Your landing page is often the first point of interaction between your product and a potential customer. This means that the impression your landing page gives to a customer goes a long way in determining whether the customer moves to the next point of action or not.
Your landing page isn’t necessarily your homepage. It’s any page that people land on after being directed to your product from another place. So, this means that people who come through this place often have a specific reason for coming to that landing page – to get more information, to sign up, or get a reward/acquire a product.
Now, imagine that the person lands on the referred page and finds a hard time in getting the information they want, or do not get their needs met as fast as possible. They’ll definitely get turned off and leave, which means you’ll be dealing with a very high bounce rate and low conversion. Since it takes them a very long tedious process to get what they want. They’ll most likely leave and get what they need somewhere else.

We’ve therefore put together a couple of guidelines (with tips from Google’s Primer) that’ll help you create good landing pages:

  • If you are running a campaign with a specified target or conversion goal, make sure the Ad clicks through to the actual landing page of that product, action, information or offer. Your homepage should not be the landing page for this, or else, you’ll get people lost, confused and turned off. Let the landing page point to what was in the Ad and help people complete their transaction quickly.
  • Put your best foot forward and be sure to put your most popular features and links.
  • Let strong copy be your sword! Write good copy that get customers to quickly understand and take action on the landing page. Good copy will help customers complete their transaction in record time.
  • Use Images that are both attractive and functional. Make sure the images and designs are consistent with your brand
  • Also, have good directional cues. From the images to the copy to buttons and Calls to Action, be sure that everything on the landing page gives direction and focus.
  • Keep it as simple as possible. Don’t flood your potential users with so much information that they get worn out. This is not the place to talk about your company philosophy or get them to fill a form as long as a bunch of people’s arms.

Take a look at Pockets ‘Sign Up Now’ landing page. It’s simple, has a strong copy and the Call to Action is straightforward. There’s no unnecessary information, and the images/colours used accentuate the important actions.

pocket-landing-page

Also, Basecamp‘s Free Trial page is simple and straightforward. The copy is strong, with the headline unambiguous. The form users fill is very short and on point, followed by a trail of testimonial confirming word of mouth awesomeness.s.

basecamp landing page