Some of the most commonly overlooked elements that are easy to miss but have a big impact
When it comes to landing pages, the number of best-practices out there can be overwhelming.
A myriad possibilities with a myriad permutations, and a myriad ways to impact conversion, scroll-depth, and so many other metrics.
So rather than a list of every single tip to optimise your landing page, I want to instead break down five simple, easy to implement but often overlooked best-practice that you can apply to your landing page with relative ease.
These are design changes that I have found to have a quick, but meaningful impact on conversion.
Friction reducers are probably the easiest item to implement on this list.
Simply put, friction reducers do just that, they reduce friction for the user to continue through the conversion funnel.
These often appear as a simple line of text, underneath your primary call to action, and are best served addressing the biggest objection from your users.
For a lot of SaaS companies, that objection is the fact that the user may think they need to enter their credit card details. In this case, a simple ‘no credit card required’, added under the primary call to action, can do wonders for conversion.
In this example you can see how Typeform have added 2 friction reducers under the primary button.
Both ‘no credit card required’, and ‘no time limit on free plan’ address the 2 biggest objections of users:
Will I need to put my card details in? And, how long does the free trial last?
The second, often overlooked landing page best practice that can increase conversion, is ensuring you have consistent call to actions throughout your page.
I’ve seen so many pages where multiple sections link to different parts of their website, and even buttons that perform the same action are labelled differently.
Does that mean they are different? Which one should I click on?
This is called abundance of choice, and can have an incredibly detrimental effect on the performance of a landing page.
My recommendation is to stick to 1 primary call to action, and ensure the button label is identical throughout the page. You can use the button as many times as you like, but make sure there is only 1 action you are asking your users to perform.
And if there MUST be more than 1 call to action, make sure any of the 2nd or 3rd call to action buttons are show in a secondary style, so as to communicate to the user that this is not the main action they should be taking.
The next often overlooked best practice, involves changing the copy of your subheadings to suit the needs of your users.
For most services, products, or technology, users have a few important questions they need answering before we even consider purchasing or signing up.
Combine this with the fact that users don’t read, and you have a low chance of converting a user if your scannable text does not address their key concerns. In fact, research shows that on the average web page, users will only read about 20% of the text.
What this all means is that your subheadings should address each of your user’s most frequently asked questions, and it should address them in the order of frequency in which they are asked.
That way, the most common questions are answered with a minimal amount of scanning and scrolling from your user, and your users can find exactly what they are looking for with minimal effort.
The fourth best practice that is often overlooked, is not the use of testimonials by themself, but instead the content that we show in our testimonials.
Testimonials are a great way of proving your product or service to a potential customer. They reduce the risk and give the user confidence that other people have bought or used the product before, and were happy with it.
The trouble is, startups and businesses alike, often just copy and paste testimonials straight to their site, without thinking about the content.
The most powerful testimonials, are the ones which address any of the main objections your users have to your product or service.
Take this example on the website for brain supplement startup Your Heights.
They understand that a lot of their potential customers distrust supplements, based on the industry history of bold and often untrue claims.
So they use a testimonial that directly addresses this objection, from none other than Stephen Fry — someone who we assume to be intelligent and trustworthy.
Top marks, and a perfect testimonial.
The last most commonly overlooked best practice that can impact conversion, is strong storytelling.
Now I don’t necessarily mean storytelling the narrative form. What I mean is using storytelling to convey both the problem your users are facing right now and raising the stakes for why it is a problem, and then showing how you solve the problem for them, and what users who have this problem solved look like.
It is about understanding that your user does not exist in one dimension, and being able to do two things very well:
This not only has the benefit of showing the user the journey they will go on, rather than just demonstrating your product, but it also has the benefit of being 22 times more memorable in the format of a story.
So think about who your user is before they use or buy your product, and who they might be after. Understand their problem, and guide them to the solution through a personal transformation, rather than just the experience of using your product.
If you’re unsure about how to do this, speak to your current customers. Ask them how they felt and what they were doing before using your product, and then ask them how they feel now they do use your product.
They’ll tell you everything you need to know, and the impact on conversion when a story is told correctly can be huge!
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