A landing page is a critical piece in the marketing campaign setup. While the previous chapter went into the details of how a marketing campaign works, this chapter will focus on one specific component of the marketing campaign – the landing page.

There are many landing page builders and tools available, however, designing and building a landing page in WordPress has many advantages. Before we get to designing and building a landing page in WordPress, let’s understand the basic fundamentals of a landing page.

A landing page is a distraction-free web page on your website or elsewhere which seeks to convert an interested user who has come through one of the marketing channels into a lead with targeted and personalized messaging.

1. Hero Section – The top section of the page with a banner or illustration to supports your key message. You will also find a CTA or a lead form included here in some cases,
2. Key Message – A headline and a byline that conveys the key message matching the offer on your marketing channels. Byline provides the supporting copy and context.
3. How it works – This section briefly explains how the product or service works, with the help of visuals.
4. Social Proof – Testimonials, reviews and ratings from customers psychologically convince customers that you have a genuine offer.
5. Features – Additional information on some of the specific features.
6. Benefits – Copy on the landing page should always be user-centric and not product-centric. Benefits and values need to be communicated effectively.
7. Reinforcing statement – As the visitor scrolls through the landing page, you can add a reinforcing statement to maintain their interest.
8. Lead Form – Form with the necessary fields to capture the information of the interested visitor.
9. Call-to-Action – Buttons attached to a form or standalone buttons supported by a strong copy that encourages the visitor to take action
10. Footer – A basic footer with logo and name of the company. No outbound links should be added here or anywhere on the page.

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Since the landing page acts as a funnel, you should ensure there are no leaks in it. Here are some design best practices for a landing page to keep in mind:

1. Responsive landing pages – Ensure the landing page works as intended on all major screen sizes
2. Remove navigation and links – This prevents visitors from leaving the funnel before they convert
3. Visual representation – Demonstrate visually how your product or service works
4. Visual Cues – Add design elements like arrows and animation that encourages reading and scrolling
5. Videos – Videos can quickly convey a story of your brand, service or product if done well.

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Writing Marketing Copy for a Landing Page

Writing good marketing copy that converts is hard. Hire a professional!

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind if you are writing it yourself:

 

 

1. Headlines need to hook the user. Strike a balance between informative and exciting.
2. Keep your copy short. Short sentences and short paragraphs make it easy to read.
3. Use writing tools shared in our content marketing chapter to grammar check your copy.
4. Avoid passive voice and adverbs at all costs.
5. Don’t talk about yourself, talk about the user and their problems you can solve.
6. A/B test your headline and button copy.
7. Make sure your landing page covers “who you are”, “what you are offering” and “why it matters to the user” questions.

 

A Landing Page is also referred to as a Squeeze Page as it tries to squeeze a portion of visitors down the funnel and convert them into leads.

 

How to Make a Landing Page in WordPress

You can build a landing page in 5 ways:

1. Use a plugin from a 3rd party landing page platform like LeadPages or a WordPress plugin
2. Use a page builder like Divi and one of their pre-built layouts
3. Use a page builder like Divi and a starter theme like GeneratePress
4. Custom designed and custom developed with code from scratch
5. With commercial landing page themes

A landing page platform is a SaaS solution that provides hosting and landing page tools all built into one. However, the room to customize and tweak can be limited. Using a commercial landing page theme can cause maintenance and performance issues in the long run as they come bundled with a lot of options.

Since a landing page acts as a funnel and with page builders providing lots of options, they can be used as a funnel builder.

A WordPress funnel builder is a powerful option that affords the versatility to customize while also keeping things lean. We would recommend this option to most users. They’re easy to set up, have a number of pre-built layouts and you can always customize them with code.

The advantage of building a landing page in WordPress gives you access to a huge variety of plugins. And multiple page builder options. With WordPress, you have complete control of the system and data. Exporting and migrating to a new WordPress website is very easy.

For all these reasons making a landing page in WordPress is our recommended option.

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The marketing tools, content publishing plugins and SEO optimization tips we’ve shared in this WordPress marketing guide can help you create a high-converting and reusable landing page.

 

Optimizing the WordPress Funnel Builder with A/B Testing

A/B Testing is a scientific method to identifying the better performing variant of a design/copy element on the page, or the entire page itself. A/B testing requires you to create the two variations (if you create more than two, it is referred to as multi-variate testing) and sending half your traffic to version A and the rest to version B.

What can you A/B test?

1. Headline copy
2. CTA
3. Button
4. Page layout
5. Graphic elements like colors, images etc
6. Content

A/B Testing WordPress Plugins:

1. Thrive Optimizer
2. Nelio A/B Testing
3. Split Hero

A great free option is Google Optimize that integrates with Google Analytics and just needs you to add a few lines of code to your website.

While there are plugins and tools specifically for A/B testing, wouldn’t it be great if your page builder had that feature built in?