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There is no such thing as one perfect landing page since every business and industry uses them for different purposes. Nevertheless, there are some out there that are exceptionally good at generating high conversion rates, which is the true measure of an effective landing page. In fact, 68% of all B2Bs use them to nurture new sales leads for future conversion opportunities. And there is no reason why professional services can’t exercise the same best practices for your landing pages. From special resources for downloads to online webinars and events, landing pages are every bit as important to service-based businesses, too.Each landing page out there is different, but they hold some common characteristics that may offer a glimpse into what makes them so good at what they do. If you are going to invest your time, energy, and money into creating one, you might as well observe some of the same high-converting qualities as these examples.
Less is More
Even if it may be tempting to pack as much information on the landing page in the hope of getting a response from people, use the general rule of “less is more.” First impressions count, and simplicity is vital. If your audience is bombarded with too much information quickly, they will most likely leave, never to return.Basecamp, a project management system I use for managing my client accounts, treats the top fold of their homepage as a landing page, and it is genius! Notice how little information is provided in a visitor’s first encounter. You know where to find more information based on their navigation, but their value proposition and main call-to-action is clear, simple, and has no competition for attention.
Instead of going full-frontal with the contact information, instructions, testimonials, you name it, focus on just a few elements that work great together. If this is a mobile landing page, keep it even simpler. Remember, the purpose of your landing page is for visitors to take action and opt-in to whatever it is you’re offering. Don’t drown them in more details than are absolutely necessary.Call-to-Action
The only true purpose for a landing page is a clear call-to-action . This message doesn’t necessarily have to be at the center of the page (but why not?), but all other elements on it should point to one specific call-to-action. You can either create a cohesive online experience that leads your web page visitors to take a defined and prescribed action or not. It all depends on how appropriate your call-to-action is in the first place and how you execute it on your landing page.So, many of you have probably heard of Michael Hyatt. He is a well-known business coach and self-professed leadership mentor. He also created the Full Focus Planner (so smart!) that you can order from his website. What you’ll observe on his landing page is nothing short of best-practice at its finest. The top fold is simple and easy, with one very clear and obvious call-to-action, “Order Now.” And if you were to visit this page and scroll down, you would find nothing but product information, reviews, and testimonials that reinforce the desired action for visitors to order one of these planners.
Replace “Order Now” for one of your own offers and visualize how much more downloads you’d receive if you made it as obvious as this example. And if your offer isn’t compelling, maybe this simple exercise will alert you to that as well. For example, a budget worksheet probably just doesn’t have the same draw since people hate creating budgets (as much as you may want them to do one). But, if you created a workbook they could buy that would make doing a budget feel more like planning for financial success…. then you might be on to something!Related: The Most Effective Marketing Tactics to Keep You Ahead of the PackRelated: Here’s How Much Original Content Should You Be ProducingThe Headline
Whatever marketing strategy you use to get people to land on your page, the headline plays an important role and should never be an afterthought. Research points to several elements that should be included in your title for more click-through rates.Headlines that have numbers, around eight words in total, emotional phrasing, with few positive superlatives, were shown to have the most success. Positive words such as always, most, or best underperformed by 60% regarding engagement as compared to words like never or worst.Need an example? Why not take a look at one of the leaders of headlines: CoSchedule. They have an amazing headline analyzer tool (also an effective landing page example) you can use to check your own headlines so, of course, they feature effective headlines of their own.
What you’ll notice is that there is nothing overly clever here. It’s just a really clear value proposition in the headline that gets you to click. Done. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that!