In this blog, Matthew Creswick, Group Marketing Director at Huble Digital, discusses landing page conversion rates and how marketers can improve their landing pages to convert more leads.
Unlike other aspects of digital marketing where the answer is rather frustratingly “it depends”, when it comes to a ‘good’ landing page conversion rate, there’s a widely accepted industry average of 25% in B2B.
That’s right, a ‘good’ landing page should convert 25% of the visitors it receives into leads. So, if you have a landing page that receives 100 visits per month, it should convert at least 25 contacts each month.
But everyone’s idea of ‘good’ is different. In our experience, a landing page conversion rate of 25% is the absolute minimum. Anything lower and there’s something wrong with the landing page.
For us, a landing page conversion rate of 50% is ideal – and that’s what you too should aim for.
Of course, there are plenty of things that can affect a landing page’s conversion rate, from the offer provided to the calls-to-action (CTAs) used, so in this blog, I’ll share some tips you can use to improve your landing pages and convert more visitors into leads.
1. Use a clean, minimal design
The best landing pages are clean and simple. No animation or distractions. No long paragraphs. No links. Just a recap of the visitor’s challenges and how what’s on offer can help them.
Website visitors that click onto landing pages are definitely interested in what you have to offer – so make it easy for them to take the next step (submitting their details) by keeping the content and form as short and punchy as possible. The worst thing you can do is get people onto your landing page and them distract them with unnecessary clutter!
2. Add trust signals
Trust signals are features or qualities on your website that inspire trust and persuade website visitors to purchase a product or service from your business.
You will have seen them before on product/service pages – reviews, testimonials, logos from other reputable companies/vendors and so on.
Trust signals on your website – whether in the form of testimonials, quotes or even logos from businesses that have worked with you – can help to persuade website visitors on landing pages to fill in the form and submit their details.
Make sure you ask your current customers for testimonials and quotes about your products and services. You can then use these on landing pages for those products and services. For example, you could include a quote from someone who has read one of your eBooks, or perhaps a statement like “join thousands of others reading our content by subscribing to our blog”.
3. Create concise, value-orientated copy
Now that you’ve got a website visitor onto a landing page, you need to communicate the value of the offer to them. Your landing page copy should be short, concise and engaging. It should clearly detail the challenges your website visitor has and how the piece of content on offer will help them.
P.S. Consider using bullet points to simplify your pages further and deliver content in a more digestible manner.
4. Use mobile-friendly and responsive design
To maximise conversion opportunities, you need to make it easy for visitors to view your landing pages regardless of the device they are using.
More people search on mobile phones than desktops and laptops. Statistics from Statista show that in 2018, 52.2% of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones – up from 50.3% in the previous year. Mobile currently accounts for half of all global web pages served.
Taking this into account, building landing pages that are mobile-friendly (perhaps even mobile-first) and is vital to retaining website visitors.
5. Ensure the length of the form reflects the value of the offer
The length of the form should reflect the value of the offer. If you are offering a detailed whitepaper or market research report for example, asking for more than just the visitor’s name and email is perfectly acceptable.
The questions you ask should help you to qualify leads further. For example, you could ask a question like: “What is your current challenge?” and then use the responses to the question to segment your contact database further and personalise your outreach.
6. Keep important content above the fold
One of the undisputed rules of website content is keeping important information above the fold – a visitor shouldn’t have to scroll to find the information they need.
Of course, with mobile phones and tablets, where the fold is on a page will differ so you will need to take that into account when developing the responsive versions of your web pages.
Your form should be above the fold too for easy access.
7. Write benefit-focused headlines
You need to present the benefit/value of the content on offer the moment the website visitor arrives on the landing page.
This means creating a powerful headline that draws the visitor in and makes them go “Oh, I could do with some of that.”
8. Search engine optimised landing pages
While you’ll no doubt be using email marketing, social media and calls-to-action (CTAs) in other content to drive people to your landing pages – you can also drive traffic to them using search engines.
If you optimise your landing pages for specific keyword terms, when someone executes a search including those terms, they should be able to find your landing page.
Also, if you are using paid advertising to promote your landing pages, the keywords you use in your ad copy should also be in the copy on your landing pages.
9. Create landing pages for different audiences
If you’ve segmented your target audience – why not create separate landing pages too? Creating separate landing pages and crafting its content based on the challenges of your buyer personas will ensure your landing pages resonate.
This approach will give you the best possible opportunity to convert website visitors into leads. You can also use A/B testing to determine what copy works best for a specific audience.
10. Remove all navigation
The principal purpose of a landing page is to convert visitors into leads. Nothing else. That means there shouldn’t be any links to other pages on your website (save those for thank you pages) or anything that might distract the website visitor from filling in and submitting the form on the page.
You want to keep the visitor’s attention on the form. Remember that!
11. Remember to use a thank you page
Finally, once the website visitor has completed the form, send them to a thank you page. Here you can include links to other relevant offers/content assets – moving the visitor (now a lead) further into the buyer’s journey.
For example, if the visitor converts on a pricing or demonstration page, you could send them to technical documentation pages, case studies and other services you offer.
If you follow the practices outlined in this blog, you’ll have a good chance of increasing the conversion rates of your landing pages. Of course – it’s not an exact science so you’ll have to do a lot of experimentation to find out what works best for you.
Make sure to report on the success of your landing pages and use that as a baseline for future improvement.
