Let’s talk about landing page optimization!
Are you excited?
Probably not, but here’s why you should be: Your landing page is the crown jewel of your marketing campaign. When you get it right, you’ll pour new leads into your sales funnel. And the more leads you get, the more chances you’ll have to convert them into paying SaaS customers.
The future success of your marketing campaign hinges on your landing page. Your ads may draw traffic to your site, but if your landing page fails to convince them to sign up, all of your efforts will be wasted.
This is why you need to optimize your landing page. An effective landing page will connect with your leads and motivate them to sign up. And that doesn’t just happen by adding a signup form to your page.
Let’s discuss the elements that go into an outstanding and effective landing page.
What the heck is a landing page?
Technically speaking, a landing page is any page on your website where a visitor “lands.” This may include your home page, your contact page, etc.
But, from a marketing perspective, a landing page is much more specific. It’s a stand-alone page on your website that’s focused on one specific action: Generating leads. This is the definition that we’re focused on in this guide.
A landing page is different from other pages on your website. It’s like a super-secret room. A visitor can’t navigate to it from the main menu bar on your website. And a visitor can’t navigate to other pages on your website from the landing page. The visitor arrives on your landing page after clicking on a link, usually from a pay per click (PPC) ad. Once on your landing page, the visitor is stuck. They can either complete your call to action (which, most commonly, is to sign up for a free trial or demo) or close the tab.
People can arrive on your landing page from several starting points. Here are the most common:
- PPC ad on search engines
- PPC ad on social media
- A link on your website (such as from a blog post or pop up)
- A link from your email newsletter
- A link in your guest post bio
There are a lot of reasons to use a landing page. On your landing page, you can:
- Offer a free trial, consultation, or demo
- Build up your email subscriber list
- Promote a webinar
- Give away a free eBook
- Get beta testers for your new product or feature
The Most Common Landing Page Mistakes
Let’s take a look at the most common and deadly landing page mistakes and what you can do to correct them.
Mistake #1: Asking For Too Much
If you’re asking your visitor for more than one thing, you’re pushing it. That one thing is their email address. Landing pages that ask for email address, name, phone number, address, preferences, blood type, favorite Disney movie, etc. are too demanding. Prospects are scared away when they’re required to share so much information about themselves upfront, especially if they don’t know you yet.
The solution? Limit your ask to the bare minimum.
Mistake #2: Offering Too Much
A common landing page mistake is to ask your visitor to complete too many tasks. You have your main call to action (i.e. sign up for a trial), but then you have more calls to action, like “follow us on Facebook” or “click this button to tell your friends about us.” While good-intentioned, those calls to action distract from your main and most important one. Multiple calls to action give your visitor too many options and, when faced with so many choices, they may not choose any.
The solution? Only ask one thing per page. After the visitor has signed up for your trial, you can ask them to refer others to you.
Mistake #3: Sloppy Copy
Copy is persuasive content that encourages a person towards a specific action, whether that’s to sign up, download, or purchase.
Sloppy copy happens when you don’t take the time and effort to tidy up the first draft of your landing page copy. It will prevent people from trusting you.
Sloppy copy is any of the following:
- Typos
- Grammar problems
- Huge blocks of texts
- Lack of bullet points
- Wordiness (using three words when you could use one)
- Meandering thoughts
- Not identifying your target audience so you write to a generic, faceless audience (and it shows)
The solution? You’ve got to tighten all of that up. After writing the copy for your landing page, take time to edit it. Look for grammatical errors that ding your trustworthiness. Also, be sure that the page is targeting a specific audience and their unique challenges/ pain points.
Mistake #4: Leaving Your Landing Page As-Is
If you already have a landing page that’s producing results, it may be tempting to leave it alone. After all, it’s not broken, so why fix it? But here’s why you should go through the effort: Every landing page has an expiration date. It will go stale over time as web design evolves and Internet users expect more.
So, don’t let your landing page get left behind in 2019.
The solution? Continue to update your page’s design and content to reflect what’s happening now. For example, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to acknowledge the pandemic if it’s relevant to your landing page offer. It’s the little things that help you connect with your audience.
Mistake #5: Talking Too Much
Landing pages that go on and on and on are not a smart move. Your target audience doesn’t need to spend the next hour being convinced of your offer. If they aren’t excited within the first 30 seconds, they definitely won’t convert after 30 minutes.
Your landing page shouldn’t require more than two short scrolls down. This is especially true if your landing page is text-heavy. No amount of bullet points will save you from an overload of copy.
The solution? Get to the point quickly. Focus on the most important information first. Eliminate all extra words. Also punctuate text with graphics, such as images and video, to break up the required reading.
Mistake #6: Not Testing
Your landing page may look good to you, but does it look good to your target audience? That’s really all that matters. Does it function well on their devices? Are there any glitches? Does it load quickly?
How do you find out?
The solution? Testing. Every landing page can benefit from testing, including A/B split testing. Test every element on your page to find out what elicits a response from your target audience. To improve loading speed, reduce image size and plugins. Also ensure that your page looks good on the most commonly used devices, both desktop and mobile.
Mistake #7: Not Being Mobile Friendly
Speaking of mobile… Designing a landing page only for a desktop experience is not a good idea. These days, the majority of Internet traffic comes from mobile devices. If users need to pinch to zoom into your landing page, it will frustrate them and cause them to leave the page prematurely.
This is even more important if you have forms to fill out on your page. Your mobile visitors shouldn’t feel frustrated when following your calls to action.
The solution? Adopt a mobile-first policy and ensure that your landing page looks good on smaller screens as the top priority. Give mobile visitors a satisfying user experience by ensuring that your landing page works well on smartphones and tablets.
Mistake #8: Not Having Enough Landing Pages
You can’t do everything with one measly landing page. If you try, your content will be hopelessly generic and not engage anyone.
The solution? If you have multiple customer types, you need multiple landing pages.
Each customer type needs a dedicated landing page. This way, you can write personalized content that speaks directly to your target audience. Your product may be the same, but your customers have different pain points and motivations that lead them to seek out your solution. Some are motivated by cost, others by support, etc.
Understand what motivates and challenges your customer types. Then create content that will help them see the benefit that you offer and drive them to complete your call to action.
Final Thoughts
Your landing page plays a crucial role in your marketing campaign. Use the above tips to optimize your landing page so that it generates new leads for your SaaS business.
