When it comes to writing powerful landing page content, creating immediate value and driving next steps or submissions is the primary goal.
This is why the perfect landing page content is a balance between strong incentive and a concise message; you need to pack the biggest punch with your landing pages.
The two biggest ways to accomplish this are by perfecting your headline game and providing clarity on your offer, whether that offer is a free consultation, guide or white paper, webinar, live demo or subscription.
For the latter, what’s most important is providing the reasons a visitor or lead should continue for more information – the “what,” the “why,” and the “how” behind the offer, and how it relates to the visitor’s needs.
Here's a quick quote from Inbound Marketing Specialist Jeff Previte of the Bluleadz Marketing team:
One of the most important things about your landing page is your headline. You want to grab the viewer's attention: define what's on the landing page and explicitly describe what the value is of the offer you're providing on that landing page.
Now, that offer could be an event sign up, a downloadable ebook, a live demo; there are a number of things you can accomplish with your landing page.
Then, you're going to want to focus on the body content of your landing page. Within the body content of your landing page, you're gonna cover the “what,” the “why,” and the “how.” What's the offer and why do they want this offer? And how can they get this offer?
There's a simple rule of thumb when it comes to optimizing and improving your landing page: if it adds value, it belongs there. This can be images, videos, demos… anything you can add to get that visitor to convert.
The perfect landing page headline establishes three things immediately:
If the user is expected to give valuable information over in exchange for a valuable piece of content or conversation, the actual details about what they’re getting are crucial.
“Reach out to learn more” doesn’t give users the clarity – for better or worse – as “Contact a specialist for a free 30-minute demo of our software.” This results in higher quality leads, as they’re aware of exactly what they’re submitting for.
What can a user expect to gain by submitting their information or reaching out? Building on the previous example, “Contact a specialist for a free 30 minute demo of our software” can be reworked as “Contact a specialist for a free 30 minute demo and eliminate inefficiencies by next quarter.”
Working a headline to include something directly related to pain points is a simple way to strike a chord with visitors, and reinforce the value of your offer.
By this, we mean including content in the headline that creates a sense of urgency and the steps needed to complete the action. This could be as simple as including verbs like “download,” “click,” “contact,” and “access” to create a reinforce a simple next step, while time sensitive language like “now,” “today,” and similar evoke immediacy.
An example of the previous headline example that includes all of these elements might look like “Click to contact a specialist today for a free 30 minute demo and eliminate inefficiencies by next quarter.”
That headline covers all the necessary bases: the actual offer is clear, the benefits are presented with high value, and actionable language/next steps are provided to entice visitors to act.
Building on the headline examples above, creating value throughout your landing page content is crucial. However, what’s most important in landing page body content is clarity.
You’re asking for more than you think when you require a user to submit contact information. For this reason, clear and concise deliverables are a must within any landing page copy. It’s difficult enough to get readers to subscribe to a company blog – even more so to get them to outreach for a case study or demo.
In your landing page copy, include a breakdown of everything a visitor can expect by submitting their information, including core deliverables and their uses/benefits. Even if the deliverable is high-level, avoid sugar-coating it with ambitious – in this case, unrealistic – benefits.
At the end of the day, users and prospects on your landing page want to take a next step. It’s why they’re on that page in the first place. They just need the extra push and added value to drive that action.