BEST PRACTICE MINI GUIDE

BE CLEAR SERIES

Landing Pages

CREA TED BY S IMPLY D IG ITA L MA RKETING

BEST PRACTICE MINI GUIDE: LANDING PAGES

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Copyright © by Simply Digital Marketing 2013.

TO DO L IST

1. Understand your audience

2. Dig out some ‘impact’ stats

3. Source some attractive,

meaningful images

4. Get some client testimonials

5. Browse the web for some

design inspiration…

INTRODUCTION

People make a living out of designing

landing pages and in some cases

hiring a pro is a sensible thing to do.

However, if you don't have the

budget or time for that, there are

some basic essentials that will make

sure your landing page is working

hard and delivering the conversions

you need.

BEST PRACTICE

Here are my top six basic things you must get right:

1. Traffic Source - First and foremost, make sure (as best you can) that the

people arriving on your landing page are the right audience...especially if

you're paying for the traffic! It doesn't matter how aesthetically pleasing or

optimized your page is, if the wrong people are visiting, it's doomed to fail.

How do you do that? Well, this could be a guide in itself, but the main thing

to do is make sure the ad/link that people click on accurately describes what

you're offering - attracting hits with false promises may make your ad click

through rate impressive, but your conversion rate will be poor and that’s a

false economy.

2. Write a clear headline - Now that YOU know the right people are landing on

your page, THEY need reassurance of that fact too - so wright a clear

headline, re-enforcing to them why they clicked on your ad/link in the first

place.

It doesn't have to be a clever one, but it must be compelling. Adding some

impressive stats never hurts either, so if you can, include something like

"trusted by over X customers worldwide"...you get the point.

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3. Add a 'Hero shot' - Combining a clear headline with an attractive image will

help keep people interested - plain text can be boring. Digital communication

lacks 'physical evidence', so images helps make it feel tangible and we all like

that. Images also help build connections, helping your audience feel closer to

your brand/product.

EXAMPLE

I always think that Salesforce do a great job of their landing pages. They have a

clean design and this one is a good example of the steps outlined in this guide.

4. Testimonials - More 'physical evidence' please. Positive customer reviews have

a significant impact on your sales. We all love a recommendation and it gives us

a sense of security when we're making a purchase - so add a short, strong

quote from a customer and if it's a B2B market, a few previous customer logos

never hurt (make sure you have their permission first).

5. Add a strong call to action - The first four point have been about building trust,

this next point is about having a clear and attractive 'call to action' which

prompts your audience to get in touch, make a purchase, submit an inquiry or

any other relevant action. Make is compelling and obvious.

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Copyright © by Simply Digital Marketing 2013.

6. Thank you! We all like good manners and Marketing is no different - sending

people to a brief thank you page confirms to them that the action is complete,

allows you to easily track the number of conversions in Google analytics and

gives you another chance to add some 'next steps' e.g. watch this video,

download this other white paper or get in touch with one of our specialists...

You'll notice the one thing I haven't covered is the page layout, which is a subject

that sparks hot debate within the competitive circles of web designers. Most

designers agree that you should keep the main call to action 'above the fold' i.e. so

it can be seen without scrolling down the page. I pretty much agree with that, but

in my opinion the main thing is how your page flows and leads a person to the

point of getting in touch...

So I'm going to leave the designers to do what they do best, but in my experience if

you get these six things right, you've done the important parts (as long as your

page doesn't look like a complete mess!).

Besides, you can always browse the web for some inspiration…

K E E P U P T O D A T E

We hope you found this best practice mini guide useful. Please visit us again for

more insights, guides and templates and if you have any requests, please get in

touch.

Find us at:

SimplyDigitalMarketing .com

@SimplyDigiM and @FollowSDM

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