How To Create A Powerful Landing Page That Converts

A landing page is a page that you, well, land on! No seriously, that’s what it actually implies. It is a specialized page which is the first one your browser opens up when you hit a CTA (Call To Action) element on a foreign page or app. Landing page is also known as ‘static page’, ‘destination page’ or ‘lead capture page’. Once a visitor is on the page, he or she is offered a resource from the business in lieu of his or her contact information. The knowledge of how to create an attractive landing page that also helps in maximum conversion is a must-have for digital marketers. After all what good is digital marketing if it doesn’t help in conversions? Digital Marketing classroom training classes like ours often have comprehensive study modules to teach this exact concept of landing page creation with maximum conversion as the main focus.

(Courtesy – Codeacademy)

A landing page may as well be the homepage, but it is generally not recommended. Generally speaking, it’s a specialized page in the website directory. Alternatively, it can be also be a separate, standalone page created for a specific sale, product launch or campaign. Think of those smartphone flash sale pages with ‘Notify me’ or ‘Subscribe’ buttons/ email fields.

(Courtesy – Amazon)

Landing Page vs Home Page – Why is a Landing Page Important

Today many companies direct their email, advertising or social media traffic to their homepage. In digital marketing terms this is not always a very smart thing to do. When it is known that a bunch of people from the target audience might come visit the brand’s site, digital marketers can achieve better conversion figures to lead them straight to a targeted landing page in order to get most out of that incoming traffic.

Imagine a digital marketer has a flashy PPC ad running for one of his/ her best keywords. One individual out of the target audience gets mesmerized by the ad and clicks on it. Is it practical to send them to the homepage? This depends on what they are supposed to do once they are on the homepage. What exactly does the digital marketer reckon his/ her traffic primary do on the site?

Once that is figured out, the digital marketer by all means should make sure that the target individual is prompted to do just that! This will be more efficiently executed with a specialized landing page and not the home page. The conversion figures are bound to improve once this strategy is implemented.

A Great Landing Page

A fine example of a well-made landing page is the following one of famous English Chef Nigella Lawson.

(Courtesy – www.nigella.com)

What great about this landing page you ask?

Simplicity

It is a simple yet elegant landing page with not too many overwhelming elements. Simple is productive, simple is cool.

Relatable Hero Image

A hero image is the highlight image generally placed at the top of the every landing page. Here the image is not too flashy, not too artificial. Just a relatable image of the chef holding, umm, a casserole? Even the background image is soothing and again, not too extravagant.

Clear-cut Navigation/ CTA

There’s no visible clutter to be seen here. CTAs are cleanly placed. Also, the objective is straightforward no-fuss i.e. looking for recipes, which is why most people probably visit this site in the first place.

Anatomy of a Powerful Landing Page

Now that we are familiar with what a landing page can do for us, let’s get busy knowing what constitutes a great landing page, shall we?

The objective

Well, knowledge is power. Knowing the objective is often half the job done. Landing pages come in various shapes and sizes but without knowing the EXACT purpose of building one, we’d probably never be able to build a landing page that’s both the looker and the doer.

Take a look at our landing page for example.

What do you reckon is the main aim of our landing page? You’re right if you guessed maximum conversions. We’re here to impart great digital marketing classroom training to all of you with the help of our top faculties and industry-best curriculum.

If you’re creating a landing page for your individual or business needs, have you figured out what your primary objective is?

The visuals

Pictures speak louder than any text ever can. According to various studies our brain processes image up to 60,000 times faster than words! So it’s not hard to image what a text-only landing page will achieve. Close to nada.

Take a look at the following landing page.

(Courtesy – AirBnb)

Airbnb is a service which, as you might know, offers to let users book homes and apartments for temporary stay. It claims to offer a unique and exciting experience every time customers use the service.

And the picture here visually defines exactly that. An exciting and homely atmosphere (in real homes with real families) to stay in which will not be found if you book a hotel for example.

Clear Messaging

The landing page needs to be clear and straightforward in its messaging. Customers should not need to deploy all of their grey cells to analyse what the heck it is that the page is offering. Whether it be a particular offer, special discounts, free goodies, a free e-book or just some guidelines the messaging needs to be loud and clear.

What good is a landing page that is ambiguous? It will only drive potential conversions away. Look at the messaging below.

(Courtesy – Lyft)

Have you ever designed or been part of a team which designed a landing page? Let us know your experience and thoughts in the comments section below.

Make sure to follow our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages regularly if you’re interested in digital marketing classroom training and jobs.