5 Actionable Tips to Increase Landing Page Conversion Rates in 2022

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What are Landing Pages?

Landing pages (also known as “squeeze pages” or “lead capture pages”) are a marketing tool that allows you to create an optimized page that is designed for one thing, converting visitors into paying customers.

Typically a landing page is a standalone element that is used in conjunction with ads, email campaigns, promotions, or targeted search engine optimized results. A landing page can be a bane or a boon depending on how it’s built. Poorly designed landing pages can destroy your ad spend and promotional efforts, while a well designed landing page can become a well oiled sales machine.

Below we go over some actionable tips that you can use to up your landing game and increase your chances of scoring some quality customers. So without further ado, onward to our first tip

5 Tips to Improve Conversions on Your Landing Page

Tip #1 – Understand your customer, create an avatar, and then plan the strategy for your page around them specifically

Ok, so this is really 3 things… but they go hand and hand. If you cast your net too wide, you’re not going to reach anyone. Your goal is to understand who you are targeting and their needs, then address those needs immediately.

This really hinges on how detailed you can get your image of your ideal customer (also known as an avatar or a persona). If you can visualize everything about them down to their pains and struggles, you will be able to gear your copy and approach to their needs specifically.

If you have never made a customer avatar, all you need to do is google something like “how to create a customer persona”. There are plenty of resources out there that are amazing, I really like this one by Neil Patel (How to Create Highly Accurate Customer Personas for Marketing). He does a bang up job by explaining the topic, why you are doing it, and also gives some great examples.

Example of customer avatar showing a bio, personality type, frequently used apps, motivations, goals and frustrations, and behaviors.

However, I don’t recommend just using one resource. When you research anything, you always need to source a few different examples to really understand the topic. So make sure you check out a few articles and build a solid image before you actually start planning.

Tip #2 – Make sure your page design is clean

A messy or unfocused page design can lead to sensory overload and confuse your prospective customer. The goal of this page is to take your visitor on a well planned journey and help them to understand that you have the solution to their problem. Too much clutter, and they won’t be able to understand your intent.

If you have a clean page design, you can use the psychology of color to evoke emotion and draw your reader to the important elements of your page effectively. (like your call to action)

Unbounce has an awesome list of the 34 best landing page examples for 2021 to get you started. Take notice of the colors that each page is using and how their design leads you from their value proposition to their intended endpoint. Another thing to note is that most landing pages will give you several points where you can convert on the page.

Tip #3 – Create a Compelling Call to Action (CTA)

Imagine your ideal customer is shopping and comes across your landing page for a hot new product that you’re selling. They scan the content and photos and are really getting excited to buy that new phone case or beard oil, but just as they are reading it dawns on them. They ask themselves, “Where the heck do I click to buy it?” “Where is the price?”

The frustration sets in.

After a few minutes of searching, they get tired of looking around and decide to type a new search in the bar of their browser. The worst has happened. They ended up on the website of one of their competitors and it provided them with all of the product info and a way to purchase immediately.

They are happy as a clam, but you just lost a sale and potentially a repeat customer because you didn’t provide them a way to finish their journey.

Previously, we discussed using the psychology of color to evoke an emotional response from your visitors. This will be super important to draw their attention and help influence their thoughts and behavior while shopping.

When you are working on your call to actions, you’ll want to experiment with the Color and Text you use. In digital marketing, it’s very common to do a type of testing called “AB testing” (aka “split testing”). In these types of tests, there are 2 or more variants of a page where you will try to test and isolate which one converts better.

For your CTAs, make sure their color contrasts the other elements on the page. Your button should stand out in the crowd and draw your visitors attention quickly and effortlessly. Which will be possible since your page is not cluttered (because you were listening to our last tip, right? 🙂 ).

Example of call to action in an ad from Shaw Academy

In the article, 15 Call to Action Examples (and how to write the perfect CTA) , Adspresso goes over how to design and build your CTAs for conversions. It’s a pretty solid article too. They even have a section talking about strong words to use depending on what industry you are writing for.

Tip #4 – ALWAYS plan and optimize for mobile/tablet

Now more than ever you have to make sure that your site is really fast, to ensure that you even have a chance with a potential customer. According to this awesome blog by Neil Patel (How loading time affects your bottom line), 40% of people will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Image of a tablet with a clock on it that says "Loading."

Walmart noted in a study they did that for every 1 second of time shaved off their page load, they experienced up to a 2% increase in conversions. (source)

Some marketing statistics on Google’s Blog echoed this sentiment but with even more fervor by saying “1-second delay in load time can impact conversion by up to 20% in retail.” (SOASTA,The State of Online Retail Performance, U.S., April 2017.)

But how do you optimize? Well, that’s tricky and depends on what aspects are slowing you down. A good way to start is to run an audit to find out where you stand and get insight on what to fix. Usually, we perform a few competing performance audits to paint a more complete picture.

Here are some tools we use:

Most of these services have actionable insights that explain why something typically occurs and how to fix it. Some of the top culprits are caching policy issues, large render blocking scripts or styles, and oversized images.

Tip #5 – Add Social Proof 

Social proof relates to using things like reviews, testimonials, or case studies. According to a Finances Online case study (https://financesonline.com/social-proof-statistics/) 93.4% of people rely on customer reviews when working with retailers they aren’t familiar with. That is absolutely MASSIVE!

Additionally, 93% will read a product review before making a decision about a purchase. Providing social proof on your landing page is a sure-fire way to increase trust, and as a result, conversions on your page.

Screenshot of some testimonials about Alkemy taken from Google.

But what kind of social proof should you use? Buffer published a really great post about Social Proof that provides examples of each and how to use them effectively.

Don’t have social proof yet? You’re a new company you say? There are ways around this.

  • If you offer a unique product that no-one else has, one of the best ways is to offer your product at a free or reduced price to a focus group of potential clients. Then ask them to provide a review of their experience (good or bad). Use the best reviews on your landing page, use the worst to understand how you can refine and improve your product/service.
  • For all other products that are more common, you can source reviews from the manufacturer, amazon, etc. Many different plugins and integrations exist to get product reviews from vendors. This can be a great way for you to get started.

Example of a previous campaign that we ran in October for 2 months of free SEO when you sign a 12 month agreement.

Final thoughts

These are only some of the things that go into a successful landing page. In today’s market, you need actionable data to make informed choices about how to build your landing page. Make sure you do your homework and study your ideal customer so that you can build a page that appeals to them.

Your primary goal should be to focus on what their pain is and show how your product or service can make a difference for them.

Not sure about how to proceed or need help? We are happy to set up a call and talk! Book an intro call today and let’s chat about how to make your next landing page a success.