Did you know nearly 80% of businesses are dissatisfied with their landing page's conversion rates?
That number should be shocking. There are hundreds of thousands of websites, all with landing pages of their own, and only 20% are achieving the goals they want?
Yes, it's not easy to craft the high-converting landing pages everyone wants. But what if you could produce landing page copy that has customers drooling over your offer? One that has them banging on the door.
Well, a page that achieves dramatically more leads is in sight.
Landing Page Copy that Converts
If you want effective landing page copy, you need to be willing to test endlessly. A/B testing is your ultimate weapon in the fight for higher conversions, and because we've said it here, we won't readdress it in every step. Just understand, if you're not willing to test, you'll never know what's not working on your page and potentially limiting your conversions.
These steps are the key to winning over more customers. While the concepts may be familiar, if you can execute on the next level, you're sure to see growth, and we'll show you how.
1. Ensure You Have the Right Offer
First things first. If you're pitching the wrong offer, no level of copy will save you. You need to have a specific, relevant deal that customers want to pay attention to.
With so many options in every market imaginable, it's vital that you stand out. Why should customers come to you over the competition? What is your reason to exist?
Appealing offers boil down to three key elements:
- It needs to help the customer with a specific problem.
- It needs to be relevant to the buyer's journey.
- It needs to bring a sense of urgency.
Study your buyer personas to understand what they want, and the specific problems they face. Offers should be highly specific to a single problem, pain, or fear. Then, the offer needs to help them solve it. If it's highly valuable and supremely helpful, they will convert. If it's self-serving and not valuable, no copy tricks will increase the conversion rate.
2. Create a Headline that Sings
The headline broadcasts your offer's value. It needs to be as concise as you can make it, without sacrificing clarity. Readers have short attention spans, and it's important to address that point.
If you're purchasing a designer suit, which headline would you prefer:
"Quality Materials and Fast Delivery"
or
"Look So Good They Can't Ignore You"
Your headline should be used to set the stage for the rest of the page. If you're focused on the buyer's journey, this means opening your customer's story in a way that's effective to them.
For example, if your customer is in an IT department, they care more about the specifications of your technology than the average person. So with this persona, you'd spend more time with a feature-focused headline that gets them excited to have additional capabilities. For someone who knows less about technology, you'd be better off with a benefit-driven approach that speaks to their internal desires.
For execution, focus on the four U's of headlines. Useful, Urgent, Unique, and Ultra-Specific. It can be challenging to manage all four while trying to speak to their need for status. This is why brainstorming is essential. Brainstorming as many different options as possible gives you a better chance at finding one or two that include all four, and that will make it incredibly powerful.
Try writing headlines with a cliffhanger (Our Pilot Made an Announcement, What He Said Changed Our Lives), using a testimonial (How Mark Used Our Sales Platform to Earn $80k in Only 30 Days), or by including statistics (How We Increased Monthly Organic Traffic By 1096% in Only 12 Months). These can all be effective depending on your audience.
3. List the Benefits
The benefits of your offer are what separate you from the competition.
Most customers have done thorough research and know specifically what they want. For the rest, you should present your features as providing the best benefit for them. You want to frame your product as a tool that will help them achieve their goals.
For example, "Fully Integrated Email Application" would be better served as, "Email Access, Anywhere, Anytime." Or "Open 24/7" as "Shop On Your Schedule."
To decide how you want to present the benefits, start with a bulleted list of everything your product does. Then, align that with your target persona and adjust the copy to highlight their specific needs.
4. Use Customer Testimonials
Nearly 70% of consumers rely on online reviews before making a purchase.
This is powerful, and it's something you need to capitalize on if you want your landing page to convert higher.
Social proof gives you authority in the eyes of consumers, and you should be continually seeking feedback on your products. It gives you insights into your product's performance but also helps with the number of testimonials you can pull from later.
While you can't alter what your customers are saying, you can be selective of which testimonials you use. Reviews that include a reference to a struggle or problem relevant to the offer work best by far. And, the more specific the better.
It's also important to use more "real people" testimonials than those from celebrities and experts. While the latter can be useful in certain areas, on most landing pages, the consumer wants to find someone who was in the same position as them.
Most landing pages use micro-copy where testimonials are used in a more traditional sense, such as quotes with a picture. Long-form landing pages offer options to present testimonials in more obvious ways and can be woven throughout your copy.
5. Enhance the Copy
Writing persuasive copy is more than just using pretty words. The text becomes an outlet for the excellent value your product offers.
First, you need to do some research. Use the same testimonials to identify the types of words customers associate with your product. Find the negative words they couple with their problem. If you lack testimonials, find similar products or services and pull from those.
You don't want to make the text overly cumbersome or simple. A consumer needs to feel you understand them, and how you present your product can speak volumes in that regard.
Use words that make the offer feel exclusive. They're getting something that they can't get elsewhere. It attaches them to your product and makes them more likely to select yours.
You could also use a technique like risk reversal to create a stronger form of a guarantee. Is your customer worried about not liking the offer? Throw in some bonuses to sweeten the deal. Are they worried about the cost? Provide a full refund and let them keep the product.
Provide an answer to every doubt the consumer may have and give them no reason not to purchase. Show the buyer they have nothing to lose, but everything to gain.
Injecting excitement and enthusiasm into your copy will create the same effect in your customers. They want to see how excited you are about the product so they can follow suit. So long as you don't sacrifice clarity, you can ramp up the energy as much as necessary.
6. Remove Friction Throughout
Because you want customers focused on accepting an offer, removing navigation on landing pages will help keep their attention.
Some companies adhere to that initial advice but fail to implement throughout their page. Copy should remain focused on the offer, otherwise, the customer experiences enough friction to slow them from following through.
Anything not related to your specific offer needs to be removed.
Accompanying forms can vary in length but should match the offer. For example, when presenting a white paper, the form may suffice with a name and email. If you're offering a free consultation, you may also need the company's name, their annual revenue, location, and so on. While more info may be nice, the customer is going to weigh their effort against the worth of what they're getting. Convenience is key to earning the conversion.
Improving Your Copy
If you want to earn the conversion rates you're aiming for, following these steps will get you on the right path. Take the time to create different iterations so you can choose what works best for your audience.
If you want more guidance on improving the copy on your website, check out our Strategy Kit. We include a buyer persona template, buyer journey template, and other critical customer research documents that inform better website content. Download this free guide to access the templates.
