You’ve done it.
After all the effort of reaching out with your brand on social media, sponsored ads, and organic traffic, you’ve drawn people to your landing page.
The analytics bear that out. Not only are people coming to your landing page—they’re coming to it in droves.
But you’ll quickly discover that this isn’t the full story.
When it comes to your landing pages, there are two things you need to pay attention to:
- How many people come to your landing page (including whether your advertising money is well-spent)
- Whether those potential leads are actually clicking on your call to action, or CTA… and CONVERTING into leads and clients
If you don’t have both elements present in your landing page, then you’re not done optimizing it.
Let’s say that you’ve already figured out a lot about your landing page. You’re using a professional template. The visual elements are there. It’s easy to find out where to become a genuine lead.
Why aren’t they converting?
It may be because you aren’t persuasive enough.
The art of online persuasion may seem subtle at first, but when it comes to incorporating persuasive elements on your landing page, you’ll find out that it’s easy to master.
What matters is that you pay attention to the right things—and incorporate those persuasion elements on your landing page.
Want some ideas? Let’s look through some tips for making your landing page more persuasive:
Tip #1: Build Trust Before You Ever Ask for Something
Trust is one of the most important elements of persuasion, especially when it comes to asking a visitor to become a genuine, bona fide lead.
After all, put yourself in a landing page visitors’ shoes.
Maybe they know a lot about your company, sure. But maybe they don’t. Maybe this is the first time they’ve ever come across your company and they only clicked your link because you momentarily piqued their interest—nothing more.
Should they really trust you at a glance?
Probably not.
That’s why you need to incorporate trust elements into your web design and your landing pages.
You may already know that you’re a trustworthy company that will do the most it possibly can for the benefit of its clients.
But they don’t know that.
That’s where trust comes down to an issue of communication. You have to be able to demonstrate what your company does in a very short amount of time.
Part of that comes down to the visual presence of your website. When someone “lands,” you should already have page elements that communicate that you’re a high-quality company that’s out to help its web visitors.
But trust is also partially about what your landing page says. Here are some ways to incorporate trust elements into your page copy:
- Speak from their point of view. When you write landing page copy, it’s tempting to do it from the point of view of a company. This leads to “second person” writing such as “you” or “your.” It may work for blog posts, but it’s less likely to work for landing pages. Instead, write from their point of view. “Calculate my mortgage” makes a better call to action because it’s more relevant to their needs. A call to action that says “calculate your mortgage” may only have one word of difference—but that single change can result in a completely different feel.
- Display your trust. Do you have a brief “About us” section? Do you post public contact information for anyone who has questions? If not, it may look like you’re trying to get their lead or email address before you subject yourself to any accountability, which in turn erases trust. Display your trust by including contact information as well as anything else that makes you feel like a legitimate company/operation (trust icons, reviews, “as seen on” badges, etc.).
Tip #2: The Hook
In music, the “hook” is that catchy riff or chorus that serves to attract people to the rest of the song. It’s what “hooks” you into listening to the entire tune.
It works the same way for landing pages.
When someone lands on your site, you should have a compelling hook that makes your site that much more interesting. For example:
- An interactive mortgage calculator serves as a great way to invite people in to participate with your site—they want to know more information about their own mortgage possibilities.
- A giveaway, such as a free custom mortgage quote or a free download, will entice people to give you their email address and information. For them, it’s only a light trade. And for you, once you systemize it, you’ll have no problem scaling this offer for hundreds and even thousands of leads.
- A well-written headline. A headline that engages your users can be much more than just a nice way to get them to read more. It can serve as the sole “hook” of your landing page that makes it that much more intriguing once a visitor finds it.
Remember that it’s always important to adopt the potential lead’s point of view. What would hook them? What are they looking for? What problems are they trying to solve by coming to your website?
It’s not enough that you try to include something that would appeal to everybody.
Instead, find out what appeals most to the audience that you’re trying to attract to your landing page.
You can choose any of the hooks mentioned above, but feel free to experiment with other types of interesting “hooks” to draw attention in and draw more people to completing the call to action on your landing page.
Tip #3: The Social Element
One of the most important elements in persuasion isn’t always on the page—it’s the general sense that we’re doing something that lots of other people have done to great success.
Robert Cialdini’s book Influence talks about using social “proof” to help people become persuaded. The element of social proof simply refers to evidence that other people have used your service before and have had success.
That can come in a variety of forms, such as:
- Client testimonials. If you make it obvious that there are real people out there who have enjoyed your services, then others are more likely to feel trust. No one wants to feel like they’re the first person to try a new company. You likely can’t write persuasive landing page content that will have as big an impact of a quote coming from a happy client.
- Influencer marketing. One of the reasons influencer marketing is so powerful these days is because it utilizes social media to build that social proof.
- Unstated social proof. When you have a high-quality website, what does it suggest about your company? That you have professionals working there. When you have a high-quality hook like a mortgage calculator, what does it suggest about your company? That you have professionals working there. These are subtle social cues that help you display the fact that you can provide high-quality service.
The social element is also present on social media, so don’t forget to include links to your social media platforms when possible. This is a relevant way to display that you’re a trustworthy company.
Writing more persuasive landing page content isn’t always about the words. It’s about the feeling behind the words—and the understanding of why they should be there. Whether you’re writing an intriguing headline or incorporating customer testimonials, you’ll find that the more you concentrate on effective persuasion, the more you can do with the visitors on your landing page.
