Web Podcast - Episode 27: Tips for Creating a Landing Page

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Hey guys, welcome to the Razor Web Design Wire Podcast, episode 27. Today we’re talking about landing pages.

What are landing pages? They are a way of setting up a page, where when people click on an offer from Facebook, or Google and they get the exact information about the exact thing they click on straight away. A lot of people will send people to a home page from ads, that's not really a good idea, if you're selling or offering different services, and someone clicks on a specific service; let's say you're a builder and I'm searching for new home builders, I click on the ad and I end up on a page and it has renovations as the first thing that comes up, that's going to make me back out of the site.

We need to set up a landing page on the site for new builds.

It may be that it includes an offer, like a free architecturally designed floor plan with any new build. Make a landing page that's specific to the offer. That way when someone clicks on the ad they'll go to the page they're looking for. They're not looking at things not relevant to what they've clicked on.

If you're not doing that already, make sure you do this straight away so you don't end up wasting money.

On a landing page we have a general layout. We have the heading offer, it could be a new camera range you have in stock, it could be a new line of Louis Vuitton handbags. What's the offer? The offer should link back to what the ad was. If it is new Louis Vuitton bags, or new XYZ. make sure the heading offer reflects that. People want to see it straight away. Have a brief description that includes the offer. Include an image of the product, make them big, include lifestyle shots. If you want to buy a car, you don't just see the car on a white background, you see the car with someone in it driving down the motorway. It looks beautiful. That's a lifestyle shot. Sell the feel the person will get from owning the product.

That's for products.

If we’re doing services, include pictures of the services you've done for previous customers. If you're a builder include your best project on the front screen.

Things to bear in mind, if you're going to do things like that, be price conscious. If you're a home builder and you put a mansion on there, but you're selling cheaper homes, you may put people off. Furthermore, after the product and service information, we want to list more features on what's on offer. Not just the offer itself but also the features of the product.

How it adds value to the person.

We want to include if the home is insulated (if you're selling houses) state if it includes LED lighting, stuff like that is important.

Then we go onto the call to action. What are we doing? Are we enquiring, or filling in a from, what's the phone number?

We want to put a call to action in. then add some sort of restricted time frame so people make a decision straight away otherwise people will procrastinate. A lot of people walk around and they're indecisive. I'm a bit guilty for that. Make the call straight away, don't be pushy, but we want them to enquire so we can talk to them. People like being talked too rather than sitting on a website. People like to talk to people. Obviously if it's cheap stuff, say cameras or electronics, then we can keep them on the website. If it's expensive stuff, we should include our phone number.

When we set up the content on the landing page, we want to relate it back to the topic the user searched for. If you're selling laptops, we want to show them the list of laptops, or the options we have. A lot of people in business try and word things around how they would understand it, rather than how the customer would. If you're selling laptops, yes there are people that like to know the technical specs, but most people just want to know what it can do. Rather than saying what the laptop has inside, we want to tell them what's it's suitable for instead. You've got to gear the content towards what the user is looking for.

In another episode I talk about having the content simple at the top, then more detail at the bottom. 20% of people want the short and sweet, let's o that. Jave the facts of the product at the top, then towards the bottom, include the specs down there.

The next one is you need to set up buttons on your landing page. Include these in every section of the page. Get an instant quote or add to cart, whatever it might be.

The next section should include the product specifications, include the same button.

Then include it after a testimonial.

We want the call to action throughout the page.

Try to hide the navigation bar on your landing page. Get rid of it entirely. We don't want to distract people with all the different links. Get rid of the bar, and just have the logo, your phone number, call to action buttons and your products. Don't overload people with options. We want them to click that button or they'll just end up going back.

Once we've done that we want to include our offer on the page. If were selling a service we can include the offer, if were selling a product include them. You may not be selling it on special offer, you could just be offering free shipping. That's fine. But have an offer on there and set it up on the page. Make a mention of it at the top of the page.

What I'd like you guys to do, include a testimonial on the page. Include a blurb from a customers who's purchased before. Get them to help sell the product. People like the reinforcement that you're trustworthy. They need to know that your service does what it says it does. We want to include a testimonial, further from that, if you can, include their picture, name and location. It's always helpful when compared to just a name. Include as much detail as you can, people trust testimonials as much as they would a personal reference.

The final part is, we want to include individual pages of each offer. If you're selling cameras, or digital cameras, whatever. You need to set up individual landing pages for each of those things. Set up individual landing pages. Once you've set it up, duplicate it, set those different pages up. Then you're getting it perfect. You're not including a generic landing page, it's specific to that offer.

Finally, set up two or more versions of the landing page. It's tedious but save another version. Get some people going to one page, and people going to another. Track how many conversions you're getting from each page. How many people are buying from that ad, you may have 100 people land on each page, then you want to be able to see how many sales you got from those 100 people on each of the pages. If page A got you ten sales and page B got you 1 sale, this means that page A is the better page. Then, delete page B, get page A, save it, and make another version and see if you can improve it, then run the same experiment again. You're constantly improving your landing page until you get one that may be getting every 3 in 10 clicks buying. Get a page that really converts and you'll see the sales go through the roof.

Hope this helps guys, it takes a bit of time to set up landing pages. Make sure you do it right. It's an experiment, you're never going to get it perfect. Always aim to improve it.

That's landing pages guys, hope you enjoyed it. Matt from Razor Web Design Wire Podcast and join us next time.