Creating a Compelling Landing Page

A landing page is intended to “warm-up”, engage, and educate potential customers about a specific product, service, or promotion. A well-crafted landing page should also generate more qualified leads than your generic website, while also improving your search page ranking and increasing organic traffic.

Whether you are creating a landing page as a product-specific area of your website as a lead generation activity, or a promotional click-through campaign, below are some best practices to employ to help yield positive results.

Five Key Elements to Include in Your Landing Page: 

1. VALUE PROPOSITION: This is by far the most important element of your landing page. You want your value proposition to describe clearly what value your prospects will get from your product or solution and why your company should be considered. Be sure to make this
statement about the value you bring to them, making the
experience more personal. For example "Migrating your email to the cloud gives your organization the convenience of …"

Helpful Hint: If your prospect can’t determine the purpose of your page within the first 15 seconds, they will move on. Ask a colleague to review your page and have them describe to you what value they gained by reading the page. Often, hearing another person interpret your content will strengthen your
understanding and help you craft a more effective value proposition.

2. PRODUCT OR SOLUTION DESCRIPTION:
Now that you have explained the value you offer, you next should provide
in-depth information. In the description of your product or solution, you want to address your ideal buyer directly and provide informative and compelling details that will educate your target audience.
Helpful Hint: As a best practice, package your product descriptions in a scannable design that is clear, so visitors can read and digest the information quickly. Also think about adding icons or a product grid to make it engaging to read.

3. KEY BENEFITS OF YOUR SOLUTION:
At the end of the day, your prospect wants to know "How will this help me?". Take this opportunity to share, in detail, the core benefits of your product or solution. Think about including elements around how the product or solution will solve their pain points or improve their current situation. This is also a great opportunity to highlight your key points of differentiation.

Helpful Hint: Consider how you would address your ideal buyer if you were selling your product or solution in-person. Try to incorporate that style into the descriptions of your benefits so it resonates more deeply. Similar to your product description, keep your points brief and to the point, and in a list for easy scanning.

4. CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS:
One of the most effective elements in a landing page is a client's testimonial. Sharing stories about customers who have purchased your product or solution and are happy with the results helps to ease the mind of decision makers. Just like you and me, your prospects are more likely to complete a call-to-action if the page includes positive product ratings and reviews.

Helpful Hint: Often, we tend only to include a quote from a client or customer, but what about pictures?  By adding a person's photo, company photo, or company logo to the quote, you increase trust among prospects and make it more identifiable.

5. CALL TO ACTION: 
Creating a call-to-action (CTA) moves a prospect down the funnel and is the beginning of the sales process. Your CTA can take many shapes from a “click for more information“, to “watch a video”, to a full blown “contact me” form. A “contact me” form should include a short paragraph to explain what you're giving in exchange for any personal data you may be asking for. Be careful about how much information you ask for. Often times, you only need to ask for your prospect's name and email address. This information can be used to send a follow-up correspondence, to convert
prospects into leads. 

Helpful Hint: Your landing page should have all navigation and extra links removed, so there is only a single action for your visitors to take, completing your CTA. Also, describe what will happen when they click your CTA and include that description instead of the generic "Submit". For example:  “Get my free eBook now”, “Start my 30-day free trial”.