The current situation in the world has the population scared. For some, the underlying concern is the virus. For many others what worries us is the imminent lack of income due to the closure of businesses and offices paralyzed by the pandemic. This same situation is at the same time the perfect opportunity to start working on the online side of such businesses, and given this many ask this question: where do I start?
Although it is true, today social networks have had a boom and are seen as one of the main tools to promote and sell a product or service, we must remember that our profiles on networks are not really ours because the Tomorrow both Facebook and Instagram and the other platforms may disappear and our brand would be in the dark, right? Well ... not entirely. We still have a resource that on many occasions turns out to be even more effective than a well-curated feed on Instagram: a Landing Page.
What is a landing page?
A landing page is a page designed to lead the visitor to take a certain action. These web pages generally have much fewer elements and links than a normal web page because they usually have a single objective: to collect the contact details of the visitor so that they can be contacted later, so that the visitor makes a purchase directly, among others.
There are two types of landing pages:
Squeeze page: It is a page whose sole purpose is to capture the data of whoever visits it, that is, subscriptions. In this type of page, something is usually offered in exchange for this information, such as an e-book or something that offers value to the user in exchange for their data or even simply their email.
Sales page: It is a page whose sole purpose is to capture the data of whoever visits it, that is, subscriptions. In this type of page, something is usually offered in exchange for this information, such as an e-book or something that offers value to the user in exchange for their data or even simply their email....
As a matter of fact, a properly designed landing page can have a much higher conversion rate than on a normal website since there is no distraction for the visitor so that they can perform the action expected of them. To understand this we have the following example:
For instance, let's imagine that we are investing x amount of money in Google Adwords and, of every 100 people who visit our website, only 1 of them performs the expected action (for example, buying the product). That equates to an overall conversion rate of 1%. With an optimized landing page, that number can increase by 3 conversions for every 100 visits, thus also increasing the overall conversion rate to 3%.
Notably, this translates into a 66% reduction in investment in ads that generates the same result in sales or, in other words, an increase in sales of 200% with the same investment in ads in that channel.
Anatomy of a landing page
As we have previously said, for a landing page to work it must be correctly designed, these are the main characteristics to be successful:
URL
Although it seems an unimportant detail, the length of our url is the first thing that Google analyzes when reviewing our page, so we suggest that the url to be used be short and concise as possible so that we do not have problems when optimizing the page.
Tittle
The title of your landing page must be strong and convincing to attract your visitors at first sight and do not abandon it before doing what you want them to do on the page. The most practical way to achieve this is to make sure that this title is aligned with what is offered and clearly indicates what the user is going to gain through the action to be taken. One of the best tools is to put a figure of what is going to be achieved and a period of time in which the user is going to achieve it, so we give the visitor something tangible.
Value proposal
At the time of writing the text that will be included in our landing we must strive to include the benefits that it will report to the visitor and not so much the characteristics, this in order for the visitor to know what he is going to get specifically so that you do not leave the page without taking the action.
Functional design
As we know most things enter through the eyes, in this case the ideal is not to use typography or colors that disturb the user's vision. Too strong colors or confusing typography can scare away the visitor, and the most important thing is that although the design must be interesting, it should not detract from what we are trying to achieve with the page.
Good texts
As well as the design, the text on the page must be persuasive to capture the visitor's attention and to achieve the objective. If we are not sure how to write a good text, a fairly easy and used method is the AIDA method, in our texts it should cover the following:
Atention
Interest
Desire
Action
The goal is that the text should call the user to carry out these actions in this precise order to achieve an optimal result.
Image
The use of attractive images is very useful in these types of pages, they help to make the product more tangible. A widely used resource is to create images from an e-book as if it were a real book so that it is more palpable to the visitor even if they are only seeing it on screen. To achieve this we can make use of a mockup or mockup, there are many pages that can help us with free and professional-looking mockups.
In case we want to use a video instead of an image, we can do it as long as it is explanatory and talks about the benefits of our product or service. You can also use both resources but always remembering that the premise is to illustrate what the visitor will gain with what we offer.
Form
We must be aware and ask our visitor for the fair and necessary information that will help us to contact him or to make the purchase transaction on the page. If it is required to fill many fields, most of the time the visitor gets bored and decides to leave the page which we do not want to happen. Another important factor is the position of the form on the page: the more visible it is, the better.
CTA
"Call to action" is nothing more than the button that tells the user what to do. On sales pages we are often tempted to put the phrase buy now! About this button, but this would be a mistake. It is better to use more creative phrases when writing the call to action text so that the user does not feel that we are forcing him to perform an action that he does not want.
Testimonials
On a sales page it is very important to include testimonials from real customers where they briefly relate their experience with our product or service so that the visitor knows what to expect when purchasing it.
Social media icons
When we are satisfied with something or something that seems interesting to us, we usually want to share it with our circle, so if our page seems interesting to the visitor, it is very likely that the visitor wants to share it on their networks, opening the possibility of gaining more visitors.
How do I know if my landing page is adequate?
In order to know if our landing page draws the attention of our potential visitors, we can perform an A / B test. For this test we must make two versions of the same page in which only one element varies and present it to a similar audience to our target audience to determine which one generates the most acceptance. The most important thing to keep in mind is that only 1 element must vary from one design to another in order to measure what needs to be improved.
As a final point, let's remember that a landing page is just a resource and that it must be supported by an entire digital marketing strategy that supports it and without this, no tool is actually going to produce a result by not having a goal or goal to achieve.