How to create a landing page that generates sales-qualified leads for any business

What is a landing page

A landing page is like the airport of your business. It is where a user lands immediately upon entry to your website from 3^rd party sources.i.e. Facebook, Google or other websites. Like it or not, a visitor derives an impression of your entire business from the airport. Based on this impression, the visitor decides whether he is going to do business with you or not. So it has better be up to par! This infographic tells you everything you need to create a world-class landing page. By following the steps laid out here, your visitor will be sold even before meeting you in person!

Top Fold

For a moment, pretend you are not a marketer. Instead, you are a user, a consumer. You go into a page, checking out an offer that caught your attention. You may not have realized, but within split second, your mind scans the page and decides if it is your thing or not. If it’s not, you leave.

The “Top fold” of a landing page is what a user sees at first glance without having to scroll down(applicable to desktop browsing only). It is the most important part of a landing page. If you display a wall of text at the top and keep your trump card at the bottom of the landing page, I guarantee no one will see it. Top fold is precious real estate on your landing page- be very careful what you choose to include here.

The surest way to turn off visitors

There are various ways to display the elements on the top fold but you need to make sure that the essential few must be there: Headline, personalized image/video, form, credibility boosters.

Interest

The job of the Top-fold is to pique the interest of the users and entice them to continue reading to find out more. A strong headline gets the ball rolling.  In fact, only about ¼ of people who read your headline will go on to read the body of your landing page. To have more people interested, your headline has to do these 2 things: promise a benefit and evoke curiosity.  Some marketers go for highly exaggerated headlines(“eat this and achieve immortality”) where we prefer a more editorial-sounding headline with a power words sprinkled on it.

Personalization

Copywriting is my first love and I have seen it work wonders, but I won’t downplay the importance of visuals.  A good landing page strategically blends both elements well. By alternating words and images, your landing page becomes easier to read.

Avoid putting up overused stock photos in your top fold. It implies your company is phoney. It is like giving fake flowers to your other half on valentine’s day. Instead, use real images of your people, office, or product.

Authority

Authority is one of the 6 spheres of persuasion, as told by Dr Robert Cialdini. How do you create authority without being an authority ?  Well, you borrow it. Include logos of partners, media or associations your business is associated with in the top fold, preferably those that are familiar to your audience.  It provides the assurance that your company is not a fly-by-night business but one that is able to deliver on its promise.

Remember, this is likely the first time your visitor is interacting with your company. You need to put the best foot forward to convince your visitors that you are legitimate and established (unless you are not)

Social Proof

Social Proof works kinda like Authority. It serves to provide assurance.

It will scare your visitor to know that they are the first people to buy from you. Social proof tells them that there are other people before them who have tried your product or service and are satisfied. Testimonials should be as detailed as possible. Include those that mention the problems, benefits and results faced by the customers. It takes certain knowhow to ask for an effective testimonial.

Clarity

The 2 biggest obstacles to conversion are Confusion & Mystery. Imagine you considering buying a product online, and no matter how hard you try, you aren’t able find information about how long it takes to ship. Is it 1 month? Is it 2 days ? But you need the item for next week’s valentine day. You decided to abandon cart.

Many websites and landing pages slap users in their face with hard-to-find information. Don’t let it be your business. Be as clear about your process as possible by including a ‘how it works’ section. Go one step further- anticipate their questions and include answers in the FAQ section. You only got one chance to make a first impression; you want to create the perception that your customer service is top-notch and you are transparent. People love it.

Unique Selling Points

This is the crux of your landing page. Don’t make users rack their brains to figure out why they should choose you over your competitors; tell them !

Sad to say, many businesses we talked to at the beginning of our engagement tell us they are no different from their competition at all. That is throwing in the towel even before the battle has started! Many a times, your USP doesn’t have to be groundbreaking or earth-shattering. Most businesses are doing something different but they are just not communicating it to their users. Take the example of a Maths tuition business we are helping. They have smaller class size than their competitors and use their own unique pedagogy in teaching, but none of them was mentioned on its website.

On the other hand, you want to make sure that your USP is truly unique and is valuable to your customers. One other tendency of businesses is to use clichés such as “we are the cheapest”, “we have the best customer service” or “we are the best!”

As marketers, we cringe when we see that. Whatever you do, avoid clichés at all costs.

The Salesman

In a nutshell, your landing page works like a salesman who is doing the selling on your behalf. It should therefore check all the boxes of a good salesman. That means your landing page should also seek to counter objections of a prospect. The FAQ section can do that for you. Anticipate potential concerns and doubts and answer them in the FAQ section.

A good salesman never fails to instill urgency. Likewise, you should also do that at the end of the landing page. Nevertheless, you need to be careful of the tone of the message. If done wrongly, it can come across as being harsh and obnoxious and kill off any hopes of conversion for you.

Sequence

Does the elements have to be in the exact sequence as illustrated in the infographic ? Not necessarily.

Some marketers prefer having “About us” at the top, along with a story about themselves to establish rapport. That works too. Whatever the sequence is, the most important thing to bear in mind is that the flow of the landing page has to be logical and seamless. It has to be easy and compelling for your prospects to read all the way to the bottom to sign up for whatever you are offering.

Last but not least

I need to stress that none of the above could be achieved without first knowing your customer. Before you set off to do any copywriting or planning of landing page, the requisite is to first know your audience inside out. Incorporate as much of their language as possible. Speak like your audience and you will do fine !

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