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We discuss why so many landing pages fail (and what you can do about it)

A carefully-crafted and well-executed landing page can boost your conversion rate almost instantly— increasing the profitability of your online marketing campaigns and securing you the quality leads you’ve been looking for.

How?

By providing your customers with a clear, concise buying proposition after they’ve clicked on one of your ads. Bringing potential buyers to an intentional, conversion-optimized landing page gives them a more streamlined customer experience, telling them exactly Why they should purchase, and how they can do so in a quick, convenient way.

The entire point of a landing page is to cut straight to the chase, while still engaging your target audience and capturing their interest.

This makes landing pages more efficient than simply driving your online ad traffic to your homepage, where users can easily become distracted and forget about the original reason they clicked on your ad.

This is why the average conversion rate for an e-commerce website is 1.6 percent, while the top 25 percent of targeted landing pages are converting at 5.31 percent or higher.

With the right landing page strategy, you can significantly grow your online conversions and generate new success for your business.

But what are the key landing page best practices you should follow? And what optimization techniques generate the most results?

These are the questions we’ll be addressing in today’s blog post.

HERE ARE THE TOP FIVE WAYS TO ACHIEVE A HIGH-CONVERTING LANDING PAGE:

1.     ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS

One of the worst mistakes you can make when creating and designing a landing page is including links, copy, or other forms of content that could distract your potential customers from the primary goal of your page.

Ultimately, you should be bringing users to your landing page to complete a very simple action. Whether it’s to subscribe to your e-newsletter, purchase an item, or download a white paper, it’s crucial that you keep your eye on the target.

Navigation bars are one of the most common (and most detrimental) distractions that businesses include on their landing pages. In fact, in one study, removing navigation links from the landing page of a brand increased conversions from 9.2 percent to 17.6 percent.

Another common distraction is having too many form fields. Remember, forms that have three fields or less convert the highest (at 25 percent). If you absolutely must include more fields, be extremely choosey about what you will be requiring from potential customers. When it comes to landing pages, less is almost always more.

2.     MAKE IT MOBILE

If you do not design your landing page to be compatible with mobile devices, you are shooting yourself in the foot before your ads even go live.

Why?

Because traffic from mobile devices now accounts for nearly 50 percent of all online retail traffic in the United States, and that number is only expected to grow.

By making the phone number on your landing page clickable, using short-form content (like bullet point lists), and implementing scroll cues, you can provide your users with a better, more seamless mobile user experience.

You’ll also want to focus heavily on the mobile load time of your landing page, since 85 percent of mobile users expect the page to load as fast as on desktop, which takes less than two seconds.

By ensuring your landing page follows these mobile best practices, you increase the likelihood that potential customers will convert from all device types, broadening your target audience and multiplying your odds of success.

3.     FINE-TUNE YOUR FORMS

Nothing hinders the conversion rate of a landing page more than complicated, intrusive forms that make your potential customers feel tired before they even begin filling them out.

An ideal landing page form only asks for the information you must have, and allows users to commit in small steps, rather than inundating them with questions the second they arrive on your page.

Remember, extensive research shows that reducing the number of form fields to four or less can increase conversions by up to 160 percent.

Additionally, asking users for their phone number can lead to a drop in conversions (by as much as 5 percent).

If you must request a phone number, try creating a two-step form, and providing the option of giving a phone number after an initial micro-commitment (like entering an email address). This will give users time to warm up to the idea of providing you with additional information.

You can also try including a link to your company’s privacy policy in fine print below your form, to reassure potential customers that their contact information will not be used for any other purpose than the one they are agreeing to, making them more likely to provide the information you’re looking for.

4.     CONCENTRATE ON THE CUSTOMER

This may seem like an unnecessary tip, but one of the most common reasons landing pages fail is because the customer isn’t at the centre of the messaging included on the page.

Too often, companies can’t resist talking about how amazing their product or service is, diving into the various features and advantages of what they have to offer.

The catch here is that customers care less about what you have to say about what you are selling, and more about how it applies to them and their unique needs.

In a nutshell? You need less “we” copy, and more “you” copy.

One way to ensure your content remains focused on your customer is to put time into developing a crystal clear target persona. This will help you visualize who your landing page is speaking to, and better address the questions that your potential buyers will have.

The more the content of your landing page resonates with the people you are targeting, the more you will see your success being reflected in your conversion rates.

We recommend reading this article on the “voice of customer” process to learn more about creating customer-centric copy.

5.     PICK YOUR PAY OPTIONS INTELLIGENTLY

This last tip isn’t a complicated one, but it yields a lot of return. If your page only offers one or two payment methods, you could be limiting the number of people who can complete the checkout process on your landing page, resulting in lost profitability for you.

Including multiple options, including: American Express, PayPal, Debit, Google Pay, etc, will increase the likelihood that customers are able to complete their purchase after clicking on one of your ads.

Additionally, allowing visitors to checkout without creating an account is another smart move, since some internet users are put off by feeling forced to create multiple accounts that they may not use again. Providing a “guest checkout” option is ideal for curbing this and keeping conversions flowing.

Remember, 8 percent of people abandon the checkout page because they can’t find the payment option they want. And another 4 percent leave if their credit card is declined.

By broadening your checkout payment options, you prevent drop-offs and keep users moving further along your sales process.

Conclusion

And there you have it! By implementing these five landing page strategies, you can immediately increase the performance of your online marketing campaigns and watch your conversion rates improve. Landing pages don’t have to just be topic authority pages, they can help drive conversions for your website.

Author Bio; Currently working as a Marketing Executive at Design Wizard, Claire is passionate about creating amazing content and bringing people together. Having recently graduated with her masters degree in Marketing she is keen to impact the digital world. Outside of work you can catch Claire taking photos of her rescue dog Storm and checking out social media.