How to Design Better Landing Pages that Convert:

source https://www.shopify.com/blog/landing-page-design

If you send great traffic to poor landing pages, all the money you spend on paid advertising will be wasted. A person who has never had a positive experience with your company because of a poorly designed or confusing landing page might never return. This means that you are spending money to attract potential customers to your products only to end up with no prospects.

Even the biggest businesses can have a bad landing page. It’s not a rare problem. However, we can fix it by creating landing pages that reflect your target audience.

The elements of landing page design are the visual and written elements that make up a website designed to convert new customers or encourage repeat purchases. Three of the pillars that make a landing page design compelling are simplicity in layout, benefit-driven copy and high-quality product photos.

Meet the experts

To help you create landing pages that sell, we have gathered a marketing expert and a director of conversion agencies, as well as a conversion research specialist and a landingpage consultant.

• Ezra Firestone is the founder of Smart Marketer, and also co-founder and CEO of BOOM By Cindy Joseph. Ezra developed the landing page through experimentation and testing using BOOM’s Shopify store’s product pages. His digital marketing expertise is a result of his personal experience. This knowledge informs the courses at Smart Marketer.
• Ben Ben, Managing Director/CRO&Experimentation at Speeroby CXL: Ben, is a skilled researcher who is also an expert in conversion optimization. His experience is supported by more than 10 years of Academia.
• Michael Aagaard , Former Senior Conversion Optimizer at Unbounce Michael has been involved in conversion optimization since 2008. He is an expert on conversion research and uses the results of real trials and errors to support his recommendations.
• Nik Sharma, CEO at Sharma Brands: Nik helped to generate more than $100 million in online revenues. Sharma Brands employs strategic initiatives to increase digital revenue for their clients’ businesses. To inform this article, we drew on his insights regarding landing pages.

You can build landing pages that are specific to your audience’s needs

Although we share templates for landing page designs that convert better, they are meant to be a starting point and based on the needs of your target audience.

Michael says that conversion research is a crucial part of creating landing pages that are successful. Conversion Research typically involves user testing, analyzing web traffic sources, and surveys.

Michael says that people often forget that landing pages are a part of a larger user journey. Michael says that people often forget that the landing page is a part of a larger user journey. The landing page is only one factor that influences the user’s decision making process. Other factors include ad source, device, awareness level, and motivation. These aspects will help you make better decisions and create landing pages that convert more users.

One element of CRO research is to analyze traffic and device sources

One way to start your conversion research is to create a landing page that is based on the device that someone shops with. Google Analytics can be a great tool to discover where your traffic is coming from and what kind of device they shop on.

Optimize your landing pages to make your site mobile-friendly if most of your customers visit your website from a mobile device. If you discover that desktop is the preferred platform for your customers, you can create a landing page that enhances desktop experience. Nik suggests digging deeper into the traffic to find out what platform they came from.

Nik says, “If you don’t make your pages relevant to the platform from which they originated, your bounce rate will skyrocket while your platform ROAS (return-on-adspend) will stay low.”

This type of contextual listening creates a better customer experience and sets up best practices for greater success.

When best practices are not in context with the business strategy, they fail.

What happens when best practices don’t work?

These tips have proven to be successful for those who have tried them and improved upon them. These design elements should not be implemented without understanding their connection to your overall goals. Ben warns that best practices can fail when they are not in context with the business strategy.

Without context, best practices can fail. Knowing your target audience’s needs and wants is key to building high-converting landing pages.

Michael says, “The more you know your target audience, you can create better landing pages.” Don’t be blinded by new design trends. Instead, ensure you have all the essentials in place, and conduct extensive user research to make informed decisions that affect behavior rather than just changing page layouts.

It is important to note that not all the landing page design ideas listed here will work with your customers. The choice of landing page design depends on the needs and preferences of your target audience. You don’t need to use all the elements to make your business successful.

These are the elements of a captivating landing page design

 

You have caught the eye of a potential customer and now you have a few moments to tell them what makes your brand and products so special. It can be difficult to convey this information in just a few words, images, or even a brief description. This is especially true if the prospect doesn’t know much about your brand.

Performance will depend on many factors such as your target audience and what products you sell. However, keeping the page design simple can help people find the information they need. What is the one thing that you want to be remembered if they don’t take anything else?

A few templates allow you to shine with your copy and images. Ezra refers to ” conversion assets stacking” as the basis of a landing page design.

1. A buy box optimized for conversion (more details below).
2. Amazing product images
3. Video testimonials from customers or photos of your product in action
4. Benefit-driven sales copy
5. Images and copy that communicate your unique selling proposition
6. Customer reviews from real customers
7. Section on why your customer should purchase your product
8. Social proof and media coverage

Here’s an example:

A landing page that you send traffic to can look very similar to a product product page depending on your industry. Or it could be much simpler.

Are there any differences between designing above and below the fold?

Instead of focusing on what is above and below the fold, you should consider the flow of information throughout the page. There’s more to this. This is a brief explanation of the mythical fold in landing page design. It’s why many recommend that you include the most important information at the top.

Most site visitors won’t scroll down

The fold is the area on a webpage that is visible without scrolling. It varies depending on what device is being used, such as a tablet, monitor or mobile device. Screen sizes vary from one model to the next. The fold is 600 pixels away from the top in a browser window.

Your landing page visitors may not scroll beyond the top of the page on mobile or desktop. This stat is quite low. We’ve heard that anywhere from 50% to 85% don’t scroll. Many people recommend that you have two parts to your design strategy. The first is what you put above the fold and the second is what you add after it.

It’s not about the fold; it’s more about information hierarchy

Whatever works best for you customers, you will always need to think carefully about what copy and content you place at the top landing page. Michael points out that trying to squeeze too many content into a single screen can lead to overwhelming the user with too many options.

Michael suggests that marketers should not focus on “over the fold” but rather, Michael recommends that they think more about the information hierarchy and flow of content on landing pages.

Aagaard suggests that you ask the following questions when building your landing pages. One caveat: The answers to these questions will depend on how well you understand your target audience and what role the landing page should play.

• Are you asking the right questions?
• Are you managing expectations? Do you follow up on promises made by the ad source?
• Are you delivering the right content and building momentum towards the conversion goal?

CTA placement is determined by the needs of your audience. This will be determined by testing the placement to determine which placement drives a higher conversion rate.