5 Strategies for Developing a Winning Landing Page

Making a good impression on your landing page happens within just a matter of seconds — or milliseconds, according to Ion Interactive, which reports that this happens in just 1/20th of a second. The problem is, you can make a bad impression just as quickly.

What’s the difference between a good impression and a bounce? It all comes down to design. In fact, one study determined that 94% of first impressions are based on design. That means that a poorly designed landing page could spell disaster for your campaign — and even for your business.

There are several design mistakes that every landing page should avoid, including:

• The use of stock imagery
• Slow loading time
• Low-quality visuals — or an absence of visuals altogether
• Excessive text
• A poorly placed call-to-action

But avoiding these blunders isn’t enough. Here are 5 strategies that can boost engagement on any landing page.

1. A Landing Page Video

Motion graphics can boost conversions by up to 80%. No wonder, then, that a landing page video can contribute to the success of your page in a big way.

Videos and motion graphics are a great way to reel in potential customers from the minute they load your site. A text-heavy landing page can drive them away: most people will only read about 20% of a web page that has 600+ words. Video, though, dominates online traffic, and is growing more popular every day. Take advantage of this shift by including a landing page video on your site to improve engagement.

To ensure that your video is as engaging as possible, make sure to opt for custom animation, icons, live-action film, and overall design. Consumers are likely to bounce if they see stock images and icons. Also make sure your video isn’t too long — or too short. The optimal length for your video is between 30 and 90 seconds. Check out our post on branded motion graphics and videos to understand why.

2. Interactive Elements

From quizzes to calculators to interactive infographics, interactive elements make a landing page feel instantly more personalized to the viewer. When people input custom information about themselves into, say, a calculator that helps them determine what kind of home loan they’re eligible for, the resulting information is instantly more valuable to them.

In the end, then, interactive widgets will keep people on your landing page longer. It follows that spending more time on a page could lead to improved conversions, and in fact, visual interactive content has a 70% conversion rate.

To learn more, check out Killer CEO Amy Balliett’s article in Inc. about the 6 most popular types of interactive content today and how to deploy them in your next marketing campaign.

3. A Clear Call-to-Action

Your landing page can aim to achieve any goal you like. But, as SEO guru Neil Patel explains, “that purpose needs to be clear and linked to an appropriate call-to-action.”

Eye-tracking studies are a great way to learn how users interact with the typical landing page. You’ll want to make sure that your web page places a prominent call-to-action in a place that’s likely to fall into the visual field of the average site visitor.

From a design perspective, you also need to make sure that your call-to-action stands out and offers a clear way to act. For example, a button that doesn’t look like a button isn’t likely to elicit many clicks.

4. Custom Design

Compared to designs that use stock images, custom designs are 7x more likely to convert. That’s a huge potential boost to your bottom line.

What kinds of custom design, besides motion graphics and interactive elements, can you include? Icons and illustrations that showcase your products and/or services are a great resource — and you can use them again and again across a variety of resources.

Many marketers will also offer access to an ebook or whitepaper to anyone who visits their landing page. It’s a great way to guide visitors farther down the conversion funnel. Just make sure these materials adhere to the same level of quality as your landing page. Ensuring that they also have the same look and feel will lend an air of professionalism and unity to your campaign as a whole, and that inspires confidence in your company.

5. A Campaign-Specific Landing Page

HubSpot reports that 48% of marketers create unique landing pages for each campaign. That’s because a visual marketing campaign often has goals that are more specific than the overall goal of a company. So when you create a new landing page just for your campaign, you can customize the design and messaging to appeal to the particular audience that your campaign is targeting, and to achieve your campaign’s unique goal.

You can also ensure that the design of your page is visually consistent with the other assets you’ve created for your campaign and shared on social media and other platforms.

Try these 5 strategies and you’re likely to see a big boost in engagement and conversions on your landing page.