Landing pages are an essential part of every startup’s online identity, but can be intimidating and confusing to those unfamiliar with the process. We want to make the process as painless as possible and enlighten you on how to improve the development of your landing pages, writes Cui-lyn Huang.
Where do we start?
There are many services and tools available to help companies in optimizing their landing pages. Ikkai – a JFDI Discover alumni – shared their experience in the landing page process with us.
Ikkai has developed a web and mobile service to help students find one-time jobs, crowd sourced by the rest of the population and companies, using algorithms to find offers that best fit them. We spoke with Thomas Pouplin from Ikkai to find out more about the problems he faced when developing their landing pages.
“The main problem was finding the right tools for a decent price. There isn’t a clear article online showing entrepreneurs the main websites and their respective advantages.”
Team Ikkai chose to use KickoffLabs to help in the development of their landing page. JFDI has also compiled a selection of other web tools and services that can help compltely revitalize your landing pages.
What is the purpose of a landing page?
The ultimate purpose of a landing page is to increase conversion rates on your website. We want to attract the attention of viewers to your product or service (commonly through promotional offers), and turn that attraction into an action.
Landing pages are useful as they allow you to divert sections of your traffic to a specific page. There may be several categories of customers to each startup, and landing pages can help founders capitalise on their individual wants and needs.
What makes a good landing page?
Landing pages should serve as standalone web pages, without requiring the user to click through additional pages on your website and possibly get side-tracked. Here are some rough guidelines to keep in mind whilst developing your landing pages:
- Keep it concise. If an element can be done without, get rid of it. Your landing page should have a single purpose, with a single focus.
- Visual alignment is important. Take advantage of bullet points to keep matters succint and refrain from being too wordy.
- Use obvious call-to-action cues. There is no harm in being too obvious, as your primary goal is to secure an action from your audience. You can implement the use of directional cues (arrows, images of people looking in the direction of your CTA button) to further highlight its placement.
- Be consistent. Ensure the headline of your landing page matches the headline of the original source. You want to make your message stick.
- Include visual demonstrations of your product or service. Video has been shown to be especially efficient in increasing conversion rates, and customers are more likely to engage in your product if they are able to see it in action.
- Showcase testimonials. Users who are able to read previous customers’ experiences will feel reassured in the decision to purchase your product/service.
Our JFDI Cafe resident Referral Candy‘s homepage is a good example of a landing page with a clear call-to-action button.
Options for landing pages
Like startups, landing pages can come in different shapes and sizes, but most often fall into two categories – click-through and lead generation.
- Click-through landing pages serve as a funnel, guiding the visitor to the information they require to make a purchase of your product or service.
- Lead generation landing pages serve to capture user information through short forms, to be used later.
While landing pages should serve one distinct purpose, there are several purposes they may fulfill.
- Not all promos are for all people. For example, an online store catering to fitness and health products would be unlikely to benefit from sending men’s health promotions to their female clients. Landing pages allow you to send customers the information that is most relevant to them.
- Tailor to your audience. A person who discovered your product through a 140-character long tweet is likely to understand less about your product than a person who discovered it through a 3-paragraph long e-mail. By adapting your page material to your sources, you are able to engage customers in an efficient manner that suits them.
Tracking success with landing pages
Landing pages are useful to track success of specific campaigns, and understand what works best for each mode of traffic. However to do so, you will need to also track the success of your landing pages and their potential variants.
- Use A/B testing. A/B testing is essentially using two similar landing pages (they may differ in length, style of writing, use of images, headlines, colors, etc.) directed to the same audience (divided into two sections) and tracking their success to find out which page receives the most click-throughs to find the best structure for your landing page.
- Use seperate landing pages for each traffic source. By doing so, you are able to customize the content viewed by those receiving links via e-mail, without affecting social media outputs. This also allows you to see where your traffic is coming from and cater to their preferences.
By keeping these tips in mind, hopefully your experience with creating and developing landing pages can be made more seamless and stress-free.
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Thinking of starting your own business? JFDI Discover will help you find out if you really want to be an entrepreneur. It will reveal if your team is aligned to deliver results. And it will show you how to solve a real problem for customers who are willing to pay thus moving closer to a “problem-solution fit”. Join JFDI Discover, starting April 3 2015.
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Cui-Lyn Huang is on the Editorial team for JFDI Asia. Currently taking a break from pursuing a combined major in Computer Science & Journalism at Northeastern University in Boston, and embracing life on the little red dot. She loves to write, she loves to eat, and loves to write about eating.