When it comes to landing pages, your #1 goal of course needs to be conversion. So you’ve probably focused on things like flashy graphics and persuasive copy with killer headlines, a focus on benefits instead of features, social proof, and maybe a mention of pain and pleasure points.
But how can you take your landing pages to the next level and turn them into money making conversion machines? Let’s take a look at one of our Yelp landing pages:
https://goosedogdesigns.com/welcome-to-goose-dog-designs/
This is where our prospects land when they click our Yelp call to action. Our offer is a 10% discount when they book a free consultation.
When we create landing pages at Goose Dog Designs, we follow this simple checklist of five questions:
1. Are you using your regular website navigation and footer?
If your prospect has made it to your landing page, then they are ready to buy. Don’t distract them with anything but your key offer. To do this, remove or significantly strip down the navigation and footer on your landing page to isolate your offer and smoothly move your prospect through your sales process. After all, that’s what they came here for.
Notice that on our landing page, we’ve removed navigation unless the user scrolls down. When he scrolls below the fold, he is presented with our regular website navigation so that he can read more about who we are and what we have to offer. Our footer is hidden from the landing page so that the last thing he sees is a call to action.
2. Is your key offer fully visible above the fold?
“Above the fold” refers to the top-most portion of a web page that is visible before you start to scroll down. Assuming you have some prospects who are ready to take action immediately, why would you want to make them do anything else? You can have more content about your offer below the fold for those who need to read, hear, and see a little more before they’re convinced, but you need to provide your hottest leads with the ability to take the plunge as soon as they land.
Check out our landing page. Your eye is drawn to a big bright orange button. If you were a burning hot lead, you would click that button and wouldn’t have to be bothered with anything else.
3. Is your layout ultra clean?
When it comes to landing pages (or any web design), the easiest way to turn someone off is to bombard them with a whole lot of clutter. Give your prospects a nice, neat, and logical sequence for them to follow that leads them right to your call to action and be sure not to overcrowd the page with too much text content.
Take a look at our landing page. As you scroll down, you’ll be taken through a series of sections each of which clearly conveys one key element. The first is a testimonials section, which shows prospects a few words from our happy clients. Next we have a counter showing off how many five star Yelp reviews we have. If they still aren’t convinced, we then show some beautiful samples from our portfolio followed by a final call to action. The flow of our landing page is simple yet powerful.
4. Is your landing page accessible on all devices?
Have you lifted your head and peeled your eyes off your smartphone for a second lately to see 99% of everyone else around you with their head down and their eyes glued to their smartphones? We joke at Goose Dog Designs that nobody uses computers anymore but everyday that joke becomes more and more of a reality. Mobile browsing is growing at 10x the rate of desktop browsing, which means it’s imperative that you optimize your entire website including your landing pages for smartphones and tablets.
5. Are you testing and tracking conversions?
In the old days of marketing, only the big players had the resources to run split tests and track the results of their marketing campaigns. Today, we all have access to powerful resources that provide us with invaluable insight into how well our landing pages are converting. Set up conversion goals specifically for your landing pages in your analytics software and run simple A/B tests controlling for everything but one element of your landing page at a time. Start with your call to action. It’s incredible what a simple change in text will do!
If you need any help creating a landing page that converts like crazy, don’t hesitate to reach out.