s a business owner, you’ll be willing to do anything it takes to make your online brand successful. And a big part of designing an effective website involves creating landing pages that convert visitors into customers.
Good landing pages will improve your visitors’ interactions with your site and refine their experience, which increases the chance of them making a purchase. Here’s how to create high-converting landing pages that will increase your ROI.
Use social proof to show you’re great at what you do
No matter how much you praise your company, you need to back it up with evidence. Website visitors won’t just believe you when you say you’re great — they’ll want you to prove it.
Positive social proof is extremely helpful for proving that your products or services are worth investing in. There are different types of social proof you could display on your landing page, such as:
- Reviews and testimonials
- Media mentions
- Awards and qualifications
- The names of well-known customers or clients
Consider offering an incentive, like a discount code, for leaving a review. You could also encourage customers to post about your products using a unique hashtag to create user-generated content that will improve your reach on social media networks and grab the attention of potential customers.
Once you have a nice collection of social proof, you’ll want to display it on your landing page to support your products or services and build trust with your audience. For example, you could display three customer reviews on a banner and rotate them weekly. You could also include review snippets and star ratings in your website header.
You can use media mentions on your landing pages to build trust with your audience and show that you are an industry leader, too. The same goes for awards and industry qualifications that will show potential customers that your company has a proven track record and that they can trust you.
Let’s look at a few companies that use social proof on their landing pages to build a relationship and gain the trust of their audiences.
Doors Plus, a door installation company, does a great job of displaying customer feedback that’s sure to win its website visitors’ trust. Notice the white bubble in the lower left-hand corner. It stays fixed in the corner of the landing page and scrolls through several glowing reviews for the company so their audience will always see the positive reviews as they look through the site.
When users move their mouse over the review, it expands to show the full text, too. This is a great design choice. You can use this design strategy on your site by placing your social proof in a prominent place that is easily accessible to visitors wanting to know more about your brand.
Another company that displays its social proof innovatively is Pherrus Financial, an accounting company. Their landing page features two video testimonials from past clients satisfied with their services. Not only does this show proof from real people who have worked with Pherrus Financial, but these compilation videos demonstrate just how popular their services are.
Social proof is crucial for establishing your credibility, so display it in various formats on your landing page. Include statistics, raw data, and other information to show your audience that they can trust you.
Finally, 2U, an education SaaS company, lists prominent partners on their landing pages to build trust with their customers. This is another form of social proof you could use.
This shows that they are an established company in their market and that potential customers will enjoy their services because many high-profile partners have already teamed up with them. After all, if well-known companies in your field are really benefiting from another business’s services, why wouldn’t you give them a try?
Ensure it’s incredibly easy for people to convert
The easier it is for someone to take the next step with your business, the more likely they’ll be to make a purchase. So, you should ensure people can quickly take the next action on your landing page without any problems or confusion.
To ensure visitors can easily convert, stick with a clean, simple web design and make your CTA buttons stand out with a bright color.
Take a look at this example from Instant Checkmate, a public records search service. On their landing page, there is no question about how to convert because they place the most important fields customers need to fill out front and center.
It’s important to provide as few fields as possible to increase the chances of your audience filling out your form. And you can use a very similar design strategy on your website to capture contact information and direct your customers through the buying process.
Another good example comes from Smith.ai, a company that offers customer service support and a 24/7 answering service. Notice how the elements on the page all point to filling out the form. For instance, the page copy explains what the users will gain by doing so, asking for only the most basic and necessary information.
They knock it out of the park with a simplified landing page that makes it super simple to move forward with investing in their services. Their page is designed to focus the attention of their audience on the contact form, and provides a clear call to action (CTA) for their audience to “Get Started Now.”
Your landing page should contain several elements that point to the next step in your customer journey. Use a unified color scheme with a bold, eye-catching color reserved for your CTA buttons and essential information. Don’t make the customer scroll to find out how to move forward. Instead, place everything they need on the initial loading screen, and you’ll see a boost in conversions.
Choose your landing page imagery very carefully
Imagery can be very compelling for helping customers to feel more connected to your business, excited about your products, and tempted to make a purchase. To achieve this with your landing page, you’ll want to use effective imagery that shows your business in the best light.
There are several routes you can take to make your images as relevant as possible, like by:
- Showing how your products or services work
- Featuring your staff to show that your business is run by people who your customers can relate to
- Use images to demonstrate what your company does so your customers can understand your value
As you choose the right imagery for your landing page, consider your brand messaging. What do you want visitors to know about your company and what it stands for? This will help guide the images you choose.
For example, take a look at this example from Victoria University, an online university, and how they layout their landing page for their VU Master of Nursing Online. The images on their site reflect a diverse student population who are happy about their chosen career paths. They have also chosen pictures of on-the-job nurses to reflect that their degree program is for people looking to advance their nursing careers.
Notice how all the images connect to the purpose of the landing page, which is to encourage visitors to sign up to receive more information about this online degree program. When choosing imagery for your site, always consider the tone you wish to communicate and use pictures relevant to your messaging and industry.
You should also choose graphics that reflect your target audience. Your customers want to see themselves using your products or services, so using imagery that supports that is invaluable for boosting your conversion rate.
Instruct your website visitors with strong calls to action
A call to action, or CTA, is a prompt on your landing page that directs the visitor to take the action you want them to. It can help boost your page’s conversion rate because it takes the guesswork out of moving forward with your company.
Your CTA buttons should stand out from the rest of your design elements and be clickable. Also, use language that creates a sense of urgency and uses strong, directive verbs that encourage action.
Look at this example from the food delivery service Uber Eats. Their CTA button contrasts well against the background of their landing page and uses direct, clear language to communicate what the visitor should do next.
Notice how the simple page design allows the black call to action button to stand out and capture the visitor’s eye. There is no question what the next step is to find what they need.
Your CTAs are what inspire your users to convert. Make sure they stand out and are easy to find among your landing page design elements. Choose verbs that push the visitor towards the desired action and get them to convert.
Keep your landing page design clean and simple
No one likes clutter, especially on a website. You must keep the design of your landing page simple. You don’t want to risk people getting distracted or feeling overwhelmed, so it’s best to just stick with providing the essential information and page features.
A simplified landing page will also help to keep your page load speed high, which means users with different internet speeds will be able to load your page in no time, reducing the risk of them bouncing to another page without converting.
Identify the elements that are essential for conversion. These could be a form, a header, a CTA button, and an engaging image, for instance. Include plenty of “white space” for visual rest and organization, too. Then design your landing page logically to allow the visitor to see nothing but the desired action.
For example, here is a landing page of Duolingo, an online language education website. There is no question about how users can sign up for the program between the singular image, the engaging header, and the easy-to-spot CTA buttons. Their simple design also makes it easy for non-native English speakers to change the language, increasing the site’s accessibility.
When designing your landing pages, think about what matters. Choose a simple color palette to tie all of your page elements together and leave plenty of room for these elements to stand out to optimize your landing page for conversions.
Summary
Every landing page offers a chance to wow your potential customers. A high-converting landing page is where all your digital marketing and business efforts come to life. It’s where your customers click, convert, and boost your revenue.
Take the time to identify your audience’s needs and how your landing page can reflect them. Then, use these steps to create high-converting landing pages that increase web traffic and your ROI.
Looking for more helpful articles? Check out more business articles from LiveWin for lots of useful information you can use to improve your business.
Author bio & headshot:
Adam Steele is the COO at Loganix, an SEO fulfillment partner for agencies and marketers. We build easy-to-use SEO services that help businesses scale. If you liked this article, please check out our SEO guides and templates on the Loganix blog.