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AMY PORTERFIELD: “Fun fact. The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. That means that branding that speaks directly to our eyes has a massive impact on what we can consume. When it comes to branding on your landing page, aim to use visual elements that naturally and effectively convert subscribers.”
“If you're the face of the company and people are familiar with seeing you, then you might want to consider an image of you on your landing page. Now, I've talked about doing photoshoots, I have a full podcast all about how to do a photoshoot, and I think that photos of you that are professionally done are important. But one thing that we're seeing, especially at the time that I'm recording this in quarantine, more-casual, off-the-cuff photos are doing better than photoshoot photos. So what I mean by that is when Chloe comes over to my house, because she lives really close, and we just snap some photos of me in my house, more casual, they always convert better than my photoshoot photos. So you have that going for you. Especially if you're on a tight budget and you don't want to do a photo shoot, snap some casual photos of you on your smartphone. Maybe try using those on your landing page if you are the face of your company. Could go a long way.”
INTRO: I’m Amy Porterfield, ex-corporate girl turned CEO of a multi-million-dollar business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, money, and time to focus on growing my small-but-mighty business. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned, and you'll see the business I have today, one that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible, one that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step-by-step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur, or one in the making, who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and helps you create a life you love, you're in the right place. Let's get started.
AMY: If you're an entrepreneur, you've got a landing page, or two or three or many more. I believe your landing page just might be one of the most important pages you have in your online presence. Your landing page is what your potential audience members see when they're thinking about giving you their name and email address. Two hot commodities.
Your landing page is where they either decide to become a groupie or peace out, if not forever, definitely the foreseeable future. So if you want to grow your email list, you got to master your landing page, which is why we're going to talk about the three essential features that you have to have on point in order to get your landing page converting like hotcakes. I've had landing pages that have converted over 60 percent, so I know a thing or two about what works and what doesn't.
Now, maybe you're listening to this episode because you have a landing page for your lead magnet and it just isn't converting quite like you want it to. Or maybe you're about to create your very first landing page and you want to make it high converting from day one. I love you for that. Either way, you're going to gain extremely valuable insight from today's episode, and you're going to walk away with next steps for revamping or creating your landing page so that it works for you. All right. Let's dive in.
Just to make sure we're on the same page, when I say landing page, I'm talking about your lead magnet opt-in page, the page that talks about your freebie and gives your audience an opportunity to sign up for it. A landing page is where your subscribers will land after clicking on a social-media post or a link on your website or, I mentioned, on your podcast. It’s where they give you their information in order for them to become your email subscriber.
Now, it might seem obvious why a landing page is important to grow your email list, but there is another reason landing pages should be a priority for you in your business. When you direct a potential customer to a landing page that resonates specifically with their wants and needs, they'll be more likely to convert, to convert into an email subscriber, versus sending them to your home page of your website, where they might not see what they're looking for immediately unless they do a little hunting and pecking, which likely they won't. And because of that, they exit and never return. Okay, that might be a little dramatic, but you get what I'm saying.
Before we dive into the best practices and the four essential features of a high-converting landing page, let's talk about what you can use landing pages for. Now, if you've been following me for a while, you know that I love ConvertKit, the email-service provider. They are near and dear to my heart. So side note, if you're looking for an email-service provider or thinking about moving from the one you're using now to something better, I highly recommend them. I recommend ConvertKit to those that are just starting a business or those who have been at it for a while and really want to double down on their email list. Here's what's cool. ConvertKit offers a free service up to 1,000 subscribers. And then if you already have 5,000 subscribers or more and you want to move over to ConvertKit, they'll migrate you for free. So they're an excellent company. Amyporterfield.com/convertkit to get all the details.
So with ConvertKit, they say that there are two types of landing pages. One is a lead-generation-type landing page, where, we just talked about that one, to generate leads, and then the other is a product landing page. You could also essentially call this a sales page. This is where your potential customers would land and learn more information about a product you have or an offer and then have the option to click through and actually purchase from you. But for today's purpose, I mainly want to focus on a lead-generation landing page and how you can boost your subscriber conversions using your lead magnet once you dial in the landing page.
So you might be saying, “I hear you, Amy, but why wouldn't I just want to direct my ideal customers to the home page of my website so that they can see all that I have to offer?’ Well, my friend, as I mentioned before, the more a potential customer has to hunt and peck for what they want, especially if they're new to you, the more likely you'll lose them. The more distractions or decisions someone has to make, the less likely they'll end up on your email list. Did you hear me on that one? I’m going to repeat it one more time. The more distractions or decisions someone has to make, the less likely they are to end up on your email list.
Okay, so now that we're very clear on the importance of a high-converting landing page to grow your email list using a lead magnet, then let's talk about the good stuff. Here are four essential features of a high-converting landing page. And I'm going to share some of my best practices that we've used time and time again.
So, number one, have only one clear call to action, also known as a CTA. This goes back to that distraction thing. In fact—oh, my gosh. Get ready for this one—landing pages with more than one call to action get an average of—are you ready for it?—266 percent fewer leads than a page with just one offer. Let me say that again—266 percent fewer leads than a page with just one offer.
Remember, we're talking about lead magnets here, not a sales page. The layout of a sales page is very different. So I don't want you to mix those two up. In fact, if you want to learn more about sales pages, episode 113 and 114, I get into some detail about that. So you can go back to one of those oldies-but-goodie episodes that I have, 113 and 114.
Okay, so back to the call to action. When it comes to a landing page, most likely your call to action will be asking for their name and email address. I highly recommend you only ask for their first name and email. The more they have to fill out, the greater chance that you'll lose them to the World Wide Web. Like, if you ask for their last name—or some people even ask for their birthday or some random question in addition. Don't do that. Just ask for a first name and email.
Another thing you want to bring attention to is your call-to-action button. Now, I've been around for a long time, so I've seen this evolve over the years. And what's really cool right now in marketing is people are getting really creative with the copy and the colors of their call-to-action button. The button that you click and then you give your name and email on a landing page, you want to make sure it’s attractive and concise and clear. I'm talking about the way it looks and the copy that you actually put on it.
So back in the day, email marketing and landing-page design was so ugly. It was really bad, and it was very sales-y. Now, with modern marketing, it's more inviting. It's even more casual. So here's what I mean. Back in the day, you would just see Subscribe on a button. You'd click it. You’d give your name and email to get the freebie or sign up. And that's really all you would see. It would be in this really obnoxious highlight-yellow color. Like, not a cool yellow. It was kind of a ugly yellow. And it would have arrows pointing to it—if you've been around long enough, you know this—and it would just, like, have a dotted line around. It was just ugly and sales-y. We don't do that anymore, right?
So not only do you make your button look good—and I like rounded edges on a button. I know I'm weird, but I do—and in addition, I like to get creative with what I say on the button. So you could say something like, “Yes, I need this.” Like, you want to speak as though they are saying it to themselves. Or “Give it to me,” or “Yes, I want it,” or something like that. But also you can get creative. So let's say you are going to give some meditation tips. Your button could say, “I'm ready to get my Zen on.” Or let's say you teach macros. “Yes, I want to get my macros on,” or something like that. So make it fun, make it casual, and make it as though they are saying it. This really does work.
So you want to use something that's eye-catching and intriguing and exciting. You want your call to action to stand out from every other one they've ever seen. So spend some time on this.
Now, a fun way to think of a unique, enticing call to action is to think of your promise, and then build your text around that. So, for example, Crazy Egg is a company that measures the heatmaps on your website, where people are spending the most time. Now we use Crazy Egg to identify patterns and to create a better user experience for you, our customer. So Crazy Eggs’s call to action for their lead magnet, which gives you a sneak peek of one of your web page’s heatmaps, is “Show me my heatmap!” Exclamation mark. That's a really good one.
Another awesome example is from Elise Darma. You may recognize her name because she was on episode 315, the TikTok episode. And she offers a free masterclass helping entrepreneurs to use Instagram to sell more. Her call to action is first name and email. And then the button says, “Binge watch the free master class.” I love that binge watch. So good.
Another example is from Lisa Nichols, who is a motivational speaker, and she has a couple lead magnets, but one is an online event all about creating abundance. And her call to action is “I want to increase my own abundance.” So here she’s using their desire as a way to entice them. Plus, it's a quick win they'll receive from watching her event.
One of my lead magnets is all about how to kick-start your email list to grow your online business. The call to action is, “Say no more. I'm in.” And that one is converting around 27 percent, which is really solid.
Now, you're probably thinking, “What should a landing page convert at?” Here's what I'm going to tell you. First, find out what your landing page is converting at right now, and then keep your blinders on. Make it your mission to increase that. And I'll tell you, if you're driving cold traffic from Facebook ads to a landing page, your conversion will be less. If you're driving a bunch of warm traffic only, your conversion will be higher. Like, if I send an email to my list and send them all to an opt-in page versus if I had cold ads going to an opt-in page, very different conversions. So I'm not going to get into all the details of conversions for landing pages. I want you to go find out what yours is converting at right now, and then I want you to make it your mission to increase that, because we could always do better.
Okay. So take a look at your landing-page call to action. Is it enticing enough? Are you asking for too much information from your audience? See if you can work your lead-magnet promise into your call-to-action text and if you can minimize the required fields that they have to fill out. Both of these are simple ways to significantly improve your landing-page conversions.
All right. Moving on to number two, let's talk about the branding of your landing page. Keep your colors, images, and designs as simple as possible. Just like with too many required-information fields, the more noise, the more distracted your visitor will be, and the less likely they'll become a subscriber. Use your colors and imagery wisely. After all, we all know a picture is worth 1,000 words, right?
Fun fact. The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. That means that branding that speaks directly to our eyes has a massive impact on what we can consume. When it comes to branding on your landing page, aim to use visual elements that naturally and effectively convert subscribers.
If you're the face of the company and people are familiar with seeing you, then you might want to consider an image of you on your landing page. Now, I've talked about doing photoshoots, I have a full podcast all about how to do a photoshoot, and I think that photos of you that are professionally done are important. But one thing that we're seeing, especially at the time that I'm recording this in quarantine, more-casual, off-the-cuff photos are doing better than photoshoot photos. So what I mean by that is when Chloe comes over to my house, because she lives really close, and we just snap some photos of me in my house, more casual, they always convert better than my photoshoot photos. So you have that going for you. Especially if you're on a tight budget and you don't want to do a photo shoot, snap some casual photos of you on your smartphone. Maybe try using those on your landing page if you are the face of your company. Could go a long way.
Now, let's say you're not the face of your company. Don't use a logo on your landing page. Look for some stock photos that are aesthetically pleasing and they align with your brand and your lead magnet. So if you have a lead magnet that teaches people five tips for organizing their pantry, you probably wouldn't want to have a stock photo of someone hiking, right? However, a clean, crisp photo with lots of white space and a beautifully organized pantry would make a lot of sense.
Another fun option is to have a sneak peek of your lead magnet on the page. We do this sometimes. You can do this by taking a screen capture of your lead magnet and then using an editing program—you could use Canva—to create an image of a computer or an iPad or a phone screen with your lead magnet in it.
Also, when you're selecting an image or colors for your landing page, keep it in line with your overall company branding. When you're aiming to attract a potential audience member, you want to be careful not to confuse them. So the more seamless you can make the transition from your website or social media to a landing page, the better. And you guessed it, the less likely you'll lose them if there is true alignment. So use the branding that you use on your website and in your social media on your landing pages as well.
So I want you to take a look at your landing page. Is there any disconnect from one platform to the other, or is there real consistency? Are your images and colors pleasing to the eye? An attractive landing page will always convert much better than one that's lacking any of these. Again, if you use ConvertKit, you actually get access to really professionally well done landing pages. So remember to check that out. Amyporterfield.com/convertkit to get all the details.
All right. So number three, when it comes to landing-page copy, you want to clearly state your value proposition and the benefits of what you're offering. So the goal of your text should always be to convince your visitor that they need your lead magnet in order to get closer to the transformation or goal that they are working towards. However, one thing is important. Do not—and I repeat, do not—overwhelm them with copy. Your copy should be to the point, focus on your ideal customers’ pain point or desire, answer their burning question, and paint the picture for how this freebie, this free resource, is going to get them the desired result that they're looking for.
Now, a great way to do this is to highlight your lead-magnet promise at the top of your landing page, in bold letters. Make it clear what this freebie is about and what it's going to deliver. Oftentimes, this is the title.
So one of my students, Nicole Melton, is the creator of Beauty Content, which helps beautypreneurs, as she calls them, and influencers create content and build their businesses. Her lead magnet is called “How to Be Consistent with Your Content.” It’s straightforward, clear, and it shares the promise. Her landing page says “Create consistent content,” in bold letters, and then has a tagline under that that further states the promise. It says, “This Beauty Content planner will teach you how to come up with content ideas. Plus, you'll get three content calendars to plan your posts.” Then it asks for two things: email and name. And the call to action is “Yes, send me this.” And that's it.
I like really simple landing pages. Less copy, the better. And her landing page, it accomplishes a few things. It tells them the promise, what to expect, and what they will get out of it, and minimizes the possibility of distraction and a loss of a subscriber. She does this all with twenty-seven words. I told you—less is more.
Another way I like to play around with a select-few words used to convince your visitors to sign up is to use bullet points. This breaks up and highlights the value proposition and freebie promises. So when selecting what you should put in your bullet points, think about how your lead magnet will solve your audience’s problem and how to answer any objections they'll have to signing up.
So I love the example for my student, Tasha Cochran. She helps professional women create streams of income to supplement their household income so that they can quit their day jobs and have more freedom. Her lead magnet is a free spending plan. On her landing page, it says, “Create a spending plan for your best life,” in bold. It's the first thing you see. “Create a spending plan for your best life.”
And then she has a tagline. So notice, taglines are a really great idea for a landing page. It reads, “Ready to finally take control of your money? Go beyond your next paycheck or month and make a plan for your money and your life for an entire year.” And then she has her bullets, which include, “Plan your year in fifteen minutes,” “Build wealth and pay off debt,” and “Spend on what you love.”
If you're her ideal customer, you're probably saying, “Yes, please. Sign me up.” That's exactly what you want to do with your bullet points. When you're choosing the words you want to use on your landing page, ask yourself, are they clear, concise, engaging, actionable, memorable? Would my ideal customer actually use these words? That’s another question to ask.
For those of you who are advanced, you may want to consider adding testimonials from your lead magnet. Like, people have gotten your lead magnet, gotten results, said how much they love it. Use those on your landing page. This makes your page even more powerful. And be sure to put them at the bottom of the landing page so that they don't take away from your value proposition and your call to action.
A couple more landing-page tips and suggestions. These come from things that we actually have done, and we've seen positive results with. Number one, don't give people the option to exit the page via a menu bar. No menu bar should be on your landing page. This goes back to keeping your landing page super clean. Make sure there's no menu bar or easy way to return back to, let's say, your website. You want it to be a standalone landing page.
Number two, keep your call-to-action button above the fold. I know you've heard this many times, but I just wanted to remind you before we wrap up, when I come to your landing page, before I scroll down, I should be able to see a button to sign up for your lead magnet. You want it front and center at the top. And then if I scroll down, I could see it possibly again at the bottom of the page, too. If you have a lot of copy, which I don't want you to have too much copy, but let's say you have bullet points and such, maybe you add two call-to-action buttons.
The last thing I’ll say is, I want you to play around with this. Maybe do two landing pages: one with very little copy on it, and maybe one where you've added some bullets and some extra. See which one converts better. Usually the ones that we have with very little copy on it do the best.
But here's something that I don't talk about enough, and that is that it really depends what you're saying in terms of where you're sending them from. Here's what I mean. Let's say I post on social media all about the lead magnet. That post might have a lot of the detail in it. So what it's about, the bullet points, why they should get it. They click, they go to the landing page. They've already decided they wanted it, so I don't need a bunch of copy there on the landing page. It was on the social-media post or it was on a Facebook ad. So that's another way to keep a lot of copy off the landing page. Wherever you are going to post about it, that can have more detail, so when they get to the landing page, the only thing they need to do is give the name an email. They don't need to read a lot. They already read about it in your post. Make sense?
Let's wrap this up.
All right, my friend, if your landing page isn't converting or you just want to make sure that it converts even better, I want you to go through this list one by one and make the necessary changes. Let's recap really quickly.
One, do you have one clear call to action, and is it enticing? Don't just say “Sign up” or “Subscribe.” Get creative here. Two, is your branding consistent and aligned, or does it kind of catch your audience off guard? And is there any confusion when they go from your website to your landing page or social media to your landing page? You want it all streamlined. And number three, is your copy clear, concise, engaging, and actionable? Or maybe you have too much copy and it's time to prune.
I want you to play around with these and see what tweaks work best for you and your audience. Your landing page is extremely important. So I want you to put in the time, thought, and work so that it can start converting like crazy.
Thanks so much for joining me. I can't wait to see you same time, same place next week. Bye for now.