Most online businesses use landing pages. They can be extremely successful at capturing leads and increasing sales. However, they can also be very ineffective if not designed and setup correctly. If you are still to create a landing page for your site, or you aren’t happy with the results of your current landing pages, then you need to read on.
This article covers what a landing page is, and what elements it needs to be successful. We then look at three of the best WordPress landing page plugins available and consider the features and functionalities of each. By the end of this page, you should be ready to choose a solution and get creating.
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a stand alone page on your website, dedicated specifically to make your site convert against a targeted goal. This could be to collect emails, sign people up for webinars, free trials or online courses, or sell a product or service.
Successful websites often contain numerous landing pages, all focused on helping to increase conversions. If you have an eCommerce store, every product will have its own landing page. Landing pages can be extremely successful at generating leads and improving sales. However, this is only the case if they are well designed and thought out.
So what should a landing page look like?
Elements of a Successful Landing Page
There is much discussion on what a landing page should or shouldn’t contain. Depending on your goal for the page, the layout, style and content will alter accordingly. However, here are the basics that should be reflected in all landing page designs…
Simplicity
Simplicity is the way to go with a landing page. No menu, no footer, and minimal internal links and text. Don’t fill your page with distractions. You want your audience to complete the task in front of them, whether it be to enter an email or make a purchase. The more your audience has to read, and the more decisions they have to make, the lower the conversion rate will be.
High Quality
When creating a landing page always focus on producing top quality work. A landing page is where you ask people to agree to part with their hard earned cash. To do so, they really need to believe in your site, so a high-quality landing page is essential.
Choose an attractive landing page design that is professional and stylish. Use a bold image or an exciting video to make a statement. Present text in an informative and engaging way. Every element of the page should be well thought out and presented to make an impact on the reader.
Call to Action Button
The call to action button will usually take customers to a payment or registration page, where they will complete the transaction. It is without a doubt the most important aspect of a landing page and should be the first thing visitors see when they arrive at the page.
Make the button large, use a bright eye catching color, and think carefully about where you position it. A call to action should be obvious to the audience, so they know where to click and are encouraged to do so.
WordPress Landing Page Plugins
There are numerous landing page plugins available for WordPress websites. However, some offer much more advanced options than others. Here we consider three of the best solutions available in 2017…
Thrive Landing Pages
Thrive Landing Pages will enable you to create highly optimized landing pages for your website. Currently, you can select from 162 professional landing page templates. These can then be customized to produce a design that your audience will respond to. And with a simple drag and drop system, you can move any element without needing to touch a line of code.
An exciting feature of Thrive Landing Pages is that it offers landing page sets. A set is a collection of page templates that all work logically together. These will see your audience from the landing page, all the way through the marketing funnel, to the confirmation and thank you pages at the end of their journey. Using a landing page set will give your visitors a consistent user experience, which can help to increase conversions.
Easy to use, and with numerous design options, Thrive Landing Pages can help you create well polished and highly converting landing pages. From just $67, this is a great choice for beginners and web developers alike.
Leadpages
If you were impressed with Thrive Landing Page’s features but weren’t blown away with the template choice then Leadpages may be the solution for you. Leadpages offers over 350 stunning templates to choose from, many created for specific types of industries and niches. These mobile-friendly templates can be easily customized using the drag and drop page builder, so you can quickly produce beautiful and high performing landing pages.
Leadpages also offers split testing, enabling you to create landing pages based on facts and not just guesses. Change the text, call to action button, layout and design to help learn what your audience responds to and what it doesn’t. By repeatedly split testing and monitoring the results, you will be able to create unique, highly converting, pages targeted at your key audience.
Leadpages is a serious solution for those who really want to produce effective landing pages for their site. This is reflected in the price, with the Standard package costing $25 a month, and the Pro package, which includes split testing, $49. However, this can soon be recouped in revenue if you are using Leadpages to create successful landing pages.
OptimizePress
Choose Optimizepress if you are looking to create professional and stylish landing pages that you can customize to exact specifications. Choose one of 65 pre-templates, then simply add any of the 40 custom elements available to tailor the appearance and functionality of your landing page. And with a real-time live editor system, you can see the changes as you make them, saving you time and helping produce an impressive final product.
All landing pages from OptimizePress are highly optimized and mobile ready, so look stunning whatever device they are viewed from. OptimizePress also offers a selection of other pages that online businesses may need, from webinar registration forms, to sales and marketing pages.
OptimizePress provides numerous customization options, enabling you to really think outside of the box. Quick and easy to create, with no coding needed, Optimize is an enjoyable tool to use, with effective results. You can purchase this plugin from just $97. However, if you are after advanced options like split testing and in-depth analytics, then you will need to upgrade to the publisher package, costing $197.
Final Thoughts
Once you have created a landing page, it is important to monitor its success. Track the analytics to understand if it is increasing conversions. You should also run split tests, particularly if your landing page is underperforming, to help you produce a page that is targeted at your specific audience.
A well-designed landing page will improve your site’s results. So take your time, and put thought and effort into its creation.
What WordPress plugin would you recommend to produce a successful landing page? Please share your thoughts in the comments below…