How To Create Landing Pages That Convert at 43%

landing pages are super simple pages that you build to drive predominantly pay-per-click traffic to and they are here to do one job and one job only and that is to turn pay-per-click traffic into a lead or sale so obviously the performance of your landing page can be the difference between a pay-per-click campaign that is wildly profitable and one that is now and in this video i'm going to share some tips that we've learned from building some conversion machine landing pages often with conversion rates of between 4 and 18 and in some cases even as high as 43 now if that either sounds like your cup of tea absolutely or it sounds completely confusing but you like the idea of making more money from your pay-per-click campaigns then stay tuned before we start let's talk some terminology just to make sure we're all on the same page in this context a landing page is a standalone page that is designed to convert cold traffic a landing page can also mean any page on your site that visitors come in from i. e land on but in this context we're talking about standalone pages mainly designed for paid traffic to come into they don't necessarily link through to the rest of your website and they often exist separately from your website so they don't have main menu or navigation or anything like that and they just give the user one thing to do which is convert let's also define what we mean as a conversion so a conversion is when somebody takes the action that the page is asking them to take so usually this is to become a lead to fill in an enquiry form or in the case of e-commerce to purchase a product and throughout we're going to talk about conversion rate this is the percentage of people that do that thing so the percentage of people that visit your landing page which take the action whether that is to make an inquiry get a quote fill in the contact form whatever the goal of that page is so if you have a hundred people landing on your page and you get three people filling in the form that would be a conversion rate of three percent now let's just do some quick math so that we can understand how important landing pages really are in the context of a pay-per-click campaign most of the websites that we are sent to review or work on have a conversion rate of on average one percent so 100 visitors come onto the site and one percent of them i. e one of them turns into a lead or sale but if we obey the principles in this video and we build a website or a landing page like this one or this one that conversion rate might be 10 so in other words you get 100 visitors on that page or that website and you get 10 leads from it so that's 10 times as many leads from the same 100 visitors you can see why landing page conversion is so important if we do a little more math let's imagine that you're paying two pounds per click so you're paying two pounds for every visitor that's landing on your page if that page is converting at one percent you are paying 200 pounds per conversion if that conversion is a lead then you have a cost per lead of 200 pounds now if we obey the principles in this video and we can make a page that converts at 10 well your cost per lead is actually 20 pounds so it's 1 10 of the cost of a lower performing page in that situation who can afford to pay more for every click who can afford to increase their ad budget well obviously you because you're converting so much more of the traffic that you're getting so you can see how a high performing landing page can not only give you a massive competitive advantage with your marketing but actually a great landing page can be a gateway to business growth because this opens up opportunities that might not be available to your competition the reality is that a really high performing landing page can be one of your most valuable digital marketing assets so in a minute i'm going to share the principles that make the highest performing landing pages but before we do that i thought it'd be really useful to look through some landing pages in different markets now i want to start with this example that we've built now what you can see in this is a very very straightforward layout there's no menu to distract the visitor and move them away we've got a very clear headline explaining exactly what the business does we've got a bit of information here we've got an illustration of the product and then we have the call to action this is the thing that we're inviting the visitor to do this is very low risk a free trial is about as low risk as it can get and very important that this free trial is actually the first step on the buyer journey so this is related to the end result that we actually want the person to take which is to sign up for the software although we've given the visitor an option to try it free right at the start of the page this is actually quite a long page so we're really selling two types of people here firstly we're selling the impulsive people when i bought my last car i walked into the car showroom and i saw a car on the car showroom floor and i said i'm gonna buy that one this is a great option for me other people take a little bit more time they like to do the research they like to understand things they like to dig in so it's important that there's enough information on your landing page to cater to that audience too so you'll notice that this page for example has information about the product it's got some testimonials to build credibility with another call to action so we're seeding these calls to action throughout the page so people can convert whenever they're ready and what we're doing here is we're answering all of the possible objections that someone might have before they would claim this call to action and start the free trial let's take a look at this page which is a landing page used for a pay-per-click ad for cyber security and we'll see a very different approach they've got the top menu navigation which gives the visitor exit points so they can go and have a look around the rest of the site the good news is they might find something else that they like the bad news is they might never come back they might never request your thing now the headline isn't the most straightforward thing to understand but the main issue with this page is the call to action get started this is a very high risk high commitment call to action to have on a landing page what's happening when i'm getting started am i signing up for something am i going to give my details to them to call me back i don't really know i don't know what's on the other side of this so there's a lot of potential risk as a visitor and it's too high a commitment call to action with not enough information and context behind what we're actually going to be doing to be a particularly effective call to action for a landing page now this is a beautifully formatted site it's a great looking page no arguments against the design but because we're let down by this fundamental principle we know that this page is always going to underperform so one of the really fun things that i like to do is search for really competitive high commercial intent terms where advertisers are spending a lot of money on those clicks and the reason i love to do this is because i'm an absolutely horrendous geek but also because if you look at the ads that people are running for really expensive highly competitive terms and the landing pages that they're driving that traffic to often you can learn a lot about what's really working because anytime a market is very competitive and spending a lot on their traffic often they've put some good attention into the landing pages in order to convert as much of that traffic as they possibly can because they need to in order to be able to compete in that space now you can do this too so bring your family and friends around crack open the laptop and search for something like personal injury claim or accounting software have a look at what the landing pages are doing in this space here you can see we've done a search for accounting software very competitive space with very well funded businesses running these ads so what we're just going to do is open up these first four landing pages and have a look and see the different approaches being taken by each of these businesses here we can see that quickbooks is driving people to a sea plans and pricing there's an activation bonus and it's really interesting to compare the different approaches here so we can see that quickbooks has a live chat pop-up so they're trying to start a conversation with people but their main call to action on this page is see plans and pricing and you'll notice that as we scroll down we lose the menu but we keep that button so that's clearly what they're pushing people to do there's a lot of explaining of the software and they're keen to show how simple it is which is kind of interesting because they're not driving people to a free trial they're kind of trying to answer those questions first with the copy and the images on the page and then drive people through to plans and pricing so let's give this button a click and we go down to this section on the page and they're trying to actually generate the conversion they're trying to make the sale directly from this landing page now we'll see this is a slightly different approach to what other people are doing this is iris and rather than trying to drive people to plans and pricing and get them to sign up they're looking to get a quote book a demo or find out more now their solutions are more expensive it's for a different market so in that case getting a quote booking a demo is a more sensible option but this landing page is absolutely dreadful because there's almost no information at all all we know is that the price is way higher than for competitive products and there's no evidence here that it's particularly good at all and there's nothing here that makes you think it's any good at all this is a really dreadful landing page with nowhere near enough information this is extremely unlikely to be profitable for the business at all now here's the sage page they're driving people through to request a demo or view a product tour we've got the live chat we've got videos we've got benefits of the product we've lost the call to action so that's a little bit weak in fact we don't get a call to action at all at the bottom the main call to action that sits at the top of the page in the menu is the product tour if we click on this we're asking for name email organization given this as an example actually some of these landing pages aren't great at all if we have a look at xero i'm hoping that xero will save us with a decent landing page and in fact we do have a decent landing page very straightforward copy try zero for free is a very strong call to action because it's low risk we've got the benefits of using the product we've got the dual readership path catered for we have the pricing so people are able to start actually signing up but try xero for free is the main call to action because they know they need to get you on the product now if we give this call to action a click there's something else great about this which is that they're continuing to build the credibility even as they go into the lead capture section so we're emphasizing the lack of risk so we can see that even in the lead capture stage they're de-risking this they're explaining that you don't need to enter your credit card you can get support at any time and you can cancel at any time so what they're trying to do is overcome the objections that people might have to sign up for the free trial and they're also reinforcing the benefits of signing up for it as well so this is a decent lead capture page so let's look at some of the principles behind a highly effective landing page and i'm also going to show you examples of landing pages that are obeying these principles we use a six-step approach to customer conversion at exposing ninja called the qualified customer closer c-l-o-s-e-r so c stands for credibility you must demonstrate credibility on your landing pages l stands for you have to offer some kind of lure that's attractive to people o stands for objection handling so how do you overcome the possible objections someone might have not just to doing business with you but actually to requesting whatever it is that you're offering on your landing page s is how you demonstrate social proof e is making sure that it's easy to do what you need to do on the page and then r is making sure that there is some kind of result given by your call to action to get people closer to their ultimate goals so let's look at each of these in turn and have a look at some landing pages which are doing exactly this now the first step is credibility how do you demonstrate credibility quickly on a landing page a few key ways of doing this are showing some of the publications that you've been featured in demonstrating expertise by giving some facts or stats about your expertise and your position in the market having someone's face on the site always helps to build credibility as does things like celebrity endorsements design also feeds into this credibility piece if your landing page looks crappy what does that imply about your business and about your product now here's an example of a landing page that we've run at exposure ninja this is actually for one of our services this landing page converts 17 so 17 sign ups for every 100 visits to this page now we tested a completely different and wacky approach to this we actually put a one hour webinar replay live on the landing page this was done purely to establish credibility in this space no better source of credibility than a one-hour webinar giving people the information that's then covered in the call to action the call to action is to book a consultation with one of the team so you click on that and then you choose a date from the calendar so one of the misconceptions about landing pages can be that they have to be very very sparse they have to contain almost no information actually by putting a one-hour webinar live on the page and making this a really long and detailed page with credibility devices like testimonials from people that our audience would know images of our best-selling books and information about the background of the business what we're really doing is massively establishing our credibility with the user to increase the conversion rate 17 conversion rate can't argue with that the next element is lure as in what are you offering people on that page in order to incentivize them to take the next step in the sales process with you if we search for personal injury claim as an example this top ad offers a free personal injury claim assessment which is actually pretty strong lure because one of the questions people have about legal claims is do i even have a valid substantial claim and if i do what does the process look like how much could i claim so offering a free injury claim assessment is a really good idea it's quite a strong potential look the downside is when people get on this page all the evidence of that free claim assessment is gone right we've just got request a callback which is a much weaker look what's happened here is they've really oversold in the ad so they're gonna have a high click-through rate on this ad but when people get on the landing page they're gonna have a low conversion rate because the lure doesn't match what they're actually being offered on the page they're gonna be paying all that money in clicks because lots of people are gonna be clicking on the ad but not getting the leads that they could be because the message on the landing page doesn't match if we look at a couple more examples you can see on this site it says fill in your form below and our experts will be in touch for free no obligation consultation about your situation there's a few wording tweaks that they could change here to make this more appealing but on the whole free no obligation consultation is a pretty good start we've also got credibility from the reviews and all that type of thing if we compare it to this site where it just says request a callback from our expert team there's no lure there at all there is no kind of free consultation mentioned at all this is probably just going to be a sales call guess what this is probably going to be a sales call as well but by positioning it as a no obligation consultation you're likely to get a higher conversion rate all of these sites can increase their conversion rate even further by saying something like find out how much you could claim we've tested a whole bunch of different calls to action in the claims space and find out how much you could claim outperforms almost everything else a lot of people go for things like start your claim but that's too high a commitment so think about the law what are you doing to incentivize people to take the action with you and is it more appealing than what your competitors are offering on their landing pages the next element is objection handling so we obviously want to handle any objections that customers might have to not only doing business with us but actually to requesting the thing that we're offering on the site so if we go back to the xero site for example and we click on the call to action you'll notice that they've got these three tick marks above the form where you sign up for the free trial these tick marks say no credit card required 24 7 online support and cancel any time so what are they trying to do here well they're trying to remove the possible objections that i might have to starting my free trial namely i'm gonna get locked into something or they're saying you can cancel any time and i'm gonna have to put my card details in and they're gonna automatically start billing me well it's telling me there's no credit card required i also might be thinking ah you know i'm worried i'm not going to be able to understand it might be a bit complicated well 24 7 online support so they've identified the three primary objections that people might have to even filling in this form let alone playing with the xero software they're just saying what are the objections people might have to even requesting the demo and let's answer those right where they're going to be in that decision-making process where they're thinking shall i shantai we're always weighing up what's the risk what's the potential reward so any time that you can de-risk the call to action that you're offering you're gonna see your conversion rate increase the next element is social proof namely who else has made this decision who else has decided to work with you and what did they think of that decision so great things that you can use here are review stars testimonials case studies things like that particularly if people can see themselves in the testimonial or the case study i.

e they match the sort of situation that they're in or it's someone well known that they know and that they have a relationship with so notice on this personal injury site how they're really using their trust pilot score very prominently they're using their trust pilot score really prominently because they know it gives them weight and it's social proof which will help improve their conversion rates so they've got an average score of 4. 7 which is pretty good it's low enough to be believable but high enough to be respectable and they've also got a decent number of reviews over 800. so not only do they use this in their main menu but they also use it just above the free quick claim form now they could improve the performance of this form by not saying free quick claim because that's too high commitment but find out how much you could claim or get a free claim assessment but the great thing is that they're using this social proof just before they ask you to trust them so before they ask you to trust them they're giving you a reason to trust them the next element to successful landing page is ease of use how easy is it for someone to do the thing that you want them to do check out this landing page what so look at the different calls to action that we're faced with we've got accept all bell lacks open for business we've got phone make an inquiry request the callback there is so much going on there's different colors there's big boxes this cookies message is awful even if we click this then we get more calls to action accident claims please call me now i've got nothing against lots of calls to action on a page but the trouble is when they start conflicting and everything's shouting for attention that's when it becomes an issue so typically you want one or two different methods of contact so for example a phone form is absolutely fine and then you might have a phone number where people can call you but what you don't want to do is just keep adding different calls to action and you also want to make sure that stylistically it all makes sense here we've got a kind of mixed up design language where the accident claims thing is orange so is the form but these other buttons are white so what does orange mean does orange mean this is something that we should do or does white mean it's something we should do really confusing so a much better approach here would just be to give all of the actionable elements the orange color and only the actionable elements there is absolutely no lure in the call to action please call me it's almost like something you'd read on the inside of a phone box the layout of this page is horrible and it generally sucks so don't copy this and the final thing is result your call to action should deliver people a result that gets them closer to their goals so how we like to think about this is imagine that your customers are on a train line between where they are and where they want to be each of the points in your sales process is like a station along this train line your job with the call to action is to get them to the first station i.

e get them closer to their goals now you're not going to fix their problem with that first consultation or whatever it is that you offer but you're going to help them understand how big their problem is or start to roadmap out a solution generally people want to be healthier happier or sexier so your call to action should deliver at least one of those three things so you want to make sure that your call to action gets people at least part of the way to the result along your sales process and you want to sell that first interaction in a way that makes them really attracted to you and desperate to request what it is that you're offering on your page okay so what does a good conversion rate look like and what sort of results should you expect from following this approach well typical digital marketing answer it really depends on the audience the offer and the source of the traffic and what your competitors are offering as well for example if a lot of your traffic is coming from social media you might find it has a lower conversion rate because social traffic has been scrolling and swiping and going backwards and forwards between things if you're getting a lot of your traffic from search you can often find that your conversion rate is higher because someone has usually typed in exactly what it is that you offer so they tend to have higher commercial intent now if your offer is high commitment i get started now sign up now something that requires a leap of faith then generally you're going to have a lower conversion rate if on the other hand you're giving away free money and gold then you'll typically have a higher conversion rate as long as you back up that claim with credibility and social proof now if you really want a ballpark figure i'm gonna say that landing page is converting paid traffic at less than four percent typically either there's something up with the page the offer is not quite right doesn't really resonate enough with the audience or the traffic isn't that easy to identify i you might be casting quite a wide net because it's difficult to find the perfect customer landing pages between five and ten percent doing pretty well we'd be pretty happy with the landing page converting at 10 on paid traffic typically it's pretty difficult to lose money in that situation landing pages converting over 15 outliers anything over 25 freak of nature our best landing pages can convert over 40 which is total freak show and actually if you're consistently at massive conversion rates then it can sometimes indicate that you're not casting a wide enough net with your digital marketing because everyone coming to the page is so hyper focused so you're often leaving money on the table by only going after a very narrow audience whereas if you expanded a bit you might reduce your conversion rate but actually you get a lot more conversions so i hope that's been useful lots of examples lots of principles just to recap we looked at some examples of good and bad landing pages and then we talked about the six elements that you need to make sure are included on your landing pages namely credibility an attractive lure objection handling use of social proof a very easy to use call to action and making sure that that thing that you're offering on the landing page gets people a result or gets them closer to the result that they're after so i hope you've learned something that you can use in your own digital marketing campaign don't forget to like this video click on subscribe as well and leave us a comment what's the best performing landing page you've ever seen if you've got a terrible landing page or if you've got a landing page that's just really not performing just drop it in the comments and we'll give you some feedback on it and of course if you want to increase the volume of leads and sales that your website is generating for you then the best thing that you can possibly do is request a free marketing review from exposure ninja go to exposureninja. com and click the big button to request your marketing review you'll get a questionnaire which asks you a bit of information about your business and your digital marketing and your goals and then one of the team will record and send over a 15-minute video showing you how to improve the performance of your website your paid traffic your organic visibility and how to increase the volume of conversions be they e-commerce sales or leads that your website is generating for you it's an awesome service so go to exposureninja.