10 Tips for Writing the Ultimate Landing Page

Let’s look at 10 key steps to writing and designing a landing page that will help get you the results you’re looking for.

On writing

1. Make sure your headline refers directly to the place from which your visitor came or the ad copy that drove the click. Match your language as exactly as you can. (Close is good, exact is best.) This way, you keep your visitor oriented and engaged. This is by far the most important part of your landing page.
   
   
2. Provide a clear call-to-action. Whether you use graphic buttons or hot-linked text (or both), tell your visitor what they need to do. Use a minimum of 2 calls-to-action in a short landing page, or 3-5 in a long landing page.
   
   
3. Write in the second person – You and Your. No one gives a rat’s patootie about you, your company or even your product or service, except as to how it benefits the reader.
   
   
4. Write to deliver a clear, persuasive message, not to showcase your creativity or ability to turn a clever phrase. This is business, not a personal expression of your art.
   
   
5. You can write long copy, as long as it’s tight. Write a little long on the first drafts because it’s easier to edit down than to pad up skimpy copy. Your reader will read long copy, as long as you keep building a strong, motivating case for them to act.
   
   However, not every product or service will require the same amount of copy investment. Rule of thumb: Think longer copy when you’re looking to close a sale. Think shorter copy for a subscription sign-up or something that doesn’t necessarily require a cash commitment.
   
   
6. Be crystal clear in your goals. Keep your body copy on point as a logical progression from your headline and offer. Don’t add tangential thoughts, ancillary services and generic hoo-hah. Although hoo-hah makes the client feel good, it wastes the reader’s time. Every digression is a conversion lost.
   
   
7. Keep your most important points at the beginning of paragraphs and bullets. Most visitors are skimming and skipping through your copy. Make it easy for them to get the joke without having to slow down.
   
   
8. In line with #7, people read beginnings and ends before they read middles. Make sure you keep your most critical, persuasive arguments in these positions.
   
   
9. Make your first paragraph short, no more than 1-2 lines (that’s lines, not sentences.) Vary your paragraph line length from here. It helps create visual dissonance and makes it easier to read your copy. And no paragraph should be more than 4-5 lines long, at any time.
   
   
10. Write to the screen. Take a piece of paper and frame out where your text, buttons and design elements will go. Consider how much of your content will be seen “above the fold” or at the first screen.
    
    You can still go long and have visitors scroll downward. If so, you’ll want to make sure you repeat essential calls-to-action, testimonials and other components so no matter where your visitor is, an “ACT NOW” link or button remains is visible.

3 bonus tips

1. Remove all extraneous matter from your landing page. This includes navigation bars, visual clutter and links to other sections. You want the reader focused solely on your copy, your supportive visuals and the offer you’re making, without being tempted to wander around the room.
   
   
2. Don’t ask for what you don’t need. Ask for only enough information to complete the sale or the desired action. This isn’t the time to conduct a marketing survey. Every question you ask, every piece of information you require, will chip away at your response. Be judicious.
   
   
3. Assume nothing. Test everything.

These tips and techniques will get you started, but they just scratch the proverbial surface. Design elements are critical too, i.e. colour, images, layout, as well as video, audio and other interactivity elements whose purpose is to more deeply engage the reader and boost response. They all merit a deeper look and testing where it makes sense.

SOURCE: Copyblogger