Landing pages are always a hot topic in the PPC world. While doing some research for my own tasks a while back, I noticed a lot of tips out there for general landing pages or e-commerce pages. Building successful landing pages for lead generation has its own set of unique challenges, so that’s why I wanted to formulate a list of tips to set up your next lead gen landing page for success.
Don’t Ask For Too Much
Less is usually more in the landing page world. Most experts will tell you to only ask for what you absolutely need from your visitor. Many times when building a landing page, you need to find the sweet spot between not asking for too much for your visitor and asking for what they’re expecting. If they’re applying for a coupon to be sent to their email, the visitors’ patience to fill out a lengthy form is probably pretty low, so keep it short and sweet. If the visitor is filling out a form about refinancing their home, they’re likely okay with offering up a little more information (and they’re probably not filling out the form on their smartphone in the middle of a grocery store).
If your client is insisting on having a few too many fields on the landing page, here’s a great article to help.
Don’t Be Frustrating
Make sure to you’re clear and/or flexible with how your want to gather information in the form – especially if the visitor will get an error if they enter something like a phone number in the wrong format. We’ve all been at that point before – you’re buying concert tickets that are about to sell out, you only have so long before you lose the tickets to the masses and you can’t get your phone number filled in correctly because the form doesn’t indicate what form you should use. Don’t be that company.
Stay Focused
Always start with a goal when building a new landing page. Once you have your goal (maybe something a little more than “generate all the leads”), make sure that all copy, photos and messaging on the page are supportive of not only your goal but your client’s brand as a whole. This will keep the ties to the rest of your website strong and direct your visitors appropriately.
Craft An Obvious Call-to-Action
Want someone to enter your contest? Contact the company? Quickly and clearly say that in your copy. Having an appealing button that submits their form helps with the visuals of submitting the form, as well. Unbounce suggests using a contrasting color for your call to action buttons.
Prepare for Multiple Devices
You guys, it’s 2016. Make sure before you launch a landing page that it is responsive on all devices, otherwise make sure to make the proper exclusions in your campaigns. This is a quick way to lose visitors, so make sure to prioritize this when building your page!
Prove It’s a Winner
For even better results with your landing pages, set up an A/B test to see how different layouts, variations of copy, number of fields or photo perform with your audience. Real life example: When running a test on horizontal vs. vertical landing pages, we saw a 239% increase in conversion rate. Check out the photo for a little more information on our test.
Moral of the story: Don’t be afraid to run tests on your landing pages.
Don’t Hurt Yourself With Bad Grammar and Spelling
Make sure to read and re-read your copy – and then have a co-worker review it, as well. If you’re really bad with grammar and spelling, make sure to research when you’re unsure or start following a fun grammar blog that makes learning less drab. While this isn’t lead generation-specific, it’s always something worth remembering!
What have you found makes your lead gen landing pages more successful? We’d love to hear your tips in the comments!
If you’re hungry for more tips about landing pages, check out this BIG list of landing page best practices (which was also mentioned above).
