Landing pages are considered a fine art in web design, but not all of us have the time or budget to find a trusted designer. With that in mind we’ve created a six step best practice guide for creating compelling landing pages…our advice is simple and based on years of experience – you can count on that

1. BEST PRACTICE MINI GUIDE
BE CLEAR SERIES
Landing Pages
C RE A TE D BY S IM P LY D I G ITA L M A R KE T IN G

2. BEST PRACTICE MINI GUIDE: LANDING PAGES
INT RO D UC T ION TO DO L I ST
People make a living out of designing 1. Understand your audience
landing pages and in some cases 2. Dig out some ‘impact’ stats
hiring a pro is a sensible thing to do. 3. Source some attractive,
However, if you don't have the meaningful images
budget or time for that, there are 4. Get some client testimonials
some basic essentials that will make 5. Browse the web for some
sure your landing page is working design inspiration…
hard and delivering the conversions
you need.
B E ST P R AC TI C E
Here are my top six basic things you must get right:
1. Traffic Source - First and foremost, make sure (as best you can) that the
people arriving on your landing page are the right audience...especially if
you're paying for the traffic! It doesn't matter how aesthetically pleasing or
optimized your page is, if the wrong people are visiting, it's doomed to fail.
How do you do that? Well, this could be a guide in itself, but the main thing
to do is make sure the ad/link that people click on accurately describes what
you're offering - attracting hits with false promises may make your ad click
through rate impressive, but your conversion rate will be poor and that’s a
false economy.
2. Write a clear headline - Now that YOU know the right people are landing on
your page, THEY need reassurance of that fact too - so wright a clear
headline, re-enforcing to them why they clicked on your ad/link in the first
place.
It doesn't have to be a clever one, but it must be compelling. Adding some
impressive stats never hurts either, so if you can, include something like
"trusted by over X customers worldwide"...you get the point.
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3. BEST PRACTICE MINI GUIDE: LANDING PAGES
3. Add a 'Hero shot' - Combining a clear headline with an attractive image will
help keep people interested - plain text can be boring. Digital communication
lacks 'physical evidence', so images helps make it feel tangible and we all like
that. Images also help build connections, helping your audience feel closer to
your brand/product.
EX AM PL E
I always think that Salesforce do a great job of their landing pages. They have a
clean design and this one is a good example of the steps outlined in this guide.
4. Testimonials - More 'physical evidence' please. Positive customer reviews have
a significant impact on your sales. We all love a recommendation and it gives us
a sense of security when we're making a purchase - so add a short, strong
quote from a customer and if it's a B2B market, a few previous customer logos
never hurt (make sure you have their permission first).
5. Add a strong call to action - The first four point have been about building trust,
this next point is about having a clear and attractive 'call to action' which
prompts your audience to get in touch, make a purchase, submit an inquiry or
any other relevant action. Make is compelling and obvious.
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4. BEST PRACTICE MINI GUIDE: LANDING PAGES
6. Thank you! We all like good manners and Marketing is no different - sending
people to a brief thank you page confirms to them that the action is complete,
allows you to easily track the number of conversions in Google analytics and
gives you another chance to add some 'next steps' e.g. watch this video,
download this other white paper or get in touch with one of our specialists...
You'll notice the one thing I haven't covered is the page layout, which is a subject
that sparks hot debate within the competitive circles of web designers. Most
designers agree that you should keep the main call to action 'above the fold' i.e. so
it can be seen without scrolling down the page. I pretty much agree with that, but
in my opinion the main thing is how your page flows and leads a person to the
point of getting in touch...
So I'm going to leave the designers to do what they do best, but in my experience if
you get these six things right, you've done the important parts (as long as your
page doesn't look like a complete mess!).
Besides, you can always browse the web for some inspiration…
KEEP UP TO DATE
We hope you found this best practice mini guide useful. Please visit us again for
more insights, guides and templates and if you have any requests, please get in
touch.
Find us at:
SimplyDigitalMarketing .com
@SimplyDigiM and @FollowSDM
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LinkedIN.com/Company/Simply-Digital-Marketing
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