The Eagle is ready to land (or is it?)...

Potential online customers, they’re a picky bunch. You’ve literally got seconds to make a good impression. Then you’ve got a few more to keep them engaged and – most importantly – convert them from sceptic to lead to (long-term) customer. One false move and it could all be over...

If you notice lots of people are bouncing off your landing pages, ending their journey as your customer before it’s even begun, there’s something very wrong.

High-converting landing pages don’t just happen by accident. If your current landing pages aren’t giving the results you’d hoped for, here’s some sound advice for fixing the problem.

1. They need speed.
   The faster your page loads, the better your user experience – and your Google rankings. Conversely, if your page takes more than 3 seconds to load, 40% of your customers will already be gone. That’s a whopping 2 out of 5 people who abandon ship before they’ve even seen what you have to offer.

2. Hit them with it.
   Get them excited, surprised, intrigued or smiling: great headlines do one or all of these things, getting your viewer warm to converting and eager to hit the buy now button or fill out your online form. You need to be as clear and detailed as you can, without being overly wordy. If you can also make it warm and conversational, suggesting you can solve a problem they’re facing right now, you’re on your way to maximising engagement.

3. Points not paragraphs!
   Lose the reams of info and boil down your message into some impressive points. To formulate these, focus on the benefits.

4. Put them in the picture.
   Image is everything – choose a picture that perfectly illustrates your offer and fits in with your brand. If the picture doesn’t add anything, maybe you’re better without? Leaving a clean design and prominent selling points to do a great job.

5. Where are you?
   The first thing your visitor looks for is what’s on offer, then they immediately check out who’s offering it. Make sure your branding is bang on: you look professional and you are visible

6. They want clean design
   Too many words, bad pictures, jumbled messages and a confused layout mean you’ll fail the ‘blink test’ – meaning in the first 3 seconds, if visitors can’t get oriented on your page, they’ll bounce, and it’s bye bye buyer!

7. Lose the Links
   Focus on the offer to get them to fill out the form or hit the buy button. There is no need to distract your visitors from what you actually want them to do by offering links to other parts of your website. The same goes for any hot buttons to social media channels – there’s a danger you’ll lose them to Facebook or Twitter and the landing page will be abandoned.

8. Use Fewer Fields
   People really don’t like filling forms out, and if it looks like it’s going to take ages, it’s likely they’ll choose not to fill it out at all. Think of it like this: work out what’s the absolute minimum you need to know about a lead. And, if you can, equate what you’re asking for with the value of the offer: that’s what your customers will do. They’ll ask “Is this offer worth my time and what information am I willing to give in exchange for it?”

9. Move with the times
   With more and more people accessing the internet on the go, will your landing page work where they are? Typing on a mobile phone is the worst, so keep it brief – can you get away with asking for an email address? Make sure you get your web developer to check how you landing page looks on any device and make sure it works or you’ll miss out on a large percentage of your potential audience.

10. Make it Fun
    A boring old submit button is exactly that: boring. Having some fun with your calls to action is a great way to encourage more clicks. Think about the kind of language your audience use with each other, the ultimate benefit and go with something that best suits your brand tone of voice: if it’s a lifestyle guide, you could go with ‘Send me my better life’ or if it’s a business guide, you could go with ‘I want a better business today.’ 

A good landing page is what you make it, so getting it right will maximise your ROI.

If you want to maximise your conversions, ask us how we would design and build the best landing page for you.