Landing pages offer a highly effective tool for your digital marketing campaigns, making it easier to trigger specific actions that you want your audience to take. Most commonly used for email marketing, landing pages can also help drive downloads or point people towards specific pages of your website.

The goal of landing page could be anything from getting people to complete a purchase to encouraging people to subscribe to a mailing list in order to download a free product, such as an ebook or worksheet, for example. They can also be used to get people to update or change email preferences, gather additional information through a survey or form or lead people towards a mailing list.

To be truly effective as part of your digital marketing campaigns, your landing page should ideally answer the following questions within the first few seconds of arriving on the page:

• What is the offer?
• What can your audience gain from the offer?
• Is the office time sensitive?
• How will your audience receive the offer?

Over and beyond addressing these points, there are a number of things to take into account in order to develop landing pages that are optimised and designed to convert. Keep reading to find out how you can take your landing pages to a whole new level, making them an essential asset to your digital marketing arsenal.

Optimising Your Digital Marketing Landing Pages

Some of the top best practices to keep in mind when creating landing pages for your digital marketing campaigns include the following:

‍Pages should gain reader attention in three seconds or less

‍It is best to keep the three second scan rule in mind. It takes as little as this for attention to be lost. If you are not able to get and keep attention in a few seconds, you will likely not get people to scroll down the page, let alone complete any action. Make sure that your page is designed to capture attention instantly. It is also important that pages load quickly and easily, without annoying lags or waits.

‍Pages should focus on one single action

‍Landing pages are made to focus on a single action rather than a number of actions. Decide what you want to achieve on the page – purchasing a product, signing up for email, clicking to another page or completing some other action. Regardless of the action, make sure that you do not confuse or distract by offering any other actions or steps. Stick to one promotion per landing page, keep navigation simple, and avoid anything that gets people off the page. You may want to disable your sidebar for your landing page and remove any other distractions that could take away focus.

‍Pages should contain short, simple forms

‍You also want to keep your forms simple and easy to complete. Remember that the more steps required, the less likely people will be to complete forms. Whether you are prompting people to join your email list, completing a survey, signing up for something or performing any other action, keep forms down to the basics, with name, email and only the information that you cannot do without. The more information you request, the more likely people will be to complete the entire form. You can always get further information at a later stage.

‍Pages must have compelling CTAs

‍You will also need very clear calls to action that are compelling and strong. Landing pages do not have spam filters, so you have a bit more leeway here compared to email CTAs. That does not mean getting carried away – simple, strong calls such as 'buy now', 'sign-up', 'join for free', and even 'click here' can all do the trick. Don't make room for any question or doubt on what you want your readers to do. With that said, if your tests show that a softer approach works better, you could try something such as 'learn more' over 'buy now'. This is why testing is so important in digital marketing campaigns.

‍Pages should be designed for easy scanning

‍That means minimal distractions, plenty of open space, clear graphics, no sidebar, plenty of bullets, easy to reach paragraphs, no large chunks of text, no tiny fonts that are hard to read, and nothing that could distract people away from your offer. Make sure that the page has no ads, either. The cleaner the page, the higher the chance of conversion.

‍Pages should have important information above the fold

‍It is also essential to keep the most important information above the fold. When people land on a page, they need to find exactly what they are looking for without having to scroll down the page. This applies to email as well as landing pages. On a website page, you have a bit more room to work with, as the above the fold area is everything that appears on the monitor in a standard web browser. Keep images small or place them further down the page. Make sure that you have an opt-in form high on the page and keep your headers compelling and easy to read. Keep your CTAs above the fold as well.

‍Pages should feature clear, bold buttons

You also want to test your buttons, too. On a landing page, you will have a lot more room for design elements such as buttons. You'd be amazed how much difference button sizes, colours and text can make to conversion. Be sure to test these carefully so that you choose buttons that are easy to read, large in size, and easy to see. The more 'clickable' your buttons seem, the higher the chance that people will, in fact, click the buttons.

‍Pages should build trust.

‍This page should never make people doubt, worry or feel unsure in any way. Quite the opposite, in fact. Instead, you want people to feel trust right from the moment they arrive on the page. Remember that there is a good chance that the person arriving on your landing page is a completely new customer who may not know your business at all. If you are collecting email addresses, show proof that you belong to anti-piracy organisations and any other trust certification bodies. Include a link to your terms, make sure people know that they can easily opt-out, and do not at any point lie or omit any information.

‍Pages should be tested frequently and thoroughly

‍It goes without saying that regular, careful testing is vital for any digital marketing campaign. For landing pages, testing is especially important, helping you fine-tune the page according to your audience's response. It's easy to guess what to add, but without testing, you will not be able to plan your page according to real-time, relevant feedback from your target audience.

Looking for help crafting powerful landing pages for your digital marketing campaigns? Get in touch with our team today and let's chat. Grapevine provides a host of professional services that help you take your digital marketing efforts to the next level.