Landing page tips for marketing & psychology designer dummies
So you need to design a landing page. You know it needs emotional persuasion and marketing tactics, but how do you incorporate that into design when you have no idea where to start?
Not only does the design need to attract the right people, but more importantly the copy needs to convince visitors to take the action the page wants them to take.
The best way to achieve this is by hiring a professional copywriter. They don’t come cheap though, so you may want a stab at doing it yourself, and that’s what the following tips are for.
You may also want to consider using landing page templates to make your job easier.
Understand the emotions of the visitor
No landing page can be designed for success if you don’t understand how the target audience thinks. The way the landing page is designed is totally dependent on the needs and desires of the audience the page is trying to attract.
For instance, you’d design the landing page for students differently to one that is designed for a target audience of pensioners. Their needs are different.
When you have an intimate understanding of who you want to seduce, so to speak, that is when you’ll create masterpieces that convert.
Before you take one designing step, learn about your target audience. When you make a website you need to create a persona; it will give you an essential starting point.
Capture attention with an alluring headline
The success of the landing page design begins with a headline that sparks an emotion, even if the page is business related, because landing pages are always visited by…humans.
The headline should explain, in 10 words or less, how the product or service can benefit the reader.
Here’s some headline booster words to start your headline off with:
- Introducing…
- How to…
- This…
- Who else…
- Why…
Use the headline analyzer tool by the Advanced Marketing Institute to calculate the emotional marketing value of your headline.
Don’t be surprised if getting the headline right takes most of the time!
Keep attention with a supporting subheading
While the headline’s purpose is to grab attention, the subheading’s job (and this goes right underneath the heading), is to keep the reader’s attention.
The subheading needs to support the heading, and further drive home the header’s message. The subheading can go into a little more detail than the heading.
Tell it with a picture
Never, ever add images that don’t serve a concrete purpose.
A “hero” shot is popular, because psychologically, it puts the reader into the “winning” position. In other words, the reader gets a visual image of how it will feel to own the product or hire the service.
Have a look at the following example of a landing page – what the hero image works to do, is put the thought into the reader’s mind, of, “How wonderful would it feel to be able to measure my waist and see that I have lost weight because I bought this weight-loss product?”
Show the benefits in picture form or demonstrate by video
If you’re selling a time management application, show screenshots of the benefits of using the app. If you’re selling hiking shoes, demonstrate in picture form, how they help hikers walk for longer so they experience more of nature. If you’re selling business services, explain in pictures, what your services can do for them.
Add these images as an explanation directly under the heading and subheading
You can use an online marketing platform like GetResponse, who provides landing page builder software, to create minimalistic yet professional landing pages within minutes. There’s no need to code and the interface is very easy to use and super friendly.
GetResponse makes sure their audience can see what the landing page builder looks like from inside the dashboard, and adds a video to demonstrate how easy the software is to use.
Include the benefits of the product or service
The headline has gripped the reader enough to stay to read the subheading. The reader has seen the hero shot and had a “how would it feel to use/own this” thought, and now they want to know exactly how the product or service will benefit them.
This is not the place for listing the features of the product or service, but it should list every benefit.
Be sure to focus on the reader, never on your product or service.
Pinch ‘em a bit
Humans are hardwired to avoid suffering. So now you need to help the reader understand the pain of not buying the product or service.
Include the, “What will happen if I don’t get this?”
What will they lose?
End the reader’s suffering by providing the solution to avoid pain.
Don’t sell the product or service, sell the bliss
People don’t buy food because they need it to survive. They buy it for the pleasure it gives their tastebuds. We don’t buy clothes to cover our nakedness, we buy clothes that make us feel good.
Get the picture? Don’t sell the product or service, sell the bliss of owning the product or purchasing the service.
If you’re selling painkillers, you’re actually selling relief from pain.
If you’re selling cosmetics, you’re actually selling the confidence of feeling and looking beautiful.
If you’re selling IT services, you’re actually selling the relief of being helped when things go wrong.
Sell the bliss
Summary
If you’re a designer and don’t have marketing or psychological know-how, these tips will give you a head start to create a landing page that works to convert:
- Understand how the reader thinks
- Capture the reader’s attention with a compelling headline
- Keep attention with a supporting subheading
- Demonstrate the feeling of how wonderful it would be to own the product or use the service
- Show the benefits by using images or video
- Include the benefits in copy form
- Give readers a taste of the pain of not owning the product or using the service
- Focus on selling the pleasure of owning the product or using the service