When organization’s want to make a good impression on new comers they often start by having welcoming banners and refreshments at the place where the guests will first arrive. First impressions are equally important on the web. That’s what makes the landing page of a site, the page people first arrive to when visiting the site from an ad or link used in marketing materials, one of the most important pages on a site. The landing page is what converts visitors into customers. Here are four tips to increase the conversion rate of a business’s landing page.
Add Videos To The Landing Page
Adding videos to a landing page is a good way to boost the conversion rate for a site. According to one report, adding video to a landing page can increase the conversion rate by up to 86 percent. While live action videos can still be very effective, they are difficult to do well. Showcasing an amateurish (poor lighting, bad sound quality, etc.) video on a landing page may hurt the conversion rate more than help it. For businesses that don’t have a lot of video editing experience, a good alternative is using an online video maker to mix still photos and royalty-free music into a video presentation. Also, there are several sites that offer online animation programs that can be used to create videos. Many of these have fees involved, but some, like PowToon have free versions that marketers can use to get started.Use Images and Colors Wisely
When designing a landing page, it’s important that certain elements, like the call to action, are immediately visible to viewers of the page. One way to accomplish this is to use contrasting colors. Using contrasting colors on submission forms or clickable graphics will make them stand out. Another image-related thing that businesses can do is use logos from the companies they’ve worked with or photos with customer testimonials. These items add credibility to an organization which may be enough to get people to explore the site further. However, images and graphics must be used wisely. There is a risk of the page becoming visually cluttered. Not only can too many images distract visitors, they can potentially slow down the site. According to the Aberdeen Group, a one-second delay in page-load time results in 11% fewer page views, a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction, and a 7% loss in conversions.Use A/B Testing
Hunter S. Thompson once said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” Since landing pages fall under the category of ‘anything’ the saying is applicable here. Marketers need to make the effort to ensure that the landing pages they’ve designed are working as well as possible. This means a lot of things. For example, business owners shouldn’t just settle for the first landing page that shows results. A slight variation on that initial page could dramatically increase the conversion rate of the page. This is why A/B testing is essential for successful landing pages. Briefly, an A/B test is when multiple versions of a landing page are used and then comparisons can be made to see which performed better. This isn’t as hard at it sounds and there are even tools in Google Analytics that can help, but all the same, this may be the kind of the thing that marketers wish to outsource. According to Econsultancy, for the past two years, A/B testing has been ranked the most important method of increasing conversion rates.Use Multiple Landing Pages
A final piece of advice on landing pages is to use several different landing pages. About 44 percent of marketers use different landing pages for every marketing campaign. Others use multiple pages on the same campaign depending on where the visitor is coming from (i.e. people who clicked on an ad with family themes are sent to a page that is geared toward their interest). There are good statistical reasons for them to do this. According to research from Hubspot, businesses with 31 to 40 landing pages got seven times more leads than those with less than five landing pages. Those with over 40 landing pages got 12 times more leads than those with only one to five landing pages.
As more and more businesses use the internet to reach customers, it becomes essential that business owners not waste the opportunity they have to turn visitors to a site into customers. The landing page is the most important part of the sales cycle because if people turn away before even looking within the site, an opportunity can be lost before it even begins. Though it may take effort and maybe a little expert know how it’s important that businesses have a landing page that puts their best foot forward.