How to Create the Best Landing Pages

A ‘Landing Page’ is an integral and important aspect of online marketing and so, getting your landing page right is another medium of the success for your marketing campaigns. A landing page cannot & should not be confused with just any page of a website. It requires a lot of planning on the best way to create and use them effectively for better conversions. In this article, you will get a brief idea on what a landing page is and key areas that you need to focus on while creating them.

Lets’ begin with what exactly is termed as a landing page?

Pure marketing professionals define a landing page as a uniquely customized page that a person is led to on clicking a link that is present in an external source such as a Pay Per Click (PPC) ad or in an email campaign. A landing page, generally, is created to cater to only a specific product or service. The intention behind creating a landing page is to convert the browser into a customer that may purchase or compel him/ her to take some form of action that may eventually result in a sale.

Key areas to focus on while creating a good landing page
When you think of creating a landing page for your product or service, you need to know the answers to these questions before you launch it:

1. What is the product or service that you are offering on the page?
2. Who are your target consumers?
3. What makes your product or service unique and different from the rest?
4. What form of action the visitor needs to do to effectively result in a sale?

Chalking down all your answers to the above questions in brief will help you to promote your product or service in a much effective way. If you have been completely convinced and prepared yourself well with your answers, it will be much easier for you to convince your prospective customers and give your material on the landing page more credibility.

Prompting immediate action

Effective action words play a chief role in directing your visitors to the right pages. These action words will help any person visiting the page on what they should do so that they get what you have offered on the page. All of these action words should lead to an order page or a subscription form for your product or service. Some examples of action words are as follows:

Order Now!
Limited Offer – Buy Today!
Subscribe Today & Get Amazing Discounts!

Placing such action words at the top & bottom of your page will surely attract the attention of your visitor. But the secret to a good landing page is keeping opportunities open for the browser to convert into a customer scattered through out the whole page. See to it that you include such action words spread at strategic places in your content.

Bulleted & short-sentenced content

Though the length of your landing page content can be long or short, it is best to keep the paragraphs and remaining content in your page small. The sentences used in your content should be short and to the point. The best way of putting across your information to the visitor is through bulleted points. Keep your prospects open for further communication, on additional information, from the more analytical visitors.

Flow and arrangement of content

Don’t, ever, confuse your visitor with your content. You don’t want to stress and drive your visitor away. Keep a systematic & logical flow to the content of your landing page. Along with the flow, ensure that you use appropriate headings and also leave enough blank line spaces so that the arrangement of your content is crisp and clear. It should never look tacky and cramped up. You can also use a set of complementing colours to distinguish between different elements in your content.

Proper image usage

Various surveys and studies in eye tracking have shown that the visitors’ eye is first drawn to the images on a page. So, placing the right image at the right place can help in convincing your customer that your product or service is genuine. This doesn’t mean that you fill your landing page with a barrage of images. Limit the amount of images on your landing page. Images along with action words in the form of banners can effectively persuade the customer to take the proper action that will result in a sale.

Authenticity through testimonials

Including 2 to 3 testimonials from current customers on the marketed product or service authenticates it further more. Only include testimonials that are convincing and solid. Providing the full name along with the location & some form of contact, e.g. an email address, of the customer who wrote the testimonial gives it even more credibility rather than just the initials of the person.

Freebies & bonuses

Every prospective customer looks out for a good bargain on their purchase and providing a freebie or a bonus on your landing page can be a real good bargain. By offering a free report or membership or newsletter subscription that may require their email addresses, you open prospects of future sales from careful visitors by building relationships over a period of time. Free items or discounts on the purchase of certain products can tempt the visitor to buy your product or service all the more.

Keywords & Keyphrases in landing pages through PPC Campaigns

If you design a landing page for PPC campaigns, there is an additional essential aspect to consider while creating it – Inclusion of proper Keywords & Keyphrases. Selection of the proper keywords & keyphrases with relevance to your product or service is the first step towards this. The keywords used for the landing page should be the good enough to satisfy your targeted market’s search.

It is a very good idea to include your keyword or keyphrase in your title tag and your Meta description. These are used by search engines to create listings that show up in search results and will help visitors find your page much more easily. If the content of your landing pages satisfy the expectations of your visitors, you have done half the work in converting them to your customers.

Assessment of your landing page

Before launching your landing page, it is always a good idea to get it assessed or tested. You can do this easily by asking some of your friends or colleagues to review the page. Let them check out the page for some time and instead of asking them if they thought the page was ‘good or not’, question them on what they understood of the concept of the message on the page. You have scored well, if the answer that they give matches with your answer of the question ‘What is the product or service that you are offering on the page?’

To wrap it all up…

Your landing page will be the best and give good conversions if you have, successfully, focused on everything relevant that brought people to your page. It has been proven that landing pages are a great medium for information on products or services to your customers. It is an important tool that can surely convert web clicks into your clients. Just put in all your efforts & dedication into it and you are definitely going to enjoy amazing profits!