The internet wouldn’t exist without good page layouts.
This is especially true when it comes to landing pages.
How good a landing page theme you choose can make or break your online business model.
Most businesses and marketers understand how relevant the landing page is.
There are still landing pages I stumble upon that look like stock themes with only different text.
Nowadays, you can get free themes easily on a CMS like WordPress or Joomla.
The problem, however, is that there will be tens of thousands of other people using the same theme.
If you don’t uniquely customize the themes you use, your landing page will fail!
Your conversion rate will suffer, which directly translates into bad business.
Pro Tip: Using Instapage allows bloggers to easily create landing pages on their blog, with minimal effort
What to keep in mind when building a high-converting landing page
Before you start a blog, it’s essential to keep page design in mind.
Before using a landing page theme for your business or personal interest, it’s important to understand what makes landing pages function in general.
Once you understand the “anatomy,” so to speak, of landing pages, you can then proceed onto making each part great.
The components of a landing page can be classified as the:
- headline
- subheading
- call-to-action button
- introduction text
- the list of benefits and features
- conclusion.
You may already be aware of the above components.
You shouldn’t choose themes that do not include all of the above-listed components, no matter how glossy they look.
Simply having a headline or several paragraphs of SEO-friendly text in the body does not make a good landing page, needless to say.
Now, let’s look at the critical factors that will help you choose a conversion-friendly landing page theme:
1. Prominent and Attention-Grabbing Title and Subheading
You need to show visitors right away on your landing page what makes your product or service unique and different from similar things offered by competitors.
The theme you choose should have a layout that communicates this message to the visitor right away.
Marketers refer to this as the “unique selling proposition” or USP.
The USP should be described with the headline and the subheading of the landing page.
The headline should be the SEO-friendly name of your business or organization.
The subheading is where you can send your USP through. It should be written in a manner to hook the reader.
For example, consider Uber’s “Get there: Your day belongs to you” hook.
Takeaway:
The headline and subheadings on your landing page must emphasize your USP.
Don’t pick a theme that uses boring fonts or hard to read fonts for these two landing page components.
Choose the theme that will best allow you to get your USP through to potential customers.
Suggested reading: How to write a blog post that readers and Google will love
2. Allows Eye-Catching Visuals
The visuals on your landing page are just as important as the textual USP to retain traffic, sometimes even more so.
Landing pages with gorgeous images have lower bounce rates than the pages without.
You may have noticed the giant images on popular landing pages of companies like Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, IKEA and Coca Cola.
These masters of advertising understand the importance of visuals in communicating the sales pitch to the user.
Takeaway:
Think of the images on your landing page as a visual USP.
The theme you choose must have a picture slider or a similar element that allows you to post pictures or videos.
The theme should not be cluttered with placeholder images.
Rather, it should have a big space above the fold for you to post breathtaking photos.
Suggested reading: How to create your blog’s visual marketing strategy
3. List Benefits and Advantages of Your Offer
You can write long paragraphs about the many benefits your company offers.
But no one will read that.
A good landing page has components for bullet point lists of benefits and advantages a business has to offer.
This summary of advantages usually follows a small introductory paragraph that follows up on the USP expressed in the subheading.
When you choose a landing page theme, look for this part especially.
Some landing pages only have placeholders for simple text lists. Others allow lists to accompany the small images.
Takeaway:
Make your landing page easier to read by using bullet points.
The theme should offer detailed list creation.
Meaning, you should be able to write two or three words about an advantage, which will be immediately attention grabbing, and then write two or three short sentences below describing the advantages.
Suggested reading: The 5-step process to writing viral blog posts
4. Showcase Customer Testimonials
Businesses must first build trust with potential customers before any conversions happen.
Online businesses build this trust by posting customer testimonials and reviews.
Let’s face it — you need testimonials to gain the trust of your audience.
These are unbiased words of your customers about your products and services.
Your visitors will gravitate from testimonials because it comes from their point of view as potential customers.
The testimonials will help them decide whether or not to buy or subscribe for you, if not click your CTA button (more on this later).
To maximize the conversion of your landing page, you need to gather as many reviews that give you a thumbs up as possible.
If you have no testimonial to show for or have terrible reviews from your customers, then bye-bye visitor!
Takeaway:
Your theme should allow you to post and easily update customer testimonials.
Essentially, the users of your landing page must be able to see customer testimonials as they scroll down to the bottom.
Some pages show customer testimonials above the fold or on a sidebar alongside the introductory text and benefits list. That’s not bad either.
What’s important is that there should be placeholders somewhere in the middle of the page for you to showcase your company’s social proof.
While some themes may not have a default section for testimonials, you can use plugins that allow you to manually set up and embed customer reviews within your content.
If you are having problems getting positive reviews from customers, you should consider using tools like Yotpo and MyRealKarma to gain the trust of visitors and increase your conversion.
Suggested reading: How to write and format a review blog post
5. Make Your CTA Pop Out
As mentioned, the purpose of your landing page is to increase conversion.
All the factors mentioned above are geared to convert your visitors into buyers or subscribers.
However, your traffic is all for naught if you cannot persuade them to convert to your chosen landing page.
This is the reason why you need to make the best call-to-action (CTA) button as possible for your landing page.
The CTA button is a standalone component surrounded by white space to make it stand out from everything else on your landing page.
The idea is to compel a visitor to take action on your landing page that directly leads to a sale.
It will be up to you to write the CTA button copy. However, your landing page must have the CTA button design done perfectly to make it easily clickable without a hassle.
Takeaway:
The theme you choose must have a highly conspicuous and can’t-miss CTA button.
Your CTA button relies on having a compelling design and optimized placement to make it visible for your visitors.
Having a CTA button that your visitor cannot ignore will increase your chances of conversion!
Suggested reading: How the money in blogging is related to the Call to Action (CTA)
Conclusion
Building a website from scratch writing code by hand is tough.
Therefore, your hope for generating leads with a great landing page relies immensely on the theme you choose.
You need to pick a theme wisely based on the relevant factors explained above.
You should not have any trouble designing a good landing page by selecting a theme that allows you to demonstrate your USP with the heading and subheading.
Then, the theme should have space for attention-grabbing visuals and a list of benefits.
The theme must have space for you to post customer testimonials that garner social proof.
Last but not least, the theme must have a cleverly designed CTA button to drive conversions.
