9 keys to building an effective landing page [Infographic]

Did you know that there are over 543 million active websites on the internet today? 

If you’re reading this, then chances are you either maintain or edit one of those websites and want to stand out from your competitors. 

Since it only takes a user 0.05 seconds to form their opinion of your website, you’ll want to ensure you captivate them immediately, otherwise, you risk losing their trust and ultimately their business.   

This is especially important on a  landing page. The landing page is often your website’s front door. It may be where people find you for the first time via a search engine. It’s also where you’re making your pitch for their contact information so you want to make sure it’s inviting. 

This is even more important if you’ve already invested time and money into creating a targeted campaign to drive traffic to your landing page. If your landing page isn’t engaging, you risk losing that conversion. 

However, building a truly compelling landing page requires that you follow a particular pattern. Luckily QuickSprout has outlined this pattern, which is grouped into nine easy to follow rules.

1. Use an eye-catching headline

This is most likely the first element a user will see when they land on your landing page, and you’ll want to ensure it clearly describes your product or service while also grabbing attention. Follow similar rules to great blog headlines. 

You can also use a subhead or a small paragraph to add additional context. If you’re running a marketing campaign, you’ll also want to ensure that your headline copy and supporting text uses similar language as the copy in your campaign. This helps things consistent and can lead to higher conversions.

2. Add image or video

Adding an explainer video or additional images of your product to your landing page can help increase conversion rate by 80%, as well as alleviate any concerns a potential customer may have. If you want to establish trust with your audience even more quickly, you need to be creating video. Video communicates information much quicker than images alone and has shown to even improve landing page conversions 

3. List the benefits of your product or service

If you’re like me, you probably spend more time scanning a landing page for key benefits and features rather than reading anything lengthy. 

Help users quickly find what they need by breaking down the advantages of your product or service into a list of bullet points. The goal here is to quickly and clearly explain the value you can offer. A user can always read more about your product or service on additional pages.

4. Make your call-to-action stand out

If you’re making a landing page, you clearly have something specific you want your visitor to do, so make that clear. Maybe you want them to purchase a product, sign up for your newsletter, or contact you for more details. 

Whatever it is, you’ll want to make sure you have a clear call-to-action that stands out on the page. The call-to-action should be enticing and direct, so use colors that don’t blend in with your design, and add descriptive text.

5. Consider the page fold

80% of visitors will spend their time above the fold, so pay attention to where you place the most important elements such as the headline, call-to-action, and benefits. Not all your users have large screens, especially since more than half of all web traffic is mobile.

6. Reduce the amount of links

The purpose of your landing page is to guide users through the buyer’s journey through specific actions. Having too many links that don’t lead to that action can easily confuse and distract users. Keep them focused on what matters by reducing the number of links on your landing page (or even not having any at all).

7. Provide important details about your offering

The headline and benefits on your landing page are meant to be short and concise, but you’ll want to be sure to add additional details about your offering below the fold.

You can be more descriptive here and should consider adding additional imagery or video to help illustrate and support the claims you are making. Adding video will help to shorten the sales cycle by motivating and educating potential customers.

8. Add testimonials

You can say how great you are all day, but that doesn’t mean people will believe you. You need social proof.

Adding testimonials to your landing page helps you establish credibility and gain trust from your customers because they show that you deliver on your claims. Consider blending the testimonials with your content to reinforce the claims you are making about your product or service. 

To help make your testimonials even more effective, consider adding an image of the customer. This shows that it’s coming from a real person and will make a potential customer feel more secure and confident in what you’re selling.

9. Add additional trust elements

Adding elements such as the logos of the companies who use your product or service is another effective way to instill confidence and trust from a potential customer. 

If you’re running an e-commerce platform or selling anything online, consider adding security seals such as Verisign or TRUSTe to assure a user’s privacy and security. Also, consider highlighting your refund or return policy if you think it will help alleviate any concerns.

Check out this infographic from QuickSprout on the anatomy of a landing page and how it can help increase your conversion rate.