How To Create a High-Converting Landing Page

I am Jasper Meurs, and you're listening to Growth Journal, the podcast where I talk about everything I am learning while I am growing my business. Last week, we talked about high-converting ad campaigns, and this week, I want to build on that and talk about more about high-converting landing pages. So you have people coming to your website at this point through a high-converting ad campaign, but what is next? These people are coming in on a certain page on your website, and we want to make sure that as soon as these people arrive, they can see what your business has to offer, and you want them to take a certain action. So let's go over the different things that go into a high-converting landing page. Also, I know this is something that's quite visual, so I'll share some extra resources in the show notes, some visuals as well for what a high-converting landing page looks like, something we use in our internal playbooks as well. So let's just dive in.

First of all, focus on one subject for each page. So this is more or less the same. If you've heard any of the previous episodes, more or less the same principle as we're using in SEO. So we want one subject for each page, and when it comes to high-converting landing pages, we also have one goal. Quite often, I see websites having landing pages where they try to make people do a number of things or it's absolutely not clear what a person should do as soon as they arrive on your landing page, and this is very important. We just need to have one goal for the landing page itself.

Then, we basically split off things in above the fold and below the fold. So, for those of you who don't know what the fold is, it means what is visible on the screen without scrolling. That part is above the fold, and everything under the fold is the content that you need to scroll for to reach it. Now, above the fold, we want to make sure that we have a clear value proposition in the headline. Basically, the why of what you are doing. This really needs to resonate with your audience that you're targeting with your ad campaign as well or specifically, the people you're expecting to land on this landing page.

Then, for the subheadline, you can go in a little bit more detail of what you specifically offer, what you do. At the end of this episode, I will also go over one example, and I will also talk you through what I'm seeing on that landing page and how this resonates with what I'm talking about right now, so stay tuned for that. So the subheadline is where we want to talk a bit more about what we are offering. One thing that I see quite often when I'm optimizing landing pages for clients is that they basically switch the two around. So a very quick fix can usually be taking your subheadline, making that your headline, and use your headline as a subheadline because for some reason, people tend to switch these up.

Also, very important mistake that I'm also seeing quite often is you need to have a call to action above the fold. So it's not only important to have a call to action somewhere on the page, but we also want one clearly above the fold, and then we also want to add an attractive visual, something that shows your product, shows your service, preferably something that connects with your audience again. So if you're targeting a specific audience, let's say you're targeting lawyers, your product can be used by multiple people, but lawyers is one of your target audiences, you want to have an image here that resonates with a lawyer.

Then, last but not least, above the fold, we also want a social proof, a key element for a social proof. We don't want to overdo it above the fold, but we want something like, let's say, a Google Reviews rating just like we have 4.5 out of 5 stars on Google. That's already enough, but just that people see like, "Okay. There is some social proof here." Then, if we scroll down the page, so we go below the fold, the first thing I usually try to do is include some more social proof. So maybe you have some reviews from previous customers. Those are perfect to add in there, and then we also want to repeat the call to action. Look at this like making some kind of dish, and you want to pepper in the call to actions. So you don't want to overdo it, but you definitely want an oven there to have people actually take action, the action that you want on the specific page.

After this, we can provide more information about the product or the service, but we definitely want to steer clear from any fluff. So we don't want to just fill the page with content. We want to make sure that everything that we're showing on the page is of value to people to make their decision and also, to take the action that we want them to take on that page. Other than this, it's also pretty good idea to actually add some decision-making points like social proof, maybe like a 30-day money-back guarantee at least around your call to action. So, at the moment when people are ready to take action, that they can see like, "Okay. They have great ratings. I do have a 30-day money-back guarantee. Let's just do this, and I'm convinced that I want to try this out at least."

Something that you sometimes hear is use the "So what?" test. So whenever you're writing content on your page, ask the question, "So what?" So, for example, "Your productivity," then next, "So what?" and then you can try to flesh it out a little bit more and try to explain why this is important, how your product will help with this. So, the "So what?" does something that quite often helps here.

Then, last, but not least for the page in general, we also want to answer any questions, any potential questions that your customers might have. So you might want to think a little bit beforehand about the questions that people might come up with when they are making a decision to buy your product or service, and you want to make sure that these questions are answered. So if this certain question is holding them back, they need to find the answer on your landing page.

Then, in general, also make sure that your page looks good on small screens. Make sure that your font is big enough, that it's not too thin either. You want these things to be readable, easily readable for people. It's not all about design. It's also about usability. One interesting website that I found. I think Paul Graham made it. It's called yourlandingpagesucks.com, and he basically explains a lot of mistakes that he saw at Y Combinator for startup websites that were not built in a way that it's great to convince people to make people take action or to get into Y Combinator for that matter.

Now, I also said that I would go over one example, and the example that I want to go over today is Google Workspace because I think that everyone probably knows Google Workspace, and this will resonate with people. So if you go to workspace.google.com, that is the landing page that I'm talking about right now. If you look at their headline, they say, "How teams of all sizes connect, create, and collaborate." So they're providing the value, the why of what they're doing. They make teams of all sizes able to collaborate to do remote work together. You can interpret this in multiple ways.

Then, for the subheadline, this is what they do. So they have, "A flexible, innovative solution for people and organizations to achieve more." Next to that, I'm seeing an image of, in this case, Gmail, which will probably connect with most people. I think about everyone has ever seen Gmail in their life. So this shows what this product specifically is together with the headline and the subheadline. Then, as a call to action, they have "Get started." So very straightforward. Below that, still above the fold, I'm seeing, "Productivity and collaboration tools for all the ways we work." So we can basically see as a business like this service is providing all the different tools that I need to make sure that my employees can do their work and that they can work together.

Let's scroll down a little bit. They have a couple of articles about the future of work. So my feeling here is that they really try to promote remote work and also try to convince businesses that maybe still host their email locally or aren't that much into the remote work tools of this day and age, and they're trying to convince them as well. I'm also seeing, "Compare Google Workspace to Office 365." So that's an interesting one as well. "Learn how to navigate hybrid work." So, basically, the hot topics in business right now.

Scroll down a little bit further, and we see, "Find the answers you need." So this is what I was talking about for... We really want to make sure that we answer any questions that people might have. So questions I'm seeing here, for example, is, "What's included in Google Workspace formally called G Suite?", "Which Google Workspace plan is right for my business?", "How do I sign up for Google Workspace?" So everything you need there, and that's basically it. It's like a very simple landing page. It tells you exactly what you need. Also, the header for the page, the main menu is not that hard to understand. So they're saying like, "Solutions, Products, Industries, Pricing, and Resources."

This is actually another important part. Not to go too deep into it right now, but making the difference between solutions, products, and industries. So when I tap these, I can see for "Solutions," it's for individuals, it's for business, small business, new business, startups, enterprise, frontline workers, Work Safer. So they have different landing pages tailored to the purpose what someone is looking for. So if I, for example, have a startup and I'm looking for a solution for my startup, I would go to that landing page, "Startups," and I would find the same page tailored to that specific need. So they're still selling the same product, but they're bringing it in another way, and this is why relevance is so important not only in your ad campaigns, but also in your landing pages.

If we tap on "Industries," they go over industries like healthcare, retail, manufacturing, governments, professional services. These are all things that can resonate with someone who is trying to make a decision to use Google Workspace. They also go over departments like sales, marketing, human resources. Since I'm in marketing, I'll open the "Marketing" landing page. All of a sudden, we have a headline, "Google Workspace helps marketing teams collaborate and innovate." "Reclaim time for creativity and amplify your impact." That's the sub-headline, and then, "Contact sales."

The screenshots are using examples for campaign IDs is something I'm seeing here. Then, they have a review from the senior director of product marketing at Salesforce. We have a couple of examples for kicking off projects through, let's see, through use of spaces, an example of creating a slide deck together, another example of creating Google Sheets together that goes over the Q2 campaign and project milestones. So by making this landing page, we're still selling the same product here, but by making this landing page so tailored to the audience, it really resonates with them, and you will really be able to convince them to at least try your product and preferably, of course, buy your product.

That's where I'm going to leave things for today. I think if you take all these steps into consideration on creating a landing page, and really, the number one thing, and this is what I use in everything that I'm doing marketing, make sure that you create campaigns, that you create landing pages, that you create everything that you create as relevant as possible for the audience that you're targeting. Don't try to make your campaigns too broad to reach everyone. Make sure that you have very specific campaigns, and you will definitely increase your conversions and your sales in the process. So that brings us to the end of this episode. As always, thanks for listening to Growth Journal. If you enjoy our show, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, and be sure to come back next week for more actionable growth insights.