landing page Archives - locally.co.uk domain for sale

The online world is full of links, all competing to grab the attention of the thousands of passing eye balls per hour; some will blink and stay long enough to engage/buy/sell/comment/like/share and so on.

Links are all signpost to ‘Somewhere’; some may be pointing at ‘Nowhere’, a land bereft on the vast continent of the Error Page 404 and these too can be a source of frustration and annoyance, Just as you thought you were coming across a lovely place, paradise is ripped out from underneath you and you are left staring at a blank page.

However, there is more of a problem lurking and that is the confusion surrounding what a landing page actually is…

The easiest way to define what IS a landing page is to flip it on its head; a landing page is NOT, as we all like to believe, any old web page that happens to be the place where a user lands.

A landing page is… (fanfare of trumpets please!)

… a webpage that contains a form which has been created to capture a user’s information.

Glad we cleared that up. Now we are all singing from the same hymn sheet, we can battle on with the why we have them, what they should look like and what their value is.

Why bother (or, what is the value of a landing page?)

Online forms are used for all kinds of reasons; subscribing to blogs so you never miss a post, enquiry forms, or transactional information for online purchases etc. You can probably think of many other examples but they all share the same common goal: to initiate an exchange between YOU and the USER.

It is quite simple – the user gives you information and you, in return, provide them with a service,/subscription/and answer to their query etc. giving you chance to ‘convert’ the user from a potential customer to a buying one.

However, this page is not necessarily the page to practice your graphic design skills on, so forget adding YouTube videos and dancing reindeers because, literally there should be nothing to distract the customer from completing the all-important contact form.

Having said that simplicity is the key with no distractions, there are certain components of the landing page design that need to capture the visitor’s interest.

The Header

If you have ever noticed where your eyes fall when you are on the web, you may have realised that they tend to be around the middle to the top of the page. Anything too low down that is important, tends to be missed in the first few valuable seconds that our eyes are drinking it all in.

With this 2 seconds to capture visitor interest, the header of a landing page is quite important; if this is completely uninteresting (and we have all been there!), your user will simply turn away.

Bear in mind HOW your visitor got there…

In some cases, the landing page is accessed through a specific advert that they have found on another site/somewhere else. Hence, their clicking of the advert means that created the right impression in so far that it was attractive and of interest.

Imagine the let-down of arriving on a rubbish landing page…

Your landing page needs to meet with expectations and in this sense, should be an extension of the advert – same font, same colours, all branded and joined together. If it all looks a little bit of a mish-mash, it’s a bit of a disappointment.

Right, this header needs to be colourful and creative, in line with your advert and also be part of your brand.

The Statement

Now that the header is in place as an extension of your advert or at least fully branded to your business, you now need to tell the visitor, clearly, simply and elegantly what it is they are looking at, the purpose of it and what to do.

Also known as a primary call to action, there are loads of examples out there on the Internet – some better than others, we hasten to add.

We saw some great ones the other day…

“Would you like the best in daily updates on xxxxx to your inbox?” – underneath were two boxes, one for your first name, the second for the email address.
“Don’t miss out on the latest news from xxxx” – again followed by the email sign up, as was the same with…
“Get the best offers BEFORE they hit the high street!”
“NEVER miss a blog post again!”
“Can you afford to miss out?”

They all suggest, in their own way, that there is a positive quality to signing up to a newsletter, subscription, blog etc. with some suggesting the negative aspect of not being on the all-important mailing list.

This reverse psychology has been around for many years; after all, by suggesting to someone they could be missing out, or be in the minority has a strong sense of emotional appeal, for some people.

Others of us, of course, think that by subscribing, our inbox will be flooded on a regular basis with rubbish, so be careful not to over egg that pudding.

The Body

An over-complicated landing page has been proven to affect conversion rates that is the number of people who do what it is asking them to do. Once again, simplicity and directness is key with every element supporting the advert, the landing page, the brand, as well as getting them to fil in the form.

Take a look at this one for Basecamp; it has a quite a clever graphic that is actually pointing at the first box, a clear visual signal of what it is you need to do. It’s friendly, non-forceful and there is no need for lengthy scrolling either…

Which indicates that the information they are collecting is what is needed to get your started with their service; if you don’t need to know the person’s age at this point, why ask for a birth date? Really think about the information you need to collect on your landing page – pare it back so that you really do only ask the questions that you need to.

The landing page success

It would seem that the best landing pages are those that are tailored specifically for the brand or website itself; opting for a ‘that’ll do approach’ might not get you the conversion rates you are hoping for.

Do you have a landing page? What do you think it says about your company? Is it successful?

We love posts and articles that make life a little easier especially when it comes to making sure our website is working as hard as possible for us – after all, we have invested time, money and oodles of creativity in it.

You probably feel this same sense of pride in your website but, we need to talk. It seems that landing pages – the page that attracts and converts visitors to customers – are not quite doing the job they should be doing.

The problem with creativity is that sometimes, we are just too close to it to really see what we are creating.

Sounds double-dutch BUT, it means we can’t see the wood for the trees; it is a bit like proof-reading your own article and then re-reading it on the web, months later and realising that you have made huge grammatical gaff in the second paragraph. What will people think?

But before you take the next plane to obscurity, this is a simple error to fix… You need a fresh pair of eyes to take a look at your creative creation. Whether this is reading your article or taking a look at your website for errors and faux paus, you need a pair of eyes that are kind, yet objective…

Know anyone?

It can be difficult, we know and so, out there in Internet Land, is the answer – and we have found it!

You can now assess your landing page using the alphabet (and various other hints and tips!)

The Landing Page – what is it and what should it ‘look’ like?

We are not necessarily talking design when we talk about ‘looks’, but about the content contained here-in the landing page.

This is the page that any prospective customers see when they visit your website and needs, according to a variety of web design experts to contain the following:

Your business’s unique selling point or proposition (also known as USP)

And so, your landing page needs to have a headline, a supporting headline (or tagline), a statement that reinforces what it is you do/offer/sell and a ‘closing argument’.

an appropriate graphic or short video that is directly linked to what you do/offer/sell
recommendations – showing customers how other people have benefitted from what you do/offer/sell
and finally, a call to action – in other words, what customers need to do in order to access what you do/off/sell, such as
- “call us NOW and get 10% off!”,
- “it couldn’t be simpler to order from ABC: fill in the online booking form and return TODAY”

Take a look at – ‘spa LONDON’ https://www.spa-london.org/swisscottage – their landing page tells you it is affordable luxury in the prefect environment, and restores your body and mind. It also tells you to ‘book NOW’!

Hush Hair, Birmingham https://hushhair.com/main/ tells you they are a premier salon, there is 25% off for new clients with selected stylists and that they used on the best styling and dye products (well-known and trusted brands listed), and they are independent, employing only the best hairdressers. Their phone number is prominent, as is their opening times.

The good, the bad and the not-so-good looking ones… we have all come across them, landing pages that tell us nothing, give us the wrong feeling, hence we navigate away to another competitor.

And so, here we look at the best bits of the Landing Page alphabet…

E is for engagement – your landing page needs to be creative, sparking an interest and an intrigue in what it is you do. Does you landing page do that? Could the content do with a re-vamp?

J if for justification – if you making claims on your landing page (and anywhere else on your website), then you need to have the facts to prove it; if you say you are the ‘best at…’ who says? Did you win an award? Beware false claims so try something generic like, ‘one of the leading massage at work companies in…’ etc.

M is for mistakes – check, check and check again for errors. And then get someone else to check. As we pointed out at the start, when you have written or created something yourself, you can become so embroiled in the content, that you cannot ‘see’ the most obvious and glaring of mistakes.

P is for performance – how many times – be honest! – have you logged on to a website only to find that waiting X number of seconds is far too long. Fingers drumming impatiently on the desk will not speed it up and, with a harrumph and sigh, you navigate away. Your landing page needs to load, and load quickly.

Y is for ‘you’ – because you – the writer, author, creator, business owner etc. – are the soul of the whole project but take care with how much you share. When we ring this note of caution, we suggest that you take care with the tone of your landing page. ‘Appropriate’ should be bamboozled across the whole website, not just your landing page…

Established and new websites need to ensure that their landing pages are working as hard as possible, converting browsing customers into paying ones. For the full landing page alphabet, check it out at Copyblogger.

The Value of the Landing Page