BL&T No. 194: Universal Principles for Effective Landing Pages

This post originally appeared in my weekly newsletter, BL&T (Borrowed, Learned, & Thought). Subscribe

Borrowed

"First, make sure you and your people really understand your customers: their needs, their buying behaviors, and the changes in those behaviors. Know why they would prefer your products to others. Understanding customers is the base of business success."

From "Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done" by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck [Book]

Learned

I ended the week reflecting on how brands attract, communicate, and win over their audiences today, specifically how the principles of an effective landing page apply to businesses of all kinds.

Earlier in the week, I had a call with a prospective, a platform that empowers creators. Although they're not an e-commerce website or consumer product brand, they were curious about how we might be able to help them. As we dug in, they shared how they'd been struggling to understand their website's role in acquiring users following a hasty redesign last year.

Our conversation evolved from discussing a website overhaul to doing a deep dive to understand the current user journey. We went on to talk about how tailoring landing pages to specific audiences and channels could be effective, whether it's traffic coming from marketing or popular search terms.

The next day, I spoke with a CPG brand that had recently ramped up its digital marketing efforts to drive e-commerce growth and quickly spun up a landing page. It had some information on the product and several different calls to action. When I asked about what they wanted visitors to do when they landed, they were unsure. Our discussion went similar to the non-e-commerce brand: first, map out the current customer journey and target customers, then align on goals and determine what type of messaging and content would resonate at key touchpoints. From there, optimize the current landing page to promote conversion.

It’s not rocket science, yet it’s easy to miss the consistent need across various businesses and industries: deeply understanding your audience, clearly communicating your value, and steering them towards a desired action, whatever that may be. In the world of digital, the best way to do this is often a landing page.

Here are some universal principles to consider for driving engagement and conversion:

1. Targeted Approach: Tailor your landing page to resonate with who you're targeting. This means understanding your audience's needs, whether they're buyers, creators, or community members. Tell your story and explain your value in a way that will hit home for them. Maybe a healthy snack bar is convenient for a parent, but a great post-workout meal for an athlete.

2. Education: Emerge as a thought leader among all the noise. Prioritize education over a hard sell, lean into how your offering can impact a user's life, but also, give them the tools to make an informed decision. Even if they don't convert today, they'll remember your guidance. Think white papers, sample meal plans, scientific research, and so on.

3. Simplicity: If your landing page is being used for marketing campaigns, kill the navigation. Make sure all roads lead to your desired action. Either way, keep it simple. Avoid complex animation or modules that will distract users from learning and exploring.

4. Traffic Source Alignment: Catering your content to an audience is just as important as aligning it with the traffic source. For instance, users visiting from TikTok may be looking for quick tips or video content, while someone looking for answers via Google may be looking to go deeper.

5. User-Generated Content / Reviews: Include user-generated content and reviews to build trust and credibility. Showcasing real content vs. designing it right into the page is likely to be more believable and resonate.

6. Reduce Friction: Whatever action you want someone to take, make it easy. Avoid multiple steps or pop-ups. For e-commerce, this may mean a smooth checkout. For others, this could mean easy access to download content or sign up for a trial.

7. Clear Call-to-Action: Feature a prominent CTA button guiding visitors to take the desired action (and repeat it throughout the page), such as "Join Now," "Learn More," or "Get Started." Make sure it's visible, enticing, and the action is not vague.

8. Mobile-First: Ensure your landing page is fast and easy to browse on mobile (or whatever device is most popular for your audience).

9. Offers and Incentives: Consider an incentive to encourage immediate action. For e-commerce, this could be limited-time discounts or exclusive bundles. For non-e-commerce, it might be early access to new features or special community privileges.