5 Elements Every Landing Page Must Have

Landing pages serve as the home to conversions. Is your business inviting people inside?

Your landing pages shouldn't leave visitors and leads out to dry, but rather encourage them to take off their coat and stay awhile.

Trying to nail down a blueprint for an effective landing page isn't always easy. You're often times plagued by what to include, what not to include, or what to highlight. In actuality, there's a lot to consider.

If your business is looking to lift conversions, we've outlined 5 elements that every effective landing page must have. (We also have some landing page examples that can help you get started.)

A Strong Headline

If your headline were to stand alone, would it still make an impact?

The headline is the first point of contact a visitor will have with your landing page. Make a strong first impression. 

Focus on the main objective and nothing else. Stay away from fluff and sentence fillers that may distract from the overall intent.

Make sure that the headline is 100% relevant to the information you are about to provide. Don't mislead visitors with a vague headline that could go more than one way.

Additionally, focus on putting forth a solution. Content that addresses a personas concern and provides a logical solution will catch their attention and encourage them to keep reading.

Clear Value

Your landing page provides your business with your one shot to appeal to the wants and needs of you visitors. If you hide the value behind long-winded explanations, it's likely that they won't stick around long enough to read through.

The offer's benefits should be clearly and concisely defined, often times through the use of bullet points.

Usually anywhere between 3-5 points will work best because you want to be sure that you are only honing in on the most important highlights.

Be sure that you are wording the sentences to ensure that they lend themselves well to your personas pain points. For example, look at the way Example B addresses a specific concern while Example A is doesn't convey much of anything:

Example A: Information on conversion paths.

Example B: How to create a well-defined conversion path to close leads into customers.

One Specific Goal

If you only had one shirt in your closet, figuring out what to wear in the morning would be quite simple. However, if you add 5 shirts and 5 sweaters into the mix, making a decision becomes a bit harder.

Point being, stick to one goal and one goal only.

Landing pages that try to cover all the bases wont see strong results because they're is simply too much going on for them to focus on just one element.

Once you've defined a single goal, your form fill and CTA will work to support it.

An Appropriate Form

When it comes to selecting a form for your landing page, keep it simple.

While you'll want your lead capture forms to collect valuable information from your visitors, try to avoid over stuffing them with a ton of extra form fields. 

After all, information collection is a gradual process so don't ask for everything all at once. Consider the use of required form fields and unrequired form fields to give visitors the option to submit more information if they choose to do so.

When applicable, avoid questions about age, address, and telephone number, as HubSpot's Dan Zarella revealed that these 3 areas tend to lead to lower conversion rates.

A Picture or Video

In terms of visual inclusion, avoid stock photography at all costs.

Not only is it cheesy, but often times it will take away from the written value that you put forth on your landing page. A strong image should enhance the written copy, not detract from it.

People always say, "a picture is worth a thousand words", and when it comes to your landing page, that's exactly what you need.

As I mentioned before, the written portion of your landing page should be quick, clear, and concise. With no room for lengthy explanations, allow a compelling visual to carry out the rest of your message.

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