Use well-crafted website landing pages to entice consumers to act, preferably by clicking “Buy”
When a visitor lands on your website, you want them to do something — ideally, buy something. We’ll help you create attractive, easy-to-navigate landing pages that encourage browsers to become buyers.
But first: Marketers and web developers have surprisingly strong feelings about how to define a landing page. Some say it’s a unique, standalone page created solely to encourage visitors to act. Think a page designed to link from a social media post or digital ad. Others say a landing page is any webpage, including a homepage, where visitors might enter your site. We’re going with the more expansive definition because these tips apply broadly.
⭕ Learn how people get there. Google Analytics and other tools can show you how most visitors arrive at your landing pages. “If most of your customers are coming to your website on a mobile device, you’ll want to optimize your landing pages for a great mobile experience. Or, if you learn that your shoppers prefer desktop, you’ll be better equipped to build a landing page that enhances the desktop experience,” writes Alexa Collins in a Jan. 10 article for Shopify, an e-commerce platform for online retailers based in Ottawa, Canada.
⭕ Cover your bases. Most landing pages should include these items: strong product images and benefit-driven copy that “speak to your unique selling proposition,” customer testimonials/reviews or social proof, and a “buy box,” which Collins calls the “conversion engine of your landing page.” The buy box might include product images, pricing, review stars, a “Buy,” “Shop” or “Pay” button, and other key information.
⭕ Mind “the fold.” Borrowing a term from newspapers, “above the fold” refers to the part of the webpage visitors see without scrolling. (In newspapers, it’s the part visible when a folded paper is displayed at a newsstand or in a vending box.) Anyway, “we’ve heard anywhere from 50% to 85% of people don’t scroll,” Collins says. So, place the most important info up top but also “focus on the flow of information across the entire page” to create an information hierarchy.
⭕ Create a clear call to action. “Make sure the CTA is displayed at least once in a visually distinct, centralized and obviously buttony-looking button,” writes Beth Morgan in an undated article for San Diego-based marketing firm Neil Patel Digital. “… If you have other CTAs on the page, de-emphasize them visually compared with the primary CTA. If you have content below the fold, repeat the CTA. Always make it easy and compelling for the visitor to take the desired action.”
⭕ Keep it clean. “The clearer and simpler you make your page, the more likely you are to get someone to take the action you want,” Morgan says. This is particularly true of your homepage, which Morgan considers most companies’ primary landing page. Keep copy brief and forms short. Don’t let headers, navigation bars or other details distract from the page’s mission.
