SEO company Philippines, or simply our local optimizers, understand how to create compelling landing pages. Sometimes though, they go straight to building the landing page more for themselves and the brand instead of building a page with the users and, more specifically, the target audience in mind. Here are steps three to six.

 

Recap of Part 1:

STEP ZERO – Understand the target market

STEP ONE – Set up actionable goals

STEP TWO – Match the ad message with the landing page

 

STEP THREE – Evaluate the first impression

Andrew Grant said, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Indeed.

Do a simple search of your best performing keywords on Google. Click on the landing pages of your competitors. No, this is not about copying what your rivals are doing with their landing pages. Observe their landing pages. Can you immediately tell the first impressions that your rivals are trying to make?

Now, compare your landing page with that of your competitors for the same keyword. How do you feel? Look at your landing page? What impression is it trying to make? Is this the same first impression that you have when you are creating the page? Your answers are important.

See, it only takes less than a second to make an impression. In fact, our brain can process images in 0.013 seconds. This means a user can form his or her opinion regarding your landing page in just 0.05 seconds! Such an opinion will inform the user whether to stay in the page or move out and proceed to the next available landing page.

Strong first impressions are the main reason why message matching is vital in creating a landing page. Also, this is the same reason there should be an apparent degree of familiarity.

 

STEP FOUR – Determine the emotional resonance

Apart from building a profile of who your buyers are (buyer personas), there should be emotional triggers. These emotional triggers are what will resonate with the readers of your landing page.

Emotional triggers are very different from first impressions. First impressions are about the perceived level of familiarity, at least in our context, while emotional resonance is about enhancing the familiar elements for them to build momentum, hook the user and draw him or her deeper into the landing page.

Joy, horror, shock, pleasure and surprise are just some of these emotions that you can design the page for. After picking the mood, you can start incorporating colors, fonts, images, etc. Of course, you should not deviate from the brand’s color palette.

If you haven’t had a color theme, you can refer to this as your guide. Remember that the overall mood of the landing page is mostly about the coordination of the elements on the page.

 

STEP FIVE – Craft a compelling value proposition

Value proposition is what sets you apart from the competition. Focus on your product and service offerings and how they can improve the quality of life when prospects use any of them.

The value proposition should directly address the target market. It should include information on what can your product or service do. Tell them why your brand is unique. Show what the direct benefits are.

After reading the dominant headline of the landing page, the user will decide whether to continue reading or not. The first question is: Can this site solve my problem? There are just two answers: YES and NO. If your site doesn’t have the solution your user is looking for, he or she will look elsewhere.

Truth hurts, but what hurts more is when your site has what the user needs and yet the user still looked elsewhere. This is the reason value propositions must be direct and precise and answer all the questions a user have in mind. When this happens, you have a higher chance at keeping the interest of the user down to the last line of the page.

 

STEP SIX – Reinforce the message through images

In the same way that you cannot just pick any color or font that you want, you cannot just put images onto the landing page. Speak directly to your target market by selecting, designing or capturing images that strongly reinforce the mood of the page.

Images must be representative of the brand’s target market. Beyond that, however, the goal is selling the emotional value of the product or service especially those that your customers will get post-conversion.

There are basic journalistic rules where to place images (pyramid, inverted pyramid, etc.). Nonetheless, they should be utilized to hack the user’s natural viewing pattern. Some images can be also used in directing the user to where he or she should look next.

Bonus: Landing pages may also include explainer videos only when static images and texts cannot deeply explain the benefits of your products, for instance. Explainer videos are great if the product requires demonstration to use properly.

 

It is rather easier to create an image-rich landing page. What is more difficult is to build a landing page that will resonate with the readers emotionally, drawing them closer to devising a favorable first impression. There lies the challenge for the optimizers.

 

Source: Search Engine Journal | MOZ | ConversionXL