10
2010
May

3 Questions Every Landing Page Needs To Answer

While your home page, and internal pages, may expound upon your site’s topic(s), the purpose of a landing page is quite different.stressed blog

For what?

Exceptional landing pages are created when your first priority is meeting the needs of your visitors.

  • Who is your target audience?
  • What question or problem are they trying to solve?
  • In typing their question or problem into a search engine query, what words or phrases will they be using?

When a visitor clicks on the ad or search result and is sent to a landing page, they expect the landing page to answer their question or solve their problem.

Think of it this way, if a customer came into your brick and mortar store and asked to see all of your “classic rotary phones” you wouldn’t show them your complete inventory of “Blue Tooth Headsets.”  You would take them over to your display of classic rotary phones.

Your landing page is a direct extension of your advertising message.  If your ad talks about “classic rotary phones designed for the digital age” then your landing page must deliver on that promise and talk only about “classic rotary phones designed for the digital age”.

Determining your audience helps you identify the keywords and phrases your landing page needs to focus on.  You should try to use these keywords and phrases throughout the landing page, and particularly in the first sentence of the first paragraph.

So What?
Now that you have visitors on your landing page, why should they continue reading?  What’s in it for them?

People are interested in benefits, which is not the same as list of all the product’s features.  Benefits are how your customers will experience your product.

In the case of our classic rotary phone:

  • Complete the look of your vintage home with a  perfectly replicated classic rotary phone, (show pictures of how the phone looks in a variety of vintage settings)
  • Every convenience of a modern digital telephone hidden inside the classic rotary phone exterior
  • That vintage sound and feel every time you use the phone (video of someone using the phone – complete with the click, click, click synonymous with rotary phone dialing)

Try to determine any objections, questions, and concerns the visitor may have, and answer those as well.

In the “classic rotary phone” example above, some of the obvious questions to answer are, “Is the sound and line quality as good as a modern, digital phone?” and “Will this work with my computer’s internet connection?”

Now What?

Your landing page has done its job and your visitor is ready to buy your product, sign-up for your newsletter or contact you, now what?

Once your visitor has decided to go ahead, don’t frustrate them….make it easy and obvious for them to complete the transaction.  Whether it’s “Buy Now” or “Contact Us” or “Sign-Up Today” your Call to Action tells your visitors how to take that next step.

There should be only one specific desired action for a landing page.  You want to keep the visitor focused on the job at hand (buying your product, or signing up for your service) and not confuse or paralyze them with several competing offers.

If your page is long and visitors will have to scroll, give them one Call to Action before they start scrolling and several others during the scrolling process.  Your calls to action can be worded slightly differently, but the ultimate purpose should be the same, no matter where they are on the page.

These three questions should be foremost in your mind when writing and designing your landing page.  Start by writing your landing page with your target audience in mind.  Use the words and phrases they will be using to search for your service or product.

Once they’re on your page, you will need to explain the benefits of your product or service.  Answer any obvious questions they may have, as well as any hidden objections you can think of.

Finally, by creating and placing several very clear calls to action throughout your page, you make it easy for the visitor to take the next step.

Written by: Carl Diamond who specializes in landing page conversion design.