Landing Pages

Most lead generation campaigns route the audience to a landing page where they need to fill in a form. The design of the landing page can have a huge impact on the results your campaign generates.

109. Use dedicated landing pages

The first tip is always to use a dedicated landing page. Routing your contacts to pages that are not designed specifically to convert with a form fill will reduce the performance of your campaign, because they have much lower conversion rates than dedicated landing pages.

110. Landing pages should only do one thing

Generally, the purpose of a landing page is to get someone to fill in a form and submit it. When designing a landing page you should only have one objective, and typically it's form completion. Although it might seem helpful to have other information available to landing page visitors, this approach will reduce the conversion rate and make your campaign less effective.

111. Don’t use too much text on landing pages

Landing pages should only do one thing. Too much text will distract from the goal. Keep your text succinct and clear, and always remember that overcomplication is a bad idea.

112. Use the thank you page to make a second offer

When someone submits a form on a landing page they are typically routed to a thank you page where they can download or view the content. This is an ideal place to promote related content, particularly if you have a form with progressive profiling so you can gather more data about the contact.

113. Make your headline action-based

Tests show that landing page headlines are more effective if they're action based. A very simple example of this would be changing a headline from “Marketing eBook” to “Download Your Marketing eBook Today”.

114. Have a clear subheading

Subheadings can expand on the page headline, and generally landing pages perform better if they have a subheading. Like all content on your landing page, make the subheading clear and succinct.

115. Include an image

A landing page that just has text is not very inviting. Adding images will, in general, compel the viewer to linger and increase conversion rates. Typically landing pages have an image of the item that is being offered, for example the eBook. A good image, which requires good cover design, makes a big difference as the content being offered feels more tangible to the visitor.

116. Use bullet points

Keeping the text short is important, but bullet points are more effective. Bullet points make it easy for the visitor to see what is being offered and the benefit of sharing their contact details to secure the item. We always recommend using bullet points on landing pages.

117. Make the form visible

Don't put the form at the bottom of your landing page. Making the form readily visible will increase the conversion rate of the landing page. It's not always possible to have the form immediately visible on a mobile device, but think about the design to ensure that visitors don't have to scroll endlessly to find it.

118. Have a text and visual CTA

On the landing page it is important to not only have a clear call to action in the text, but also to have a visual CTA that really stands out. Sometimes we see the clever use of arrows to highlight the form that needs to be completed, although you should match the visual CTA to your brand.

119. Remove distracting navigation

We mentioned previously that a landing page should have only one purpose. Removing distracting navigation content from the template allows the visitor to focus on the content offer and the form, resulting in better performance of your landing page.

120. Make sure your landing page matches the CTA that drove the prospect there

This seems obvious, but if you're running several different campaigns with many landing pages and promotions, you might have a mismatch between the advert, blog post or other item that drives the person to the landing page and the content of the page itself. Always try to ensure the landing page matches the CTA that brought the person there in the first place.

121. Encourage social sharing of landing page

You should make the landing page as widely available as possible. Any “free” promotion of the landing page is a good thing, so encourage visitors to share the landing page on social media profiles to increase traffic and leads.

122. You need several landing pages

Don't feel you only have to create one landing page. Visitors coming from different sources may need slightly different landing pages, and optimising the page to their needs will maximise your conversion rates. Just make sure that each landing page does only one thing.

123. Use social proof

Even if you are a well-known brand, “social proof” is likely to improve the performance of your landing page. Make sure you include customer testimonials, relevant certifications and other credentials that will provide reassurance that you are a reliable supplier and have delivered successful projects to existing customers.

124. Use SEO

Increasing the distribution of your landing page is a good thing, so make the page visible in search engines and think about SEO. Having the landing page rank well in organic search can dramatically increase traffic and therefore the number of leads you generate.

125. Support all devices

Don't assume your audience will visit the landing page from a desktop or laptop computer. Make sure you support all devices, particularly mobile phones.