Why you need to improve your landing page
A landing page is a webpage that you ‘land on’ after clicking a link elsewhere. They are used as the focal point for any type of campaign, from fundraising to public information.
Social media, email marketing, and paid search content are important for getting people to your website, but your landing page is where the magic really happens!
Every word, colour, and bit of dynamic content will influence whether or not visitors to the page will take action for your campaign. A great landing page could be the key to more donors, event participants, campaigners, and support for the people who need your charity’s expertise.
How to create a killer landing page
CREATE OR UPDATE (NO EXCUSES!)
There is so much to do when pulling together a campaign that you can easily forget to give your landing page some love. Bump ‘create or update landing page’ towards the top of your campaign to-do list.
If you have been avoiding your landing page because your website content management system (CMS) is inflexible, you could consider hosting your landing page on a third-party tool like Leadpages or Mailchimp. Hosting on your own site is the best option, but having a really good quality landing page is important, too.
MAKE SURE YOUR BRANDING IS ON POINT
The journey from your marketing communications to your landing page should be seamless for your audience. If your landing page branding looks shonky, it could jolt them off the path to conversion. Making sure your branding is on point, from colours to tone of voice, will smooth the transition.
THE NEED FOR SPEED
If your landing page takes an age to load you are likely to lose impatient visitors. We all have such short attention spans and we expect fast connections, so we are likely to give up within a second or two if we can’t access the information we were looking for. Reasons that your website might load slowly could include the number of images, videos or flash content, or even the location of your server. Test your landing page to see how well it loads and have a chat with your web developer if it seems slow.
DOES THE ‘FOLD’ STILL MATTER?
The fold on a webpage is the point where the content disappears unless you scroll down. The concept is based on printed broadsheet newspapers where the content is literally folded. Traditionally all critical information on a web page would be above the fold, but as mobile browsing and scrolling behaviour has become the norm, it’s not as important.
To cater to audiences who are either decided or undecided about taking the action you want them to, you can do two things. Firstly, include critical information and your call to action (CTA) button above the fold (for those decided). Secondly, make sure there is a teaser for the additional content on the page to encourage scrolling and another CTA button further down the page (for those undecided).
BREAK IT DOWN
There are lots of ways that you can break down your content into easily accessible chunks to help landing page visitors digest it and take action. For example:
Divide your landing page into sections using different visual devices like background colours
Include one powerful image or video above the fold to communicate your key messages visually
Use dynamic content (e.g. content that auto-scrolls) to draw the eye to a particular section
Use plain and simple language in short paragraphs to make it skimmable and easy to read
Make the CTA button very easy to spot by using a colour that clashes with your branding
Share the impact your call to action will make by using statistics with infographics or animations
Amplify the voices of the people your organisation supports by including their experiences
Break down possible barriers to completing your CTA with a Frequently Asked Questions section
TESTING, TESTING
The process of creating a killer landing page shouldn’t go dead when your page goes live. You can continue to learn how it is being used by installing a tool like Hotjar. Gather as much data as you can on the sections of the landing page that visitors are hovering over, where they are taking actions and where they are losing interest. The rich insight you can gain from this data will help you to continue tweaking the content, copy, and design of your page.
Getting curious about your landing pages is an exercise well worth your time. They are the penultimate place that your audience will visit before deciding to take action for you – one of the most critical points in any user journey.
