Top 10 elements of a winning landing page

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There are three main categories, including selling your product or service, establishing trust, and a call to action.

Sell your product or service:

• Big clear headline: Although all things mentioned in this article are important in their own ways, this one is especially true. You need to have a big clear headline that jumps out of the page and grabs the user's attention right away.

  This is where you can start building your unique selling proposition. The main headline can be anything that makes sense for your product or service. It can bring a specific problem a user has to focus which your product or service can solve, or it can simply promote your product or service right away.

• Strong sub-line: The next step is to follow it up with a strong sub-line, or sub-headline. Your sub-line should essentially reinforce your headline. It should hint at solving a problem or offering a solution to the user. It also leads right into a more in-depth explanation of what your product or service does.

• Brief explanation: The brief explanation should be just as it sounds - brief. Don't go into all the details if the user doesn't need to know about it. Don't try to be too technical, unless your audience is expecting that. You just need to establish your unique selling proposition here and show the user why you have the best product or service in the market and what differentiates you from the rest.

  For example, there's a big difference in how you would sell a big aeroplane engine versus a candy bar. One audience expects a really detailed explanation while the other just wants to know that your candy bar is delicious.

• Short video: A short video allows you to supplement your brief explanation by adding more information. Don't just repeat what you said in the brief explanation. The video should offer some new value to your page.

Establish trust:

• Results: So if you're selling the best aeroplane engine or candy bar, how can you prove that? That's where the results come in. Show users why this aeroplane engine provides the best fuel efficiency, or why it is the quietest in the world. Obviously, if you're selling something this big, you will also have internal testing that can be published to promote your product, but if you're selling something simpler like candy bars, then you just need simple proof or perhaps even introduce some humour into it, i.e. 9.5 out of 10 people who ate this candy bar lived happier lives.

• Testimonials: Testimonials are one of the most effective ways of social proof you can have. This is where your potential customers can see what your current and previous customers thought about your business, your products, or your services.

  If you're pulling your testimonials from websites such as Yelp or Facebook, you might even consider pulling the star ratings to showcase the overall score. Don't forget if you're doing this to also implement schema mark up so that your stars show up in search engine results.

• As seen in: Has your product or service been featured on any popular websites, blogs, or TV channels? If so, this is where you can show that. Everyone knows that not every random bloke can be featured on the Science channel ,Yahoo, or similar websites. That's why it's so important to try to generate that buzz because it will help you in the long run as well.

• Awards and accreditations: Another form of social proof, awards and accreditations showcase your industry knowledge and reputation. Using our aeroplane engine example, if you have received an award from NASA for the most innovative new aeroplane engine, then obviously it is a big deal.

  If your industry has any accreditation bodies, it would be a good idea to try to get accredited sooner or later. Not only does it help you in gaining more trust with your customers, but it will put you ahead of your competitors. If your competitors are already accredited, then you need to become accredited just to stay on the level playing field.

• Guarantee: One of the most important elements is the guarantee. This is what makes your potential customers feel more secure in making a purchase from you. They need to have a sense of relief and security by knowing that they have a chance to get their money back if the product or service does not live up to their expectations.
  If you love your product or service and truly think it is the best on the market, then you should have no problem offering a guarantee. Great businesses are confident in their offerings and thus have no problems offering guarantees.

Call to action:

• Simple contact form: And finally we have the call to action. Although I think a simple contact form is the most effective, it will depend on the type of business you have. Instead of a contact form, you might simply have a phone number for users to call. Or perhaps you might have a call-back option where they enter their number and you call them instead.

  Whatever your call to action is, you just need to have one and it needs to be simple, easy, and quick for users to complete. If your call to action is obscured or difficult, then everything you did to sell your product or service has been done in vain.