Our team is often asked to design landing pages for a specific product or promotion, or we encounter an information architecture that’s been revised each time a new program or feature comes on line. Here are some important tips and tools to consider when advertising a product or encouraging program sign up with your customers.

What is a landing page?

Landing pages are one of the most effective ways to deliver clear information to a precise target audience, and entice them to move to the next step of a customer journey. Most typically, the purpose of a landing page is to get people to sign up for a product or service (even if it’s just a newsletter).

A great landing page can make a huge impact on getting people excited about and signing up for your products.

Types of landing pages:

Some people confuse landing pages with product pages or squeeze pages. While similar in many ways, there are subtle differences that can make a huge impact on the page’s effectiveness.

Product Pages
Landing Pages
Squeeze Pages

Focused on providing detailed information about a product or service, not on capturing customer information for conversion.

May contain multiple form fields, to gather as much info as possible from leads

Contain only one or two form fields: name and email address

Usually 200-1000 words

Vary in length

Often much shorter and to-the-point

Can be click-through, but usually part of a larger family of content pages.

Can be click-through (via a button)

Always contain at least two form fields (for lead generation)

Often feature elaborate graphics, details, and social proof

Often feature elaborate graphics, details, and social proof

Often feature the bare minimum to keep visitors from overthinking

Can be used at any point in the buyer journey

Can be used at any point in the buyer journey

Typically used near the start of the buyer journey

May receive traffic from multiple sources, including email

May receive traffic from multiple sources, including email

Typically do not receive traffic from email sources

3 Main Landing Page Considerations

1. Reduce Friction

A great landing page has clear and compelling content that is easy to skim and understand what action to take next. Make it easy for people to understand what the page is about, and what they need to do next. 

2. Consistency

Make sure you use the same words and phrases across the entire page. Don’t call something an “offer” in one place and a “promo” in another. Clear and consistent language reduces the cognitive load on the viewer and allows them to stay focused on the task at hand.

3. Storytelling

As the old saying goes, “people don’t want a drill, they want holes”. Said another way, people don’t care about your product, they care about what your product does for them. Tell them a story about what your product does for them instead of talking about the product itself. 

Building a Great Landing Page

Keep It Focused

A landing page should be about only one thing. It could be a deal you’re offering, an upcoming event, a newsletter signup, or anything else. Just don’t make the mistake of offering two things at once, like a deal -and- asking people to sign up for an event on the same page. You want to keep the user focused on making only one choice – sign up or not. Forcing them to make multiple decisions increases cognitive load, and the chance they will choose to do nothing and just leave the page.

“Dividing people’s attention or giving them too many choices increases cognitive load and lowers the likelihood of them taking the action you want them to take.”

Consider the Customer Journey

Where did they just come from? What messaging keeps this in context?

When you think about the messaging that should be on your landing page, it’s critical to think about where this person just came from, and what got them to the page in the first place. Did they come from a marketing email? A text message? A link on someone else’s website? Social media? You might think it doesn’t really matter, but you’d be wrong. 

Imagine in the real world if you saw a door that said “Free Donuts”, and pushed it open only to find someone selling cups of coffee instead. You’d be disoriented and disappointed because you thought you were getting a free donut! Sure, coffee and donuts make a great combo, but nevertheless you’d be disappointed and unlikely to buy a coffee.

This is the same scenario that happens in the customer’s mind when they come to a page expecting one thing and don’t immediately recognize they are in the right place. Not keeping the messaging consistent breaks the Cycle of Experience at the very first step, Expectation.

If they don’t see what they expected to see, they will stop right there and you’ve probably lost them.

Critical: Make sure the words they clicked on to get to the page are consistent with the words they see when they arrive at the page.

If they clicked “get free donuts” then your landing page should continue that message and say something like “get free donuts here, just complete the form”.

Include Social Proof

People are social animals. It helps for them to see other people doing something before they decide to do it. This is called the Bandwagon Effect - the tendency for people to adopt certain behaviors, styles, or attitudes simply because others are doing so.

Adding social proof to your landing pages in the form of text or images can be a very powerful way to help people choose to complete the next step in the process - completing your form.

Quotes or testimonials which answer common questions and objections are one of the best ways to overcome people’s hesitancies. For example, if someone is unsure if you have the type or flavor of donut they like, a simple quote like “They have every flavor imaginable, including my favorite!” would be a way to answer that question with social proof.

A more practical example for a subscription service might be “They made it easy to sign up, and with no contracts I can cancel anytime!”. This is much more effective than simply having an FAQ at the bottom of the page.

Effective Landing Page Layouts

In the simplest terms, you want the page to have 3 main sections, in this order.

  1. The Headline - your clearly stated value proposition 
  2. The Details - Important details about the deal, including social proof.
  3. The Ask - usually a form asking for a name, email address, and other information.
The Headline 

Your headline should be the very first thing you see when the page loads. It should be a clear and compelling value proposition for what someone gets when they complete The Ask. Make sure to use simple words, short sentences, big text, and high-contrast so this is extremely easy to read. Remember, most people have millisecond attention spans, so don’t waste their time with a long explanation of the deal here. That’s what the Details section is for.

The Details 

This section should contain any other relevant information about the deal or whatever you’re promoting, including social proof discussed above.

It’s important to remember that humans need information delivered in different ways - visual, logical, and linguistic.

To make the most of your landing page, include compelling photography or illustrations for visual people, bullet lists for logical people, and paragraphs for linguistic people. All of this content should help describe what they get by completing The Ask.

You can have as much content as you think necessary to describe the offer here, though it needs to be in small, easy to read and digestible chunks. Make sure to use subheadings to break up large bits of content to make it easier to scan and read.

The Ask

This is perhaps the most important part of the page. Your forms need to be short, simple, and easy to complete. Don’t ask for more information than you absolutely need to deliver the value you promised. Sure, it’s nice to have their first name and last name when they sign up for your newsletter, but you can always ask for this information later.

If you’re asking for payment information, keep it as simple as possible. Keep the complicated fields hidden until the user decides to start completing the form. Look at this example from Stripe Checkout. The shipping address fields are collapsed until the user has begun completing the form and they are needed to complete the process.

 

Showing all the form fields up front can be intimidating and confusing, which means people would be less likely to even begin filling out the form. By showing only a few fields the user expects to see first, you’re making it easier for them to begin the process. Once they begin, they are more likely to complete the form due to the Zeigarnik effect - the tendency to want to complete things we start because not completing them creates stress. 

Summary

The worst mistake you can make is clogging up your landing pages with unnecessary -or worse- ineffective information. Always ask yourself if the content you’re adding helps the user understand what they get for giving you their information or credit card info. 

Be very critical of every word, every image, and make sure everything on the page has a purpose of providing critical information or answering a question the user might have. Only ask for what is absolutely required. You can always collect more information later.

Keep it focused, simple, and as low friction as possible. And if you get stuck, let us know. We’ll be happy to help.