Over the Line! How to design a landing page that converts

When it comes to your digital marketing, landing pages aren’t just a nice-to-have — they’re an essential component of any digital campaign. In fact, a landing page is one of the most powerful conversion tools you have in your digital marketing toolbox. You probably already know this; which is why you’re here. You want to know how to design a landing page that captivates your audience, and convinces them to cross the line and take action not later, but now. Yes, not once they’ve got a cup of tea, not once they’ve taken the dog out, not later on this evening, but now.

No matter the sector you operate in, dedicated landing pages, each designed with the goal of your digital campaigns in mind will convert people into leads and customers. Given that campaigns are crafted to target audiences with tailored messages, services or product offers, the only way to ensure this consistent and compelling campaign effort motivates your audience is to design a targeted campaign landing page .

In this article, we’ll lean into our website design experience to explain why landing page design matters, what a high-converting landing page looks like and offer best practice guidelines for the planning, design and implementation of the kind of landing page that has got ROI written all over it.

What is the purpose of a landing page?

Everyone talks about a one-trick-pony like it’s a negative thing, but this is not the case for a landing page. Effective landing pages are not only a one-pager, but they’ve only got one goal, too, and that is to convert leads into customers or subscribers. 

A landing page is the salesperson of your website, and just like a good salesperson it has to be the face of your brand while also being laser-focused, convincing and trustworthy. It needs to be simple enough to guide users towards your end goal, but exciting enough to prompt those users to click on a call-to-action. A call-to-action is a button or field that prompts the desired action from the user, be it a sign up or purchase point.  

The design of landing pages, and why it matters

As we’ve touched on, landing pages need to be compelling while also being a consistent representation of your brand and campaign messaging. The design of the page will influence users' perception of your brand right from the start, determine their trust in the offering that they’ve been advertised, and impact the overall user experience; so getting it right is paramount to maximising conversion rates for your campaign. If the page is too busy, the users you’ve worked hard to land on the page could get distracted from the end goal. Too basic, and they may simply lose interest.

When it comes to landing pages, we work with our clients to understand the goals of their campaigns and the nature of their products and services to develop page beautiful designs that go big on impact. At the same time, we focus on how the page can deliver the best impression of the brand and work effectively to deliver the campaign’s goals, all on its own.  

Keep in mind that your landing page needs to partner with your related advertising, and this will guide and support the design of the page elements required to maintain brand consistency throughout.

The design elements of a high-converting landing page

There are core design elements which are consistent with landing pages with high-conversion rates. Let’s take a look at some of the key design considerations landing pages should include:

1. Brand-focused visuals 
 

To build up the user’s perception of your brand the visual elements of the landing page need to be consistent with your brand identity. The elements of your brand’s visual identity, including colours, typography and imagery, should be present, as this user journey is going to play into the user’s impression of your brand, as well as their trust. 

Beyond brand considerations, the visual elements also need to reflect the visuals of your advertising creative you’ve developed for the campaign’s intents and purposes. If your social media ad has minimal visual elements with a neutral colour palette, it goes without saying that your landing page needs to utilise these design choices too, to create a consistent user experience throughout. 

2. A clear design hierarchy
 

The layout and structure determines the overall user experience and effectiveness of your landing page. To create the user experience, designers will employ the principles of visual hierarchy, which are key design concepts applied to create a clear structure and organise page elements and information. These fundamental design principles include: size and scale, colour and contrast, positioning and alignment. 

Effective visual hierarchy guides users, and makes sure they can understand and navigate the landing page and its content easily — a seamless user journey from beginning to end.
 

3. Design concepts to communicate your campaign message
 

Your landing page can’t be shy, it needs to be bold enough to provoke an emotional response in users in order to prompt them to take the desired action. When designing your landing page consider how the typography, colour and visual choices influence the tone of your message. Is a simple font engaging enough for a hero headline? Does your colour palette offer enough contrast to draw your users attention to the copy and call-to-action section? Is your imagery arresting and powerful, or subtle and soothing? 

It’s likely you’re experimenting with design concepts to advertise your product, service or cause, so don’t drop the ball when it comes to making these design concepts work harder to make your landing page effective in meeting your conversion goals, too.
 

4. Responsive design
 

Whether you’re writing the design brief for the landing page or building out the page yourself, it goes without saying that just like your website, your landing page needs to be responsive to all device screen sizes and orientations. Not only does the design need to adapt, but it needs to be optimised for mobile too. Mobile users often demonstrate shorter attention spans so if your landing page is mobile-first: be sure to distill your campaign messaging to be even more concise, get to the point, and make sure page loading times are lightning fast.
 

5. Irresistible call-to-actions
 

Your call-to-action is crunch time, the point on your landing page where you ask page users to commit to being your subscriber or customer. So, you need to get your call-to-action right. When planning out your campaign messaging and landing page content, it’s up to you to make sure the page design can provide the right placement to maximise the conversion rate. When it comes to design considerations, your call-to-action should be obvious, distinct and leave no room for interpretation. Too large and bold, and your message may appear too aggressive in its intent, too subtle, and users might miss it all together. Dissect your campaign design and messaging so that the design, placement and content of your call-to-action hit the mark.
 

6. Design in social proof
 

Our team is passionate about making beautiful digital interfaces. But to prompt an emotional response to your campaign message, you should look beyond the conceptual design elements to ground your product, service or cause in reality. We’re talking about testimonials, case studies and reviews; the real social proof that builds trust and integrity into your campaign. Effectively integrating these use cases into the design and including trust markers, like certification or award badges, gives your campaign the credibility many users are seeking to commit to a purchase or new newsletter sign up.
 

Best Practice Guidelines for Designing a Landing Page that Converts
 

1. Define your campaign goal and message. The purpose and strategic outcome of your landing page should be crystal clear from the outset, so your design concepts can stay focused on the end goal at every stage of the design process.
2. Identify your audience. Knowing who your target audience is pivotal to the success of your landing page. Design with the needs and behaviours of your audience in mind from the very beginning.
3. Determine the structure and layout. By planning out your landing page through wireframing or prototyping, you can test different user journeys and establish a clear hierarchy of information that will funnel page users towards your call-to-action most effectively.
4. Experiment with design elements. Through planning you should have a good idea of what elements you’re going to include, but now it’s time to start playing with the design elements to communicate the message of your landing page most effectively.
5. Keep it simple. A cluttered design with lots of visual elements and copy will lose users attention. Throughout the process, consider how you can simplify the design further to achieve complete clarity.
6. Iterative design. Landing pages are targeted digital marketing tools, so to be the best it can be, your landing page should not be just simplified in several rounds of feedback and testing, but reviewed and polished  to explore how variations in the design impact UX and the conversion rate.
7. Optimise. Once your landing page has been launched, optimisation tools like Hotjar and Google Analytics can help you analyse how users are navigating and responding to your design, and identify potential improvements to optimise the page.

In short…

The design techniques employed to create your landing page will acquire users, gain their trust and participation, and convince them to take action; defining the success of your campaign and overall conversion rate.

 A custom, responsive page that escapes the confines of cookie-cutter templates and provides users with a seamless experience of your brand and offer that is easy to interpret and appreciate, will convert web users to be your new buyers or subscribers.

…can we help you?

Whether you’re planning out a campaign or looking to do a full redesign to improve your website’s functionality as a marketing tool for business growth, we can help you. Our web design agency has a proven track record of creating page layouts and designs to connect our clients to their audience in meaningful and effective ways. 

Reach out to us, and we can chat about how your website design can better support your marketing efforts through UX/UI-focused designs and digital brand development that focuses on delivering results.