SEO helps attract visitors to your website but it's landing page optimisation that turns browsers into buyers. Danielle Haley, Director of Indy Consultancy suggests six steps to improve your conversion rates
A good landing page usually has one simple purpose. It could be to encourage the customer to purchase, sign up to a mailing list or take another step in the buying cycle, such as getting in touch for a quote or a sample.
To generate more sales from your website, you need to make sure that your landing pages appeal to your audience and encourage them to choose your company over your competitors. Follow these six simple steps to create optimised landing pages that breathe new life into your online marketing campaign.
1. Know who you are optimising for
Information is power and the better you know your target audience, the easier your job will be. Don't take wild stabs in the dark – learn what makes your customers tick.
Find out their pain points so you can solve them; find out what they like and want so you can give it to them; and find out what terminology they use so you can communicate with them effectively.
An in-depth online analysis can help you understand what your competitors' strategies are and identify your best opportunities to stand out.
2. Set up website analytics
What gets measured gets managed. Set up your analytics tools so you can clearly see what is happening with your traffic levels and subsequent conversions. When you have this information, you can make informed decisions based on what is working for you and what is not.
You need to know where your traffic is coming from, which call to action (CTA) gets the most clicks and which kind of audience converts best.
Analytics tools can even tell you where people typically hover on-screen, helping you evaluate your website's hotspots and improving its overall design and functionality.
3. Build trust with branding
Trust is an enormous factor in online purchasing decisions, so you will want to make sure your landing page is congruent with your overall marketing campaign.
The design of your ads must match the branding of your landing page and that branding must complement the message you're trying to convey. It's also vital that your price expectations are in line with the message, your graphics and the market you are trying to attract.
The bottom line is that people trust congruent webpages, and trust in your brand will lead to better conversions.
4. Have a clear proposition
It's very important that visitors know exactly what you expect of them. They need to be told why they should take a particular action when they reach your landing page.
Be clear about what you want people to do, display the benefits of taking the action, and make sure everything on the page encourages them to complete that goal.
5. Display social proof and testimonials
Customers don't like to feel isolated when they buy online. They look for other people's opinions and place a lot of trust in testimonials and reviews.
If you have a strong social presence and have worked hard to develop an engaging Twitter account, for example, why not highlight that on your landing page?
Display testimonials from previous customers to show people that others have bought from you and had a positive experience. This will increase the likelihood of new sign-ups or purchases.
6. Test your results, try new things and repeat
Once you are up and running, split test the changes you make. It's best to test one change at a time so you maintain focus and accurately measure the impact your decisions are having on your conversions.
For example, you might set two landing pages up to be exactly the same except for one factor - perhaps a different CTA. You can then test to see which one converts better. Once you have an idea of what's working for you, you can test other CTAs until you find a winning combination that's proven to work for your business.
