How to create a successful, high-conversion landing page
By: Shiven Sinha
Tags: Tech, Startup, Design, UX, Marketing

Remove your navigation bar

Yuppiechef saw a 100% increase in conversion rates (from 3% to 6%) by removing their navigation bar

Career Point College removed the top navigation bar and modified its form layout, which increased the conversion rate by 336%.

SparkPage’s conversion rate jumped from 9.2% to 17.6% over the month that they ran a test removing their top navigation.

Since your landing page is for a single purpose, your visitors should only be at that place — no leaks to any other page should distract your user. This said, navigation bars with links to different sections on the same page may be useful.

Remove Stock Images

A stock image of a guy reacting to stock images.

Users know when a photo is stock. It has that feel to it, and they may even have seen it before. And it’s even worse when the image does not serve a very meaningful purpose.

Stock images may even decrease the apparent authenticity, uniqueness, and value of the brand. Replace such photos with custom, high quality images. You could even give a thought to illustrations.

Make your CTAs speak

Don’t keep the default ‘Submit’ text on the Call-To-Action button.

HubSpot tested the buttons with the text ‘Submit’ against those with a different phrase. The results are shown above. The boring, old ‘Submit’ lacks any compelling behavior.

Exceptions to the 1:1 Ratio

On long landing pages, you can use multiple buttons with the same goal, with purpose to the text around it which may have convinced the reader.

As mentioned earlier, it may be useful to have a navigation bar with anchors to different sections on the same page.

This post on The Daily Egg has more details on elements which you should avoid on landing pages.

Rule #2: Put things in context

The context on the page should be powerful and persuasive, so as to increase the conversion rates. This requires the content to be according to the user — how much the user already knows and what they need to know in order for you to convince the person.

The channel that was used to bring the visitor must have given a brief outline, but not the details, as ads do have certain limitations. Your work is to keep the main message same as that of the advertisement and also provide more information that continues to persuade.

The design of the landing page should also maintain the branding and identity of the campaign — both in terms of design and voice. Brand Voice refers to the tone of communication and the style of writing. Here’s a guide to creating the right voice for your brand. The tone of voice of the campaign should be the same as that of the brand, as this ultimately helps in ‘branding’ and increases authenticity, along with the primarily desired effect.

These two points also free the visitors from re-interpreting the headline and allows them to progress to the remaining content.

The Importance of your Headline

The headline is the main means through which we can deliver on the promise and message we delivered through the ad. After all, the visitors were interested enough in the main motive of the campaign. So there is less chance that they will leave if we continue to persuade them with more information within the same outline (and if the advertisement did not make false promises). Why not use this to our advantage?

The headline should also convey the exact point of the campaign and explain what the page is all about. There is a more in-depth elaboration of this point in the next aspect of conversion-centred design.

The headline should appear ‘above the fold’ and should be the most distinct piece of text.