How do you create effective customer-focused landing pages? You need to understand your potential customer—this is one of the first lessons in marketing. When you know your target audience, you can ensure that everything you design connects with them.
Every part of your landing page should be designed with your potential customer in focus. Avoid using random stock photos or headlines you’ve found elsewhere, as people will notice. This approach will make you try to appeal to everyone, which means you’ll end up resonating with no one.
Images
Stock images – or worse generic clip-art – won’t appeal to your potential customers; after all, they don’t appeal to you that much, do they? Your image should be a visual communication tool, and if you choose a stock photo, what are you trying to say to your potential customer?
Instead, show a real person using your product or service. This way of adding context to your proposal helps you to persuade people to buy into your proposition. One way to check this is by removing the copy from your page and see what your proposition looks like. Does it convey your key messages? Choose an image that enhances your message, not detracts from it.
Headlines
Your headline is the first thing that people will read on your landing page so make sure that you capture the audience’s attention. Be careful using puns or ambiguity as it can be too distracting. Make sure that you make yourself clear to get people’s attention and then you can persuade them to convert.
Define your proposition. Be clear and succinct. Try applying the headline to another of your pages. If it fits, it’s not clear enough.
Trustworthiness
People make snap decisions about your landing page in an instant. If your page looks outdated or haphazardly thrown together, then people will view the page as less credible than they should.
Try to make sure that you avoid jargon and false promises. If you are getting people to sign up to an email mailing list, don’t use the word spam anywhere near the call to action. You’re just creating bad associations in people’s minds.
Differentiate your proposals
It’s not enough to just talk about the features and benefits. You need to make sure that you make it clear why your proposal is different from your competitors. Put your USP right up front where people can see it.
Clearly define what people will get for their input
Make sure that you make it clear what the person will get for filling out your form. If you want people to give you information so that you can call them, what will you be talking about? How can you help them? How long will the call take? Explicitly state what they can expect to help convince them that they should.
If you always consider the other person when creating a landing page, you can feel assured that you are going to get your potential customers to convert.
Post originally appeared here.