Landing page design guide to boost conversions

As a design agency, one of the most common queries we receive from our clients is about designing and optimising their landing page UX.

Very few designers and marketers realise that designing the landing page of a website is a combined function of marketing and design. This is where traditional differences between Copy and UX writing get blurred.

What is a landing page?

The landing page of a website is where people ‘land’ when they click on a link they have received through an email, a text message, or a search engine ad. It is the first point of contact between a brand and the user and sets the bar for users’ expectations from the brand.

They are goal-oriented and have the sole purpose of converting a potential lead into a paying customer; getting them to sign up for a newsletter, pre-ordering a book, subscribing to a service, etc.

So, how is a landing page any different from a brand’s website?

A brand’s website is not just about the product/service it sells but also about the team behind the brand, their motto, their principles, etc. And people do care about these things, but when they’re looking for a solution, they care about the solution foremost.

This is where landing pages come in handy because they focus on only one product/service. They emphasise on how the product solves a problem, its USP, user testimonials etc.

Why is landing page UX important?

Given the fact that landing pages are the first point of contact for users, a well-optimised landing page can exponentially improve the conversion rate for a brand.

Various UX tools like heatmaps, usability testing, competitor analysis, etc. not only help refine your landing page design but also achieve your business goals.

Here are some benefits of incorporating UX into your business

• Maximise conversions
• Reduce your customer acquisition cost
• Strengthen your brand’s identity
• Understand your users better
• Increase usability and adoption of your products
• Enhance customer retention through improved user experience
• And finally, all of the above can help increase your brand’s market share

Now that we know what landing pages are and why landing page UX is important, here are a few points to keep in mind when designing them.

First-Principles Thinking for Landing Page Design

Before designing, answer these fundamental questions to guide your UX and UI decisions:

1. Defining and Positioning your product
   • Is it a market innovation, disrupting the industry?
   • Is it a product innovation, offering unique advantages?
   • Is it a "me-too" product, requiring value-add emphasis?
2. Understanding your target audience
   • Create detailed user personas based on demographics, motivations, fears, and goals.
   • Validate assumptions through user research.
3. Setting a primary goal
   • Common goals include
     1. Awareness (for new brands or innovative products)
     2. Lead generation (mainly for b2b products and services)
     3. Conversion rate optimization (eCommerce brands, mostly D2C businesses)
   • Align stakeholders on the primary objective for the landing page.

And while these are not mutually exclusive, it helps to have a primary landing page design goal. 

Do check out our Twitter thread on conversion rate optimization.

8 tips for landing page design

Here are 8 tips you should keep in mind while designing for a landing page.

1. Storytelling

A story is better than the features of your product. And it is hard to tell a good story about your product.

With landing page UX, the design depends on the narrative. A good story about the product can create a strong connection with the product and drive desired actions.

As the popular adage goes, “Is your product a painkiller or a vitamin?”. Help your audience decide if they have landed in the right place. That you are the destination to their search keyword.

Moreover, if your content is not ready, the design job will never complete. Each element of design depends on how you are presenting your product or service. A lot of times we come across a design brief that has incomplete content. In such cases, before we start designing, we invariably focus on getting the storytelling right and finalising the copy.

• You should write a copy that helps people determine whether the solution is right for them or not.
• The copy you write should convince them that you understand their needs.
• Additionally, your copy should mention the benefits the user will receive by choosing your solution over others.

The very first line you write is to earn the next 30 seconds from the user.

2. Consistency - before, during and after the landing page

The UX consistency starts from where the user has arrived, and ends at where the user is directed after the desired action is earned.

The visitor acquisition channels are the first point of interaction with your brand. The users set their expectations on these channels. Some of the most common referring channels are online ads, Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), social media profiles, third party review platforms, directory listings etc.

In addition to the landing page, consistency on visitor acquisition channels is equally important. It should be visually consistent with the brand’s identity, narrative on the landing page and the product’s user interface. 

This helps the user understand what design guidelines the brand follows and knows what to expect at each touchpoint in their journey with the brand.

3. Focus on benefits

Benefits show the positive impact while a feature describes the product. Mental models of a prospect visiting your website takes time to relate with features of your product. You need to allow enough time for the visitors to develop the context. Benefits help the user see your product and its features with better context of your product and services.

A note to remember is that not every benefit is better than every feature.

USPs like special features, value additions, third-party product integrations should be highlighted on landing pages to encourage the user to dig deeper.

It also helps if you offer a side by side comparison of your and your competitor’s products.

Ultimately, a successful landing page should start a domino effect whereby users go down the rabbit hole of how great your product is and end up buying it.

4. Include social proof

A landing page is also a great place to share your achievements, awards, and user testimonials to help further convince potential clients.

When users hear how the product has helped another user or solved their problem, it builds trust and promotes a positive image of the company.

In addition, promoting testimonials does not mean only sharing positive reviews, but also sharing reviews with constructive criticism and your reaction to them.

5. Clear the doubts

A confused, doubtful user can never become a loyal, paying customer.

First off, your landing page narrative should be good enough to clear almost all of the doubts a user could have about the product. And to cement the deal, your FAQ section should answer all user questions honestly in a simple, understandable manner.

FAQs have gained popularity after Google search algorithms started displaying them in the top search results. One more reason to design a meaningful FAQ section.

6. Leverage videos and animations

Using videos as landing page design elements is also a great idea.

Videos showing how your product works, what features it has, and what applications it supports are an excellent way to inform and educate users.

A video testimonial of your product reviews from actual users further helps to put a face to the review and facilitates trust, which leads to increased conversions.

7. Use CTAs meaningfully

The importance of Call to Action buttons cannot be overstated. And yet you wonder why so many people get it wrong. For example, almost every CTA button would read “Read more” or “Learn more” to ask the reader to continue reading. Well, one obvious explanation is the lack of first principles thinking, which leads to unthoughtful mimicking of the market leaders.

A good landing page UX is often about an individual product/service and has a single CTA. The reasoning behind having a single CTA is that it helps to keep the users from getting overwhelmed.

Think about it, what sounds easier to convince a user to do?

• Check out our blog, also check out your YT channel and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter, OR
• Sign up for our newsletter

The second is comparatively easier to do.

8. A/B testing

An untested design is as good as Schrödinger’s cat.

In case of redesigning the landing pages, you can compare the engagement analytics of the new design with the older ones and derive a trend. However, it may not easily provide answers at the block level. The new landing page designs do not have the benefit of empirical data.

New design or redesign, finding what works and what doesn’t at a micro level often requires testing. Unless you run a few experiments with your CTAs, main copies, you would not be able to compare the effectiveness.

Conclusion

Landing pages are a great tool used in Marketing and Advertising campaigns to help acquaint the user with your product/service without any distractions. A well-optimised landing page for your products would be a great way to get you front-and-centre and noticed on the internet.

If you are a business in the eLearning, fintech, SaaS or enterprise software domain and have been struggling to get paying customers, we can help you fix this problem.

We are a design agency with expertise in landing page UX. You can reach out to us and we’d be more than happy to help.