Make every word count when it comes to writing content for high-converting landing pages
How do you write a landing page that convinces people to act? Whether you’re selling a product, a service or simply want to raise brand awareness, to get users to take action on a landing page, you need compelling, persuasive content.
What is a landing page?
In digital marketing, a landing page is a standalone web page that is created specifically for an advertising or marketing campaign. It is the page a visitor arrives at on your website after clicking on a link in an email, or ads from Google, Facebook and similar. Landing pages are designed with a single goal – or a call to action (CTA).
Things to consider before you build a landing page
Set your goal
When it comes to creating content for any purpose, you must first ask what your overall goal is. For landing pages, what do you want visitors to do once they arrive there? Is it buy your product, book your service, or sign up for a newsletter? The first step before building your landing page is to determine your goal.
Identify your audience
Similar to the early stages of creating a content strategy, you have to find out who your audience is before building your landing page. The better you understand your audience, the more chance you have of delivering relevant content that will convert.
Competitor research
If your competitors are nailing their content, it’s time for you to take action to copy their success. Look not just at who your competitors are, but how they are succeeding. Use this research to help build your landing page.
Tips for writing landing pages that convert
You’re ready to create a persuasive landing page. By persuading your audience to invest in your page, you’re well on your way to convincing them to convert. Meaning you achieve whatever goal it is you set for your landing page.
Keep it short and sweet
A landing page isn’t the place for continuous blocks of text. Simply give readers the necessary information, nothing more.
Produce high-quality, relevant content
For a complete content strategy to work, you must give readers relevant information that is useful to them.
Make converting easy
Whatever your ambition for a landing page, you must make it as easy as possible for visitors to convert. Consider the page as ‘point A’ and you want them to move down the funnel to ‘point B’ – how are they going to get there easily? For example, if you want visitors to download a product guide, make sure the download button is easy to spot, is linked to the correct place and looks good.
Adopt a clean design
Similar to that download button, your entire landing page should have a clean design that allows visitors to navigate easily. Visitors should be able to convert with one easy click so, wherever possible, try to resist the temptation to add in a pop-up – those have no place on a landing page.
Call to action to have pride of place
Your CTA should be clear and obvious. Visitors shouldn’t have to consider what the next step for them is – tell them what you want them to do (e.g ‘download your free product catalogue’).
Invest time in creating a strong headline
Despite all the hard work you’ll put into creating a top landing page, chances are people won’t read every word on it. Sorry about that! Skim reading is the new normal, so you should produce copy that will cater for the skimming habits of readers. Invest time in crafting a high-impact headline. If you get your readers’ attention with a strong and clear headline, you will be well on the way to getting them to convert.
Emphasise the benefits, not the product or service
When writing copy for landing pages, you should describe the features of a product or service by describing their benefits. What’s the difference?
- Features are an element of a product or service
- Benefits are how that feature helps the visitor
To write features as benefits, you should describe the function of the product or service by explaining how it is useful and beneficial to the user. Readers don’t really care about your actual product or service – but they might just be interested if you tell them how they can benefit from it.
Format copy correctly
The formatting of text is just as important as the words you use. The formatting should make it easy for readers to scan and find the information they are looking for within seconds. When considering the best structure for content, you should use a combination of
- Bullet point lists
- Short paragraphs and sentences
- Font formatting (e.g. bold and underlined)
- Headings and subheadings
Break up copy with images
Use high-resolution images or illustrations to both break up text and to help draw a reader’s attention to the most important parts of the copy. Using images will make for a better user experience and, depending on your product or service, can help to demonstrate the benefits of your products and better explain your message.
Perform A/B tests on your copy
The only way to really know which copy works best is to test it. Split test different variations of your landing pages to see which one has a higher conversion rate. There will always be things to improve, so rather than shy away from A/B testing, continue to update your landing page until you achieve your conversion goal.
Be human
The internet is full of copy that sounds robotic. Why is that? You are a human, writing (presumably!) for other humans – so why not write something that sounds human? When writing your landing page copy, use ‘normal’ words that you’d use in everyday life and stick to shorter sentences. Use the first person and be willing to break strict grammatical rules if the subject and brand allow.
The bottom line
To convince more visitors to convert, you have to build a compelling, relevant landing page.
A successful landing page gives your target audience what they want. This usually means going beyond designing something that looks ‘good’. Landing page copy should be accessible and easily move the reader from where they are, to where you want them to be.