First impressions can make or break new business opportunities. Those involved in e-commerce or for those who use the web to drive offline sales, landing pages are of utmost significance. For customers coming in contact with your business for the very first time the design, layout, and navigation of your landing page can be the difference between a sale and a prompt exit. Contrast between a well built landing page and a poor one is comparable to real life salespeople . Like the ones in the photo above. They both might have a great product and the gentleman on the right might even be selling it for less. However, the person on the left, had all the information I needed above the scroll, excellent ad copy relevancy, call to action, price point, social media connect and share buttons, all presented in a clear and concise manner. The guy on the right had a great looking banner ad that clicked through to something like this. Although a bit exaggerated for this post, this is how the average user could perceive the difference. Fact is, people would simply prefer to do business with David Beckham over Buddy Holly. It’s a trust issue and trust is a very important factor when it comes to transacting business online. A poorly designed landing page will not look like a safe place to enter your credit card number or provide other personal information which results in lost leads and sales.
When thinking about user friendliness, consider this – if your website is a “supermarket” then the landing page should be a “convenience store”. I want to see everything right when I walk in. Odds are, I know exactly what I need and don’t want to spend extra time searching for it. Whatever action you want me to take on the landing page, make it as easy as possible. Make it so easy it doesn’t require thought.
Here is a few things to keep in mind when building a landing page:
1. Screen resolution differs from desktop monitor to laptop. Try to keep your most important content, such as the call to action, higher up on the page so everything is visible without having to scroll.
2. If doing data capture, listing a phone number, or have social media connect buttons – don’t place them at the bottom of the page. Make all important actionable functions be the first thing a user sees.
3. Ad Copy Relevancy – if the ad copy mentions a discount, the landing page should as well. So simple, yet sometimes overlooked. This is why AdWords ads have a quality score. Apply the same strategy to your display banners, newsletters, e-blasts, and even offline ads.
4. Text – take what you have and cut it in half. Then take what’s left and cut it in half again. Keep in mind the “convenience store” analogy. Users aren’t coming in to sit down and read a novel. Make the page self-evident.
5. Good Example – Netflix.
There are plenty of other factors to discuss when it comes to landing page design and usability. I’ll try to do a follow up post in the near future.
