Secrets to effective landing pages
20 May

This blog explores the steps you can be taking to ensure your website converts visitors into customers

Why is this important?

55%+ of your site traffic will leave after only seeing your homepage

Having a great homepage isn’t just a luxury. It’s your first impression.

Keep the customer journey clear and simple. The more you detour the more confused your average visitor will be. You'll make it more challenging for them to identify what your company does, why they should care and prevent them from completing your desired end goal

Don't stand in your customers way, guide them.

The short attention span myth...

We in fact have short consideration spans and need to be hooked quickly, people can happily binge watch a whole season on netflix.

Don't fear long content, just make sure your first impression has the hook you need.

Primary Landing pages

The four we will focus on here are:-

  • Homepage - Your catch-all page to engage visitors of every persona
  • Persona landing page - Somewhere you tailor messages to a specific audiences
  • Product page - Catchy exploration of one product
  • Menu page - Simple streamlined order flow

Homepage

We want to plan its creation from the perspecive of a visitor's liklihood to convert. Conversion put simply:-
Conversion Rate = Desire - Effort - Confusion
In short, to increase conversion rates we must increase desire while reducing effort and confusion

Increase Desire

Attract visitors with how great your products are, how much value you provide, create intrigue

Reduce Effort

Decrease the steps your visitors perform so they don't get tired or frustrated and leave prematurely. How you ask? Be concise, every word and design element should be of value and guide to your end goals.

Reduce Confusion

Every sentence must be easy to understand. Messages should guide to the actions they should take next (e.g. register, book or buy). Make the design of your CTA (call to action) elements (e.g. buttons) unmissable. Don't use obscure or verbose messaging.

So your homepage design should not start with the visuals but:-

Stage 1 - Determine - what are my end goals?

Stage 2 - Hone your message

Stage 3 - How you will word it what are my hooks/most desirable selling points

Stage 4 - Refine text, images/animations that will convey these clearly & concisely

Stage 5 - Finally what it looks like with visuals

Selling points (aka value propositions)

A value proposition is a quality of your product that is matched with a benefit to your customer.

Let's take TillTech as an example, we pride ourselves on being automated & secure.

Quality = Automated

Benefit: Quicker output | Value Proposition: Tasks completed faster

Benefit: Greater output | Value Proposition: Get more work completed

Benefit: No human error | Value Proposition: Prevent costly mistakes

Benefit: Increased efficiency | Value Proposition: Save yourself and your teams time

Each variation is based on our core quality automation but conveys each unique benefit that is derived from this automation - unique benefits

Succinct doesn’t mean short.

It means a high ratio of ideas to words.

Paul Graham

The Structure

We would advise starting with this structure then when its working you can then start A/B testing variations monitoring conversions

  • Navbar - Logo - CTA - nav links optional
  • Hero - Clear message - enticing imager more ctas
  • Social Proof - testimonials, reviews, well known customers
  • CTA buy / pay / register / book
  • Features and Objections detailed key value props
  • Repeat CTA
  • Footer - Terms/links/etc