So, about landing pages. Landing pages are like a dime a dozen situation, and building one that works for you, really comes down to what you're trying to achieve.
Honestly, I could give you the longest list of things to remember to do with your landing page. Literally when I was doing research into it for a client some time ago, I wrote 5 pages of notes from different designers, developers and bloggers hoping to draw a simple conclusion. (And they all missed out on a very important element, which I'll tell you about shortly!)
And no surprises, not a single one of them managed to draw a simple conclusion. Perhaps because there isn't one!
But here's what I got out of it:
KEEP IT SIMPLE.
Whoever you are, and whatever you're trying to do with your landing page, clean and simplistic design and copy is what converts.
Have obvious navigation and no distractions, such as pop-ups or other options for them to click away.
Keep the sign up form easy to fill out, keeping in mind that short forms will have more conversions, but lower quality conversions, whereas longer forms will have less conversions, but they may be higher quality.
Keep key info above the fold, with further descriptions down below. Explain why the offer is valuable in clear and CONCISE terms, leaning heavily on bullet points where possible. But don't eliminate your personality either! You can still be YOU, while being brief!
Embrace the white space! Less is more! Marie Kondo that page!
And as always, build trust through testimonials and logos. Interestingly, I discovered in my research that simply including the word "guarantee", however meaningless, can improve the likelihood of a conversion.
And the one thing they all forgot?
Where possible, host your landing page on your own website (!!)
All the newsletter sign up services (Mailchimp, etc) have the option to build your own landing page within their software. For people who don't have a website yet, this is an awesome and convenient option.
Since you do have your own website, using these landing pages could mean you're missing out on all the website traffic that page may be generating.
Building trust in your brand is all about being recognisable and easy to find. If you're using landing pages that aren't hosted on your website, you lose that recognition factor by not using your domain name or your branding.
Those templates, however convenient, don't have anything to do with you; they're not based on your website branding and they're full of generic copy that doesn't sound like you.
So if you can, build your own, on your own website!
Until next time, be kind to yourself!
Laura x
[RELATED] How your Out of Date website could be hurting your business
[RELATED] Why do I need a website to connect with my audience?
[RELATED] Should the content come before the website?
