6 Design Tips for High-Converting Landing Pages

You’ve carefully crafted your marketing strategies and are bringing in record traffic numbers. Visitors are pouring from organic search, social media, you name it. 

But that’s not enough to have a truly successful website. You need those visitors to convert. 

With hundreds or even thousands of other websites competing for those conversions, you need to craft your landing pages in such a way that visitors are convinced to take action on your site instead of a competitor’s. 

A highly converting landing page considers the psychology of its visitors and decides every detail with the visitor in mind. We’ve compiled some of the most important details to consider when designing a high-converting landing page for your site and included examples to inspire you to action. 

Make a Good First Impression

Web searchers form their first impression of a website in just a fraction of a second—some studies have suggested that it takes as little as 17 milliseconds for visitors to make their snap judgment. 

Designing effective landing pages can make a big difference for both internal and external conversions whether you’re interested in driving recruiting to your company or you’re focused on attracting new leads.

Most people can’t read much information in just 17 milliseconds, so it’s the overall visual look that forms the basis of this impression. You need a clear headline (even if it’s the second impression that will actually read it), appropriate colors and images, and defined calls to action. 

Because the first impression will happen instantly, all of these key elements must be placed above the fold, or without needing to scroll. 

This page has all the crucial elements of a compelling landing page: 

• A clear and concise heading
• A subtitle with more compelling detail
• Interesting use of images
• Call-to-action above the fold

You don’t have to break the bank to create practical new landing pages. Allocating funds for web design and taking the time to implement targeted pages for your offers might prove to be one of the most advantageous financial goals. We’ll discuss each of these items in more detail in later sections, but here we see how they all work together to create that first impression in less than a second. 

Keep It Simple

As your landing page progresses below the fold, don’t overcomplicate it. Avoid crowding, too many images or buttons, and excessive pop-ups. 

Simplicity keeps your visitors focused on the reason they found your site in the first place, rather than distracting or confusing them with unnecessary information or irrelevant offers.

Be Clear About What You Offer

Don’t make it difficult for your visitors to understand what you’re offering and how it solves their problem. Skip the vague corporate language and confusing promises and get right to the point. 

You need to be clear about what your visitors will get from taking action on your site, and this should include mentioning the pain or problem they are looking to solve. Being explicit about the customer’s pain points evokes an emotional reaction that moves them to take action. VP of Marketing and Merchandising for Hausera Wesley Ward says “Emotional appeals through effective messaging are often the most powerful motivators in terms of conversions.”

All of the copy on your landing page should maintain this clarity. If you have a complex product, simplify its explanation. Users should reach the end of your landing page with a complete understanding of what you have to offer so they can feel confident in taking that next step. 

Use High-Quality Images

Images build trust with your visitors and convey information that words sometimes can’t. It also creates a compelling visual experience as visitors move through the page. 

Images you use should be in line with your brand voice and style. While they should convey a lot of information, they should still be simple and not overwhelm your visitors.  

Use Color Smartly

Even the color scheme of your landing page is quietly contributing to your visitor’s decision to convert. Different colors evoke different feelings, so you should select a palette based on what you want your customers to feel toward your brand. 

When you think about these major brands and the words associated with them, this color psychology starts to become clearer. Depending on what you want your brand to convey, you can select colors for your background, CTA buttons, and other elements. 

Run A/B Tests

Once your landing page goes live, that’s not the end of your conversion rate optimization efforts. You can continue to test different elements to see what improves conversion rates. 

Running A/B tests allows you to compare the impact of small changes, such as button color or background image. Testing tools and the software will show one option to one set of visitors, and another to a second set. You’ll then be able to compare the results and decide which version is final. 

When testing landing pages, be sure to only run one test at a time—if you change too many elements, you won’t be able to narrow down what exactly is driving the conversion rate impact. 

Takeaways

High-converting landing pages play exactly what the visitors want to see. They use color, images, and more to craft a perfect first impression, and then tell them exactly what they are looking for (and exactly the problem they’re trying to avoid). 

When creating a landing page, be thoughtful about every element of the page. Everything is contributing to that conversion decision. Run tests to fine-tune even the smallest elements, like button color or phrasing of a call-to-action. By approaching your landing pages with precision and customer insight, you can design landing pages with the highest conversion rates you’ve ever seen. 

Authors Bio:

Samuel Kaye is a contributing editor for 365 Business Tips and writes about a variety of topics ranging from content marketing strategy to business development to help entrepreneurs and business owners grow their ventures.