The purposes of a landing page can be just as vast as the websites and interests that they serve. In order to effectively channel people from social media and email onto your website and beyond, the design of effective landing pages is necessary. Unfortunately, many people new to the game of marketing and social media do not adequately understand how best to utilize this feature. A landing page can make or break your marketing efforts, so it’s important to get it right the first time. Below, we’ll review the main elements of a great landing page so that you can be sure you get every marketing campaign calibrated exactly as it needs to be.

Overall Design

The use of the landing page is necessary for marketing success, but the look and feel of the page matter just as much. A landing page should convey in just a few words and elements what people are expected to do. One design element that has proven to be successful is the inclusion of people; landing pages that are pinging networks of friends, family members or business associates in visual form perform better than landing pages with a simple background. The headline of the landing page also matters: usually, it is best to use the headline to convey a value or sentiment of your brand or your product. If you can connect this headline with your keywords and targeted searches, then that makes its effect even stronger overall.

Form Construction

In most cases, a landing page will attempt to collect information from the visitor. Whether this be for a product or a subscription service, there are many reasons why you need to know who is visiting your website. The overarching theme of form construction relates to capturing as much information as possible with as few fields as possible. Multi-page forms can be used when the need for information is vast, but most landing pages should be limited to just three or four fields. In some cases, an email address is all that is necessary. Only ask for essential information; if you deem it to be optional, then leave it out of the equation. Forms that are long or seemingly asking for non-essential information will dramatically lower your conversion rates.

Call to Action

A landing page can only do so much without a call to action. What exactly are you wanting your visitor to do? Whether you wish for them to buy a product, subscribe for more information, donate to a charity or spread the word, a clear call to action should be present on your landing page. Generally speaking, the landing page presents something of value before the call to action becomes apparent – maybe it is an engaging piece of video content, or some information that the visitor did not have prior. When pinging networks on Facebook and other social networks with landing page-based content, make sure that it is both informative and engaging for best results. After the visitor has seen this, the call to action – how you want them to continue engaging with your brand – should be a hard ask and should be concise in nature.