Landing Page Design: A Step-by-Step Design Guide
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Landing pages can easily make or break your business. Join us to learn how to build the most promising landing pages that inspire people to buy your products and become a part of your ever-growing audience.
As you know, marketing consists of many different arrangements that together form the best marketing strategy for your brand. Thus, you surely would have heard of a landing page and how a unique landing page can boost your brand’s marketing campaigns.
As a part of your marketing strategy – a landing page is one of the most crucial lead generation tools.
Though developing and designing a landing page sounds easy, it might not be the same when you start devising one. Thus, we want to stress that landing pages are extremely important elements for lead conversions.
While you have an entire website that is designed to provide a general overview of the business, services, and products you offer, a landing page helps you build customer loyalty and increase sales or email sign-ups per your sales goals.
Landing pages are unique. They are created for digital marketing campaigns, target audience engagements, events, and promotions, to convert visitors to clients and generate leads by providing a clear and direct call to action (CTA), making it easier for them to join your audience and buy what you sell.
Let us start with the basics and go up the ladder to learn how to create high-converting landing pages.
What Is A Landing Page?
As stated, a landing page is a crucial element in your marketing strategy.
A brief description: In digital marketing, a landing page is a distinct web page separate from your website’s homepage explicitly created for a marketing or advertising campaign to be promoted on various other marketing channels.
A landing page is where a visitor “lands” after clicking on the link in an email or on ads from Google, Facebook, Instagram, Bing, Twitter, or other similar places on the internet. And unlike web pages that have many goals and encourage exploration, landing pages are designed with a single focus or goal – the Call To Action (CTA).
The CTA is to attain their contact information such as contact number and email, where you can share information about your brand and its services.
To achieve the wished call to action through your landing page, you can make a trade, give offers, share select information, or give a sale in return for the visitor’s contact information.
When sent through an email, a landing page serves as a follow-up to the promise you have made to the audience. It is the next step toward converting your visitor into becoming a customer.
Most times, landing pages are click-through, leading to another page such as your main subscription page, pricing page, book-a-demo page, or lead generation page.
You may ask, what are lead generation landing pages? Lead generation landing pages are the ones that offer you items like an eBook, webinar entry, free trials, or contest entry in return for the visitor’s contact information.
In order for a landing page to succeed, it must convince potential customers that it’s worthwhile to provide their personal details in exchange for whatever you’re offering.
Plus, people can find landing pages everywhere on the internet. Be it through a general search, an advertisement, or a website.
According to research, a business website with about 10 to 15 landing pages will increase its conversions by 55%. In comparison, websites with over 40 landing pages will increase their conversions by over 500%.
These attributes are what make landing pages an excellent method for boosting the conversion rates of your marketing campaigns as well as lowering the cost of acquiring leads and sales.
What are the Benefits of Multiple Landing Pages?
1. More Leads
By having more landing pages, you can hyper-target potential customers, which means the possibility of engaging with every segment of your audience. In addition, you can tailor each landing page with different offers to appeal to a broader range of potential leads. For example, a tailored landing page with strategic search engine optimization (SEO) aligns with users’ searches and can turn them into leads.
2. More Conversions
Multiple landing pages also help boost conversions. This is because they offer an accessible pathway from finding a lead to converting them. Therefore, if a user clicks on a PPC (Pay Per Click) advertisement that takes them to a landing page with a powerful CTA, it automatically eliminates the roundabout effort required to find the same by clicking on a website.
When browsing through a website, a user might not find what they’re looking for on the first go. Nor will they have to fill out a lead-capture form. This is where landing pages come into play with their straight-to-the-point approach while elevating the opportunity for lead capturing.
3. Better SEO
For a landing page to work well, it is necessary that they have a good SEO copy, which will help rank them higher on Google’s SERP (Search Engine Results Pages). When you create multiple landing pages with different copies, your site’s traffic will come from a variety of sources, indicating reliability and popularity, which are rated highly by Google.
Due to their straightforward nature, landing pages can only incorporate a few keywords. So, the more landing pages you have, the more keywords you can include, thus increasing your website’s overall visibility on SERPs.
4. Efficient Data Tracking
Since each landing page is designed to attract a different buyer persona, it uses relevant content to attract new customers, thus automatically allowing easier data tracking, management, and market testing.
A/B testing makes a considerable difference to lead generation. It helps tweak small details on existing landing page design like the SEO or headline to find out how to devise the most appealing offer for the potential customer.
If properly executed, a landing page produces precise, segmented data that can be tracked and analyzed better.
5. Better Customer Segmentation
An accurate understanding of every segment of a business’s target market throughout all marketing channels is vital to executing tailored strategies that produce sales. A single landing page cannot cater to all the segments of your target market and audience, especially if everyone fills in their details on the same page. Since digital marketing is driven and thrives by data, the better your customer segmentation, the stronger your marketing strategy can drive conversions.
Thus, when you have many landing pages that different users respond to provides a clearer idea of what type of service works for different buyer personas. In addition, you can use this data to keep your target market information updated and improve your marketing performance, such as through advertisements and social media content.
The Key Elements needed to Create Landing Pages
Since a landing page is a powerful tool to up your business in the market, it is necessary that you have the key points covered during the design process.
Here we’ll take you through the crucial elements of a landing page.
- The heading
- Supporting Copy
- USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
- Hero Images
- Product Photos
- Benefits/Features of your services
- Social Proof
- CTA
Incorporate these key elements while building landing pages,
1. Establish a campaign goal
The first step you should follow before starting your landing page design is to identify and establish WHY you want to design it in the first place.
Other than engaging visuals, vibrant color scheme, quality product photos, and font choice that attract the attention of most visitors at first glance, a good landing page needs to have a clear and measurable goal. Industry experts believe that having a measurable goal will help you decide how to write your content copy, what other elements to include on the page design, and what template you should use.
And since you have the option of having multiple landing pages it makes sense to have different versions of the call to action that will lead visitors from one page to other.
Some of the popular cta that you can get your visitors to do are,
- Sign up for a free trial
- Give an Ebook for free download
- Join the waitlist for a product launch
- Register for a webinar
- Download a coupon
- Subscribe to your newsletter
- Fill out a form or a survey
Sticking to a singular goal is essential because it minimizes the choice you give your visitors and makes it much easier to create a truly effective landing page.
Thus, it is best to decide on your landing page goal first before starting the design process.
2. Choosing your Landing Page Template
Creating landing page design is a challenging task. First, ensure all the information is projected on the right page sections. Then, select the right images, videos, copy, and cta placement to persuade visitors to act on the call to action. A good picture helps tell the story, demonstrates the product effectively, and creates a personal connection with visitors.
Though you can create landing pages from scratch, many ready-to-use templates available in the market come with pre-designed templates that you can use for their layout and build upon.
Here are some of the go-to sites where businesses and UI UX designers go for landing page design inspiration,
3. Write Your Own Copy
Once you have decided on the landing page design, you’ll need to work on the headline. As per studies, it has been found that you have approximately 8 seconds to catch your visitors’ attention. Thus, it would be best if you had a catchy yet clear headline that matches the message of your email or advertisement that fetched visitors to your landing page.
As for the copy for the rest of your landing page, the expectancy is twice as important for higher conversion rates. The right approach would be to emphasize how your offer will solve the user’s pain points and how your products or service will make their lives easier.
You can follow this general tip to ensure you create a high-converting landing page: Keep your sentences short and valuable. Try to avoid jargon and unnecessary information.
4. Create a Captivating Call-To-Action
Once your headline and supporting copy are ready, it is time to convert your target audience through a captivating CTA.
Your CTA dictates what you want your visitors to do on your landing page.
After you’ve drafted your headline and supporting copy, it’s time to convert your target audience through a compelling CTA button. In most cases, the CTA is either a form or a click-through button that will lead your visitor to your desired product/service page.
But, before that, you must ensure that your CTA is specific and descriptive of your intentions to yield better results. After which, you can decide on your cta placement on the landing page.
Here’s a great example from Asana, a tool designed to make it easier for teams to coordinate work.
The CTA buttons such as “Get Started,” “See Pricing,” “Book A Demo,” or “Start your free trial” work well.
And if your landing page design contains a form, try to keep it as simple as possible, asking for only the necessary information.
Also, it is best not to have any sort of distractions that could take your visitors away from your CTA. For example, avoid having navigation links to other pages, marketing channels, headers, or footers. Just stick to one CTA.
Insider tips like the above example, it is best not to have the same CTA for one landing page. It is all right to use the same cta button for different landing page design, but you need to ensure that the rest of the copy is different.
5. Compelling Visual Content
Visual content is equally important in your landing page’s responsive design. You can choose these visuals from your product images, free stock photos, or have your own custom illustrations.
After all, a good collection of visuals and video features will help faster comprehension of your message, strengthen them and influence your visitor’s behavior on your landing page.
The result: you can boost conversions!
Furthermore, powerful imagery can help convey your message in seconds.
Take for example this AirBnB landing page design. It is the best example of using minimal content and a compelling visual together to create a great landing page that attracts more visitors.
Using high-quality product images on its landing page makes a visual connection with the landing page copy. Additionally, the image blends well with the bright colors, making the landing page memorable.
If you use visual content correctly, you can direct your visitor to exactly where you want them to look and eventually take action. They can also easily replace texts!
Here’s how you can choose your copy’s visual companion
- The main image: have a mesmerizing visual showing your visitors exactly what you are talking about. A professional-grade image with a white background captures the viewer’s attention in the first interaction.
- Real Photographs: Real photographs of people using a product or service are deemed much more credible and help visitors connect with your brand personally and emotionally.
- Visual Emphasis of Benefits: Most times, your visitors are busy and do not have the time to read through your copy. Thus, providing a visual story of all the perks your brand has to offer. Check out the packing design ideas and get inspired.
6. Provide Social Proof
Getting people to trust on brand online marketing is a difficult task. Because if a customer is unfamiliar with you, the reviews and testimonials from other people are the only way they can understand your credibility.
In fact, a consumer survey has revealed that almost “91% of the consumers rely on online reviews as much as they do on personal recommendations.”
Social proof can effectively guide a visitor down the funnel to convert and become a consumer, whether for a product or service.
Some of the different types of social proofs that you can use in your page design are,
- Testimonials
- Case Studies
- Customer Ratings & Reviews
- Influencer Endorsements
- Certifications
- Brand/Client Logos
- Subscriber Counts
- Social Shares Counts
- Storytelling
One of the best landing page design tips is that place your social proof near the CTA button. It will boost the strength of your messaging. Another addition that will boost conversions and increase trust is showcasing the people who have shared their reviews about your business.
Pro tip: Keep your testimonials short. Keeping a maximum of three short sentences is perfect. Additionally, you can either italicize or bold the essential parts of the testimonial to make them stand out.
7. Branding Elements
Now that you have finished your new landing page design, it’s time to put the finishing touches on it. You should give your landing page a similar look and feel to your website.
This means that you need to have your brand logo, color scheme, typography, and language match.
This also enables the visitors to recognize your brand at any point. Check out the ad design inspiration for top brands.
8. Track the Progress
Now you have done all the necessary designs, and the landing page is ready. How do you know if it is performing well or not?
It is for this that you need to track your campaign.
It is of no value to create a landing page if you do not track its performance.
You can use tools like Google Analytics to measure the performance of your campaigns. You can also enable the use of Facebook Pixel to measure your Facebook ads results.
Keeping track of who visits your landing page and what actions they take is essential to optimizing your marketing campaign. Check out the infographic design ideas.
9. SEO Optimization
We’ve already divulged the use of SEO. But optimizing your landing pages according to popular SEOs is bound to drive more traffic.
The reason is that this method allows website visitors and search engines to find your page more efficiently, thus helping increase conversions.
While optimizing your landing page, pay attention to these factors:
- Title Tag: It is the first impression your visitors have of your website. An ideal title tag should contain around 60 characters, although there is no exact limit.
- Meta Description: A powerful marketing tool among other tools, meta descriptions summarize the page content. They are the primary reason that attracts your reader’s attention.
Following this, you’ll need to choose your publishing method. Next, you can choose where you want to publish your landing page using your landing page builder (e.g., your existing WordPress site, Wix, or other landing page publishers.).
10. Final Publishing
Before you decide to publish your landing page make sure to do a final check whether everything is correct on your landing page.
Firstly check on the copy to ensure there are no spelling or grammatical errors. Secondly, check on your design, and ensure that all the elements are placed in the right spot. And, if you do have any changes, use the drag and drop builder in your publishing tool to relocate your elements.
Once set, you can publish your gorgeous landing page!
11. Page Optimization
This is the last step before your landing page goes live.
Before publishing your landing page to the world, you need to test and optimize it to maximize its performance. And the best method to do so is through A/B testing.
By conducting these tests, you can perfect your page speed and content flow, visual appeal, and CTA for your audience.
10 Of The Best Landing Page Designs To Get Inspired
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Must my landing page have its own domain name?
No. It is not necessary to have a domain name to publish your landing page. The landing page builder tools used to create your landing pages will give you the option to publish your page with or without a custom domain.
2. Can I replace my website with a landing page?
No. Your business website is where you showcase your products, services, and other details about your business. While landing pages are built with specific marketing goals to bring new customers to your website.
Thus, it can be stated that landing pages work to complement your website.
3. Does Google index landing pages?
Though landing pages do not rank on search engines by themselves, Google considers them essential for a good sales funnel. Landing pages will rank and appear on Google only when you optimize the keyword targeting, have content that adds value, include multiple CTA, and have a faster page speed.
4. How long does it take to create a landing page?
The timeline for building a landing page from scratch depends on the tools you use. Some businesses would start from the basics and create every design in-house with the help of their UI UX team, and some companies choose pre-created landing page templates from the internet and refurbish them as per their style.
Thus the time frame of creating a landing page can range from 1 hour to 1-2 weeks, depending on the method of design you follow.
5. What’s the best way to drive traffic to my landing page?
A few of the best ways to drive traffic to your landing pages the fastest are email newsletters, social media ads, website pop-up ads, paid search, retargeting ads, and newsletter sponsorship.
The other methods that bring visitors are guest blogging, affiliate marketing, and influencer partnership.
6. Do landing pages work?
Landing pages are highly influential in increasing conversions in comparison to a homepage or blog post because they have one specific goal. Moreover, you can build your brand and grow your email list using landing pages while also utilizing them perfectly as part of PPC campaigns.
7. Do landing pages affect SEO?
No, a landing page is not detrimental to SEO. Instead, landing pages are an excellent way to funnel the traffic generated by your SEO efforts.
8. How should I name my landing page URL?
Your landing page URL should let your audience know where the link takes them once they click on it. It is best to customize the landing page URL with what your landing page is promoting. A good URL size is approximately 50 to 60 characters in total.
9. How big should a landing page be?
The recommended landing page size ranges between 940 and 960 pixels, which will work for a wide range of screen sizes, including mobile devices. In addition, any landing page content within the 720-pixel height should display accurately, covering the screen upon page load.
10. How does ATD help in Creating Landing Pages?
Today, there are many ready-to-use landing page design templates available online. But using them will take away the authenticity and specialty of your brand. People get attracted to your product through your marketing campaigns. And landing pages are an integral part of any business’s marketing campaigns. Thus, it is important that they be designed impeccably to depict the benefits of your brand and its products and services.
The key here is to design a landing that will make the audience think of you in the best way possible.
And the best way for your packaging design to attract your audience the best is through the help of impeccable designs. With the help of a design agency such as All Time design, get the best professional graphic designers to create world-class design and content for branding your business through a great custom packaging design.
Book a Demo or Sign Up today to create quality designs that add value to your brand.
