Part 1 of 3: The Beginner's Guide to Landing Page Conversion Optimization

B2B marketers are successful when they deliver the right message to the right person at the right time and compel their target audience to take a specific action. Landing pages are often used to help you accomplish this, and so it’s in your best interest to ensure your landing pages are continuously optimized and doing their one job: getting your prospects to convert. Landing page conversion optimization can help you do just that.

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Let’s take a look at how landing page conversion optimization is accomplished and how you can get started. 

How Landing Page Conversion Optimization Is Accomplished

Landing page conversion optimization is the process of improving a landing page with the goal of increasing conversions, aka landing page form submissions. To optimize landing pages successfully, you need to understand your target audience deeply, and use these insights about their pain points, goals, KPIs, and more to ensure these pages resonate. For instance, a landing page may be tailored to those from a specific industry (e.g. aviation) or job function (e.g. data analyst), and you can explain exactly how your product or service will solve their problems and help them increase the metrics that matter to them. 

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Let’s look at some of the elements you might consider optimizing on your landing pages:

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• Headlines: Your headline is the first text that a visitor sees on your landing page. It’s important to make it clear, compelling, and representative of what your business has to offer. And if it stokes curiosity, even better. The visitor will be more likely to keep reading and/or immediately fill out the form.
• Forms: Since the goal of your landing page is getting visitors to fill out and submit a form, the placement of this form is critical to conversion. Placing your form above-the-fold means it is immediately visible to your visitor and they won’t have to hunt for it later when they're ready to take the next step.
• Visuals: Images and videos can convey the message you want visitors to take away from your website more quickly than plain text can. They appeal to visual learners and add interest, keeping visitors on your page longer—and hopefully long enough to consider and then fill out the form. According to a study by Wistia, users spent on average over seven minutes on a page with video compared to less than three minutes on a page without video.
• Social proof: Testimonials, case studies, and customer logos show your visitors that your product or service has helped businesses similar to their own realize success.
• Calls-to-action: Every landing page should have a clear call-to-action (CTA) to indicate what action you want them to take (e.g. download an eBook or request a demo).
• Copy: Just like your headlines and CTAs, make sure you tailor your body copy to drive home your message and expand on the reasons your product or service can meet the visitor’s needs.
• Mobile device compatibility: Since nearly 55% of web traffic comes from mobile devices, it is critical to ensure your landing pages are mobile responsive. Be sure to preview how your pages will look on a mobile device and consider which elements you want above-the-fold on a limited mobile landscape, or which you want disabled altogether, such as a sticky CTA that takes up a lot of the screen.

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No matter which elements you choose to optimize on your landing page, be sure to test several variations of these elements (e.g. headline, social proof, and CTA) in tandem to find which combination not only resonates for each audience but more importantly, resonates for each individual within that audience (solutions like Intellimize can help with this). By optimizing your landing pages for each individual visitor, they’ll work harder for you and deliver the best results.

Key Data for Landing Page Conversion Optimization

Before you can successfully optimize your landing pages to drive more conversions, you first need to measure the current effectiveness of your landing pages. Consider measuring the following data points:

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• Your landing page conversion rate, or the volume of traffic that converts into leads
• The size and makeup of your target audience (look at any firmographic/demographic data, contextual data, and behavioral data you have available)
• The volume of traffic on your landing pages (can tell you which of your channels, e.g. paid social or search, are most effective)
• The amount of time between an initial visit and a conversion
• The bounce rate, or the percentage of visitors that leave your landing page (if this is too high, as a starting point, ensure your headline is optimized and that your form is above-the-fold)
• The overall time a viewer spends on your page (this is especially key to track if there’s a video on the page)

With this data, you’ll not only have a baseline conversion rate but you’ll also have a better understanding of your visitors and how they’ve interacted with your landing pages thus far. You can use this data to identify which elements of your landing pages you’ll want to optimize first and set measurable goals for your tests.

Getting Started with Landing Page Conversion Optimization

Now that you’ve taken a deep dive into your landing page data, you’re ready to come up with test ideas that resonate with your visitors and get them to convert. For example, if you’re targeting demand gen marketers for a specific landing page, use headlines, CTAs, and copy that will resonate with their interests and pain points, such as how to address drop-off in their funnel. Tailor the social proof on your page to show that your solution has helped other demand gen marketers (maybe big names or logos that they’re familiar with!) see huge results. (Go ahead – create some FOMO!).

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These are just two brief ideas of how you can optimize your landing pages so that they resonate with your prospects and drive conversions. Stay tuned for the second post of this blog series where we’ll focus on landing page conversion optimization tactics.