5 Elements to Help You Build Landing Pages That Convert

October 4, 2021
Contributor: Maria Carolina Lopez

A strategic approach to landing pages will make your marketing campaigns pay off by highlighting only what’s relevant to your target audience.

You’ve built a successful advertising campaign and your website is flooded with new customers and leads. Do your website’s landing pages clearly and directly ask visitors to engage with your brand? Do they understand the value proposition your business offers?

If you’re not seeing the conversion rate you were expecting, despite high site traffic, you might need to reconsider your landing page design.

Think of your landing pages as extensions of your product profile. You should be strategic in what you include on a landing page and only highlight what’s relevant to your target audience. If they made it to your page, it’s because your marketing campaigns worked, so it’s important that the information on the page directly relates to your marketing efforts.

These five elements will help you create a high converting landing page:

  1. Keep your messaging consistent and clear.
  2. Streamline your layout and design elements.
  3. Hold your site visitors’ attention.
  4. Maintain a strong brand identity.
  5. Don't forget about mobile.

1. Keep your messaging consistent and clear.

A new visitor to your landing page might not have a clear understanding of what your business offers. It’s important to include a strong value proposition that states what your product does for that visitor, and what distinguishes it from your competition, in order to improve your conversion rate. You want a visitor to see this information immediately, so place it near the top of the page. 

Keep your messaging clear and to the point. Don’t get lost in explaining every small detail of your product or service. Make sure to have clear action items you want your visitors to take. 

Moreover, if information on the landing page isn’t clearly aligned with the PPC marketing campaign or lead generation campaign that led them there, you risk losing your visitor as a lead.

2. Streamline your layout and design elements.

Use design elements to highlight the most important elements of your message and your call to action (CTA) to improve your conversion rate. Ask yourself a few questions:

  • How do you solve your customers’ business challenges?
  • What does your software do and what differentiates it?
  • Why should they use your product or service?
  • What action can the landing page visitor take?

If these questions aren’t answered with a quick scan, you might want to rethink your headlines, buttons and layout. 

Your headlines should align with the landing page’s conversion goals and provide a strong value proposition that clearly and concisely shows your visitor the value of your software. Keep your headers informative and actionable, and bold important information.

Group relevant content together and avoid unnecessary graphics or information that aren't related to your main CTA or goal. Use elements like navigational aids (e.g., a table of contents that links to subheads) or a CTA button, and make sure your content is laid out in a scannable way to help prospective buyers find the information they need and convert into a lead.
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3. Hold your site visitors’ attention.

Create a clear path to your page’s main CTA by building in triggers to move the visitor along in the story you’re telling and prompt them to complete your lead form. Include an easily recognizable CTA button that aligns with your brand and style to increase your conversion rate.

Making sure your headlines are relevant and informative helps ensure your visitor moves through the landing page and stays long enough to click a CTA button. If the information in the landing page grabs and retains your readers’ attention, they’re more likely to fill out your conversion form.

Your marketing team and designers should also keep your page forms simple and transparent. To make a lead form that lowers bounce rates, follow these tips:

  • Include four to six entry fields in your CTA form. If you have fewer than four, you might get more spam leads. If you have more than six, you’ll see a drop in conversion rates.
  • Explain what buyers will receive after submitting the form and follow through by providing what you promised. It’s frustrating to fill out a form and receive something completely unrelated. 
  • Don’t request superfluous information that may serve your business interests but isn't relevant to the landing page goal. Asking for basic information is fine, but asking for too much personal information can annoy potential customers and harm your brand.

4. Maintain a strong brand identity.

Software marketers can also improve conversion rates by keeping your brand consistent. Messaging, logos, colors and slogans should align with your overall brand image. You want your page to leave a clear impression on first-time viewers so they recognize your brand later in their purchase decision. 

Increase credibility by including verified customer reviews, testimonial quotes, customer logos and industry awards and badges to your page. Another way to help your buyers easily understand your offering is to use white space that breaks up these text and design elements, highlighting the most important information and calls to action.

5.  Don’t forget about mobile.

Design your landing page to be compelling and engaging on mobile. To take your mobile experience to the next level, try these tips:

  • Trim back the visual content for mobile users and make sure you compress your files if needed. This will further improve your page speed and contribute to less scrolling.
  • Ensure your mobile CTA is above the fold.
  • Use responsive design so your landing pages adjust to any device your audience is using.

Learn how our Conversion Rate Optimization experts create custom landing pages for your software products that convert traffic into leads.

Maria Carolina Lopez

Maria Carolina Lopez is the Senior Manager of Marketing Services at Gartner Digital Markets. She specializes in conversion rate optimization, has experience in both web design and digital marketing, and has worked with companies of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises. Outside of work, Maria likes to rollerblade with her husband and dog or visit her family in Colombia. Connect with Maria Carolina on LinkedIn.
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