The home page is dead – but you can still create a landing page that converts

The way that internet users search for and engage with content has changed. Where the home page used to be the primary access point to our websites, social media, content marketing and more targeted searches are now driving traffic to other, more focused pages instead.

While we don’t really believe that the home page is truly dead, a good website strategy should focus on creating strong inner landing pages in order to increase engagement, encourage sharing and boost conversions.

A modern, effective website needs to drill down all of your main services/products, organised into helpful little sections via a site map that’s been developed to offer a fantastic user journey. People want to find things fast, be given relevant and helpful information, and most importantly, they need to be told exactly why they need your brand in their life!

Ten tips for creating an effective landing page

Regardless of what information you have across your website as a whole, your landing pages all need to cover some essential elements of your offering if you’re going to convert visitors into a paying customer.

Here are our top 10 tips for creating landing pages that convert…

1. Build confidence – introduce your brand in terms of USPs, service values, experience and success stats, if possible.

2. Build trust – don’t just speak for yourself when your clients’ words can have so much more power. Use testimonials, or name drop an impressive client. Include social media feeds, and show off any awards, accreditations or significant achievements.

3. Active, not passive – say ‘we will‘, not ‘we will try‘ – but use contractions so it sounds human and conversational. Speak in the first person and address your audience directly, talk about ‘you’, and ‘your business’. Make it friendly and relatable.

4. Clearly define benefits – at the end of the day, when the initial pitch and scene setting is done, all your customers really care about is what’s in it for them. Don’t make it hard for them to identify the benefits: state them clearly and ensure they can quickly see why they need your product/service.

5. Anticipate questions – when people make enquires, what are the most common questions they ask? Use your experience and knowledge of your customers to answer prospects’ questions before they have to ask – it can break down barriers to purchase.

6. Lead them on – no matter where they land, you need to show them what other awesome information you’ve got to offer. Think of the overall user experience, and link through to other relevant and helpful content. Create a story, take them on a journey.

7. Data collect – offer something in exchange for their email address, so you can collect a marketing database. A white paper (great for SEO and shares), newsletter sign up, or any other push content offer will work – and make it easy for them to follow you on social media too.

8. CTAs – make all of your contact details clear and include an enquiry or free callback form – or at least display a quick link to one.

9. Offer offers – we all like a bargain, so if you can offer 10% off a first order, free postage or some other promotional tool, do it! If not, how about a trial period or simply a warranty of some kind?

10. Find balance – content balance can be a tricky one to get right: Google favours higher content, but your visitors won’t want to sift through too much bulky copy to find the information they want. Keep things sharp, snappy and break heavier content down with subsections and bullet points. Think of design features you can use to keep the page looking light, while still providing loads of relevant, valuable content.