landing page optimisation: How design can drive conversion

: n o i t a s i m i t p o e g a p g n i land n o i s r e v n H o c e v i r d n a c n g i s ow de Contents 3. Setting up your landing page 4. Headli...
Author: Dwain Walker
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: n o i t a s i m i t p o e g a p g n i land n o i s r e v n H

o c e v i r d n a c n g i s ow de

Contents 3. Setting up your landing page 4. Headline 4. Copy 5. Layout

Introduction

6. Get valid leads 6. Call to action and buttons 7. Images and videos 7. Endorsements and testimonials 8. Mobile optimisation 8. A/B testing 9. Infographic 10. Build a better landing page today

Landing pages are effective for 94% of B2B and B2C companies,1 yet 44% of inbound marketing leads for B2B companies are directed to the business’ homepage, not a specific landing page.2 Landing pages are a sure fire way to ensure that you generate inbound leads, or sell products online, whether it’s through PPC or email campaigns. Yet, MarketingSherpa found that businesses are not utilising landing pages because their marketing department does not know how to set them up properly or they are too overloaded.3 A Google study found that 67% of users will be more likely to buy from a site if it’s mobile friendly, and 50% of users would be less likely to use a site if it wasn’t mobilefriendly even if they liked the brand.4 This proves that it’s more important than ever to take care that your landing pages are well designed and optimised to ensure they are user-friendly to drive conversion. We’ve put together this guide to building a landing page from set up and headline through to mobile optimisation and A/B testing to help you build the best landing page possible and convert your prospects.

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hubspot.com 2hubspot.com 3hubspot.com

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blog.kissmetrics.com

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Setting up your landing page First things first: building your landing page. You don’t need to be a web design wizard and you don’t even need to outsource the page to someone who is. You can use a programme like Unbounce to build your landing page yourself. You don’t need any coding knowledge to build a basic landing page with this tool, although you have the option to implement Javascript add-ons to make your page more complex should you wish. It’s also a great platform for capturing leads and giving you a breakdown of visitors and conversions.

While setting up your landing page, bear in mind that it should have one goal, one message, one action. Everything should be consistent and work towards one point.

As Unbounce highlights, there are two types of landing pages: click through landing pages and lead generation landing pages, so ensure that you pick the one that helps achieve your goal.5

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Click through landing pages Click through landing pages basically do what it says on the tin: warms up visitors to get them to click through to another page. They are typically used in ecommerce funnels as a channel through to a shopping cart or registration page to give the prospect more information and make them more likely to convert.

Lead generation landing pages Lead generation landing pages are used to capture user data, such as name, company and email address. These landing pages encourage users to enter their personal data, often in return for something like an eBook or whitepaper, webinar, consultation or free trial, so that you can capture their information and reach out to them.

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unbounce.com

Headline

COPY

You have only eight seconds to make a compelling headline6 (to your prospect), so your landing page should have a clear, concise headline that explains what the page is offering.

Keep text on your page as minimal as possible. A visitor should be able to understand what your page is offering from the headline and subheading, but a bit of extra copy to add context can help to convince visitors to fill out your allimportant form or go on to convert/make a purchase.

For example, if your page is offering a free download of a whitepaper, the headline could be the title of the report with a subheading using the words ‘free’ or ‘download’ to be clear what you want visitors to do and what they are getting. More than 90% of visitors who read your headline go on to read your call to action copy, so ensure you link your headline directly to your CTA.7

Including additional information can make the reader feel like they are making a more informed decision before converting, but as Neil Patel highlights: ensure you strike the right balance between including necessary info about your product/offering that persuades your customer and not crossing the line and serving irrelevant content.8 Ensure that your page has no spelling or grammar mistakes, as this looks careless and can lose you the trust of your visitors. Applied Digital reported that a website called TightsPlease.co.uk has misspelled the word tights as ‘Tihgts’. When the typo was corrected, conversions from the page increased by 80%.9 You should also avoid linking to external pages. Now that you have brought visitors to your page, your aim is to convert them, not to distract them to another page.

Aa

You have only

eight seconds

CORRECTING A TYPO increased conversions BY 80% ON TIGHTSPLEASE.CO.UK

to make a compelling headline

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interactivemarketinginc.com 7adpushup.com 8neilpatel.com 9applieddigital.co.uk

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LAYOUT Less is more. A landing page with lots of information squeezed in is unattractive and will put visitors off reading the important information that is there. Make use of white space, which research from Wichita State University has shown improves reading comprehension.10 It used to be considered best practice not to have the CTA button below the fold, but thanks to trackpads and touchscreen devices, scrolling has become second nature. As long as you take your user on a journey and provide them with logical information, the final CTA can sit at the bottom of the page. In fact, a test from ContentVerve that moved the CTA to the bottom of the page below the fold actually boosted conversions by 304%.11 While the most important information should always be visible as soon as the page loads, additional information below the fold can make visitors feel like they are getting more for their visit and can have SEO benefits as you utilise more keywords. As well as scrolling down, you should bear in mind that the eye naturally tracks from left to right across the screen, so this should be the journey that you take your readers on. You should also remove the main navigation bar from the top of the page. Unbounce advises that your landing page should have no global navigation to tie it into your primary website. “The main reason for this is to limit the options available to your visitors, helping to guide them toward your intended conversion goal.”12

Using

in design has been shown to improve reading comprehension

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uxmyths.com

blog.kissmetrics.com

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unbounce.com

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Get valid leads

Call to action and buttons

The form is the heart of every lead generation landing page. This is why you have brought visitors here: to fill in their details in exchange for your offering. A long form with numerous fields is a sure way to put people off. A study by Eloqua found that the optimal number of form fields was between 5 and 7.13

Don’t send mixed messages on your landing page. Each landing page should have one individual purpose, with a unique, clear call to action that entices visitors to complete the form with their details and click the button to complete the transaction.

Unfortunately, it’s common to get spam or fake information left by people who don’t want to reveal their personal data. You can minimise the likelihood of this happening by using email validation on your forms that requires a full email address to proceed.

Place buttons next to the call to action and your form so that it is clear what visitors are getting. Buttons should be big and bold, so that users’ eyes are instantly drawn to them. When asking visitors to enter their details, don’t simply say submit.

You can also use buttons that allow users to login in with one click using their social media profile details, i.e. LinkedIn, Facebook. This is attractive to users as it means they simply have to click the button on the page and then one more click on a pop up to permit access to their social profile details which are then pushed through to the form. It’s also good for validating leads as it acts as a method of authentication, so you know the data being captured is all true and accurate.

What are they getting in return? People are more likely to enter information if they know what they are getting in return. The messaging should be clear: when Mozilla Firefox changed its call to action from ‘Try Firefox 3’ to ‘Download Now – Free’ it outperformed the original by 3.6% resulting in 500 more downloads during the test.15

If you are offering a purchase through your landing page, you should consider using a secure payment feature, such as PayPal or WorldPay to guarantee visitors who are parting with their money that it is in good hands. Using a secure payment option with a third party company such as Verigisn or TrustGuard can increase sales conversions by up to 20%.14

The optimal number of form fields is between

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5 and 7

blog.hubspot.com

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articles.bplans.com

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convinceandconvert.com

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Images and videos

Endorsements and testimonials

A picture is worth a thousand words, but using a stock image on your landing page will just make your visitors think of negative ones: staged, tracky, familiar. Stock images can be spotted from a mile off and look cheap and unprofessional. Use images and design that are relevant to your branding and your offering. If you are offering an eBook or a webinar, show a page of this as a preview to give visitors a clear visual of what they will be receiving in exchange for their information or money.

If your product or offering has been endorsed by big brands or features work with well-recognised companies, it’s worth putting their logos on the landing page to demonstrate their seal of approval. ConversionXL claims that high profile client logos are the best social proof to have as they are easily recognisable and memorable: your brain identifies and retains them without having to read anything.18 It’s like putting a face to a name; you’re more likely to remember it.

If it is relevant, use a video to demonstrate your offering. Visitors find it easier and more entertaining and informative to watch a video. When visiting a website, 60% of people will watch a video before reading any text.16 Videos on landing pages can improve conversion rates by up to 80%.17

Equally, if clients or customers have given a testimonial about the product, then these should also be added to the landing page as an endorsement. The Committee of Advertising Practice rules that although testimonials and endorsements do not come directly from the advertiser, marketers must ensure they hold documentary evidence to back up any claims they quote.19 Social proof and endorsement can be a powerful marketing tool. If another client says that your product or solution has helped to solve their problem, and the visitor is experiencing a similar problem, they’re likely to think, “I’ll have what they’re having.” A study by BrightLocal found that 30% of customers will “trust a customer review just as much as a personal recommendation if they believe it to be authentic”.20

Videos on landing pages can improve conversion rates by up to 80% 7.

singlegrain.com

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eyeviewdigital.com

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conversionxl.com

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cap.org.uk

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referralcandy.com

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Mobile Optimisation

A / B TESTING

Your landing page should be optimised for mobile visitors as 80% of people now use their smartphone to browse the internet.21 Data from Google suggests that smartphones are the most common starting place for online activities, with 65% of users beginning an informational search or online shopping task on their phone.22 It’s not enough to expect the same page for desktop to work for mobile.

Test two versions of your page before a full rollout to ensure that it converts. A/B testing is the most used testing method for improving conversion rates, with the use of A/B testing increasing from 27% to 38%.26 A/B resting of landing page can generate up to 30-40% more leads for B2B sites and 20-25% more leads for eCommerce sites.27 Variables to change against the baseline control include headline copy, button text, and call-to-actions to see what resonated the most with visitors to get them to click and convert.

A report by Adobe found that companies with mobile-optimised sites triple their chances of increasing mobile conversion rate to 5% or above.23 So ensure that your landing page fits neatly onto a mobile screen, still having a clear headline and call to action. If building your page using Unbounce, there is a function to optimise pages for mobile layout. It is also worth ensuring the size of your images and assets are not too large to avoid slow loading times. Visitors browsing via mobile are likely to have slower loading times as 4G connections are not as fast, yet 85% of mobile uses expect pages to load as fast or faster than they load on desktop computers.24 So ensure that your page loads quickly as 43% of visitors are unlikely to return to a slow-loading landing page.25

WEBSITE: A

ONe clear, concise headline

ONe clear, concise headline

Fill out this form:

Call to action

Name:

A mobile-optimised site triples chances of increasing mobile conversion

Company:

Sub heading clarifies your offering introduction

Email:

Very important information Another vital point one final key bit of info

Download now - free

testimonials "It was a great read"

Call to action

Sub heading clarifies your offering introduction

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Sub heading clarifies your offering

testimonials "It was a great read"

Sub heading clarifies your offering introduction

Very important information Another vital point one final key bit of info

introduction testimonials "It was a great read"

Sub heading clarifies your offering introduction

Very important information Another vital point one final key bit of info

testimonials "It was a great read"

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smartinsights.com

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wordstream.com

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blogs.adobe.com

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strangeloopnetworks.com

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slideshare.net

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econsultancy.com

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slideshare.net

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Build a better landing page today Landing pages are vital for effective lead generation. Following these basic principles should help to see your conversion rates improve. But you should consider how to distribute them too. Get in touch with us as [email protected] to find out how we can help you incorporate landing pages into your marketing campaign.

+44 (0) 20 3609 1349 www.digitalradish.co.uk facebook/digitalradishmarketing @digitalradish linkedin/digitalradish @digitalradish

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