Welcome to the second part of our two-part blog series on how to get the most out of your landing pages.
In Part 1, we covered:
- What landing pages are
- What to consider in planning
- What the best practices are
In this week’s post (Part 2), we’ll explore:
- What the elements of a good landing page are
- Some examples of good landing page design
Happy learning!
Landing Page Design Elements
If you’re just getting started with landing page design, we recommend sticking to the following basic properties until you’re more comfortable with them:
1. Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP), focussed on a single proposal, like downloading a PDF or signing up for a service. This should include:
- The main headline
- A supporting headline
- A reinforcing statement
- A closing argument
2. The ‘hero shot’: an image or video showing your product in use.
3. The benefits of your offer, including:
- A bulleted list summarising the benefits of your product
- A short description of features and benefits. Limit this to one or two lines of the most important info with a CTA above the fold. If you need to include more information, put it in after this, so interested readers can scroll for more. Visit this page for more copy tips.
4. Social proof, like testimonials or logos of well-known businesses that use your product.
5. A single call to action, with or without a subscription form.
Here’s an example of how Tableau uses these elements:
Once you’ve collected data on how your users interact with your landing pages, you can experiment with these elements and refine them for better performance.
Examples of Great Landing Pages
Here are some great landing pages that we’ve come across.
This landing page is linked to from a Facebook ad about an online course. It asks readers for their email address and other personal data to download more info about the programme.
What we like:
It has a big, eye-catching image, the description is clear, and the call-to-action is obvious. Again, all the important info is right at the top, so readers don’t have to scroll for more.
This Sanlam landing page is linked to from an online advert. It’s simple, eye-catching, and it has one clear CTA.
What we like:
The message and image catch the reader’s curiosity by being entertaining and relatable – especially regarding topics as universally relevant as life and savings. Sharing a high-quality video continues with the same entertaining theme and allows you to share more information without them having to read.
Traffic is driven to this Writer’s Life landing page via a Facebook ad and asks readers to share their name and email address to download free content.
What we like:
Landing pages don’t have to have images. If your message is clear and consistent, and the content on the other side is enticing enough, something as simple as this is enough. The copy in this example can be shorter, better formatted, and have fewer exclamation marks, but the design illustrates how simple you can go if your circumstances allow it.
A Facebook ad directs readers to this Slack landing page. The page has a short and clear description, bright and colourful imagery in line with the brand, and requires only an email address to get started.
What we like:
The message is simple, clear, and straightforward, and the playful image forms part of the message by illustrating a bright and dynamic workspace. We also like that the page doesn’t demand much from the reader, which increases the chance of readers clicking through.
This Asana home page isn’t strictly a landing page, but they get so much right, we thought we’d share. It gives a high-level overview of what the product does and asks for the reader’s email address to get started on a free trial.
What we like:
It has a clear message and call-to-action. You can scroll down to learn more about Asana, but you don’t need to, because all the important info is right at the top.
Conclusion
When building your landing page, remember to have a single goal, with all the elements on the page leading the reader to one clear CTA. This can be very effective at gathering user information, converting leads, and even growing your newsletter database (you can use a simple checkbox for this).
Once you’ve got the hang of it, don’t be afraid to experiment a little and analyse your landing page reports to see what works best for your audience.
Try it. It’s worth it.
