The Ultimate Landing Page Best Practices Guide

You want to make sure your landing page is a good one. If not, you’re leaving hundreds or even thousands of email subscribers and sales on the table.

There are good landing pages and there are bad ones…

We’ve created this guide to help you build the BEST landing page and never miss out on email subscribers.

But first, what’s a landing page?

Landing pages are websites built for collecting email subscribers. They can be used for a lot of things like:

• Getting your contacts to take a specific call to action like signing up to your weekly newsletter.
• Growing your mailing list by giving away a freebie.
• Gauging your contacts interest for a new course or product.

At SendFox, we call landing pages Smart Pages so we will be using these interchangeably.

Now that you know WHY you need a landing page, let’s jump into how to build a GREAT one. These are the five best practices we’ll cover:

1. Smart Page Image or Graphic: Use Your Face!

The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, which means the first thing people will see on a landing page is the image. So choose your landing page image very carefully.

We recommend using a picture of yourself not only because studies have shown that we are wired to pay attention to the human face but also because this helps build trust and connection.

Check out this perfect example:

Other landing page images that work:

• Emotional images that show how your contact feels about the problem you are solving or how they will feel afterwards. For example, Holly from Fluid Movement + Wellbeing does a great job of showcasing how some of her clients feel about stretching in a fun way.

• A high-quality graphic related to your brand such as the logo or even a mascot. Check out how Damien Schmitt created his landing page using the characters from his comic Big Sea Tales.

The graphic is high-quality, on-brand and emotional.

2. Make Sure Your Headline Is Extraordinary

There’s a lot of competition for attention, so an eye-catching and exciting headline is critical for people to stay on your landing page and sign-up.

Here are some tips to make your headline extraordinary:

• Headlines that are 55 characters long tend to earn the highest number of click-throughs. Your headline should be around this number of characters
• Use Power Words! Power words are typically words that are well-known for provoking action, curiosity and emotion. Power words include effortless, breathtaking and gripping.
• Emphasize on the hook or what will pull the person to sign-up to your mailing list
• Make your headline big, strong, and clear so that it stands out from the rest of the text.

Here’s an example of a GREAT headline:

Jason has a strong headline because it’s the right length. It also has two power words: best and share.

Lastly, his headline stands out and includes the hook, which is to get his BEST life hacks.

3. Simple & Short Copy = BEST Copy

Research shows that people rarely read web pages word by word; instead, they scan and skim the page. So, keep your copy short.

Besides being short, your landing page copy only needs to do 2 things:

• Clearly convey what you want visitors to do (i.e sign-up to your newsletter).
• Highlight the benefits you will give them and what they should expect from you.

Here are some examples of landing pages that do exactly this:

The Tea Letter clearly shows the benefits of signing up to his newsletter and uses the catchy phrase The Way of Tea which makes his copy unique and memorable.

Using a couple of sentences, Edlin Bets the Farm clearly explains what subscribers will get when they sign-up to his newsletter. Also, if the promise of the occasional baby goat pic doesn’t make you want to sign up, we don’t know what will.

4. CTA’s and Social Logins

Call to Action or CTAs are an important part of your landing page, it will cue your visitor to take action and sign-up! To make sure this happens to follow these CTA tips:

• Make the copy action and benefit oriented. For example, if you are giving away an ebook when people sign-up, instead of saying “Sign-up” use “Get the ebook”.
• Personalize the button copy to your audience. As per Hubspot research personalized CTAs convert 202% better than basic CTAs.
• Make your CTA stand out by using contrasting colors and white space

Pro tip: Add social logins to make it even easier for people to sign-up. SendFox, by default, includes a Google and Facebook login so you don’t have to think about how to add these.

Here’s an example of a great CTA. The CTA stands out, it’s action-oriented and personalized.

5. Include a Feeds Page: Exclusive SendFox Feature

You’ve got an awesome image, an extraordinary headline, simple copy and an action-focused CTA. BUT your landing page visitor might still be on the fence about signing-up.

You can convince them by showcasing all the awesome content you’ve not only included in your previous newsletters but also on your social media.

Introducing Feed pages. 

Feed pages are an optional feature exclusive to SendFox Smart Pages that lets you display content on your landing page from:

• Past Newsletters
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Blogs
• Podcast

In your feed pages, future subscribers will see what type of content you create and if they like it. This not only increases your conversion rate, but it also helps recycle and showcase the content you’ve worked so hard to create.

Check out an awesome Feeds page here.

One of the best parts of the feeds page is that newsletters are displayed as blog posts where people can share and comment.

What We Learned:

You now know how to build the BEST landing page for content creators. Here’s a summary of the main points:

• Use a landing page with a photo of you. If you don’t have one use an emotional image or a high-quality graphic related to your brand.
• An extraordinary headline should be around 55 characters long, contain POWER words and include a hook (the reason why someone should sign-up).
• The copy of your landing page should be short, simple and clearly mention the benefits of signing up. People usually skim web pages so you can also highlight important words.
• Make sure your CTA is personalized and stands out. 
• Include social logins in your landing page to make it even easier and faster for someone to sign up.
• Use SendFox’s feed page to showcase all your awesome content online including your old newsletters to make people want to join your newsletter.

Ready to upgrade your landing page, find out more about SendFox HERE.