Welcome to the ‘Landing Page From Scratch Series’, where we’ll be taking you from zero to hero and crafting a high converting landing page from the ground up.

In each lesson we’ll take you through the core principles required to formulate the perfect page and get your campaign off to a strong start.

Welcome to part 2 of the ‘Landing Pages from Scratch’ series. In part 1, we covered the planning stage of the process to help determine your user base, their intent, where they’re coming from and how you’re going to target them.

Now comes the fun part! We’re going to start structuring and designing your landing page so that it speaks to your visitor and gets them taking action.

The Anatomy of the Perfect Landing Page

Regardless of industry, goal or marketing plan, your landing page will generally take on a fairly similar foundation that includes critical elements to encourage your visitors to take action.

The first principle you can use is the AIDA principle. AIDA is an acronym that stands for:

So what do each of these mean?

Attention

Above the fold of your landing page you should be getting your customers ATTENTION. 

How do we do that though?

• Bold Clear Headline (talk about benefits here, not features)
• Bullet-points (An odd amount, not even… it converts better. Trust us!)
• A photograph or video of your product/service
• A clear call-to-action

Interest

We need to peak our customers interest.

 A great way to do this is using video. You need to outline in this section how EASY it is for your customer to get your product/service and what it will do for them/how it BENEFITS them. Another way to do this as well as using a video is doing a ’step 1, step 2, step 3’ (seen below)

In this section position your content to talk about a benefit and not the features.

Because we love you so much we’ll give you some extra information – did you know that an odd amount of bullet points converts better than an even? It may sound crazy but it’s true!

Desire

This is where social proof and trust proof make an appearance.

It’s extremely important to have Social Proof and Trust Proof. We live in an age where if i’m a potential customer then 9/10 times I will go and do some research on your product. I’ll go on google and type ‘review’ and your company name.

What we want to do when creating a Landing Page is NEVER GIVE THE CUSTOMER AN EXCUSE TO LEAVE YOUR PAGE. You should put the ’social proof’ on your page, readily available to them. A testimonial, a review, 5 stars etc…

If you do not have a testimonial from one of your customers, with real photographs like the example below then you’re losing customers because people WILL leave your page to look for social proof.

Next up, trust proof. What is trust proof? It’s giving people a reason to trust you.

Normally this is done by a supporting icon, see an example below!

Action

By this stage you know who your page is targeted towards, where they came from, what their intent is and what you can offer them. You have one goal for the page and it’s therefore imperative to keep it as simple as you possibly can to get them to complete your ACTION. We will touch on how to get your customers to complete your call to action further on in this blog.

So we’ve gone through our first acronym AIDA with you, now you need to consider the KISS acronym.

We’re not insulting you or calling you stupid we swear! But, what do we mean by Keep It Simple Stupid?

There are a few things you can do here:

• Remove any traffic leaks or distractions such as navigation, social media sharing links, irrelevant products and so on
• Leverage white space and directional cues to guide your user to where you want them without confusion
• Use clear, concise and simple language and action phrases to direct them to action

Include 4 critical elements above the fold

You have a matter of seconds to capture your users attention, gain their trust and pull them into your journey, so it’s important to keep things simple and include only necessities above the fold.

What are these critical elements?

Watch the video below of Oliver Kenyon (co-founder of Landing Page Guys) talking you through the critical elements that should be above the fold of your page.

A strong proposition

As with the structure of the landing page that you’ve just created, it’s important to ensure that the messaging on your page matches the flow and leads the visitor through an emotive journey that piques their interest and encourages action. This is where your messaging comes into play. Remember, emphasise the benefits of your product/service and not the features.

A supporting image (or video)

Us humans are very visual, we tend to look first and then ask questions later. Essentially, this means our brains focus on the imagery before reading the wording on a website. So getting the imagery right is just as important as the words, if not more! It’s been proven that images register faster in our brains than words do… obviously you need words to rank in Search Engines and to sell your product but with only a few seconds to make the right first impression, it’s the images that users will tend to look at first. This could be the decider as to whether they leave your page or continue to read on.

Social proof/Testimonials

Never give your webpage visitors a reason to leave your page, if they leave you have potential lost a sale/lead etc. Social proof is one way of ensuring they do not leave in search of extra information. People trust people, so reviews and testimonials are essential.

You wouldn’t eat at a restaurant with 1 star and no food hygiene certificate so why would you buy a product or give someone your details without checking it out first? Whilst we are on the topic of social proof – we can’t say how important it is to include a real photograph with your testimonial and 5 coloured stars. It converts so much better!

A call to action

Here we are, as mentioned earlier its the all so important call to action, the thing that could be the maker or breaker for your page. Let’s get started…stick with ONE call to action.

Don’t confuse the message of your page. For example: if you want people to fill out a form so you can capture a lead, don’t confuse your message by also asking them to add things to their cart. There is a great blog we’ve found by Neil Patel on how to write the perfect CTA check it out here.

Below are some simple tips that will get your call to action up to the highest standard.

We hope you enjoyed reading this blog, that’s everything you need to know about designing your landing page! The next step in the series is coming soon!

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