1. Don’t distract or confuse your audience

A well-designed landing page simply tells your visitor where to look to get the crucial information they need to make an informed decision, and where to click/sign-up.

If you have extra banners, sidebars, adverts and links then you’re just pulling the audience’s attention away from where you want them to look.

Remove the navigation bar, remove the hyperlink from your logo (don’t give them anywhere else to go!), remove any widgets and unnecessary links.

Also, avoid video or slider backgrounds – it’s just more unnecessary distraction.

How much copy have you used?  How far down the sales funnel are your visitors?  If they already had the information they needed, which made them click through, then you don’t need to give it to them again!

In some circumstances, it will be necessary to but try to keep it to the minimum – you don’t want them to get overwhelmed with information, or worse – bored!

2. Form dilemmas

Creating the perfect form is never easy for a marketer – we don’t want to overwhelm our audience with too many questions, but then we don’t want to skip on any information that we may need down the line, so what do we do?

Try using an interactive form – one or two questions at a time per page should be enough not to scare them away!

You surely know what it’s like – you’re ready to sign up to something, and then see a list of questions, from age to pants size, and you click off.  Well, don’t make the same mistake with your audience!

3. The fear of time

A bit like with email marketing subject lines, you are a lot more likely to get more conversions if you add some urgency to the landing page.

You know, like when you’re looking to book a flight or hotel, and are told that your favourite one with the lowest rate has only 3 seats left…

This is actually a great tactic psychologically and whether you agree or not, I would bet that it’s also worked on you once or twice (I know it has with me!). 

Just don’t patronise your user with an obviously fake urgency…they’ll see through it!

4. Motivation vs Ability

This is one that works both ways, but if you can meet both criteria you’ll be laughing!

The easier it is to complete a form, the more motivated a user will be to do it (“Just 2 questions?  Why not!”).

At the same time, if the benefit of what you are offering is equally amazing, then you can get away with asking more questions, as the user is already motivated, so they are willing to have to try a bit harder to submit said form.

The fact is, if you can tick both boxes, then you’re guaranteed a much higher conversion rate.  Find out what it is that really motivates your customer, and decide what information you really need from them at that stage – you can always ask more questions later, by which point you’ve already hooked them in 😉

5. CTA? Try adding some value

What a lot of people seem to forget, is that the button you want your audience to click holds emotional value.  Without that simple action being taken, no lead!  No conversion!

So, make them want to click it!

Forget “Submit”, how are you helping them with your offer?  What are you offering them?  What problem are you solving for them?

Try “Get my free eBook” instead of “Sign Up” – it’s a direct fact, it backs up what you are promising, and guaranteed, your lead is more likely to click on it.

6. Cater for every audience

So back to that interactive form option, has it occurred to you to have multiple landing pages after they have completed the form?

Try using some of the information you collect to direct your customers through to a different landing page – what industry do they work in?  Are they male or female?  You can direct them to different destinations depending on the information which you gather.

This will leave your audience feeling even more so that what you have to offer is right for them!

7. Give your users what THEY want

Are you talking to your customer or talking at them?

Nobody likes a talking suit.

Use more personal language like “you”, “your”, “us”, “we” – it will make your customer feel like you are talking directly to them even if they don’t realise it.  One of the oldest sales tricks in the book!

8. Don’t just tell them, prove it!

A good landing page should contain some Social proof.  Perhaps a mixture of both Industry and Individual Proof.

Has there been a press release for your product or service?  Do you have any testimonials from Industry experts or previous clients?

Show it, it’s undeniable proof of the value that you are offering!

9. Proof, proof and proof! Not the Social kind…

Have you ever read something with a spelling mistake and instantly been put off?  Then you know!  I’ve even seen it in Newspapers and I find it horrifying that something to that level can contain such mistakes, but it doesn’t mean you should be able to get away with it!

There are a million tools out there, from Word Spellchecker to Grammarly, or heck even hire someone to proof it for you.

Sometimes you need a fresh set of eyes after working on something, but whichever you choose, just make sure you do it right!

10. Mindread like a salesman

If you’ve ever worked in sales, you’ll know that the best way to close a deal is by pre-empting your prospects’ objections and resolving them before they even get time to question them.

Think of a landing page in the same way.  You won’t be there to resolve any objections, so don’t leave any doubt in your visitors’ minds.

What questions might they by asking?

Make a list and ensure that you’ve covered every point on that page (without overwhelming them with information of course!).  You may be best to ask a few different people for their opinions; did they have any questions you hadn’t thought of? 

People are different so what you think your customer wants to know isn’t necessarily going to be what you THINK they want to know.