Are you tired of the constant struggle to grab and hold onto your audience’s attention?
We feel your pain! Attention spans are shorter than ever before (8.25 seconds, to be exact!), and trying to keep someone’s focus can feel like fishing in a dry pond.
The worst part is, you know you’re offering an awesome product or service that can make a real difference. But in a crowded online market, it’s harder than ever to be seen and heard above the noise. If nobody knows your brand even exists, how will they discover the value you have to offer? It’s frustrating and disheartening, to say the least.
But what if we told you it didn’t have to be? What if there was an easy way to get your audience to listen? Well (drumroll please), there is—landing pages!
Landing pages aren’t just a brilliant way to win your audience’s attention. They can actually guide them towards taking an action that would benefit your business in a big way—whether that’s purchasing a product, signing up for your service, or something else.
Whatever it may be, when you approach a landing page correctly, it’ll achieve exactly what you’re aiming for (and maybe more!).
But if landing pages are a completely new ballgame for you—don’t sweat it. We’re here to walk you through everything you need to know about creating a landing page that’s a roaring success.
What is a landing page?
Well, the name says it all, really! A landing page is a standalone web page (separate from your website) where your visitors “land” when they click an external link in an email, ad, search results, or anywhere else you’ve shared it.
Other web pages can be a little cluttered with information and options, pulling readers in every which way. But, a landing page has a single goal: turning casual visitors into conversions. Any information or links that don’t line up with this goal are just distractions.
How do landing pages drive conversions?
By getting visitors to take a specific action—like signing up for a free trial, buying a product, downloading a whitepaper, accessing an eBook, etc.—and giving them something valuable in return.
Each landing page you create will have a specific short-term goal, but the benefits can extend far into the future.
From building customer loyalty to increasing sales or email subscriptions, landing pages are powerful tools for driving engagement that makes a real impact.
Tips for creating a winning landing page
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to build landing pages that work. It’s actually very simple if you know what steps to take. To help, we’ve put together a formula that’s worked on many successful landing pages.
1. Determine your goal
Before you can get down to business creating a landing page that converts, you’ll first need to decide what you’re hoping to achieve.
For example, do you want to introduce more people to your brand, share your latest product with the world, gain some new subscribers for the newsletter, or generate leads? These goals (and many more) can be successfully achieved with a landing page. It’s just a matter of deciding what would benefit your business most right now.
Remember, effective landing pages have a singular goal. If you have more than one objective you hope to achieve, you’ll have to create a separate landing page for each one.
2. Create an offer that’s impossible to resist
At the heart of every great landing page is an offer that’s simply too good to refuse.
Let’s say your goal is to get visitors to purchase a product—why not hook them with a free sample? No strings attached! Once they get their hands on their freebies, they’ll be (fingers crossed!) so blown away, they’ll be racing to place an order.
Or, if you want to get more people signed up for your latest service, a free trial should do the trick! If they love it, they’ll become paying customers in no time. If not, they can cancel with zero cost.
3. Choose a great heading
First impressions matter! And your landing page’s heading is the very first thing visitors see when they arrive. You want to make sure it grabs their attention so they stick around to read the entire page.
Now, we get how tempting it can be to be super clever or finally drop that hilarious pun you’ve been sitting on. But while you want to create a heading that engages readers, it’s also important not to confuse them.
Your landing page headline should show users what they can expect from the get-go.
If you’re a little not sure where to start with a heading, here are 3 tried and tested approaches we love (with examples):
- Sell a benefit: e.g., “Cut your energy bills in half with solar power solutions”
- Solve a problem: e.g., “Make sleepless nights a thing of the past with our memory foam pillows”
- Hook your readers: e.g., “Discover the secret to doubling your income in our free eBook”
4. Craft engaging copy
Once you’ve grabbed your audience with an effective headline, you’ll need engaging copy to keep users around and encourage them to convert. Here are our top tips for creating great landing page copy.
#1 Know your audience
Remember that your landing page copy is talking to someone in particular—the people you want to take your desired action (aka your target audience).
To write excellent copy, it’s important to know your audience well. What do they care about? What problems are keeping ’em tossing and turning at night? Write in a way that speaks to them directly and makes them feel like you get them. Every high converting landing page features relevant, relatable, persuasive copy to convert its readers.
#2 Focus on the customer
Many companies love to use language like “we offer” or “our services”, which focuses on the wrong thing—their company, not their customers.
Don’t make the same mistake. There’s a time and a place to brag about your skills, but right now, you want to highlight your customers’ needs and the benefits they’ll experience with you.
A good trick is to start each sentence or heading with either a verb or the word “you”. It’s a very simple change that can have a very big impact.
#3 Limit each paragraph to one idea
You might have tons of info you want to share with your customers, but remember—there’s only so much they can take in at once without getting overwhelmed.
Stick to one idea per paragraph. These bite-sized nuggets keep readers engaged and reading longer—so you’ll get all your key points across without losing their attention!
#4 Play with sentence length
Mixing up your sentence length and structure can make your writing feel more natural and conversational. Try pairing longer, more detailed sentences with short, snappier ones. Like this one. By breaking the pattern, you keep readers’ brains more engaged. It’s that simple.
5. Use a clear CTA
Now that you’ve nailed your headline and created engaging copy for your landing page, it’s time to focus on your call-to-action (CTA).
Your CTA can truly make or break the success of your landing page! We know that sounds dramatic, but it’s absolutely true. After all, it’s the final nudge that guides your landing page visitors to take action and convert into customers.
Here are our tips for creating great CTAs that make users click that all-important button.
#1 Use strong action verbs
Strong action verbs have long been a staple in CTAs, motivating users to take action, and for good reason—they work!
Here are some examples of high-converting action verbs:
- Download
- Get
- Grab
- Claim
- Take advantage of
- Try
- Subscribe
- Sign up
- Support
- Join
- Reserve
- Save
- Add to cart
- Order
…you get the gist! There are plenty of great action verbs out there. Just choose the ones that match your offer best, and you’ll be good to go.
#2 Create a sense of urgency
Phrases like “sign up now—only a few spots left!” or “get your free sample—limited stock remaining”, can create a sense of urgency or scarcity, encouraging users to act fast so they don’t miss out.
Just make sure the urgency is genuine. If you claim the sale ends soon and it stretches on from week to week—your customers will notice. You might land a few sales at first, but they’ll lose trust in your brand when they realise you’ve been dishonest with them.
#3 Be creative
If your brand voice is a little more laid back or fun, your CTA is the ideal spot to add a touch of personality or humour to the mix.
For example, instead of saying “Sign up”, you could go with something more exciting like “Take the leap.” This is something you’ll see all the time in high converting landing pages. Just be sure you don’t get carried away and you’re still encouraging users to take the action you want.
6. Don’t forget about images
We pay a lot of attention to the copy on landing pages, and that makes sense. Whether it’s the headline, CTA, or body text—copy has a big part to play in hooking readers.
But let’s not overlook the power of images! Visuals have a big impact on the human brain. In fact, it takes only 13 milliseconds to process an image. You can send a strong message in a fraction of the time with a well-placed, quality image.
Here are our top image tips for an effective landing page:
- Use real images: Authentic images of your products or team are way more relatable to users than generic stock stuff. They show you’re the real deal, with a genuine team working hard behind the scenes.
- Make sure they compliment your layout: Think carefully about where you’re placing images on your landing page. For example, you can use visuals to draw attention to the key parts of your copy like your CTA, or break up large chunks of text so you don’t bore users. Just make sure all images align with your overall landing page design.
- Focus on quality: Every image on your landing page should be well lit, clear, and crisp. Low-quality or pixelated pictures can come off as unprofessional.
- Choose the right size: Overly large images are a real pain, slowing down page loading speeds (something customers hate!). Make sure they’re the right size to load up quickly without sacrificing picture quality.
Pick carefully: Steer clear of any images that distract from or overpower the main message of your page. Instead, choose images that complement or add more context to your promotion.
So, there you have it—the winning formula for crafting a landing page that packs a punch and drives the results you’re after. Start by defining your goal and deciding what you’ll offer visitors.
Next, all you need is some engaging copy, a clear headline, and a creative call-to-action (CTA), and your very own landing page will come together perfectly. Oh, and don’t forget to add some high-quality images to really make it pop!
Get a little help from The Content Lab
You’re busy growing your business, so creating engaging landing pages might not be the number one thing on your list of priorities. And that’s completely understandable.
Our wordsmiths and content marketing experts would love to offer a helping hand. We know landing pages like the back of our hands. We’ll take the time to get to know your business just as well. From here, we’ll create landing pages that help you achieve exactly what you’re aiming for.
Sound like something you might be interested in? Awesome! To kick things off, please email Abby, our Head Content Strategist and Founder. She’ll give you all the info you need to get started.
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