Landing pages are standard practice in today’s advertising world. The vast majority of campaigns, regardless of media type, inevitably funnel their audience through an online channel for further information, engagement and/or conversion. Because landing pages are most often the final point at which your audience will decide to convert, it is important that we approach each lander design with a singular objective — as well as a memorable and engaging user experience. Below are a few best practices to consider when designing your next lander.

Have one clear objective. Having a singular call to action (CTA) is a must. Your user has arrived at your lander for one reason: They are following up on information they have already encountered in some way prior to arrival. For that reason, we approach lander design slightly differently than website design. On a website, you will typically create an interface with several different streams of content to explain your purpose and objective. Landers should do just the opposite: Your content should be limited to a single page with one clear message that reinforces and sells your goal. Consequently, it's important to remove elements that distract or detour from that goal. Best practices here include:

Reducing or removing navigation at the top of the site altogether. Anything your user needs to know or do should be on the lander — not buried in subpages. If you need the user to leave the page for more information, you should rethink your content strategy.
Giving all CTAs on your lander the same job. This lander is meant to do the heavy lifting and convert, so don’t overcomplicate or distract from that process. Entice and herd your audience to the end goal without distraction.

2. Reduce copy and let graphic elements do some heavy lifting. Reducing large quantities of information into concise and quickly digestible nuggets of content can be challenging — especially if your product or service is complex. That’s why, when working on lander designs, we have to be very mindful of page and messaging length. While scrolling may not be as frowned upon as it once was, your user’s interest and attention span should still be taken into consideration. We need to find ways to simplify a big message while maintaining the user’s interest. Best practices here include:

Creating infographics. Infographics are great ways to easily translate complex technical information while affording an opportunity to reduce copy on the lander. They also create unique and memorable points of user engagement on the web. Interactive graphics allow users to engage and digest information at their own pace.
Using video: A video is arguably the best way to convey a lot of information in a short amount of time. The flexibility of this medium allows us to integrate infographics and more. Voice narrating can essentially put the user on autopilot as they learn about your goal. In fact, research has suggested that video on landing pages can increase conversion by over 80%. Without question, this medium can help you create a memorable and engaging landing page that performs.

3. Create accessible content. It goes without saying that your lander design should be responsive — giving every user, regardless of the device on which they're viewing it from, the best and most intuitive experience possible. Taking it one step further, you should also ensure your content is accessible for all users. Each person in your audience experiences content on the Internet differently. Improving the accessibility of content is about reducing basic barriers to comprehension, such as providing alternative text for images so that those who cannot see the images can grasp their meaning. Making captions or transcript text available for video can also augment accessibility for users that cannot hear audio.

4. Consider microinteractions. Web pages revolve around user interactions. However, when we're talking about microinteractions, we're referring to those that are more subtle and often seen as “something extra,” rather than necessary. Typically, these are functions like confirmation messages, hover effects, page transitions and scrolling animations. Often, microinteractions are intended to “wow” visitors with surprises. Simple hover effects or loading animations could be what your visitors remember most about your page, so adding this layer of razzle-dazzle can boost user engagement. Microinteractions should be subtle and intuitive; they should work with the design and the nature of the content to enhance the user experience.

5. Conduct A/B testing. You can apply every best practice under the sun to your lander designs, but that won't ensure great results. The reality is that different things will resonate with different audiences — and vary drastically depending on what you’re promoting. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, so one of the best practices you can adopt is A/B testing — that is, trying out strategically crafted designs with intentional differences to identify what variables are resonating with your audience. The results will allow you to curb and cater later iterations of your design, ensuring they have maximum impact.

Once you’ve persuaded a user to click through, nailing the landing page design can help you close the deal. Looking to learn more? We can help with that.

Looking to learn more?

5 Impactful Web Design Practices for Landing Pages in 2019

Newsletter

Related posts: