How to Create High-Converting Landing Pages

While technically any page on your website could be a landing page, not all pages are tailored to generate sales and leads. When you are trying to convert visitors into customers, a well-designed, effective Landing page can be the most important page of your site. 

Landing pages also called sales pages or squeeze pages serve a single purpose: Persuade the reader to sign up for your product or in other words – convert. 

When someone visits your landing page, they need to learn enough about your offering to decide whether they want to become a customer.

You aren’t selling a product or service, you are selling the benefits of using your product. Your customer wants to overcome whatever problem it is that your offering provides. You need to show them how you will take away their struggles and solve their problems.

The topic of creating a high-converting landing page could be an entire series of posts on its own. I’m giving you an easy formula to reach your customers. 

It’s called the Head, Heart, and Hands method. Your product landing page must address each of these components to truly be effective. 

The Head

Make them understand. 

Provide a definitive problem statement, and how your product, how it works to solve that problem. Statistics and industry research helps. Make it crystal clear to them why they need your product to solve their problem (and why it’s a problem, to begin with).

The Heart

Make them care. 

Empathy means putting yourself in your customer’s shoes. If you understand your customers, you can address their needs in a way that makes them care. Your product is not the hero in their story, they are. 

Lay out the before (what your customer feels now) and after (how your customer will feel after using your product) state of your customers. Think about their secondary needs, like impressing their boss. 

The Hands

Make them act. 

Without a clear call to action, even the best-written landing page will not serve your business. The goal of your landing page is to compel a visitor into a single action: Become a customer.

High-converting Landing Page Must-Haves

Since the goal of your website landing page is to compel your visitor to convert, there are several elements you should consider when you’re writing your landing page. 

An Eye-Catching Headline

You only have a few seconds to capture your reader’s attention. Your headline is your hook. This is where the journey begins for your customer and lets them know what is in it for them if they continue. 

Your headline needs to be interesting enough to make the reader want to continue on the page. This is not the place to try to be mysterious or clever. Let your customer know this is their “golden ticket” as succinctly as possible. 

The Introduction Story

Now it’s your time to explain in more detail how you’re going to deliver value. The introduction is where you tell the reader the story they will relate to. This is where your unique value proposition drives the visitor to read on. 

The introduction is an opportunity to remind your customers how their problem is costing them time or money. If you write with empathy and relate to them in the language they understand, they’ll feel that you understand their needs. 

The introduction shouldn’t be an entire page of copy, but it does need to be long enough to state the problem, how your product will solve it, and the benefits the customer can expect. 

The Offer

Once your reader knows you understand the challenge they’re facing, this is when you go into more detail about your product or service. Feature lists, comparisons to other products, or detailing how your product works.

This is the time to show how your product is better, easier, faster, cheaper, etc. while reinforcing how you fix their problem. Consider any roadblocks or objections your user may face and address them here too. 

The Price

While the concept of pricing strategy could fill an entire post (or series of posts), if you want to optimize conversion rates, a clear and simple statement of your pricing and options needs to be on your landing page. 

Note that there are some cases where your company needs to talk to a potential customer to determine the price. In these cases, pricing can be left off the page, but all the other principles here still apply. In this case, the action you want them to take is scheduling a consultation vs. making a direct purchase decision. 

Testimonials or Social Proof

Testimonials are a powerful way to reassure potential customers that you offer a quality product. A good testimonial reinforces the benefit to your customer. 

Another, though less impactful, a form of social proof is to display a “featured on” or any awards or recognition you may have garnered. You don’t want to link away to any of those pages though, since that just gives your customer another action, and we only want them clicking on our specific call to action. 

Call to Action

This is the moment it all comes down to. Getting your visitor to click that magical “Buy Now” button (although I hope you are A/B testing what the button says!). 

Your CTA is big and bold and stands out from the rest of the page. This should draw in the reader and be crystal clear what you want the visitor to do. Your visitor is expecting a button that they know exactly what will happen when they click it. 

If you need any additional information as part of the purchase, keep your form to only those fields. Your “Thank You” page is the opportunity to collect additional non-required data. 

High-Converting Landing Page “Nice to Haves”

I’m sure you’ve scrolled down a landing page that never seemed to end. There’s a delicate balance between presenting enough information to let your customer make a decision, and overwhelming them. 

What I listed above are the absolute essentials. Without those elements, your page isn’t a landing page. 

However, there are some additional pieces you may want to add to your page:

• Images, illustrations, screencaps, or mockups
• An explainer video
• Bonus offers
• Logos of existing customers 
• Your bio or a brief description of your company
• A satisfaction guarantee
• Trust Seals (awards, certifications, partnerships, Rankings)
• FAQ
• An alternative CTA (like Schedule a Demo if they’re not ready to buy)

What Not to Include

Just as important as what you put on your landing page is what you leave out of it. 

Remember that an effective landing page drives a visitor to the single, desired action. Adding too many distractions or choices will lower the conversion rate of your page. 

Here are just a few examples of what to avoid: 

• Social links
• Navigation Menu (It’s OK to have one link back to your site, usually on the logo)
• Complicated Forms
• Ads
• Sidebar
• Newsletter signup
• Anything that doesn’t drive the visitor to make a purchase

Don’t Forget To Say Thanks!

Your “Thank You” page, when the customer completes the purchase, is the place to put everything you left off the landing page. This is a great opportunity to give them the next steps (create an account, check your email, etc). 

Always remember, every single element on your landing page serves a single purpose: To compel your visitor to take action and make a purchase. For a landing page to be high-converting, you must write clear, concise copy, keep the elements on the page to the minimum of what you need, and provide a single, clear call to action to drive the customer along the journey to making a purchase. 

Also, if you’re looking to create something specifically for the holidays or a shopping event such as Black Friday, read our special guide to creating a holiday-themed landing page and you can also check these design tips to boost sales in the shopping season

With some careful planning and testing, and by putting the advice here into action, you will see an increase in conversions and more sales!