070 Eight Things Every Writer Should Know about Landing Pages

First things first: What is a landing page?

Landing pages are those web pages that are specifically designed to perform one task … one task and one task only.

One goal, one page.

It could be to sell your product, encourage people to sign up for an email newsletter, or recommend an event.

No matter the purpose, however, a landing page is nothing more than a conversation with your ideal prospect.

A conversation that builds trust.

In this roughly 6-minute episode you’ll discover:

  • The number of mistakes a reader will allow on landing pages
  • Two companies that will add 3rd party verification
  • Why you can’t ignore great design
  • The role headlines play in the effectiveness of a landing page
  • Which press mentions really matter

The Show Notes

8 Things Every Writer Should Know about Landing Pages

Voiceover: This is Rainmaker.FM, the digital marketing podcast network. It’s built on the Rainmaker Platform, which empowers you to build your own digital marketing and sales platform. Start your free 14-day trial at Rainmaker.FM/Platform.

Demian Farnworth: Hello gang, and welcome back to another episode of Rough Draft, your daily dose of essential web writing advice. I am Demian Farnworth, your host, your muse, your digital recluse, and the Chief Content Writer for Copyblogger Media.

And thank you for sharing the next few minutes of your life with me. And thank you for sharing this week with me … because this week is all about your questions.

That’s right. This week I’m devoting each episode to a reader question. Yesterday we answered Juliet Parrott-Merrell’s question about boring topics

Today we are going to talk about landing pages. Jason Hobbes: “I’d love to hear your dissection of a CM landing page. Why behind decisions deciding what show up on visitor’s screen.”

What is a Landing Page?

Now this could take one hundred episodes … so let me start with the basics. First, what is a landing page? Landing pages are those web pages specifically designed to perform one task … one task and one task only.

One goal, one page.

It could be to sell your product, encourage people to sign up for an email newsletter or recommend an event.

No matter the purpose, however, your landing page copy is nothing more than a conversation with your ideal prospect.

Your landing page copy is not some random facts about you or your product. It’s a conversation that begins with an understanding of what is in your prospect’s mind.

And you enter that conversation by saying, “Hey, you’re not alone.” The four most powerful words in our language.

Once you have your prospect’s attention, then you make her feel like you care. Like you really understand. That it doesn’t have to be this way. That there is hope. An answer to her problem.

So you paint a picture of what her life will be like if she takes you up on your offer. You show her a better version of herself.

Then you prove you can deliver on your promise. That you are someone she can trust.

Finally, tell her what to do. Push her in the right direction.

Every single word should support and advance that conversation. If it doesn’t, cut it.

How to Create a Landing Page that Builds Trust

A landing page must build trust from the very beginning and never let up. The moment it does, your prospect will likely take a hike.

Here are 8 very simple ways to keep him from doing that:

  • Clear, meaningful, and persuasive headline.
  • Well written, free of mistakes copy.
  • Impressive numbers like how many people have bought, number of members you have and so on. What we call social proof.
  • Endorsements from recognizable and reputable companies and people.
  • 3rd party certification like Verisign or Better Business Bureau.
  • Any kind of press mentions.
  • Great design. Yes, shoddy design can ruin your conversion rates.
  • And testimonials.

I’ll drop a link to an article I wrote that digs a little deeper into each of these trust elements.

Also, I was part of a live landing page critique called Page Fights with Unbounce, where me and a couple of stout conversion experts took apart good and bad landing pages.

It’s an hour long. But if you want more, I’ll drop that link in the show notes, too. So you can dig into that. Some good lessons there.

So, that’s it for this week of reader’s questions. Hope you enjoyed this. Hope you got some value. Let me know what you think.

If you have any questions you’d like me to answer on a future episode that I haven’t already answered, feel free to drop me a comment on the blog or hit me up on Twitter.

I’m @demianfarnworth. I’ll probably do this again in a few months. In the meantime, keep on writing and take care.