How to Build High-Converting Landing Pages

All your marketing efforts may prove to be in vain if you don’t have a landing page that can convert your website visitors. Whether you are looking for more leads, sales, or subscriptions, you need a landing page that can deliver.
In this blog, we are going to explore the purpose, elements, and structure of a good landing page, as well as the best practices you can follow in your efforts to build high-converting landing pages for your marketing campaigns.

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What Is a Landing Page?

Before we dive deeper into how you should go about building one, it’s important to understand that a landing page isn’t just a web page like any other. Landing pages are most often created for specific campaigns and a specific purpose in mind – it’s where you want to direct your visitors from all other marketing channels you use to promote a product or service.

The Purpose of Landing Pages

In a single sentence, the purpose of a landing page is to convert visitors. Conversion can mean different things, depending on the desired action you want your visitors to take, and your landing page needs to be optimized with that goal in mind.

You can think of it as a dedicated page to which you take all the people whose interest you grab through paid advertising, social media ads, organic search results, or any other promotion channel. And it has a single purpose – to entice them to respond to your call to action and maximize your conversion rate.

That being said, considering your landing page an isolated element would be wrong. It is the final step in the customer journey, so it needs to be in sync with the channels that led the user to it. When a user clicks on the link to your landing page, they should land exactly where they expected, with the only thing potentially surprising them being the quality of its design.

The Elements and Best Practices of Landing Pages that Convert

Below are some of the most important general elements of a landing page and what you can do to increase the likelihood of visitors having a positive user experience, and hopefully, converting.

Clear Value Proposition

Although it’s not a distinct element visible on your page, it is the base on which all the elements should be created.

A clear value proposition is the best guideline to building high-converting landing pages you can have. Staying true to it throughout the page, from the headline to the CTA button, and even the channel that brought the visitor to your website ensures consistency and relevance.

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In order for the value proposition to spark interest while being clear and easy to follow, it needs to be simple and address your brand’s purpose. Stick to the most basic idea of the benefits you offer and set clear expectations for users.

Why is your company the best choice for them? What is the main problem you solve for them? What is your promise?

You will elaborate on the value you are offering throughout the landing page.

Key points to take away:

• clarity
• simplicity
• setting user expectations
• addressing brand purpose

Engaging Headline

This is the first element of the page the visitor will notice and is key to ensuring initial engagement. The headline of your landing page needs to capture the user’s attention and convince them in a split second that there is value in scrolling on.
Apart from being eye-catching, it should send a clear message on what the landing page is about, and what the visitor can expect to find below it – ideally, a solution to their problem. As mentioned above, it’s crucial for high-converting landing pages to be in sync with what was promised to the user when they clicked the link. Otherwise, if the headline does not follow up on the user’s expectation, you are more likely to end up with a bounce-back than a conversion.

That’s a lot to accomplish in a couple of words, right?

However compelled you might be, avoid making the headline too long – it’s all about providing the right information as concisely as possible. A good way to go about accomplishing this is by complementing it with a visual that does the talking for you. The right image can convey all the information you need to at a glance and keep the visitor interested in finding out more.

Key points to take away:

• engagement
• clarity
• conciseness
• relevance
• problem-solving

Actionable Copy

Write an actionable copy that complements your headings, subheadings, and imagery. The copy itself should emphasize the key elements of your value proposition in an approachable and easy-to-understand manner. Choose a lingo that resonates with your target audience and try to convey your message concisely.

In terms of visual appeal, the content should look inviting and quick to read. Break up the copy with complementing images and use bullet points to highlight the main features, benefits, and selling points.

Addressing the benefits your visitors stand to gain if they perform the desired action is an integral part of the message you want to send.

However, the true art of writing a high-converting copy lies in triggering the reader’s emotions. Instead of going into too much detail on what you are offering, focus on how your visitor will feel after the conversion and what they stand to lose if they miss out on your offer. Associating positive emotions with your product/service and creating a subtle sense of urgency is what will ultimately drive your conversion rate.

When writing the copy, ask yourself the following questions:

What is it that your audience wants more than anything?

How does your product/service fit in that picture?

How will they feel using it?

How can you make their lives easier?

Understanding the true motivation behind their interest in your business and honing in on how you help them achieve their desires is key to writing copies for high-converting landing pages.

Key points to take away:

• clarity
• conciseness
• visual appeal
• triggering emotions
• urgency

Enticing Call to Action

The final goal of high-converting landing pages is enticing the user to click your CTA button and convert. For this to happen, you need to nail all other elements and make clicking-through the natural next step. However, even if you do, all the effort can still fall through if the button itself is unclear, indistinct, or misplaced.

Making your CTA clear means eliminating any confusion in terms of what the final step your visitor should take is. It should contain a clear, actionable copy like “Yes, Sign Me Up”, “Book Your Demo Now”, “Get Started Today”, etc., that guides them to the final action they need to take in a persuasive but not demanding manner.

It should also use a font and color that make it stand out as the most prominent among other bits of content. After all, you want it to grab the user’s intention as soon as they spot it.

If your CTA comes with a form they need to fill out, try to make it as short as possible. Asking for too much information may dissuade visitors from going through with it. If a single field does the job, avoid adding more, and focus on making the process look as simple as possible.

Finally, make sure the CTA is well-placed. The best practice is to place your CTA near the most compelling sections or headlines within the landing page. These can be sections that address the greatest pain points and benefits or provide some sort of incentive.

It is at these points that your visitor will be the most convinced in terms of the value you offer, and hence, the most likely to convert. If they don’t have a clearly visible CTA inviting them to act at this moment, you’ve likely missed an opportunity.

Key points to take away:

• clarity
• persuasiveness
• distinctiveness
• smart placement

Social Proof

Most people who get to your landing page are going to assess the risks and rewards of what you are offering before converting, and they’ll want to know what kind of experience others have had.

The truth is, nothing YOU say about your product/service/offer is going to carry more weight than what your customers are saying about it.

Placing some form of social proof on your page can help you build trust and validity by showing visitors how other people have interacted with and benefited from your brand. Providing social proof to support your value proposition and other elements is a must for high-converting landing pages.

Let your satisfied customers do the talking in your stead.

Key points to take away:

• trust
• validity
• user satisfaction

Visual Representation and Elements

As mentioned above, visual content complements the other elements of your landing page and can help you send your message in a more effective way, especially in terms of conveying emotions. In addition, an image-rich page looks more appealing than lines upon lines of text and allows you to cut down on the word count of your copy.

Use relevant descriptive visuals (either images or short videos) to describe the benefits you offer or the problems you solve. Apart from communicating key points to your audience more effectively, well-designed visuals also contribute to a positive user experience, which is closely related to your conversion rate.

Key points to take away:

• conveying emotions
• visual appeal
• relevance
• positive user experience

How to Design High-Converting Landing Pages?

As we mentioned, user experience is closely related to conversion rates, so your landing page needs to be well-designed if you are looking to make the most of it.

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Simplicity without Distractions

Keep your page simple and distraction-free. Avoid stuffing your landing page with elements and content, as this is can lead to confusion and look disorganized, which is more likely to result in bounce-backs than conversions.

After all, your goal is to make it as easy as possible for the user to find and click your CTA.

Stick with a clean design without any navigation buttons or menus and stay as concise as possible using simple copies and messages.

Page Speed

Say you’ve designed the perfect landing page that ticks all the boxes. If it doesn’t load quickly, all your effort won’t amount to much. Slow loading times are one of the main contributors to a high bounce rate – and you can’t afford to have that problem.

There are a couple of things you can do to make sure your landing page is optimized in terms of loading speed.

First of all, you’ll need to optimize your images, as large image sizes can often be the cause of loading speed issues. Make sure you resize and compress the visuals to maintain sufficient quality and detail while reducing their size. You can do it manually, or use a web optimization tool. Either way, don’t neglect to do it.

Secondly, consider using a CDN. Content distribution networks can speed up your loading time by sending content to the user through servers that are geographically the closest to them.

Finally, strive for a loading time of 2 seconds or less. The faster you can get your page to load, the better UX you are offering your visitor. Don’t let a slow loading speed compromise all the work you’ve put into getting the prospective customer to your landing page.

Mobile Responsiveness

With an ever-increasing number of people using mobile devices to browse the internet, mobile compatibility should be one of your top priorities when designing a high-converting landing page.

Similarly to loading speed, if your page doesn’t display correctly on all devices, users are likely to get frustrated and leave.

Make sure all visitors have a seamless experience interacting with your page, regardless of the type of device they are using.

Test, Tweak, Repeat

There is no exact formula to building high-converting landing pages. Otherwise, everyone would be doing it. Although following the general principles laid out in this article will certainly help you get started with the right mindset, the key to steadily increasing conversions lies in testing, monitoring, tweaking, and improving your page throughout the campaign.

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Ultimately, this is the only way to find out exactly what works and what doesn’t and act accordingly.