How to Design a Landing Page to Increase the Customer Database

What is a landing page?

A landing page is a standalone, simple website which appears when a person clicks on a banner with your advertising, email or link.

What distinguishes landing pages from other sites is that there is one clearly defined purpose for which it is created. For example, in the case of a website with a free report download the purpose would be lead generation.

Use a landing page to obtain information about customers to create dedicated offers.
This is quite different in the case of an article on the company’s blog, which also has to educate the audience and establish a closer relationship with the company. It meets at least three goals, so a post on a blog is not a landing page.

There are 2 basic types of landing page, distinguished by purpose, which have to meet – click through (click and go to the target page) or lead generation (collect leads).

Which landing page to choose?

Click-through

A click-through landing page, as the name suggests, persuades people to click and move to another page. Such landing pages describe the product or offer in order to ensure visitors about the unique features of an offer. Thus, they bring customers to the decision to purchase, which they may do on the website.

The landing page directs them to usually acts as a step between advertising and shopping cart or registration form. The use of landing pages increases the chance of completing a transaction because the navigation path is shorter than during a regular shopping process.

Lead generation

A lead generation landing page is used to obtain information about visitors—such as name, email address, phone number —necessary to ensure they consent to receive your offers. In order to collect this data, the landing page contains a form, which is the key element, and an incentive to leave their data. It is a promise of something they will get in return, there may be for example:

• a free ebook
• registration for a webinar
• coupon or voucher
• free trial

If you need to gain new contacts in your database, you might want to consider using this type of landing page. However, remember that people who will go to such a website must spend a few minutes and do the activities that might be inconvenient. Not necessarily they will want to:

• read and understand a lot of information because they didn’t mean to spend that much time on your page
• leave their name and address for the sake of data security
• provide a phone number as they may fear that they’ll be harassed by telemarketers,
• provide their email address as they want to avoid spam

If you want consumers to do what you expect from them—that is get acquainted with the content located on the landing page and entered their data—your landing pages must be properly designed.

How to design an effective landing page that generates leads?

The answer to this question is not simple—it all depends on the industry, advertising budget, the type of product you sell, or a group of recipients. There are a few elements that are equally important irrespective of the business.

Layout

It takes just a few moments for a high-performing landing page to convince the visitor to take advantage of the presented offer. When you have limited space and time per a visitor, simplicity is the most important thing. A clear arrangement of elements on the landing page (both graphic and text) will help the visitor to get familiar with all of the contained information.

For this purpose, make a plan of a landing page, which will be divided into several sections, each of which corresponds to one of the information you want to convey. That may be for example the best offer features, client lists, statistics which place your offer in a positive light, graphic showing the product/service, opinions of other clients, a form, a call to action sign. Instead of continuous text use bullet points and bold, because users usually scan the text instead of reading it.

Header

It is always the first element, which draws the attention of the recipient. Therefore, the header should arouse curiosity, announce the benefits and contain a meaningful message for the recipient. To make a good first impression, the header should be brief – the optimal length is 6 words. Use them to express the value your offer delivers to the customer and make sure they know you can address their needs from the first point of contact with your business. Stimulate their imagination and placesomething that distinguishes your products from the competition, e.g.:

• “Attract more customers without the high costs”
• “The report created to increase your sales"

Visual elements

The graphics on a landing page are also important because our brain processes images much faster than text. First, use colors that are consistent with your brand identity.

Secondly, make sure that the used images are relevant to the content.

Thirdly, use modern fonts that will match other visual elements of the landing page. Make sure the fonts you use, their sizes and colors are easy to read.

Form

The main purpose of placing a form on a landing page is to collect leads. However, gathering information from potential clients is not a simple matter – customers are not always willing to share their data, especially online.

The biggest dilemma that arises when designing a form is its length. The more fields it contains, the more information about the client you can gain, but it requires more involvement from the visitors. Therefore, each additional box statistically reduces the chance of conversion but provides its quality of the data. You have to decide what is important to you: the quantity or quality.

The most important information that you should obtain is an email address and phone number as they enable you to contact with a lead. Therefore, you can prepare a simple form consisting of three fields – “Name”, “Email” and “Phone”. If you want to get more data, you can add them according to the value such information will give you: “City”, “Company”, “Position”, “Website”, and many others.

When you create a form that meets your expectations, try to make it visible—highlight it with a box and a distinctive color. Design a landing page to direct the user’s eyes on it. In addition, build confidence and increase your credibility by placing a link to a privacy policy, which ensures the safety of collected data and gives your company logo.

Call to action

Your goal is to provoke the user to fill in the form and click on the call to action button (CTA). This element should be placed in the visible part of the website without scrolling (above the fold), have a sufficiently large size and vibrant color that will distinguish it on the page.

The CTA color should contrast with the background and at the same time fit into the whole landing page design. The inscription on this button can take different forms, but a go-to practice is a verb in the imperative form and a short message that clearly indicates what will happen when you click, for example Download, Send, Sign up for a newsletter.

Optimize for mobile

In 2019, there will be 4.85 billion mobile users, which makes 64.4% of the world population. Therefore, when designing a landing page don’t forget about the people who visit it via mobile devices. Without adjustment, your landing page to the mobile versions, filling in a form can be difficult, and you don’t want to discourage potential clients. Make sure the form is clearly visible on the display screen and can be easily filled in and that the CTA is large enough to be able to tap it with your finger.

Thank you message

If your visitor fills in a form on the landing page, don’t forget to thank them. You may use a separate page, which displays after conversion. Polite words like “Thank you for signing up” or “Your report is on the way” are not only an expression of politeness and good manners but clearly inform the recipient that nothing more needs to be done.

You have already generated leads. What’s next?

These tips will help you prepare a landing page that encourages your audience to leave their data. Such an effect can be achieved by optimal arrangement, good design and an appropriate form, which attracts the attention of potential customers. With a well-designed landing page, you have a chance to gather a comprehensive database of potential clients.