5 Hacks to Improve Your Landing Page Conversion Rates
May 2, 2022
Published by: Jimmy Rodriguez
In digital marketing, landing pages are vital in lead conversion. They are the web pages people see after clicking a marketing link and have a single and focused purpose – to turn visitors into leads.
Ideally, there should be a strong correlation between increased traffic to your landing page and conversion rates, but this doesn’t always happen. One reason for this is you’re not reaching your target audience. Using tools for outreach will help you identify the correct audience for your marketing campaign.
Many landing pages have low conversion rates because they simply aren’t optimized for conversion. The average landing page has a 4.02% conversion rate, but you can get better results by optimizing your landing pages.
This article highlights the likely culprits of low conversion and shares the hacks all high-converting landing pages use to increase their median conversion rate.
1. Change your CTA button
The call to action (CTA) is the most important element of landing page design. It’s what gets visitors to complete your desired action. As such, your CTA button needs to be placed on the right spot on the page and stand out from the rest of the page content. Your landing page conversion rates may be low because your CTA is either hidden in plain sight or unconvincing.
Contrasting the button color of your CTA button makes it visually pop out from the background color of the landing page. Additionally, enlarging or moving it higher up on the page will make it stand out from the rest of the page.
The text of the CTA is crucial. Don’t be coy or clever. Be obvious and upfront.
The CTA copy “Join for Free Download”, for example, clearly states what the visitor is expected to do and what they can expect in return. On the other hand, using “Free Download” and then asking for the user’s contact information will make the user think twice about pushing through.
In addition, the number of CTAs also affects conversion rates. A study by Unbounce found that focusing visitors’ attention on one direct CTA led to higher landing page conversion rates than landing pages with multiple CTAs.
Source: Webprofits.com
The CTA above from Webprofits isn’t prominent, but the red against the black and white attracts the visitor’s eye. With a straightforward CTA, there is no ambiguity about what the visitor should do. A/B testing on a page like this may add an underline to the CTA, bold or larger text or a more traditional button design.
Don't forget, if you're allowing search engines to crawl your landing pages (in many cases you should), having a great SEO plan can help you execute your conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategy.
2. Make a strong first impression
It takes people no more than a couple of seconds to decide whether to continue on your landing page or leave. In this limited time, you need to make a solid first impression.
Focus is the key to creating a strong first impression. It’s tempting to throw everything you’ve got at visitors, but landing pages with a lot going on distract visitors. Minimal web design focuses all the elements of your landing page on the desired action.
Loading speed
Landing page load speed can make or break your landing page conversion rate even before visitors learn what you have to offer. Web pages with a load time of more than four seconds lose up to 53% of visitors.
Layout
Keep the important elements of your landing page above the point (also known as the “fold”) where users must scroll to get more information. This point is different for mobile devices. With people accessing the internet from their mobile devices, you also need to optimize your landing page for mobile devices.
Headline
Your landing page headline needs to be bold to catch visitors’ attention and interesting enough to keep them reading. The best way to do this is to turn your prospective customer’s goal into a headline. They will know right away that you have what they are looking for.
Images & videos
Visual content isn’t just appealing to the eye. Using the right images and videos can also improve your landing page conversion rate. One study involving 1,000 landing pages found that those with high-quality images were more likely to have 30% conversion rates or higher. However, your images should complement the CTA rather than compete with it for that to happen.
Simple is best. For visual continuity in your brand, use the same design principles you used to create your e-commerce website in the design of your landing page. Your landing page doesn’t need to be flamboyant. It just needs to be effective
Source: Wix.com
This Wix landing page is a great example of simplicity in landing page design. The headline and CTA are above the scroll point, the headline is bold and straightforward, and the image is bright but not distracting. The visual elements also complement the text – the peak of the mountain illustration points up to the CTA.
3. Reduce fields in the lead capture form
The goal of your landing page is to get the users to share their contact information. The lead capture form is what is used to collect customers’ information.
People are increasingly sensitive about the information they share online. They are easily turned off by forms that ask for unnecessary information or submission forms that take too long to fill. To improve your chances of sealing the deal, reduce the fields in your lead capture form.
Optimizing your forms in this way will undoubtedly increase conversion rates. But you also want to increase the quality of leads. Using a multi-step lead form will help you achieve this.
Breaking up the lead capture form is less overwhelming for visitors and leads to 87% higher conversion rates. Multi-Step forms are effective because people are more likely to complete the form once they’ve committed to the first step.
After the lead capture form is submitted, send a follow-up email. Effective follow-up emails are powerful customer retention tools that encourage repeat business. If they are not part of your email marketing campaign efforts, you’re losing sales every day.
4. Include customer testimonials
These days, people look to customer reviews more than product or service details when deciding whether or not to make a purchase–particularly when comparing options from more than one brand. Adding customer testimonials to your landing page will improve your conversion rate because they’re social proof that your product works as advertised.
There are various ways you can incorporate customer testimonials on your landing page:
Videos
Quotes with customer’s name and picture
Company logos
Social media comments
Of the four types of testimonials, video testimonials are the most impactful. However, the time and cost of producing video testimonials may make them prohibitive for many brands. Some customer bases may prefer to leave feedback in one channel over another. Be sure to meet your customers where they are as this will increase the number of reviews you get over time.
In the example above, the landing page uses quotes and company logos to drive home the credibility of the person who supplied the testimonial. As a result, potential customers can see themselves enjoying the same benefits that the testimonial source enjoyed as a result of the product.
5. Add trust badges and guarantees to your page
Data security is a huge concern for online users because of the dire financial and social implications. Studies reveal that up to 18% of consumers do not complete their online checkout because they don’t trust the site.
Customers need to know that the information they share with you is safe and secure. If they feel otherwise, they will choose to leave instead. Therefore, building trust is crucial to your landing page conversion rates and is also key to maintaining the credibility of your brand.
There are different badges and guarantees you can add to your landing page:
Security badge
Third-party endorsement badge
Money-back guarantee
Payment security badge
Trust badges and guarantees are ways to put prospective visitors at ease, particularly if they are unfamiliar with your brand. Displaying a money-back guarantee or third-party endorsement removes that last bit of reservation they may have.
After placing trust badges on pages for the first time, be sure to see how this impacts scroll depth and clicks with your CRO toolkit.
Source: Bluefountain Media
Badges and guarantees can be placed anywhere on the landing page. However, for the most impact, you should place your guarantees with product details and trust badges where you ask for personal information.
In Closing
Many landing pages fail to convert visitors to leads for two reasons: either they aren’t marketed to their target audiences or they aren’t attractive. Unrecognizable CTAs, ambiguous headlines, and distracting page designs all ensure visitors leave your landing page without knowing what you have to offer.
Creating the perfect landing page is a process. You won’t get it right from the start. Developing a landing page strategy that includes these five hacks will make your landing page experience better for users. This, in turn, improves your landing page optimization and increases your average conversion rate.
It's not just more visitors you want but more of the right visitors. Even the perfectly optimized landing page won’t convert if the target audience isn’t seeing it.
