How to Create a High-Converting (And Lead-Generating) Landing Page

Launching a website and turning it into well-established, revenue generating, online business is no easy feat.

Sure, building a website is easier now than it ever has been. With resources, available catering to all skill levels, anyone with a little bit of entrepreneurial spirit can launch a website.

However, turning it into a successful business takes more than just throwing together some webpages.

If you want to drive high-quality traffic to your website, convert site visitors into customers, and turn a profit, you are going to need to build an email list.

In addition, it just so happens that utilizing the power of a landing page to encourage people to subscribe is one of the best ways to turn any website into a success.

What is a Landing Page?

A landing page is a standalone webpage that has created with the intention of marketing or advertising your online business.

It gets its name from the fact that site visitors “land” there from places such as search results, pay-per-click ads, and even social media.

You can create two kinds of landing pages:

1. Lead Generation Landing Pages: these are for collecting data from site visitors, such as names and email lists. They have a call to action button encouraging people to signup and are perfect if you’re just starting your email marketing efforts.
2. Click-Through Landing Pages: these are for directing people through to your eCommerce shop to make a purchase. They have a call to action button that redirects people to another webpage in hopes they will convert.

No matter which type of landing page you decide to use, they are necessary if growing your business is on your radar.

After all, there are many ways to increase sales from existing customers. It’s the new ones you have to worry about if you want your business to grow.

That said, today we’re going to focus on what it takes to create an effective lead generation landing page so you can build a bigger email list with high-quality leads.

How to Create an Effective Landing Page

1. Define Your Target Audience

Before you start marketing your online business to the world at large, you have to know who you’re marketing to.

Although you probably want to as much site traffic to come your way as possible, the truth is, marketing to everyone is a mistake.

That’s because not everyone is going to want what you have to offer.

Take the time to narrow down your target audience so you can create a landing page that speaks to them and what they want.

Here are some best practices for defining the type of leads you want to target:

• Determine Demographics. Find out who has a need for your product or service and who is most likely to buy it from you. Factors such as age, gender, location, occupation, education level, and income level should be considered.
• Include Psychographics. In addition to general demographics, you should focus on your target audience’s personal traits. For example, personality, values, lifestyle, habits, and values should be considered.
• Ask the Right Questions. After finding out the type of people you want to encourage to subscribe to your email list, you’ll need to ask the right questions to finalize who your target audience is:

1. Is there enough demand for what you’re offering?
2. Are there enough people that fit your target audience criteria?
3. Do you understand what drives your target audience to make decisions?
4. What are the pain points of your target audience and can you resolve them?
5. Are the people you want to target easily accessible?

If you want to organize your target audience into easier to understand groups, called buyer personas, use a free tool such as Avatar Maker.

From there, add all of the data you’ve collected into a tool such as Xtensio, so you always have something to reference when you begin your landing page design.

With this data, you can market to the right people at the right time and build your email list lighting fast.

2. Create a Lead Magnet

When it comes to creating a landing page and enticing people to subscribe, you have to offer something of value.

After all, people do not want to just hand over their email address for nothing.

That is why the most experienced and successful marketers always offer a lead magnet to people they’re trying to convert as subscribers.

Lead magnets are often digital, downloadable content that offer people something of value.

Here are some examples:

• Checklist
• eBook
• Coupon or discount
• Report or white paper
• Case studies
• Resource lists
• Video content
• And much more

If you really want to create value for those on the fence about buying from you, try offering a discount to your online shop as an incentive, as well as directing people to your sales promotion section.

Layering discounts (the one received for subscribing and those found in your sales promotion section) can encourage even the most hesitant of customers to buy.

After all, if what they are buying is next to nothing in terms of money, what do they really have to lose?

You can use a lead generation tool such as OptinMonster to deliver your lead magnet to site visitors on your landing page.

And for help creating the actual lead magnet, there’s a nifty online tool called Canva that you can use to make simple lead magnets like checklists and resource guides.

Make sure to check out these handy resources for finding images to add to your lead magnet that are easily uploaded into Canva.

Giving people an incentive to subscribe on your site’s landing page, even if they already know they like your brand, is the number one way to start the process of getting more customers.

3. Choose a Tool and Create a Landing Page

When it comes to using the WordPress CMS, you have plenty of tools available for creating stand out landing pages.

That said, MailChimp, an email marketing service that goes beyond list building and email campaigns, gives you everything you need to create a landing page for your website.

Choose from multiple pre-designed templates (in this case, Grow Your List), and customize your landing page to suit your needs.

Choose from text, boxed text, dividers, images, social sharing and follow buttons, CTA buttons, payment options, and video content to grab people’s attention and compel them to subscribe.

With MailChimp’s landing page creator you get the following features:

• The ability to offer lead magnets to those that subscribe
• Unlimited landing page creation
• Drag and drop building for easy page creation and publication
• Fully optimized landing pages that look good on all devices
• Access to detailed reports to see which landing page converts the highest
• Plenty of documentation to help you get started

If you don’t want to use MailChimp’s built-in landing page creator, there are other tools you can use for WordPress that will get the job done:

• OptimizePress
• Beaver Builder
• SeedProd

Before you publish your landing page and start collecting leads, make sure you have the following must-have elements:

• Exciting value propositions that show people immediately what you’re going to do for them
• A compelling call to action button that makes taking action easy
• Relevant and visually appealing images that makes people want to know more
• A simple form that lets you collect at the very least an email address

Using a reliable tool to build your landing page is just as important as creating a landing page in the first place.

After all, you want something that will catch people’s attention and get them to take action.

So take your time to look into the different tools available so that when you publish your site’s landing page you know it’s going to produce positive results.

Final Thoughts

Generating high-quality leads can be a tough business with all the competition out there that’s vying for your same target audience.

But with all the resources at your disposal, you can do it and see great results.

Building an email list is one of the best ways to market your brand to customers new and old. It offers the highest ROI out of any marketing strategy and is very easy to do once you know how.

Pair this with an effective landing page, and you’ll experience business growth like you’ve never seen as people from all over land on your website and decide to give in to what you’re offering.