When done right, landing pages speak to a very specific audience segment. However, they’re sometimes so generic that they come nowhere near meeting customer expectations or needs. For your landing page to convert successfully, you need to pay attention to individual users and what solutions they’re seeking.
In a recent study of key performance indicators, Wolfgang Digital found that conversion rates reach just 1.84% overall, with sectors such as travel ranking a bit higher. By setting the average as your minimum goal, you can build from there and try to beat industry expectations by optimizing everything on your landing page.
The journey toward more customer-focused landing pages starts before the person arrives on your page and continues through order fulfillment. Here are six things you can do to beef up your website today and increase your revenue.
1. Know Your Audience
Whether you’re writing an article or creating a landing page, you’ve likely heard this advice a time or two. Before you can meet their needs, you must know who your users are at their core.
Gather all your data and analyze it to better understand those who already buy from you. Next, study your competitors and what audiences they target. Finally, dig into the habits and lifestyles of your visitors.
You wouldn’t cook dinner for a new friend without finding out their likes and dislikes. You’d ask what day and time was good for them and if they were bringing anyone with them. You shouldn’t design a landing page without discovering who the person is. Compile your data and then create a buyer persona that represents your typical customer. It’s much easier to create a page that speaks to the individual when you know who they are.
Upstart knows exactly who their target audience is for this landing page. They use wording that reaches out to someone looking for a personal loan and even make suggestions for the common reasons people use their service, such as paying off credit cards. They reassure people with a lower credit score that there is still hope for a personal loan.
2. Go Mobile-Friendly
Statista reports there are about 4 billion mobile device users around the world. The growth of mobile internet usage has a trajectory of 7% from 2017 through 2022. More and more people buy smartphones and use them to go online. If your landing pages aren’t mobile-friendly, you may miss out on a significant portion of your audience and your potential leads. Make sure your images and text adapt readily to smaller or differently proportioned screens.
3. Perfect Your CTA Buttons
Your call to action (CTA) buttons guide visitors on their next move. Since each landing page has a very specific goal, your CTA should reflect that.
If you want to convert site visitors into newsletter subscribers, then what type of call encourages them to sign up? If you want to make a sale, then your goal might be to move them to the next point in the sales funnel and entice them to “learn more.”
Take a look at the landing page for IDC-Automatic. Their CTA buttons anticipate the reasons the user comes to their page. They read “Fix My Door,” “Buy a Door” and “I Need Emergency Service.” The company has clearly thought through the main pain points of their customers and how to address those on their website.
4. Engage Your Customers
The average person is extremely busy. They might juggle a full-time job, hobbies, family and a myriad of other elements. Just because they arrive on your site doesn’t mean they’ll stay long. You have to grab them and then keep them interested from the first moment they arrive. Otherwise, they may bounce away to another site or lose interest.
There are many ways for you to draw users in, such as offering interactive elements, showing a video or offering an enticing item for free.
5. Choose Unique Visuals
Some landing pages look so “perfect” that they don’t seem real. They use stock images that don’t relate entirely to the product, or they avoid using photos because they are costly. You can create a more enticing site simply by changing the pictures and visuals you use.
Stick with visuals related to your business. If possible, hire a professional photographer to help you come up with some images that highlight who you are as a company. Create a balance of visual elements and text throughout.
TAC Retreat Center features photos of their unique location. The images highlight the beauty of their property. They also do some unique things, such as taking a photo of flowers in bloom and then pulling a box with a closeup of one of the plants into the foreground of the site.
6. Add Live Chat
If you hit on all the other elements needed to entice your target buyer, they may still have a few questions before they part with their money.
Adding a live chat feature to your landing pages allows you to connect on a personal level and close the sale. Chatbots can help with collecting basic information, and then live agents should step in for a more personal touch.
Test Your Pages
If you aren’t already running A/B tests on your landing pages, you should start today. Testing lets you see which elements users respond best to. Make a change, test it and see how your audience responds. With time and patience, you should be able to drive conversions past your industry’s average and optimize your results.
Lexie is a graphic designer and UX strategist. She enjoys taking her goldendoodle on walks and checking out flea markets. Visit her design blog, Design Roast, and follow her on Twitter @lexieludesigner
