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Every business owner wants to know how to optimise their pages for the best conversions, whether selling products, services, or just trying to generate leads.
After all, what’s the point of driving traffic to your site if those visitors aren’t taking the desired action?
Remember, every single element on your landing page, from the design to the copy to the call-to-action (CTA), can influence a visitor’s decision to convert or not.
One of the most important places to focus your optimisation efforts is “above the fold” – the area of your website that is visible without scrolling.
Think about it – what’s the first thing you see when you land on a website or a landing page, lead generation page, advertorial, etc.?
The answer is, almost always, the area above the fold. It’s the area of the page that’s visible before you start scrolling.
So it only makes sense that this is one of the most important places to focus your optimisation efforts, right?
In this article, I’m going to teach you the 5 must use critical elements that you must use in order to boost your conversion rates above the fold.
Doesn’t matter what builder you use, what theme you have, or even what product you’re selling. If you want to increase your conversion rates, these are the 5 elements you need to use.
I have taken the example of an e-commerce landing page, but you can use these principles for any type of landing page.
1) Having a Clear Value Proposition
This is the most important element you need to have on your page, and it needs to be above the fold.
Your value proposition is essentially your unique selling point. Value Proposition is the title on your page, the headline that captures attention, and the sub-headline that further elaborates on the offer.
You have only 3 seconds to make an excellent first impression, and your value proposition is what’s going to make or break that. It needs to be clear, it needs to be concise, and it needs to be compelling.
Your value proposition should answer these 3 questions:
- What are you selling?
- What are the benefits of your product/service?
- Why should someone buy from you and not your competitor?
Now I understand you can’t change your product title as you need to drive traffic through SEO, and that’s a whole different ball game.
But you can play around with sub-headlines to hook your visitors in. Simply you should have something above the fold that tells the visitors what they will get by taking your offer.
Let’s say your product name is Fitness Wristband. Now customers don’t know anything about it. They don’t trust it, but what they would trust is the product’s benefits.
So, a good headline could be:
- Get in shape with the Fitness Wristband
- Lose weight and tone muscles with the Fitness Wristband
- Track your fitness progress with the Fitness Wristband
Do you see that? You’re not just selling the product; you’re selling the benefits of the product.
So, make sure you have a clear value proposition that tells your visitors what they will get by taking your offer.
2) Emotive Visuals That Capture Attention
Did you read it well? I’m not talking about visuals but emotive visuals.
What’s the difference?
A picture is just a visual, but an emotive visual provokes an emotion. And you want to provoke the right emotion in order to get the desired results.
For instance, if you’re selling a fitness program, the first picture could be your product; that’s fine because you need to show what you’re selling.
But the second image could be a before-after image or an image of someone working out and sweating. That’s going to capture attention, it’s going to evoke an emotion, and it’s going to get people to take action.
When your customers see someone who is like them and has achieved results with your product, they’re going to be more likely to take action as well.
Make sure you have at least 4 to 5 images. Each image should serve a purpose.
Ofcourse that’s a demo page, I don’t have pictures yet, but you can see having the option to scroll left the images would benefit you.
I often tell my clients when a customer lands on your page; the above-the-fold will decide whether the customer will decide to buy from you or not.
3) Social Proof
Social proof, hands down, is becoming more and more important every single day.
What is social proof?
When people see others taking your offer, they’re more likely to take it themselves.
It could be reviews, testimonials, case studies, or even the number of people who have taken your offer so far.
Since we are talking about above the fold, I will focus on reviews and testimonials.
First, let me give you a stat that will make you realise how important social proof is.
According to a study by BrightLocal, 84% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendations.
That’s huge!
Ideally, your review section should be above the title of your product because that’s what people will be looking for.
When customers visit a landing page, they start from the left title section, move to the image section, and finally come down to see more details about the product.
This is how people read a landing page:
F-Pattern
Now, if you have a review or testimonial section, it should be placed in the left title section or right after the image section so that people can see it as soon as they come down.
But I recommend having a review section above the tile, as you see here in the picture.
Do you see the five stars? 1000+ happy customers BENEFIT HERE? These are called micro-commitments, and they help increase conversion rates.
You could change the BENEFIT HERE part with any benefit that you want.
Second, you could add a happy customer review below the price tag as you see in the picture.
See how the reviews are placed right under the price tag with a real picture of the customer.
Someone who has taken a selfie would convert to better as compared to a model standing still and smiling.
4) Trust, Trust, Trust
I know reviews themselves are trust-building elements, but I mention another trust-building element that people often overlook.
First, check this screenshot:
The screenshot might not be clear, but on the top side of the image, you see 4 little sections, right.
That’s what is going to be another game-changer for your conversion rate.
You’re more likely to increase conversion rates if you have free shipping, a money-back guarantee, easy returns, and 24/7 customer support.
There are thousands of brands out there, and people are always looking for a brand they can trust.
One trust-building element and the game would turn in your favour.
Of course, you could change it to fit your brand, like the number of guarantees, how many days your customer support is available, where your shipping is available, and so on.
Another form of trust is payment options.
Offering multiple payment options would help instil trust in your brand, and people are more likely to buy from you.
You could Google the merchant processor payment, and you will find many PNGs you can use to show different payment options on your website.
But make sure you only add the PNGs you accept payment from because people might get frustrated if you don’t offer the payment option they’re looking for.
You need to consider all these trustable factors to improve your conversion rate.
The last trust-building element is to add any brand, influencer, or media logos that you have promoted your brand one way or the other.
You could logo and add trust by adding it to your website.
Now that we have talked about all the elements, I want to give you a quick recap.
5) Call-to-Action Buttons
Now, this is one of the most important elements on your entire landing. Having a strong and visible call-to-action button above the fold is a must.
Your CTA button should be big, bold, and in a contrasting colour so that it’s easily visible to your visitors.
Check this screenshot:
The Call-to-action button is big, bold, and in a contrasting colour. It’s also placed in the middle of the page so that it’s easily visible to anyone who lands on the page.
The text on the button should be actionable and to the point. For example, “Buy Now” is pretty old school. Instead, you could use “Get Mine Now” or “I Want Mine.”
You could also use first-person language like “Show Me the Product” or “Give Me the Discount.”
Lastly, the screenshot shows emoji with the text if you checked on the screenshot. Adding an emoji is a great way to make your CTA button more actionable and engaging.
Emoji could depend on the kind of call-to-action that you’re using.
For example, if you’re giving away a freebie, you could use an emoji like this.
Mobile Version:
Now that we have understood the five elements you need to use to create an effective landing page that converts, what if most of your traffic comes from mobile devices?
Check this screenshot:
This is the mobile version of the landing page, and as you can see, it’s pretty much the same as the desktop version.
You can see that all the above fold elements are easily visible and accessible on the mobile version.
You have the website name, free shipping element, and all the elements we discussed.
You might be thinking, “Trust-building elements like payment options are not visible on the mobile version.
All these elements must hook the customers because buying is second nature to them.
When convinced, they will want to scroll down a bit and find the payment options.
But make sure they are just a scroll away, so they don’t have to go back and forth to find the payment options.
That’s it!
Conclusion
These are the five elements that you need to use on your landing pages to improve your conversion rate.
We discussed the desktop and mobile versions so that you can create an effective landing page for both desktop and mobile devices. Remember, above-the-fold elements are essential, so use them wisely.
Now it’s time to take action and start implementing these elements on your landing pages.
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