Design your way

Your landing page is vitally important; the most impressive graphics, design and offer cannot overcome the deterrent effect of poor written content. A poorly written landing page means that you will fail to convert visitors into customers and your sales figures will suffer accordingly.

Writing an effective landing page is rather different to writing a blog page. When writing a landing page, a few seemingly minor touches can make a huge difference to your conversion rates. Those looking for a fast way to create an effective landing page should take the time to follow a few copy writing rules and tips.

Consumers are not stupid and they are growing more knowledgeable everyday. The instant they think that you are attempting to push them into buying something, they immediately put up resistance. So how can you achieve your conversion goals in this difficult situation?

Whether you are simply asking for customers’ e-mail addresses to send them your newsletter or trying to get them to pay for your goods or professional services, gentle persuasion is the way to achieve your aims and to get more sales. The hard sell just frightens customers away.

First step – heading

The heading, which is the first thing that potential customers see, must fulfill certain criteria and you should choose it very carefully. The internet is confusing and your heading should let people know that they have reached the correct destination.

Thus, you should include the most obvious keyword that will tell people clearly they are in the right place, search engine optimization is less important, in this instance, than the customer’s needs.

Think about why people are coming to your page, for example, if people are coming to your page to find a tool manufacturer, your heading should tell them clearly that they have arrived at their destination.

You are not writing a novel, leave clever, complicated sentence construction and descriptive skills for other purposes. Simplicity is far better than literary or comic writing skills when writing your landing pages.

Use words to make your visitors act

Using action verbs is critical to writing a successful landing page. A visitor who cannot see, almost immediately, what to do will get confused and simply click on the back button.

On a landing page, this will mean that you not only lose site traffic but returning and potential customers and sales. Writing with active verbs tells visitors clearly what they should do on the page.

Direct the visitor’s attention to what is important

Do not be tempted to clutter your landing pages or try to show everything that your company offers. Show one product or service on each landing page and discard the sidebar, footer and navigation bar, the only navigation necessary is a link to your homepage. Advertisements on your landing page distract the reader from your call for them to act.

Use the second person

By concentrating on your visitor rather than on your product or service, you make them believe that you are offering a more valuable offer. Writing in the second person, simply means using ‘you’ and ‘your’ rather than ‘I’ and ‘my’.

Using second person pronouns helps to build a relationship between the visitor and your product or service. Doing so also helps you to show the consumer how valuable and relevant your offer is to him, because it personalizes it and the customer begins to think about how he might use your product or service and how it will improve his life.

Have a clear message

Be clear, concise and direct, do not cloud your meaning with jargon or unnecessary purple prose. Once you have written your landing page prose, reread it and delete words, phrases or sentences, which unnecessarily complicate your simple direct message.

Short sentences and simple words convey meaning more successfully and directly. Do not try to show off your vocabulary or literary prowess.

Write so that a small child could read and understand exactly what you are saying. If you do not write clearly, you will find it difficult or even impossible to persuade the reader to buy anything from your site.

Make yourself believable

Even if your reader has come to your page intent on buying what you are selling, he will not do so if he does not believe you. For example, specific named testimonials from individual satisfied customers are far better than non-specific claims that many people use your product or service and are very pleased with it.

Value Proposition

Think of the best and most believable reasons for the actions that you want your customers to take, this collection of reasons is your value proposition.

Your landing pages should concentrate solely on those reasons, anything else merely dilutes the message that you are trying to convey and reduces your ability to convert browsing internet surfers into sales.

Try making the text emotional

Use words to make consumers envisage themselves with your product or service offer. Create an emotional reaction, for example, excitement or an urgent desire for your product or service, by your word choice and usage.

The call to action button

Never leave your visitors uncertain as to what the call to action button is for, do not use general terms like sign up now or download now, be more specific, tell the visitor exactly what he is doing when he clicks that button otherwise he may get confused and worried and not click it at all.

Conclusion

Lack of focus on the correct messages will ensure that your conversion rates remain low. Experimenting by trying different messages, to see which ones actually work is a very slow process. It is far better to write copy that is effective immediately.

When you know the best reasons that people have for converting from being a visitor to a buyer you can concentrate on the most persuasive and effective messages, rather than distracting the customer by using ineffective and unnecessary words that simply distract and confuse customers.

When you concentrate on helping your customers to achieve their personal aims, they will, in turn, help you to achieve your business aims. Thinking about your customers, their needs and concerns will help you to write the compelling relevant web copy that will help you to achieve excellent sales figures.