Landing pages are like the Swiss Army knives of online marketing. They can do it all! Want to generate leads? Check. Launch a new product line? Check. Add a preference center? Check. If you have marketing goals, a landing page can help.
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a stand-alone page you create to accomplish one goal. Typically, the goal is to capture contact information or sell a product. Contact information is captured in exchange for a special offer: ebook download, to join a waitlist, RSVP for an event, or to subscribe to or edit preferences for a newsletter. When selling a product, a landing page exists to promote to a specific audience or sell a seasonal offer or special product line.
To accomplish this, every landing page should:
- Be clear and enticing
- Make it easy for customers to enter their information
In this resource, we’re going to cover 7 quick best practices to help you build a landing page that converts. But first, let’s spotlight the #1 way we like to use landing pages: the preference center.
Or jump directly to a spot below!
- Spotlight: The Preference Center Landing Page
- How to Create a Landing Page (7 Best Practices with Examples!):
- Define Your Goal
- Keep it Super Simple
- A Clear CTA: “Download the Guide Today”
- Beauty Attracts and Entices
- Use Emotions: Benefits Connect, Features Bore
- “It Worked for Me!”
- Landing Page Testing: When it Doubt, Test it Out
Spotlight: The Preference Center Landing Page
The #1 way we like to use landing pages is for a preference center.
What is a preference center? A preference center empowers subscribers to customize the messages they receive from you by allowing them to choose how frequently or in what category they want to receive messages.
Why add a preference center? A preference center can reduce unsubscribes by as much as 30%. Many consumers today want to receive updates by SMS or email, they just want to be in control of how many messages they receive.
While preference centers are the most popular use case for our landing page builder, there are many other ways to use a landing page. Whether you need a master landing page for a specific promotion, growing your newsletter list, or simply age gating your website, here are our top 7 best practices – with examples!
How to Create a Landing Page (7 Quick Best Practices)
While every page's purpose, audience, and goals are different, there are best practices every landing page can follow and customize to efficiently achieve their goals.
Let’s dive in!
1. Define Your Landing Page's Goal
This first step sets the stage for every decision you make. You have one page to achieve your goal. What is it? Here are a few examples:
- Collect customer contact information to subscribe to your newsletter or download a resource
- Drive sales to a product, service, seasonal, or promotional offer
- Age gate your site
- Invite new users to create an account
- Encourage subscribers to customize their preferences instead of unsubscribing with a preference center (i.e. choose the frequency or types of emails they receive)
- Drive entries to your sweepstakes or contest
Of course, your goal may vary. After all, there’s so much more you can do with your site! What do you want your landing page to do?
2. Keep it Super Simple
You want visitors to arrive, see your offer, and convert all in one page. This is a lot to ask of one page! That's why it's important to simplify.
Define your offer and your ask right away. A single, scroll-free page like the one above may be all you need.
Still, some landing pages are longer. They may include:
- An emotional story of how a product changed their life
- Quotes, ratings, or quick stories from other customers
- A more detailed explanation of everything included in the product
- Other engaging ways to build both trust in the brand and buy-in to follow through with the exchange
Short or long, all landing pages include the offer (what the customer will get) + the ask (what the customer will give in exchange.)
3. Create A Clear CTA for Your Page
Now that you have your goal and some simple plans to build your landing page, choose a clear CTA!
What one thing are you asking visitors to do? Think short, simple, and to the point.
- Buy Today
- Subscribe
- Get your free copy
- Sign up
- Apply today
- RSVP
- Create your account
Of course, these are simple examples. If your brand voice is casual, conversational, or lively, get more creative with it!
4. Beauty Attracts and Entices
Design matters. When building your landing page, imagine this is the online page they’ll ever see. No surfing from the home page to the about page to the services page. This is your one shot!
So make it beautiful.
5. Use Emotions: Benefits Connect, Features Bore
People buy things that make them feel something. Instead of listing your features to speak for themselves, build an emotional connection around your offer.
Instead of listing ingredients for your skincare product, explain how it won't dry out your skin! Skip the technical specs of your speakers in favor of describing what it feels like to listen to them. Don't provide an entire syllabus of your online Spanish course; talk about the amazing experiences you'll have traveling to Spain!
6. “It Worked for Me!”
People want to know that what you’re offering is worth it. If it is, your exchange will be a no-brainer. One way to prove the value of your offer is to share positive feedback or testimonials from a customer or subscriber.
A few examples of this:
- Ratings and reviews
- Testimonials
- Real customer before and after stories
- Influencer videos or other content
- Get creative with your own spin!
7. Landing Page Testing: When in Doubt, Test it Out
This best practice is easy to miss: once your landing page is created, test it out! Is there a design that works better? A CTA that will perform better? Improve the efficiency of your landing page by testing out a few options and keeping the one that performs better.
Here are a few things you could test:
- CTAs
- Main featured images
- Whether or not to include a customer story
- Design theme
Build a Landing Page
Creating a landing page can be as simple as using a drag-and-drop editor. Following these best practices will contribute to a successful campaign, whatever your goal. Remember, landing pages keep it fast, simple, and always drive all traffic to your CTA.
Check out our other resources on landing pages!
