A landing page is one of the most powerful pages you have on your website. You might also say that this page is a marketing goldmine. This is where your visitor arrives on your website after clicking your ad and exploring your brand. They’re only a few clicks away from converting, performing your desired action.
That being said, not all landing pages will bring the best results. Only well-crafted ones. There are many landing page builders that can help you craft great landing pages. All landing pages that convert will have essential elements that can convince and persuade visitors to convert.
Since the main goal of a great landing page is to increase conversion rates, all the essential elements in your landing page should be focused on giving the visitor what they want and need. This means that you should go beyond simply designing a page that “looks good and is aesthetically pleasing.”
The question for today is: “What are those essential elements of a landing page in 2021?” Well, let’s find out!
11 Crucial Elements for a High-Performing Landing Page
Regardless of your business size or what industry you’re in, if you design and structure your landing page effectively, it has the power to transform your marketing efforts and drive significant revenue.
Here are some essential elements of a landing page you should consider adding to reap all the benefits for which you’re hoping.
1. Thought-Provoking Headlines
What’s the first thing a visitor sees right after they land on your landing page? The main headline. It might be your biggest opportunity to make a great first impression for the visitor, attracting their attention and enticing them to stay on the page.
You need to make it short but punchy. It should be a phrase that your visitors really need to hear to solve their problem. It’s also crucial to make it clear — never make it ambiguous or vague…unless you want your visitor to click away immediately.
Below is an excellent example of a landing page headline for Khan Academy.
Khan Academy crafted their landing page headline to show immediately who they are and what they do. They make sure that they’re addressing their target audience. The subheading copy perfectly complements the headline and makes their offer very clear.
2. Engaging Visuals, Either Images or Videos
While copy can help you create a brief explanation of your brand, landing page visuals make it easier for you to build emotional connections with visitors. That’s why you need to keep both of them balanced.
Visuals such as images, explainer videos, even GIFs are ideal for evoking visitors’ emotions and engaging them. They have the power to make your visitors feel certain emotions — whether it makes them feel excited, informed, motivated, or reassured.
Visuals also help you convey complex messages more effectively. You can also use them to show the product or service you offer. That way, it’s much easier for visitors to have a better idea of what to expect and visualize themselves using your product or service.
Below is a great example of landing page visuals from Slack.
Slack shows its product in action by displaying screenshots. That way, their visitors have a solid understanding of what the interface looks like and how it can help them.
3. Catchy Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
The CTA is your magic button. This is the button your visitors click to convert. That’s why you need to make it as appealing as possible. To maximize appeal, consider adding some personalization.
Personalized CTAs convert 202% better than plain, generic versions. The reason is that it speaks directly to each visitor and tailors the copy based on their behavior. They can connect with you emotionally.
In other words, using stale CTAs such as “Sign Up,” “Join Us,” “Download Now” probably won’t get you anywhere. Try to come up with a CTA that sparks visitor curiosity. Take a look at the example from CrazyEgg below.
Remember that a great landing page focuses on a single conversion goal. It’s always better to only include one single CTA and make it visible by using bold colors and putting them above the fold.
4. Social Proof
No one will buy before they trust your brand. To build customer trust and boost your brand presence, you’ll need social proof.
Customer reviews and case studies are excellent and probably the most popular forms of social proof in landing pages. The reason is that 97% of consumers say that online reviews impact their purchasing decisions.
If a visitor sees that a lot of people said good things about your product, it lends it more credibility. This way, they gain trust and feel more confident trying your product by themselves.
Take a look at the SproutSocial landing page, which nails its social proof.
Other than simple quotes from their customers, SproutSocial also includes logos of the companies of satisfied customers to make their brand even more trustworthy.
5. Features and Benefits
Including features and highlighting the benefits of your products help potential customers to set clear expectations. They know how your product or service will make their lives easier and why they need it.
In this way, they gain more confidence. Remember, the main goal of your landing page should be to make it as easy as possible for a potential customer to convert. Features and benefits can be such powerful elements of a landing page that persuade potential customers to buy a product — other than customer testimonials.
6. Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
You’ll need to answer your visitor’s main question, “Why should I pick your brand over your competitors?”
This is your opportunity to show the visitor what sets you apart from the competition. Highlight how your brand is different from your competitors and why your brand is the only solution your visitors need. By all means, trumpet your competitive edge.
Even if you’re selling a highly generic product or service, emphasize some aspects or details that make it special and stand out from the crowd.
Below is an example of two unique selling points that Breadnbeyond includes on its landing page.
Looking at the landing page above, we can see at least two distinctive characteristics that the company has. This helps them to create top-of-mind awareness.
7. Personalized Elements
Personalization isn’t a new kid on the block for email campaigns, sales pitches, and messages. Today, with the digital marketplace getting more and more crowded, marketers are incorporating it into a wider variety of their marketing materials — including their landing pages.
Personalization shows your visitors that you care. When you add personalized elements to your landing pages, it will be much easier for you to build a meaningful, more personal relationship with visitors. This way, they are far more likely to trust you.
Instead of talking to your visitors in a generic, mainstream tone, you “take them by the shoulder” and assure them that you understand their needs. It’s no surprise that adding personalization can give a 42% boost in call-to-action success rate. That can only lead to an increased conversion rate.
Take a look at how South Shore Rescue incorporated personalization into its landing page by calling the visitors by their first names.
8. Questions and Answers (FAQs)
Once a visitor arrives at your landing page, they tend to have many questions. They want to assure themselves that they’re going to invest in a great product or service.
To help them get answers to their common questions, you can add small FAQ sections on your landing page. That way, they don’t have to spend hours searching or go through the trouble of contacting your customer support team to get the answers they’re looking for.
To identify which questions are most often asked by your visitors, you can ask your call center team and analyze data from your help desk and website analytics. This is how you can address the most popular, common questions visitors have about your brand as a whole. Answered questions help visitors gain more confidence.
For instance, check out how DigitalMarketer points out some questions that their visitors might have along with their best answers. Links are also added to help visitors get more information.
9. Cookie Notifications
Cookies allow you to collect visitor browsing information. This can make the visitor’s browser experience easier since it keeps them signed in, saves all the preferences and settings, and also offers only locally relevant information.
That being said, not all visitors love cookies.
Many don’t actually want their information stored and saved as it can feel intrusive. If your website or landing pages use cookies, you’ll need to make this clear and transparent.
Many businesses provide a pop-up to display a cookie notification on their landing pages. This ensures that visitor information is protected and visitors are given the choice whether they want to reject all the cookies or adjust the settings.
Below is the example from MailChimp. They use a pop-up cookie notification that visitors receive the first time they visit their landing page.
10. Live Chat or Chatbot
As a savvy marketer, you already know that your visitors are busy. They want to solve their problems in a matter of minutes — if not seconds! Responding promptly will not only leave a better impression but also have a significant impact on their potential to convert. This is why it makes sense to feature a live-chat feature on your landing page.
Visitors can ask any questions 24/7 regarding your products or services — without leaving your landing page — and get a response within seconds.
With live chat, you can prevent visitors from bouncing and instill trust. It also makes your landing pages much more conversational. The result? More conversions!
Chatbots can answer basic, common questions in a conversational way. When questions get more specific, your customer support team can jump in and handle them directly.
Below is a great example from Intercom. It incorporates a chatbot into the landing page to engage more effectively with the visitor by answering questions in a matter of seconds.
11. Polls or Surveys
Besides bringing an increase in sales, landing pages can also be a potential place to collect visitor data. Doing so helps you create more relevant campaigns or content that resonates with visitor needs and preferences.
You can choose to add polls or surveys to achieve this. These allow you to collect feedback from your visitors and gain solid insights into how they really feel about your brand.
Below is an example from The Lowry Gift Shop. It relies on a small Hotjar poll to better understand what most visitors expect to see on their landing page.
Wrapping Up
These 11 elements of an effective landing page have been shown time and again to increase sales. They help cut through the noise and enable you to skyrocket your conversion rate in 2021. While crafting a high-converting landing page isn’t rocket science, there is still a definite art to it.
In other words, even though there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when creating online venues that convert, the elements listed above can make your landing page more trustworthy and professional.
After you’ve crafted your perfect landing page, always consider testing some versions out using an A/B technique. From the analytics you have, you can easily make adjustments to what needs to be fixed…or doubled down.
