Having a landing page is one of the best ways to get your users to follow a CTA. It’s a well known fact that a website’s layout plays a major role in its performance, and creating landing pages gives your inbound marketing strategy a huge win. It’s a job well done when you can get your copy and design to shine, and I will run through some must haves for a rock-solid WordPress landing page.
WordPress landing page copy essentials
I want to start by stating the obvious, the copy needs to be clear, to the point, and most importantly it needs to draw in your readers. Here is the elephant in the room, your readers need to understand your landing page in less than one second. If they understand it, they will realize they want whatever you are selling, and then click that magical CTA button.
Human like copy
You absolutely must have “spoken copy” rather than grammatically correct, elaborate writing. What I mean by this is write like you speak. It needs to be natural, and it needs to roll off your tongue. If it doesn’t it won’t be effective in selling your product. You might have spent 4 years studying English literature or business, and you are more than capable of expressing yourself at a high academic level, but most people are not interested in listening to how smart you are, they just want to know if something is “awesome” or just like “wow”.
So seriously, am thinking about what’s gonna make landing pages amazing, and it’s definitely short, simple and funny.
Killer Headlines
Readers have now become scanners, they scan things rather than actually spending time reading them. You have these elements to grab their attention.
- Headlines
- CTA Buttons
- Images
If these don’t do the trick, all of your other efforts are wasted. The most important copy that you will write for your WordPress landing page is your headline, that’s 10 or 15 words that will either keep your reader reading or scroll to another page.
What’s more powerful?
Donate $1 to save a child’s life
Or
Is the life of a child worth $1 to you?
I will let you decide what headline would make your landing page more effective. (hint it’s the one that makes you reflect)
The customer knows best
This is the sauce of any good dish. Customer testimonials are your bread and butter, and as easy as apple pie. Ok, no more food related metaphors, but really people want to know what other people think. It’s the quickest way to convince someone to buy your products. It works in real life all of the time. You go the gym that your friend recommended, you buy sneakers from the store your colleague said was cheap, and you read a book that has great reviews. Apply this principle to your landing pages. Let your already existing customers sell your product for you. Customer testimonials work on so many levels, because they show the customer what they will experience if they buy your product.
This is the easiest and most powerful copy you will ever write.
WordPress landing page design essentials
Less is more
I am sure you have heard this before, but when designing your WordPress landing page this has to be underlined and highlighted – less is more. At all costs avoid visual clutter. If you have one second to look at a landing page, that means you only have a second to understand what it’s all about. Like I mentioned before regarding sounding smart for you English graduates, the same goes for UX designers. We all know you can make fabulous images that POP, but oftentimes it will distract the readers from the main point of the landing page and create friction. Images that you choose have to support the layout and purpose of your landing page. The secret to successful designs is taking it back to the basics.
Here is a great example from Code Academy.
Contrast is your best friend
Remember that your priority is to highlight the most important copy, and that is the headline and CTA. You want to draw their clicks to these buttons, and get them to complete the action. Make your CTA stand out. That’s why using complementary and contrasting colors is a great way to call a visitor’s attention to exactly where you want it.
Take a look at this example. It shows a great way to contrast colors without overcomplicating it.
Stamp it. Brand it.
The main aim of your WordPress landing page is to sell, so if you have done all of the above that’s great, but it will be all for nothing unless you remember to brand your landing page. Again, I might be stating the obvious, but more often than not, the logo is too subtle or missing entirely. You want your audience to know who you are. The logo needs to be placed strategically on your landing page, and it doesn’t need to be the focal point, but it needs to have a presence. This is particularly critical for visitors who come to your landing pages for the first time, and from external sources. Once you’ve decided on placement for your logo, maintain that position on all your landing pages to maintain consistency.
Grove have done a great job here.
Sell the solution
This is the final must have and it applies both to design and copy. Don’t sell your product, sell the benefits. This is the oldest trade trick in the sales books, but always sell the solution you are giving your readers. Stop selling a fork, but sell clean hands while eating, don’t sell bottled water, sell take water with you anywhere you go, and don’t sell an umbrella, sell staying dry on a rainy day. If you incorporate this into your WordPress landing page, you can’t go wrong.
Useful plugins for WordPress landing pages
To get you started with creating your WordPress landing page, here are top 5 WordPress landing page plugins for 2016.
Good luck with building a WordPress landing page like a boss!
