How to fix your landing pages
You’re putting good money into digital content, paid ads, email campaigns and social posts. They’re the kind of activities that should be generating enquiries and bringing new customers through the door.
The clicks are coming in. But the enquiries aren’t.
This is one of the most common and costly problems in digital marketing, and nine times out of ten, the landing page is the culprit.
Your landing page is where the real work happens. Your ads, emails and social posts have one job, to get the click. Everything after that, from persuading a visitor to stay to building trust and driving action, is down to the landing page. If that page isn’t pulling its weight, you’re essentially paying for people to walk up to your shop window, take a look, and then walk away because the door is locked.
The footfall is there. The problem is what happens next. If you can’t persuade the buyer that your offer is for them, it’s time and money wasted.
This blog takes a closer look at what makes a good landing page, and how you can fix yours.
Why this matters more than most businesses realise
Web traffic isn’t success. It’s potential. And that potential only becomes revenue if your landing page converts it.
Every click has a cost, whether that’s the direct cost of a paid ad or the time and resources behind an email campaign, piece of content or social post. A landing page that fails to convert doesn’t just waste that individual click. It quietly drains your entire marketing budget over time.
A good landing page does several things at once.
It takes the promise you made in your campaign and delivers on it.
It gives the visitor exactly what they were expecting when they clicked.
It removes distractions, focuses attention and makes the next step feel obvious.
If those things happen, the conversions usually follow. If they don’t, even a brilliant campaign can fall flat.
Podcast: Tone of Voice
Want to hear more? Listen to our episode on tone of voice and it can make or break your brand’s connection with customers – determining whether people see you as trustworthy and relatable, or just another faceless company. Join us as we explore this crucial aspect of marketing with industry expert Jon Smart.
What are the different types of landing pages?
Before you can fix a landing page, it helps to understand what kind of page you’re dealing with.
Squeeze pages are stripped back to the bare minimum; a headline, a short explanation and a simple form asking for an email address. They exist purely to capture contact details, and work best for lead magnets, free downloads or anything where the ask is small.
Lead capture pages add a little more context. They’re still focused on one action, but they give the visitor more reason to take it, such as giving a fuller explanation of the offer, a few benefits and perhaps a short testimonial.
Thank you pages are maybe the most overlooked landing page of all. They provide the perfect opportunity to introduce a related offer, share a useful resource, or reinforce the decision the visitor has just made. Done well, thank you pages keep people in your world rather than letting them drift away.
And then there are unsubscribe pages, which many businesses treat as a dead end. They don’t have to be. A well-designed unsubscribe page can ask why someone is leaving and offer them an alternative, like reducing the frequency of the emails you send them, rather than opting out entirely.
The mistakes that cost you conversions
Most landing page problems come down to a handful of recurring issues, which are all fixable.
Not telling your visitors what you want them to do is the most expensive mistake. If your call-to-action isn’t clear, prominent and repeated throughout the page, your visitors hesitate, and hesitation usually means they leave.
Your page should have one goal and one action. Not several options, or a vague invitation to ‘find out more’. One specific, visible instruction that appears early and reappears as the visitor scrolls will make them more likely to act upon it.
The second major issue is a mismatch between your campaign content and your landing page. A visitor clicks because something in your ad, social post or email caught their attention, whether it’s the headline, the offer or a specific promise. If they arrive on a page that feels disconnected from that promise, their trust evaporates. The messaging, tone, and look and feel of your landing page should be a seamless continuation of whatever brought the visitor there.
Getting the length of your landing page content wrong is another common problem, and it can go in either direction. Some pages contain almost nothing more than a vague headline, a single paragraph and a call-to-action button. Others try to say everything and end up saying nothing clearly. The right balance depends on your offer.
A low-cost, low-risk product that’s easy to buy on impulse might need very little copy. A more expensive or complex service, where the visitor has questions and concerns that need addressing, will need considerably more. We’ll look at this in more detail in the next section.
A poor mobile experience can lose conversions before your visitors have even engaged with your content. Most people click your ads on their phones, not their laptops. If your landing page loads slowly, the form is fiddly to complete on a small screen, or the buttons are too small to tap, you’re creating unnecessary friction at the wrong moment.
And then there’s the trust problem. Visitors who don’t know you won’t convert without reassurance. Testimonials, case studies, client logos, reviews and industry accreditations all do the same job. They show that other people have already made the decision your visitor is considering, and it worked out well for them.
Stock imagery, on the other hand, does the opposite. It signals generic. It says that you didn’t care enough to use real photos of real people, and your visitors will pick up on that.
How long should your landing page be?
There are two schools of thought on this, and the debate has been running for years.
One side argues that people’s attention spans are shorter than ever, so your landing page content needs to be brief, punchy and immediately digestible. The other side believes that long-form content, which explains every possible benefit and addresses every possible objection, is the way to go.
Both are right, it just depends on the context.
Short copy works when the offer is simple, the price is low, and the visitor is already warm.
Long copy works when the visitor doesn’t know you yet, the product is complex or expensive, and they need to be educated and reassured before they’ll act.
The real measure isn’t the word count. It’s whether the content is doing its job.
So, ask yourself, does your content explain your offer clearly?
Does it highlight benefits rather than features?
Does it address all the objections a visitor is likely to have?
Does it lead naturally to the call-to-action?
And, perhaps most importantly, does it pass the nod test? Does each sentence or paragraph make the reader think ‘yes, that’s right’ and want to read the next one?
If the answer to those questions is yes, the length is right, whether that’s 200 words or 2,000.
What should a strong landing page look like?
The best landing pages share a few consistent qualities.
They have a single, clear purpose. One offer. One action.
When a page tries to achieve multiple goals at once, it usually fails at all of them.
They communicate value immediately.
A visitor who has to scroll or dig to understand what you’re offering and why it matters to them won’t bother. Your headline and opening paragraph need to do that work before they even think about scrolling down.
They lead naturally to the call-to-action.
Good landing page content shouldn’t feel like a sales pitch. It should feel like a logical sequence that ends with the visitor thinking ‘this is what I need’. That requires emotive, benefit-led writing that focuses on outcomes for the customer, not a list of features about the product.
They build trust through evidence.
A landing page that makes claims and then backs them up with real proof will almost always outperform one that relies on assertions alone. A short, well-chosen testimonial from a recognisable client can do more for your conversion rates than a paragraph of your own copy, however well-written it is.
And they deliver a strong user experience.
Fast load times, mobile-friendly layout, simple forms and clear buttons are fundamental. If a visitor has to wait, think for too long, or struggle to complete a form, you’ve already lost them.
Video is worth a mention, too. For complex offers, or where humanising your brand is important, a short video introduction or explainer can significantly improve engagement. It lets people see and hear a real person behind the offer, which builds the kind of connection that written copy alone sometimes can’t.
How can QBD help?
If your campaign traffic looks healthy but your conversions don’t match, your landing pages are probably where the gap is. So, if you’re spending money on digital marketing and not seeing the returns you’d expect, get in touch, and we’ll take a look.
We design bespoke landing pages with your users in mind, to influence their behaviour, deliver a memorable customer experience and drive the outcomes you’re looking for.
Our expert team will work with you to understand your business, your products or services and your campaign goals, before creating bespoke landing pages that deliver the results you need. Every landing page we create is designed and developed with your audience in mind, to capture their attention, engage them, reinforce your brand and, ultimately, drive conversions.
Get in touch today to see how we can help you fix your landing pages. And if you want to learn more, check out episode 16 of our QBD Marketing PowWow podcast, The Silent Killer: Why Your Landing Pages Are Costing You Customers.
About the Author
Rich Brown
Rich is our Head of Lead Generation.
Rich is responsible for helping people get the most from the digital marketing platforms they use to help them get more leads and sales and ultimately achieve their growth objectives.