I’ve got great news. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist  to create a high converting landing page.

However, it does take time and expereince to find the right mix.

Lucky for you, I’m going to share the insights I’ve gained over the years to help you create landing pages that converts from day 1.

Why? Because, I know what it’s like to build out a marketing campaign, spend thousands of dollars on advertising to drive traffic, and then not see a worthwhile return.

And plus:

/Bad landing pages make all your marketing efforts – the time, strategy, the spend – all for nothing./

But before we jump in, for those of you new to landing pags, let’s start with the basics. Then, we can get into my top tips for creating a high converting landing page.

Real Quick: What is a Landing Page and What Does it Do?

Landing pages are webpages tailored to the visitors coming to your website from your marketing campaigns.

A good marketing campaign will not just send visitors to a homepage.

Instead, it will send them to a landing page created especially the campaign.

Good landing pages turn your website visitors into real prospective customers.

But, creating high converting landing pages is a mix of art and data.

Building a successful landing page requires having the right layout and elements to best ensure that your visitors take an action, whether it is signing up for a demo, buying your product, or downloading your ebook.

What makes for a good landing page? Let’s dive into the tips.

9 Proven Tips to Create High Converting Landing Pages

1. Use the Right Landing Page Builder

Creating landing pages and getting everything “just right” can be time-consuming project.

If you are working with the wrong landing page builder, building and tweaking landing pages ends up being incredibly frustrating.

Starting at the very beginning, before we get into the details of landing page elements, you will first need to be working with the right tools. You will need to be working with a landing page builder that will help you easily build a customized landing page tailored towards your target audience to help you reach your marketing goals.

There are a lot of landing page builders out there.

The landing page builder you end up using should be one that has templates you can use as a starting point. It should have an intuitive editor that lets you easily modify and tweak your landing pages. It should also connect seamlessly with your preferred contact form and email marketing software.

There are standalone landing page builder apps. These are apps like Unbounce and Leadpages.

There are also landing page builders that are built into popular CMSs like WordPress.

I believe the best way to create high converting landing pages is by building them in the same place my website exists, this way I have everything related to the website all in one place.

There are many tools that will allow you to do this however, my personal preference is Offsprout (although I am a bit biased 😉 ).

Offsprout is a complete website builder that has a ton of options for building great landing pages.

It’s a website builder built on top of WordPress, so it integrates with all the form and analytics plugins you will likely want to use, like Gravity Forms, CallRail, and Google Analytics.

Whatever landing page builder you choose, make sure you choose one that works with the rest of your marketing stack.

There’s nothing more frustrating than having your data scattered in different places. That makes a ton more work for you to try and figure out if your campaigns are going well.

2. Your Landing Page Should Have Only One Goal

A landing page can be any webpage.

Sometimes, your homepage can be a landing page.

But, I do not recommend it.

Using homepages as a landing page drives me crazy.

One reason I hate it when businesses use their homepage as their landing page is that website visitors can go in very different directions when they get to the homepage.

There are many different paths they can take from that homepage. They can start reading about your products and services, features, your blog, tutorials, etc. And then they go down a rabbit hole and leave your website without converting.

A good landing page is simple, with a singular mission (hint: conversion).

Your landing page should have a specific goal in mind, whether it is to download a piece of content and get on your mailing list, sign up for a demo, or buy your product.

Nothing else.

No side-quests on this landing page.

To that end, there should not be too many options on your landing page.

3. Keep it Simple

Though you have a single goal, it can get easy to get lost in the weeds with your landing page layout and copy.

Less is more.

Though you may want to throw everything at your visitors – mentioning everything your company can do, have tons of images, videos, and testimonials – you need to keep it simple.

Your landing page should have a simple layout or theme.

It might seem to you like it’s not enough to compel visitors to take an action.

But it’s all you need.

If someone clicks a link to your landing page from an ad, they are interested in what you have to say.

All you have to do is nudge them to take the action. Just don’t overwhelm them so much that they get second thoughts.

Don’t throw everything you have at your visitor because you are just excited that you have visitors coming to your website.

That ends up confusing them and they end up leaving.

One thing I like to do is start from the goal and work my way backwards.

Let’s say that I want to get people to sign up for a product demo.

My landing page will then need a form so visitors can sign up for a product demo.

There should be no other forms on the landing page.

Also, there should be nothing else to distract the visitor from reaching that goal.

I prefer all my landing pages to be one page with limited navigation menus.

I don’t like to have navigation menus on my landing pages to other webpages or blog articles because then visitors can end up going to those pages, getting distracted or lost, and not converting.

Here is an example of a landing page for Offsprout.

Notice how the goal on this page is simple. The only thing the visitor should be thinking of doing is taking a free trial.

The copy highlights benefits, not features, and directs visitors to take the action.

Remember – your landing page should have one goal. Everything on the webpage that does not contribute to helping your visitor reach the goal is a distraction and should be removed.

This mantra should help you when it comes to writing your text and copy for the landing page.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about copy.

4. Create Compelling Landing Page Copy

If you want a high converting landing page, your landing page copy needs to sell your visitor.

You cannot do it on images alone. You need text to convince your visitors to convert.

Selling in text can be tough, though.

How do you connect with your visitor without being too aggressive, too cheesy, too long-winded, or too boring?

I have a few recommendations for that.

Sell “Benefits”, not “Features” 

One old tip from salespeople is to sell your prospective customer on the benefits of your product or service, not the features.

Your visitors don’t care chiefly about what your product does.

They care about what your product can do for them.

Let’s take an example. As a potential customer, which message would you rather hear? “This car has 4 airbags” or “This car will keep you alive if you get into an accident.”

The airbags are a feature. But the benefit is that you don’t die in an accident.

Let’s take another example. Say you are running a web design agency. A feature of your service may be “Mobile-responsive design” but the benefit you get from that feature is, “Convert visitors coming to your website from mobile devices.”

This does not mean you cannot mention your features. You can. But, the benefits should be the real focus.

Use Short Sentences

In my experience, landing page copy with shorter sentences are more “digestible.”

Long-winded sentences mean the reader needs to have more focus. We want to make things as simple as possible for your visitors so they can reach that goal.

I know that your product or service may be so amazing and intricate that you need to get into minute detail.

But, if you have huge paragraphs of text on your landing page, you will lose the reader’s attention.

Generally, I find that people coming to landing pages have a very short attention span.

Put yourself in their shoes.

You have just clicked on an ad or a link and are coming to a landing page. You have many things around you fighting for your attention.

This landing page better explain itself in a few seconds, otherwise you will leave.

Being able to keep your sentences short takes skill.

It takes a lot more work to be able to say things in fewer words.

When I was in school, I hated page limits because I tended to be long-winded in my writing.

I could fill up pages without a problem. But, if I had a maximum page limit, it forced me to think harder about what I wanted to say and work to convey those ideas more concisely.

Keep a Conversational Tone

One thing it took me awhile to learn when building marketing campaigns was how to write in the right style.

What I have found most effective is writing in a more “conversational” style.

I write as if I am having a conversation with the reader, explaining an idea to them.

When I write landing page copy, I try and imagine myself saying these words out loud.

I do this because I know that when people are reading text, they often read it “out loud” in their heads.

And cheesy language or too formal language tends to be grating. It slows the reader down. It stops them. And it hinders them from getting to that end goal.

So, when you are writing and reviewing your short sentences of landing page copy, I might recommend trying to read the copy out loud first. If the text sounds cheesy, stilted, or boring, it’s time to make some changes.

Write for the Conversion

Just like we talked about earlier, your page should have one goal.

The text should get visitors to that goal. Reading the text, it should be clear that they need to convert on your page. Keep your writing focused on that goal.

When reviewing your text before publishing it, ask yourself if the copy does a good enough job getting you to take action.

Does the text adequately address their concerns and get past any objections they might have?

Does the text “ask for the sale”?

Use Hemingway App to Edit Your Text

Now, I know that I mentioned you should write simply and use short sentences. But, without someone to proofread your writing, you may not know what needs improvement.

Luckily, there is a free tool out there that can help you with your writing.

Hemingway App is an online text editing tool that helps you refine your writing. It grades your text readability and lets you know if your sentences are too difficult to read.

I use it with every blog post and page that I write.

Yes, even this blog post too.

The last thing you want is to use “Submit” as the CTA button.

So many contact forms have a button that says “Submit”.

It’s a default.

But, it says nothing about the action you are taking.

It’s weak.

You need a compelling call-to-action. Your CTA should make visitors want to take the action.

7. Social Proof: Let Other People Do the Selling for You

One challenging thing about landing page text is that no matter how much you say about how  great your service is, it comes across as salesy.

Obviously, you should think your service or product is great and be conveying that to visitors.

But, they take what you are saying with a grain of salt.

You want people to think your service is the best because you want visitors to pay you money.

You have a vested interest in visitors taking action.

So, landing pages copy can make visitors skeptical.

One way to get past that is with social proof.

Social proof is validation of your product or service from third-parties.

Social proof is customer testimonials.

It’s a “Featured in” bar with company logos.

It’s numbers of total downloads and sign-ups.