, quarter inch hole in just seconds!’ If you are offering a two week software trial, your value proposition might be, ‘An opportunity to try out software that can streamline the hiring process for your organization.’

A Pain And Pleasure Point

It’s simplistic, but the carrot and stick are still quite effective. The pain point can hinge on fear of missing out. For example, you can use a countdown clock to remind your audience that your offer has an expiration date. You can also show pricing available during the offer, and after the offer is no longer on the table.

The landing page is also a great time to add a pleasure point as well. Consider offering a small gift, additional discount, or other bonus offer in return for the customer taking the offer right then and there. These offers don’t need to be extravagant. In fact, they shouldn’t be. Instead, think in terms of a small extra to sweeten the deal just a bit.

Plenty of White Space

It’s always important to remember that it is more likely than not that visitors will be using mobile devices to access your landing page. Use plenty of white space, bullet points, subheadings, and lists to ensure that your page layout is mobile friendly and easy on the eyes. Even if an audience member is using a desktop or device with a larger screen, they will still appreciate the easy to read, format.

Conclusion

The landing page is the pinch hitter of internet based sales and marketing. If everything has fallen into place when the potential customer views your landing page, you have an opportunity to hit a homerun and land an important conversion. To make sure this happens, include the elements above in every landing page.