How to Write A Landing Page That Converts

Your landing page is the single most important part of your sales funnel.

If you double your conversion rate, you double your leads and you double your business. So, here are my 6 copy components of a landing page that converts.

This post is a long time comin’, some of you have been requesting me to do this one for a while. Well, I heard you loud and clear.

This week, I’m revealing the 6 key components that I include in every single landing page I write to convert visitors into leads like crazy.

These components are especially relevant to what today’s customers demand — high value, more transparency, and zero fluff.

Whether you’re a freelance writer working with clients, or writing your own copy, a different landing page should be used for every single one of your marketing campaigns and traffic sources… it’s how you build your list, which is the most valuable asset for an online entrepreneur.

The purpose of your landing page is to offer your visitors something for free that demonstrates the quality of what your business offers in exchange for their information. This is typically a user’s email address, which you can collect through a lead-capture form, but you may also be asking for a phone number or permission to contact them over Facebook Messenger.

Whatever your desired outcome, the goal is to create a list of engaged subscribers, nurture a high-value relationship and convert the right prospects into customers through your marketing.

It’s no secret that businesses capture leads at a higher rate by sending prospects to highly-targeted and relevant landing pages, rather than simply to their own home page.

These are two very separate marketing tools.

A homepage is what I like to call your “PR Site”. Unlike landing pages and sales pages, a homepage isn’t primarily used for conversion. Instead, it features your brand, tells your story, and builds trust and credibility. This is how people learn more about you and your business, which is great for cold organic traffic.

Landing pages, on the other hand, have one single purpose — to build your list around a singular benefit or solution. They are used for conversions, and are built for direct traffic, either paid or endorsed, to capture a visitor’s information.

While home pages are incredibly important for your business, that is not what this video is about. If you’d like to read a post where I go through the key elements of an effective PR Site, comment below and let me know!

And, if you want to learn more tips and techniques on how to write powerful copy…. I release a new copywriting tutorial every single week on everything from sales pages, email marketing, headlines, and more. So be sure to click subscribe to my YouTube Channel so you don’t miss any more videos from me.

Alright, let’s learn how to write a powerful landing page, shall we? These are my six must-have copy components for a landing page that converts.

1. A Free High Value Promise

Give what you would want to receive. It’s that simple!

Your landing page gives your brand a one-shot opportunity to demonstrate the value of your product or service… and earn your prospect’s trust from day 1.

The copy needs to convey a clear and singular benefit that your visitor can expect after consuming whatever free content you’re offering – and it needs to be good but not hypey or unbelievable.

Listen, your audience is getting more and more savvy. What used to seem like a no-brainer, sharing their email address has now become a heavily-weighted decision. They know why you want it and what you plan to do with it.

There is also a TON of valuable content available for free out there, which means your leads are expecting good stuff if they are willing to give you their email address.

The number one question on everyone’s mind is “What is in it for me?”

So, make it worth their while and offer them something of HIGH value. And guys… high-value means something your prospects would actually consider spending money on, not some arbitrary price tag value that you scratch out with the word free.

Lastly, be sure to DELIVER on your promise immediately. Make sure whatever you’re providing in exchange for an email address offers insanely great value up front. Even though what you’re offering is free, it should absolutely deliver results. In fact, you should be giving away some of your BEST stuff for free. It’s how you turn your leads into raving fans and lifelong customers. It’s the law of reciprocity at its finest.

2. A Strong Reason Why

Even when you’re offering your visitors something for free, you still need to address their inner critic. They want to know why you’re giving it away and why they should take action now.

Once you build up the value of what you’re offering, the next question you want to answer in your prospects mind in “Ok, if this is so valuable, why are you giving it away for free?”

The simple answer is usually the best one. “I want you to experience my work, because I know once you do, you’ll be hooked and maybe even buy something”…

Or, “The feedback I receive about this free gift is so positive that I wanted as many people as possible to be able to get these results. Because I know once you do, you’ll stick with me for life”…

Justifying your offer is a key component in online marketing that is often overlooked. Including an authentic reason for a discount or freebie helps build trust and rapport with your audience.

Then, you can follow that up with the reason why they need to act now. This is where you can play with scarcity. Scarcity is one of the most effective techniques for increasing your conversions.

For example, your giveaway could only be available for a limited time or while it’s still in stock. Or you could offer a bonus gift or upgrade to the first 100 leads that opt in.

If you’re offering a product or service as part of a real-time campaign, you could weave time scarcity into your copy with something like “This offer is only available for the next three days”.

Whatever it is – include an authentic reason why you’re limiting the offer. And the first rule of using scarcity is to make sure it’s true. Scarcity is a powerful way to persuade, but it’s a technique that has been around for a long time, and customers have become jaded to anything that smells phoney.

The last thing you want to do is to lose your audience’s trust and make them feel betrayed by your false sense of urgency!

So, if you’re using a completely evergreen landing page where no scarcity exists, don’t make it up. Rely on one of the other powerful copy components… like this one…

3. Authentic Social Proof

I do this, you do this, everyone does this — we rely on social cues from others on what to think, feel, and do in a lot of situations. And not just anyone, but people and sources that we can relate to or who are similar to us in some way.

Social proof soothes any fears or doubts your visitors have about committing to your offer, and builds authority for your brand.

It’s also an authentic way to for your prospects to get to know you. It’s so much easier when other people toot your horn, rather than you saying how great you are.

Landing pages are one of your very first touchpoints with your prospects. So, having social proof allows them establish a positive association with your brand, which increases the chances of them coming back — even if they don’t opt in that moment.

So be sure to show your visitors how others have benefited from your product, service or content. Gather up your best user testimonials and feature them on your landing page with permission.

Another way to use social proof is to showcase the size of your social media following, feature recent comments from your followers, or include screenshots of positive reviews the slid into your DMs.

Also, if you’ve received any press coverage, you can include an “As Seen On” logo panel or screenshots which you can link to the article or story.

Be sure to communicate social proof throughout the entire landing page, and especially right before you present the offer or call to action.

And remember — use only real social proof! Stay classy, guys.

4. Trust Factors

I’ve seen many landing pages that put so much focus on the design that they forget to build trust with the visitor. Write your copy first, then design the landing page to support your copy and strategically work in social proof and trust factors.

These include a privacy promise on your opt-in form, a clear statement on how you’ll use your prospect’s email address and what they can expect to receive from you, and a reminder that they’re free to unsubscribe or cancel at any time.

And, add in anything else you can to let your visitors know that you’ve taken the measures to secure your landing page and that it’s safe for them to visit! Like using a secure domain or adding third-party trust seal to your site, such as McAfee Secure and Trusted Site.

5. A Crystal Clear CTA

Studies have estimated that you have between 5-10 seconds to convince visitors to stay on your page before they bounce.

So it is absolutely critical that you make it clear what your offer is and how they can get it in the simplest way possible.

Your call to action needs to be front and center, leaving no room for confusion on where your prospect should click next. So keep your CTAs easy to spot and use.

And your landing page features a quiz or some other form of multi-step interaction — break the process into smaller steps.

According to Robert Cialdini in his book Influence, having your leads make a series of micro-commitments will increase their likelihood of conversion based on the principle of Commitment and Consistency.

So, for example, rather than have your optin form directly on your site, have a simple button with a clear CTA. Clicking that button is the first micro-commitment your lead will make. The resulting pop-up will then either ask for an optin, or take them to the first question in a quiz with each step serving as yet another micro-commitment, until ultimately asking for the email address.

I encourage you to look for other unique ways you can employ the principle of Commitment and Consistency in your marketing. Remember, the more clicks they make, the more likely they are to optin or buy.

If you haven’t read Influence — it’s one of the top 5 books I recommend if you’re starting a copywriting business. If you want to find out what the other four books are, you can watch that video by clicking here.

6. Brand Consistency

This is one of the biggest blindspots in marketing and you’d be amazed by how many copywriters and businesses fail to do this! Branding consistency is critical to locking down a prospect down. The market is growing more cautious and intolerant of any inconsistencies in the promises you make and the languaging you use.

And it happens a lot, especially when there isn’t a clear brand voice communicated between the team members who are in charge of your different channels and campaigns.

If there’s a disconnect between what your ad, email, or content piece promises and what your landing page delivers — you might as well have a broken website because they are Xing out immediately. And worst of all, you lose any chance at turning that visitor into a customer.

There must be congruence and overlap in messaging and branding across all marketing touch points leading up to your landing page and the promise you then deliver. And the same rule applies to the rest of your pages, social media accounts and customer service.

So make sure that your brand has a distinct and impactful voice so that consistency can be easily conveyed across the board.

And there you have it guys. The 6 components of a landing page that converts.

Now, while that may seem like a lot for short landing page – many of these components can be done with just a few words. So like any copy, it’s important to be concise and 100% clear on WHAT you offer. Like the famous Albert Einstein said, if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. And if you don’t understand it, your audience sure won’t. Got it?

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Till then, I’m Alex. Ciao for now!