It’s so simple: you need to create a site, write down key benefits, start traffic and watch happily how payments for your goods or services come to your bank account. That is the perfect picture. In reality, everything is different: time, effort and money are invested in the landing page, but as a result you have to increase the conversion constantly. Why is this happening? One of the most popular reasons is improper preparation for the creation of such a site. In most cases, the emphasis is on creative design, loud slogans and large budgets in advertising campaigns. In this article, we will consider what five steps you need to take to develop a converting landing page.
1. Understand customer needs and goals as much as possible
What are his values? Why does he do what he does? What segment does he work with? Why did he choose these people? Is he ready to work with these segments himself? Is he ready to give up other segments or will it be difficult for him?
It is important to work out deeply the final audience and be sure to coordinate it with the customer. Different people perceive the same product with differences in reaction and thinking, which means that the content must correspond to their preferences.
For example, the owner wants to reach more status clients, but due to internal attitudes and fears, he constantly broadcasts meanings that suit his old audience. The paradox is that it is from the last category of clients that he wants to abandon and no longer work with them. If you do not work through this issue, the new landing page will attract those who always consider price as expensive, simply because its visitors are from the old level of the client.
2. Study the market situation
What are the strong players? What new companies and individuals enter the market? How much is the price tag higher or lower than what has already been announced? Is the product relevant to the market? If not, is the owner ready to allocate resources to warm up this market?
If the market is not ready for the product or service that will be displayed on it, even the coolest landing page will not give the desired conversion and sales. Imagine that 10 years ago they began to talk about AI: people still perceive it skeptically, and at that time they could anathematize everyone who would say that a neural network could write songs, lyrics and paintings from scratch.
3. Work out the visual component in terms of positioning
It is important to build on the value characteristics of the business, on the personal brand of the manager, on which segment of the audience the proposal is directed at. The owner must understand: his preferences for colors and individual elements may differ from the results of marketing research. If you insist on your personal preferences, the risk increases of not getting the desired result in the form of conversions and sales.
Let’s say a dental clinic and a website in red. Can you imagine how potential customers will perceive this? Dentistry as an area that is already associated with pain, blood, causes a lot of fears, will be presented in red, which will further strengthen these attitudes.
If a potential client has a misalignment between value, promise and visual packaging, it will cause deep rejection. For business, this is one of the terrible moments: if a person feels deceived because there was one thing in the visual component, and when getting acquainted with a product or service, a completely different feeling arises, he is unlikely to buy something. In addition, in the future he will not be friendly.
4. Consider a strategy for further communication
It’s just that the site sells less and less in one touch, even with huge budgets and the most pumped personal brand. The exception is exclusive niches where you will be the only representative. Direct advertising also ceased to give good results.
Today, a system should be built on the landing page, which will take into account how you will capture the client, warm him, cling and return to yourself. For this, the so-called sales funnel is being developed, which performs all these functions.
Important: the funnel is not a call to fill out a feedback form or leave a request for cooperation. If there are no prices on the site but at the same time approximately the same product with competitors with a predictable price, the call to fill out a questionnaire to get an individual calculation will only annoy. This technique is morally outdated.
For example, one good way to attract visitors to the funnel is through pop-ups that offer a bonus, gift or useful material. A potential client leaves his data, receives something important for him and then treats new messages from you and your company more favorably.
5. Use all opportunities to confirm expertise
This can be done through media publications. Such articles are broadcasting: iconic magazines and publications trust you, which means that potential customers can do it too.
Another way is use of the most detailed cases with photos and screenshots. It is important to describe exactly how you helped the client with a focus on what is important to potential buyers. A few “thank you, it’s OK” sentences don’t work. Specify what request the client made, how exactly you helped to deal with him and what result he received. So you will use the facts to demonstrate to the visitors of the landing page your professionalism and willingness to help.
Remember: the number of cases is important for the most insolvent audience. A more premium segment carefully reads the text or watches the video – such people want to get to know each other better, find some common features, get to know themselves in your experience and on this basis make a purchase decision.
We summarize and conclude
To create a landing page that converts visitors into buyers and thereby increases sales, it is important to work out the foundation as much as possible. Design and texts should not be at the first place: they should be the consequence of marketing analysis. Then such a landing page will work and provide sales.
By Vladmira Simuran, business and brand strategist, psychologist-psychotherapist, founder of Simuran Consulting