In a nutshell: Learn how to create a landing page that lends itself to high conversion rates. Avoid the common pitfalls that cause potential customers to click away.
It should go without saying that your landing page is an essential tool in your eCommerce marketing strategy.
It’s the place that will make or break your sales.
The effectiveness of this piece of online real estate can turn a campaign into a success or failure. And you have as little as 3 seconds to catch and keep a customer’s attention.
With so much riding on one element, it’s important to get the details right. That’s why we’ve put together a ten-step guide for creating an eCommerce landing page that will be a high converter and bring in strong sales.
1. Define your goal
Before you even start designing your landing page, you need to know what you want from it. In the eCommerce world, it’s easy to say that you want sales. However, it would be best if you were a lot more specific in your goals.
Think about the following factors:
- Who is your target audience?
- How often they might want to buy your product.
- What kind of sales information is required?
This information will help you work out the landing page’s overall feel and how much content you need to include.
A general rule of thumb is that people need more information before they buy something more expensive.
You can also focus your tone and message on your landing page, depending on the goal. For example, if the landing page is for a flash sale, you may want to use a hard-sell message to create a sense of urgency.
“Buy Now!”, “Limited Offer!”, or “1 Day Left!” are typical examples of how brands attract attention and create a culture of quick converting clicks.
Key takeaway: It’s all about lining your landing page up with your goal when you come to designing it.
2. Research your keywords
Now that you have your overall concept, it’s time to start getting into your landing page strategy.
The keywords you use will go a long way towards determining how easily it’s found and how well it converts. It would be best to use those keywords in your wording on the landing page, so it’s best to get those ready as your first step for design.
If you’ve already got a website, chances are you have specific keywords in use. Take a look at those and see what will be appropriate for this particular campaign.
Next, consider your landing page’s goal and develop keywords related to what you are selling and why.
If you aren’t sure about keywords, type them into Google and see what comes up. If the landing pages you see are similar to what you want yours to be, they’re good to use. Remember, your keywords need to relate to your content directly.
There’s no point in using keywords that are likely to bring people to your landing page that isn’t looking for what you’re selling. You’ll end up wasting money on Adwords and getting a high bounce rate on your landing page. You could risk turning people off your company for false advertising too.
Key takeaway: Make sure your keywords are direct, straightforward, and related to your landing page.
3. Start with a clear statement
Your H1 or headline for your landing page is the hook that will bring people in. This statement should encapsulate the goal and the feeling of your landing page. It’s a big job for a few words, but they need to convey what people will find if they read further immediately.
The good news is, the best headlines are between 10 and 20 words – so you have a bit of room to play. You can pair your headline up with a subheading and/or an image too. This can help your opening gambit give you more bang for your buck.
A strong opening statement should automatically address a need or a pain point and show the reader that you have the solution. How exactly you address this will depend on what you’re selling, who you’re selling to, and your brand persona. For example, selling life insurance to parents will have a different style than selling the latest sneakers to a teenager.
Key takeaway: Make your message obvious and appealing without being overly wordy.
4. Use images effectively
We’re an incredibly visual society, and the rise of the internet has reinforced that. Using strong images, graphics, and video will enhance your message and make your landing page much more appealing. The customer can then glance at the page and get an idea of what it’s about without committing too much time to read.
First and foremost, you must have at least one hero image of what you’re selling.
If you’re selling several items, they all need to have equal billing and be large enough to see clearly. Consider a combination of straight product shots on a clear background and lifestyle shots that show the product(s) being used in the real world. For example, a clothing business can have flatly shots of the garments to show the range and shots of models wearing them while out and about in real life.
If you want to explain a concept about how the product works, drawings and diagrams can be great additions to go with your copy. You can go one step beyond and have how-to videos to show off the concept. Just remember that no one likes videos that autoplay when they arrive on a landing page, especially not videos with the sound on.
Key takeaway: Create a visually engaging experience that doesn’t overwhelm.
5. Have one clear call to action
All high-converting landing pages have one thing in common:
They only have ONE action they want the customer to take.
Everything on your landing page should be pointing the customer towards doing one particular action on that page at that time. This is called the Call To Action (CTA).
Your CTA will be the active case of your goal for the landing page. In retail, you want people to buy the product or products available on your landing page. This means that the page has to have a purchasing method(s) right then and there. It also needs to be obvious how you go about making this purchase.
You’ll see multiple forms and buttons to click on as you scroll down through the information on many successful landing pages. When planning your landing page, there should be a “buy now” button or a checkout form after or next to each section of content, images, or video.
Key takeaway: The reader should never be more than one scroll of the mouse or swipe of the finger away from a CTA.
6. Make sure you’re contactable
One of the most persuasive methods of convincing people your company is legit and care about them as a customer is to offer multiple ways of contacting you. A strong landing page will always have at least one form on it that points the customer to your Call To Action and shows them how to complete the sale quickly and efficiently. This form can also serve as a contact form for your business.
You should put an email address and phone number in a prominent spot on the landing page on top of the form. The best places to put this information are in a strip right at the top of the page and again in the page’s footer.
Make these sections stand out by blocking them in a different color or highlighting the contact details, or placing a border around them.
Another strong addition to a landing page is the deployment of a chatbot. This is an automated customer response portal that you place on the landing page. It can pop up and say hello to your customer and can guide them through their purchases. Additionally, you can use it as a last-minute attention grabber to stop the customer if it senses they are navigating away from the page.
You can provide answers to your customers’ most commonly asked questions right then and there with a chatbot. This negates the need for a business representative to be online and available to chat 24/7.
Chatbots can be programmed to answer various queries and walk people through various actions on the landing page. Potential customers can get answers in real-time, which has been proven to lead to more sales on the landing page.
It’s all about making it easy for people to gain information about your company and the product they are interested in buying.
Key takeaway: Customers are more likely to feel confident about buying from you online if they can contact you with ease.
7. Offer a guarantee
A guarantee is another way to show a customer that you care about them. You promise them that your purchasing process is secure and your product worth investing in. In retail, a guarantee usually takes the form of a promise about the product.
For example, if you’re selling fresh produce, a guarantee can confirm that it’s sourced from the best places or that it’ll arrive at the customer’s door still farm fresh. Anything with mechanical moving parts should guarantee how long those parts will last or about what kind of conditions they can operate under.
When putting forward a guarantee, make sure it is something you can back up and that it’s part of your company’s legal terms of sale. However, you don’t have to delve into those legalities on your landing page or how you fulfill the promise. Just make the line catchy but true.
Key takeaway: Back up your offering with a solid customer guarantee.
8. Provide a value proposition
The value proposition on your landing page is a key message to get across. When a customer lands on the page, they want to know what they get out of making this deal with you. Studies show that you only have 10 seconds to communicate your value proposition before customers lose interest, so you need to make it snappy.
There is a range of different mechanics you can use for this.
The most effective approach is giving the customer something for free.
- A discount on the product or a two-for-one special – but only if they purchase from this particular landing page within a specific date range.
- Competitions can work well too. Inform the customer that they’ll be entered into a draw to win something enticing (doesn’t have to be related to the product on sale) when they make a purchase.
- Prove that your product is the superior deal over competitors. You can show that you have the best price or the best actual version of the product – whatever fits with your company.
- Make your company the value proposition by showing how you look after your customers better than other businesses.
Key takeaway: Add value and offer clients something over and above, just a great product.
9. Keep the design and message focused
This goes hand in hand with the concept of a single Call To Action on the page. It’s vital to have your page’s design focused on getting the customer to do one thing and only make a purchase.
It should be crystal clear from when someone arrives on the page what you want them to do.
A crisp, uncluttered design will always help this message to be more apparent. People should immediately focus on the product or products for sale, the important message around them (a promotion, a special deal, why to buy, etc.), and what action to take.
Another point to note here is that your landing page should not be part of your website’s main navigation. Having a Home button or a menu for people to look for other products or read up more about your company will dilute your message and your landing page’s punch. This is because people will be tempted to navigate away from this page to places that aren’t geared towards selling this product right now.
Key takeaway: Keep your landing page’s message direct and targeted to ONE action only.
10. Test everything (then test it again)
Once you’ve finished your design, it’s time to test how well it works.
A/B testing (also referred to as split testing) systematically tests two versions of the same landing page to see which elements work best and lead to the highest conversions on a landing page. Just remember only to test one element at a time.
For example:
- Change up the header.
Try two different versions of the header and run your Adwords campaign for a period to see which one gets the most conversions.
- Swap out images.
Try two different images in the header area to see which performs better. Each time you get a result, change both landing pages to the better performing version and then pick another element to test.
You can keep going ad infinitum with testing. Trends change, and you need to be adaptable too.
Once you’ve run through all of the elements in your landing page, test the following:
- The placement of CTA’s
- Statements and Keywords
- Colors and images
- Types of product shots
- Product descriptions
- Value proposition
- Design
Then start again at the top.
If you’re unsure of what and how to test, there are plenty of online tools to help you with your marketing tactics. Using the relevant tools can help you to refine your processes and achieve the desired result.
Key takeaway: Testing is an on-going process. Don’t let your landing page become stale.
Creating a high converting landing page from the get-go should be every marketer’s goal. When done right, it will drive sales and increase customer retention – two elements that are Ecommerce gold.
