Although the conversion-centered design is one of the best practices to convert visitors into paying customers, it still remains a blind spot for most business owners and marketers.
Did you know that studies have pointed out that prospects only take 50 ms (milliseconds) to form an opinion about the "virtual front door to your business"? Even more, 5 out of 10 users judge companies' credibility by looking at the design of their websites.
Now you can see why conversion-centered design is so important to marketers these days and why you have to do it right before running your campaign. However, remember that doing something like this is not a cakewalk.
To make things easier for you, MSP Launchpad has pulled together the 5 most important principles you need to follow in order to create an awesome conversion-centered landing page - we invite you to keep reading!
A guide to building a conversion-focused website
Here is the framework you need to follow in order to design a high-converting landing page.
1. Hijack prospects' eyes
Every single time a potential customer lands on your page, you are competing against everything that could possibly distract their attention and make them leave.
Remember that the confused mind says no. You need to establish a single focus. The more options you give the prospects, the more you risk turning them off.
Think of a conversion-centered design as a wrapping paper that we were using as children to make our gifts more exciting and appealing. The whole idea of doing something like this is to make it clear to people that your content and offers are important to them.
If you confuse them or make them distracted without keeping their attention to the essential area of your page, you can forget about turning your visitors into paying customers.
One of the ways to grab their attention is through playing with elements' size, color, and spot or including bolder text. There are many different ways to grab prospects' attention.
2. Contrast is the key to an appealing visual hierarchy
We can't move on before saying a couple of words about the importance of contrast and visual hierarchy.
For example, if your CTA button or some other really important section blends in with everything else that you have on your page, who will see it? Let us tell you - no one! That's who!
Just imagine what would happen if you put a huge blue button right on a bright blue background. That's right. However, finding the right contrast is not an easy task.
There are many options out there: yellow on black, red on green or vice versa, and so on and so forth. To help you with creating the most appealing contrast, we have designed the color wheel below.
Note: Colors that are opposite each other offer the most appealing levels of contrast you can achieve.
-!! THE COLOR WHEEL PICTURE + THE MEANING OF EACH COLOR (this is a task for our designers)
When it comes to defining hierarchy and structure, every single element on your page should be placed carefully - you want to turn your visitors into customers, so you have to take them from one point (e.g., the hero section) to another point (e.g., the solution or the call to action.)
You can also use different animations and arrows to put attention to particular areas you find important and create a focal point. Whatever you do, try to guide prospects down the narrative.
3. Importance of white space in design
The best designers know that less is more - they can convey a powerful message without using too many distracting elements.
Anyhow, white space, also known as blank space, is an area of emptiness we use to surround the area we find important for clients. Actually, the color of the empty space doesn't have to be white, but it's the one that people usually use.
The whole point of white space is to easily direct the eye of the customer and neatly organize sections and content. White space generates focus and attention, sets the tone of the branding, and improves the legibility of your content.
In short, the more white space the better. One of the best examples of white space is something that we all use almost every day - the Google homepage.
4. Create a sense of urgency and scarcity
To turn visitors into paying customers, you must convince them to place an order. To give them a reason to do so, you must create these two senses in their minds.
Psychology practice says that you can make people do something like this by limiting your offer or customers' decision-making time.
You want to trigger the fear of missing out between those who are interested in your services, products, and goods.
Here are some examples of how to do it.
"Last day: 30% off on everything!", "Only 5 models left at this price, then they go up to 550$!" or something like "Only 30 minutes left to order for delivery tomorrow!".
As you can see, you are trying to send a clear message "take action right now or miss out." The ideal place to show these punchy lines is somewhere near the CTA button. This way, you stand a chance to ensure higher and faster conversion on your page.
5. Let them try before they buy
It's no secret that people fear failure and are risk averse, meaning that if you offer them a free trial period of your services, you can persuade them and drive more leads.
Just think about how many times you have been to a supermarket and tried a free sample. Those selling places are not doing it because of their generosity.
They are giving you a chance to make 100% sure that you like the product before you buy it. But even if those people don't convert, don't give up that easily. In B2B, it takes a lot of human touches and time before you can sell a product.
The wrap-up
There are many other elements besides these 5 that contribute to the effectiveness of your landing page.
Although we are expecting market trends and customer expectations to evolve, one thing is pretty sure about the conversion-centered design - it will remain super effective for many more years because it taps into human psychology.
Last but not least. While your web design needs to appeal to customers, it is also of the utmost importance to tackle clients' business problems. In case you don't, then no one is going to be willing to pay for things you are offering.
If your landing page is missing those things and you want to create a design that invites your customers, but you don't know how to do it, or you are short on time, MSP Launchpad is here to help and fuel your business growth.
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Now it's your turn - tell us, which of these principles are you going to try first?
