5 Characteristics of a Landing Page That Converts

When you're spending time or money on SEO, AdWords, or email marketing, you're wasting resources if you're not using conversion-optimized landing pages for your campaigns. You’ve invested a lot into getting prospects to your page—now you need to get them to take action! But what makes one landing page convert like crazy and another page lose prospects that could have been perfect leads? Let’s look at 5 characteristics of a high-converting landing page.

1. The copy speaks directly to the target audience.

The more specifically your message addresses the issues and concerns of your target audience, the more effective it will be. Speak in concrete terms, rather than abstract, to help your audience feel the pain they’re in without your solution and visualize what their lives would look like if they had it.

And speak their language. Don’t use industry jargon that your audience doesn’t understand. Describe your solution in the same terms your audience would, to ensure clear communication of your value proposition.

2. There are no distractions.

Your landing page has one job, and only one: to get visitors to fill a form (or make a phone call, depending on your process). You don’t want them browsing your site, checking out your social media pages, or wandering off elsewhere before they fill that form and get their contact info into your system.

For this reason, you shouldn’t include navigational buttons, social icons, or any other ways to leave your page. After they fill the form, they can wander all they want—so it’s perfectly fine to include these elements on your thank you or fulfillment page.

You should also limit to a single call to action. This call to action can appear more than once on the page, but if you ask the visitor to start deciding between options, you lower your chances that he or she will take any action.

3. The CTA clearly communicates value.

Why should your prospects fill your form? What’s in it for them? In a world where people encounter dozens of eBooks every day, you HAVE to demonstrate why yours is the one they should spend their time with. What will they learn? What can they do with that information?

Unless you make it very clear what your prospects stand to gain by giving you their closely-guarded contact info, they won’t give it to you.

4. The CTA button stands out.

Designers like for things to match and coordinate. I’m guilty myself. A CTA that’s the same color as the headline is pretty—but it doesn’t command attention. Your CTA button should be big and bold. If it’s a different color from everything else on the page, that’s ok.

You may even want to use arrows (tastefully of course) or other design elements to draw attention to your CTA.

5. The CTA should make it clear exactly what will happen when the prospect clicks.

Unless they’re connected with birthday parties, people don’t like surprises. If someone isn’t sure what’s going to happen when they click your button, they won’t click it. Will they get sent an email? A series of emails? Is your button a click-to-call? Will a download start? Inquiring minds want to know—before they take action.

If you start incorporating these characteristics into your landing pages, you’ll find that their conversion rate improves, giving you a higher ROI on your marketing spend.