If you put in all the time, effort, and money involved in creating a landing page but are seeing little to no conversions, don’t fear. What you need to do is optimize your landing page to boost your conversion rates.
Luckily, there are some easy, actionable steps you can take right now to make better landing pages. Before we jump into that, however, let’s first take a look at some reasons why your landing page might not be getting you the results you want.
Reasons why your landing page isn’t converting
Perhaps your landing page isn’t converting the way you want because you haven’t been clear about the kind of conversions you want to see.
Internally, make sure the goal for a particular landing page is clear. Do you want sign-ups to a webinar? People to opt-in to your newsletter through a free checklist or whitepaper?
Another reason your landing page might need some work is some issues on overall design, including landing page elements and copy that could be doing a lot more to convert visitors to more leads or leads to customers.
We’ll tackle exactly how to optimize your landing pages with better design and copy elements in the next section. For now, be sure you’ve already optimized for the following:
Having a clear goal for each landing page that you will be turning into your page’s CTA for visitors.
Making sure your website speeds are up to par – several reports have found that if your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, then chances are these people will be leaving your site before even seeing what you can offer.
Once you’ve settled on the things above, you can now move on to fixing your landing pages themselves.
Follow along these 7 tips to optimize your landing page’s conversion rates.
7 optimization strategies to increase landing page conversions
Understand who you’re targeting
It’s needless to say that your website will receive different kinds of visitors. In fact, your offers might even cater to a wider market – say how an e-commerce store can target both men and women shoppers.
Whether or not this is the case for you, it’s important to understand the target viewer of your landing page. A buyer persona can help you do this just fine.
The reason you’ll want to have a buyer persona ready is so you can get into the minds of your ideal customers exactly where they might be in their customer journey. So, say, if you’re looking to turn marketing professionals into leads for your online consulting business, you can see exactly what their frustrations are.
From there, you can brainstorm on different opt-in incentives for them to sign up to your list, creating a high-converting landing page that shows them an offer on how you can help them with some kind of short-term or immediate solution.
This could be a free consultation call for their business, or a whitepaper with valuable insights for people in their industry.
See below for an example of a well-crafted buyer persona by a company who perhaps is offering a project management software for busy entrepreneurs.
Source: Alexa Blog
Capitalize on the above-the-fold part of your landing page
The above-the-fold section of your landing page is basically the section users first see when your page loads.
An illustration of “above the fold” section on pages. (Source: Wordstream)
Be it on mobile or desktop, make sure that every important conversion element is seen the moment someone lands on your page.
This is because your landing page needs to make it as easy as possible for your site visitors to take a desired action. If your user has to scroll down a wall of text and images before finding a sign-up form or button, for example, you can expect that they’ll be leaving your page in a heartbeat.
If you suspect that your landing page is guilty of having your most important elements below-the-fold, here’s how you can fix it:
Put your headline at the top of the page so visitors can see your exact offer immediately
If necessary, provide a photo of the offer (mockups of free eBooks and reports, or screenshots of presentations and infographics)
Have either a CTA button or your sign-up form above the fold below the offer or headline
Create headlines that trigger your visitor’s emotions
When it comes to copywriting, there’s a difference between good copywriting and great copywriting.
Good copywriting can probably tell your audience what to expect from you and might get a few conversions.
Great copywriting, however, can show key benefits and transformations that your visitors are dying to see, letting them take action on your landing page without a moment’s hesitation.
Some of the greatest headlines on the internet are emotion-based headlines. What this means is that, instead of simply telling a prospect what the offer is, these headlines elicit some kind of emotion that entices visitors to keep reading and even sign-up for that offer.
See the difference between the following, for example.
Non-emotional headline: Check out this project management software tool for all marketers and businessmen!
Emotional headline: Tired of never keeping up with all those projects?
The first headline tells readers that you’re pitching a project management tool. While this might be exactly what they’re looking for, the headline doesn’t excite them or promise a transformative solution for their problem.
The second headline, on the other hand, triggers emotions like feeling in control and at ease. As the reader skims through the rest of the landing page, they can learn more about how this project management tool can specifically help them keep up with those projects that are making them so overwhelmed.
You can also employ more high-converting, persuasive copywriting techniques, including the AIDA formula, bucket brigades, and more.
Share your offer in the form of a story
Jumping off from the previous example, a relatable story can be just the writing trick you need to get visitors to trust your offer.
Adding even a short section about yourself, outlining how perhaps you were once in your visitor’s shoes, can improve conversion rates drastically.
It doesn’t even have to be your story. You can even narrate the story of the reader that goes through their pain points and frustrations to the solutions and benefits they can get from your offer.
Example of storytelling highlighting some key frustrations in contracting furniture suppliers. (Source: Crazy Egg)
Add a video
Video can do wonders for either establishing a human connection with audiences or illustrating your offer as easily as possible.
With the first use case, a real person going in front of the camera to tell people what your offer is can help them see that real human beings are behind the offer. This can establish trust right away, helping boost your conversion rates in the long-run.
Example of a personal video on a sales page for an online course. (Source: Active Growth)
For the second use case, a video might quickly show visitors your offer, usually in the form of a “how it works” video.
Take ConvertKit’s homepage, for example, that shows you a quick 2-minute demo explaining how their service works.
Source: ConvertKit
Include testimonials and trust indicators
There are some compelling studies about displaying testimonials on your landing page. For example, 92% of consumers read online reviews while 88% trust online recommendations as much as they do personal ones.
To really increase your landing page’s conversion rates, consider getting customer testimonials to showcase on your page.
You can also add other trust indicators on your landing page. Some trust indicators can include:
Guarantee badges (e.g. “30-day money-back guarantee”)
Verified partner/affiliate badge
Secure payment badges (from Paypal and the like)
As Seen On sections
See how Golpa, a dental company, takes testimonials one step further by letting visitors consult with a real customer for their experience with the service.
Source: G4 by Golpa
This adds even more layers of trust because interested prospects can chat with a previous customer and answer their questions personally. By letting old customers help new customers, you’ll find that your conversion rates will be better than ever.
Apply the “Less is more” principle
Last but not least, a high-converting landing page doesn’t overdo it.
Focus on only the most essential elements you need to get visitors to convert.
Over time, you might find that landing pages that require more effort or commitment – say booking discovery calls or making a purchase – might require more elements to build trust and credibility than, say, a simple opt-in offer simply asking for an email address.
Some more best practices include limiting distracting images or GIFs, using minimal backgrounds, maximizing negative space, etc.
As a simple test for your landing page’s clarity, ask somebody to look at the landing page for a few seconds before asking them what they thought the page was about.
If they can correctly tell you what the offer on your page was after a few seconds’ glance, then your page is in the clear. If not, keep tweaking until your landing page is easy to understand, skim, and go through.
Key Takeaways
You don’t have to spend valuable time and resources figuring out why your landing pages aren’t converting. By following the strategies above – using better headlines, creating better copy, and adding different trust-building elements to your page – you can easily optimize your landing pages and enjoy better conversion rates.
Kevin helps founders and influencers implement growth marketing campaigns to increase their qualified inbound leads.
