The goal of a successful landing page is to convert the customer. How you get there – through email signups, sales, or subscriptions – depends on you. While the ultimate goal might change sometimes, there are a few features that most successful WordPress landing pages share.
Knowing what those features are is key if you want to maximize conversions. Excellent copy, for example, is essential for any website, but doubly so for landing pages since you have a limited amount of ‘room’ to convince users.
In this article, we’re going to talk about when it makes sense to use a standalone landing page for your WordPress e-commerce website. Then we’ll go over three features that every successful landing page should include. Let’s jump right in!
When to Use an E-Commerce Landing Page
Most websites are built with the purpose of converting users in one way or another. However, landing pages perhaps encapsulate this more than any other online facet. In fact, some of the best we’ve seen are one-page affairs employing high-pressure sales tactics to maximize conversions:
Landing pages can be amazing tools to drive conversions if you have very specific goals. As an example, for an online store selling dozens of products, a landing page might not be the best approach because it’s hard to promote so many products in limited space. As such, once you start adding multiple product pages and other navigation aspects, you’re no longer talking about a landing page.
If, on the other hand, you’re promoting only one or a group of products and services with a tangible link, a landing page becomes much more effective:
We’re using e-commerce as an example, but the same logic applies to landing pages with other goals. You can use landing pages to collect leads before you launch a product, to get subscriptions, and much more. To succeed, there are a few elements your landing page should include.
3 Key Features of a Successful E-Commerce Landing Page
The best landing pages succeed in keeping your attention and convincing you to perform specific actions. It’s no small feat, so let’s talk about the elements they employ, starting with the design.
1. Engaging Design That Keeps Visitors Scrolling Down
The anatomy of most landing pages is simple – they’re built to keep you scrolling down until you reach a Call to Action (CTA). To do this, the design of the page itself needs to ‘push’ you along.
There are a myriad of ways you can design a page to drive visitors from one section to another. For example, you could implement arrow navigation to point you down when you’re browsing from a mobile device:
Other landing pages use numbers to differentiate each section visually, which helps them deliver information in the best possible order:
A great way to keep visitors engaged while they’re scrolling is to implement transition effects that play out as the page moves down. In this example, you can see how the hero image changes as you scroll:
Design plays an essential role in your landing page’s success. Put simply, if it looks boring at first glance, you’re going to lose out on a lot of potential conversions, even if your copy is amazing.
2. Direct Copy with Compelling Headlines and Multiple CTAs
If you take a second look at all the examples we’ve shown you so far, you’ll notice they all feature multiple subheadings and short, direct copy. Generally speaking, this is the best way to keep visitors as they scroll down your landing page.
With most successful landing pages, your copy should follow a natural progression that covers:
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What you’re offering and its purpose.
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The elements that make your product or service unique.
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Social proof and testimonials.
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One final CTA (with potentially more dotted throughout your copy at natural points).
In practice, the formula can change; however, in essence you want to condense the entire buyer’s journey into a single page. You’ll want to be as succinct as possible and make sure that visitors don’t overlook key aspects of your copy. Subheadings can help here:
By including CTAs throughout the landing page, you target visitors that might convert earlier along the journey. As such, you give them the easy decision to convert now, rather than after content they’re not interested in engaging with.
3. Elements of Social Proof
Reviews are key when it comes to building trust with your customers. They’re an element of social proof, which can drastically increase conversions if it’s implemented correctly.
When it comes to landing pages, there are two general approaches to social proof you can use. The first one involves showcasing customer reviews, so visitors can see what others are saying about your products:
The second approach involves leveraging other brands or businesses to increase the value of your offerings in the eyes of visitors. E-commerce landing pages often do this by showing you some other sites and publications products have been featured in:
The more prestigious the publication, the more effective the social proof. If you want to be proactive, you can always reach out to publications in your landing page’s niche to get them to take a closer look at your products or services.
WordPress Landing Page Conclusion
WordPress landing pages are an excellent way to drive conversions for your e-commerce operation. If you’re selling limited types of products, it makes sense to use a well-tuned landing page rather than to create a full store from scratch.
However, for your e-commerce landing page to be successful, it should include the following features:
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Engaging design that keeps visitors scrolling down
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Direct copy with compelling headlines and multiple CTAs.
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Elements of social proof.
Image credit: Pixabay.
