Having optimized landing pages can do absolute wonders for your business. You can create fresh leads and increase your conversion rates, just with a little bit of tweaking. If you’re looking for new ways to convert your readers, this may be the way to do it. Here’s a whole host of helpful tips that can help you do just that.
Avoid the clutter
Too much going on on your landing page? Clear it out. It’s the first page your customers will see, so don’t bombard them with information. Keep it to the bare details, and give them just enough to make them want to find out more.
Make sure all important landing page information can be seen
When a customer comes to your landing page, you want them to be able to find what they’re looking for right away. The worst thing you can make them do is slog through all the page trying to find the information they need. Easy Word Count is a great example of keeping all important information in the right place.
Use bullet points
Your readers are going to be skimming your landing page, looking to see if they want to hang around. You don’t have a lot of time to convince them to stay, so large blocks of text are not your friend. Instead, use bullet points to sell them on the main features of your product, and keep them interested.
Use currency selection on order pages
The joy of the internet is that you’re selling to people around the world. If you want to keep that international audience coming in, you need to make it easier for them to order from you. One way of doing so is to let them pick the right currency on the order screen. UK Writings does this right at the top of their order form. It’s a small touch, but customers will appreciate it.
Don’t forget images
A landing page that’s pure text isn’t appealing to anybody. Instead, make sure you’re using images to break up the text. If you need to impart a lot of information quickly, you can even make an infographic do to the job in an easy to digest manner.
Have complementary or contrasting colours
The colours of your site are really important. If you pick the right ones, the site is easy to look at and a pleasure to read. Either complementary or contrasting colours both work well. Take the Academized site, for example. Their colour choices draw the eye to the important information on the site, and make it easy to navigate.
Remember the ‘above the fold’ rule
In newspapers, the rule is to keep all information that’s important and exciting ‘above the fold’, i.e. where the customer will see it first. Make sure anything you want the customer see right away is ‘above the fold’ on your landing site. That means as soon as it loads, they should be able to see it without having to scroll down.
Create landing pages with the target country in the URL
If you’re looking to target a certain country with your product, you need to put that country’s name in your URL. It makes it easier for customers to find it through search engines, and it shows them that this page is tailor made for their needs. Essayroo does this by using the words ‘Assignment Help Australia’ in their URL.
Create a sense of urgency
A good way to get your customers to act is by using scarcity tactics. If they think that there’s only a limited supply of what you’re offering, they’re more likely to click to buy it. You see this on sites like Amazon and Ebay, where they list exactly how many of any item is left in stock. Use phrases such as ‘Only 10 seats left!’ or ‘Act now to avoid disappointment’ to encourage action.
Use customer testimonials and reviews
People want to know that others have used your product, and more importantly, that they liked it. If they can’t see that, they find it harder to trust the product. That’s why adding in customer reviews are so important. Australian Help have theirs right on their front page, so you can gauge how good they are as a business before you even start making an order.
Don’t oversell
You want to draw the customer in and you don’t have long to do so. It’s tempting to offer anything they want just to get them to buy. When you can’t deliver though, trust in you will go down. Don’t oversell yourselves, or you’ll struggle later.
Determine the length of your forms
You want to keeps forms short wherever possible. That’s because long forms put customers off, as they just don’t want to spend the time filling them in. Cite It In has a good example of a short form that still gets all of the information that they need to give the customer what they need.
Show a face
If you can attach a smiling face somewhere in your landing site, your customers are much more likely to buy. That’s because it makes your company look more human, and therefore more relatable. Use a generic image of a person smiling, or add in a smiling picture of a helpline representative if you have a live chat function. It goes a long way towards building trust.
Put your call to action in the URL
Everyone knows how important the call to action is, but have you considered putting your right in your URL? Boom Essays have. They’ve placed the words ‘buy essay’ in there, as that’s what their customers are most likely to be searching for. If they click on their link, they’ll be taken right to the order page, saving them time and increasing the likelihood of a sale.
Don’t forget your keywords
If you have specific keywords that are used in your copy, don’t forget to use them on your landing page. It’ll help search engines find you more easily, and bring relevant customers to you.
Include social media sharing functions
Search engines pay more attention to pages that are shared often, so make it easier for the customer. Add in ‘share’ buttons on your landing page, and you’re putting the idea to share the page into their head, making them much more likely to do so.
Offer benefits, not features
Any customer wants to know how a product will help them in their everyday lives. That’s why it’s recommended that you list the benefits of using your product, rather than a utilitarian list of its features. Appeal to your customer directly.
Appeal to the customer directly
Speak to the customer. Imagine you’re sat across the table from them. When talking about your product, use the words ‘you’ and ‘your’. You want them to feel as though you’re paying attention to their needs. The more you appeal directly to them, the more likely they are to buy.
All of these tips can help you create a landing page that really speaks to the customer. It only takes a few tweaks but they all add up, and make a difference to how your page is viewed. Try these tips for yourself and you’ll see the difference in your conversion rates.
Mary Walton is a blogger at Simple Grad and editor at OXEssays, educational website.
