9 Must-Have Elements for Landing Pages That Convert

If you have a landing page, you obviously want it to boost your conversion rate. Whether you’re giving away a free e-book or selling a product, the goal is to get the customer to the next step. There are some elements that your landing page needs to have to help with your conversion goals. Here are nine must-haves for landing pages that convert:

1. Unique Selling Proposition

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What about your product is going to excite your customers? Ask yourself, why should they buy from you? Your unique selling proposition, or USP, is the most important part of your landing page. What sets you apart from your competition? Make this the most prominent element of the landing page with an easily identifiable message. So, what exactly is in a valuable USP?

Consider a header that tells your customers what they’re getting. You want to quickly and efficiently let them know the selling point of your product. In many cases, the USP is also a company’s slogan.

2. Logo

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It’s important to have your company’s logo directly on your landing page. This is most important if you have a variety of landing pages. You want to make sure that your company’s brand is recognizable. The best way to do this is with a good, solid logo. In addition to helping your brand become recognizable, a logo helps your site seem more trustworthy. A website without a logo is like selling watches from a trench coat. You may be legit, but your customer will never see it that way.

3. Information Capture

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Somewhere on your site, you need to make sure you have a form that visitors can fill out. This form is one of the most important things on your landing page. It is a means of information capture, and will help your conversions significantly. Make sure it’s in an obvious and prominent place on your site.

In addition, there are a few ways that you can go about getting the information you want from your customers. You can simply have an available form, without any further incentives or pushes or you can offer your customers an incentive for filling in their information, such as a coupon. Another option is to have a pop-up on the site, asking them for more information.

4. Images

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If you don’t have high quality images on your site, users won’t stay long. When people are online, they are easily distracted. The likelihood that they’re going to read through a ton of text, unless they’re already intrigued by your product, is slim to none. Consider having images of your products, emotional images, or graphics illustrating any incentives you have going, such as free shipping. All of these will help convert visitors to buying customers. Be sure to use optimal image formats for the size, as we don’t want to slow the site down with large files.

5. A Strong Call to Action

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Most landing pages have a call to action. Converting pages have a strong call to action. What’s the difference? It’s subtle, but crucial. Instead of having a call to action that simply says “Buy” have one that says “Buy Now!” Adding a sense of urgency sends subtle psychological clues to your site’s visitors, telling them they must buy your product immediately, rather than wait until later.

6. Homepage Testimonials

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People don’t want to buy products or use services that haven’t been tried and tested by others. For that reason, it’s incredibly important that you have testimonials on your landing page. Use short or as long testimonials; however, make sure that they are easily readable. Additionally, only use comments that are believable. If you must use staged testimonials, don’t overstate. A testimonial that claims your product cures cancer could land you in a lot of trouble.

7. Great Site Design

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One thing that your site is in desperate need of is a great design. Many landing pages end up looking cluttered and obnoxious. If you want your landing page to stand out to your customers, you need to make sure the design pops. This includes a variety of elements, from the color scheme and typography to the navigation and actual layout of the page.

Remember, if the site doesn’t look good, people will leave long before they get anywhere near converting. Having a great layout and design can help ensure that your page converts. Not everyone with a landing page has the knowledge or skill to create great design, however. If you’re unable to do it, consider getting a professional landing page designer. It’s worth the cost. However, be sure to test this – we’ve seen some buckets of traffic that prefer ugly sites to shiny sites.

8. Amazing Copy

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Your copy must be intelligent, free of errors, and interesting. If it’s not, you’re going to have problems with your conversions. People want to read things that are interesting. They don’t want to have to try to figure out what you’re saying as they read it. And they don’t want to try to get through a bunch of nonsense to get to the meat of what you’re trying to say. So make sure your copy reads well. Consider having a professional editor (or even a friend with an English degree) go through it to make sure that there are no spelling or grammar mistakes.

9. Social Networking Buttons

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If you really want to get the most out of your landing page, you need to make sure that your customers are able to share your page with their friends and family as easily as possible. This is simple. All you have to do is make sure that you have buttons on your site that allow visitors to share your page on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and more. Allow them to share in as many ways as possible. This will ensure that your site gets out to more people, offering you more opportunities for conversions.

Landing pages should be simple. However, they also need to have the basic information that a customer needs to make their purchasing decision. On top of that, your site should keep your customer’s attention and capture their information. If you do all this, you’ll start getting great conversions in no time.

By Jon Correll