Optimising landing pages is a MUST if you want a website that naturally converts. One of the...
Social media is one of the best means to get brand new traffic to your site. Social posts and ads can be seen by your ideal audience, giving you the chance to attract new visitors and convert them into leads. But it’s easier said than done.
Just because you have incredible social graphic designs doesn’t mean you will increase leads. Excellent graphics and social engagement will improve traffic to your site but if you want to increase leads, you need to optimise your landing pages.
Once you’ve attracted visitors from social media to your website, you need to successfully prompt them to convert into a lead contact. And your landing pages can be doing more harm than good to your strategy.
Your landing pages play an important role in lead generation, they need to be optimised to increase conversion.
We’ve highlighted 5 ways your landing pages can be dissuading visitors away from your site and how you can fix it.
1. Too many opportunities to leave
Having too many opportunities for an visitor to leave your landing page can be hurting your conversion rate. Links to blogs, your top menu and even your footer links can be very distracting and unintentionally prompt people to click onto another part of your site.
This is a common reason why marketers lose potential leads on their landing page. Logically, you would think giving users lots of choice is a good thing but on a landing page you need to restrict their choices and direct them to follow the instructions on the page.
You can reduce the number of opportunities for a person to leave by:
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Remove the navigation menu bar: removing your main menu, takes away temptation links. Yes, it’s nice if people want to explore through your site but leads are more valuable.
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Do not put links to your blogs or other pages: save these for your thank you page.
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Remove footer links.
Avoid having any links drawing people from your landing page. Once they have landed, you want them to make a specific action (sign up, download, etc). Don’t distract them.
Potential social leads will be coming to your site from social media, so it is likely they don’t have much time. They could be procrastinating at work or scrolling through their newsfeed during lunch, they don’t have much free time so don’t provide any distractions.
2. Too much disorder
If your landing pages have too much chaos or clutter, people will naturally be deterred.
Whilst it’s tempting to impress your new visitors with plenty of content and images, this can be offputting. The best way to optimise your landing page is to keep it simple.
Plan how you will set out your landing pages. The key elements of a successful landing page is to have:
- Small submission form: smaller the contact forms, the better. People don’t want to put too much effort for a business they don’t know. Contact forms should be basic and quick to fill out.
- Limit content: your copy should inspire the visitor to make a specific action. There is no need for essays, people won’t read it.
- Limit images: focus on having one or two images max.
Before you make your pages live, scrutinise them and ask if each section of your page has a purpose. If any content or images has no benefit, then they need to be removed, they can be a potential distraction or deterrent.
3. Images not appealing
Images can be very persuasive. Look at this call-to-action for example:
Source: Netflix
Netflix’s display of films in the background is very strong and the image takes up most of the page compared to the text. It’s important to remember that some images can speak more than words. Think about your ideal buyer persona and what they will engage with. This will help you choose the right image for your landing page.
Types of images that work:
- High quality image of the product
- An ideal buyer persona using the product/service
4. Landing page does not match social attraction
Your social ads and posts linking to the landing page, should be similar in design and content. It’s confusing to click on a link and feel like you’ve landed on something greatly different from what you were expecting.
Upwork Facebook Ad. Source: Facebook
Upwork’s Landing Page has the same colour theme. Source: Upwork
Your social posts should reflect your landing pages, in style, theme and design. So, when an online user lands on your page, they don’t feel disorientated. Instead, they feel like they have landed on a page they were expecting.
5. No benefit for the user
Your landing pages need to be beneficial for your visitors, otherwise they won’t feel the urgency to act. If they’re giving their contact details to you, they need to feel like they are receiving something valuable in return.
Reciprocity is the idea that if you do something kind for someone, it’s likely they will repay you. Reciprocity works in marketing, offering something free and valuable makes people more approachable to you and there is a higher chance they will give their contact details.
There are ways you make your landing pages more enticing, you can offer:
- Free premium content: in the form of a DIY eBook or guide
- Free samples
- Free limited trial for a service
- Free chat with an industry professional
Create an offer they cannot refuse to improve the conversion rate of your landing pages.
How to increase social leads with your landing pages
The important thing to remember when working to increase your social leads is to remember that the visitors landing on your pages will be coming from social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. They have clicked on your social post or ad, because you captured their attention.
When they land on your page, you need to keep that attention. Optimising your site with engaging images and persuasive offers will encourage them to act. Removing your menu and any other links will decrease the chance of them moving to another part of your site. Before they have a chance to click ‘back’, you need to keep them interested with simple and actionable content.
Offering something valuable and relevant to your ideal visitors will increase the conversion rate of your landing page.
