We like to think KickoffLabs excels at helping you design great looking landing pages. But we do let you have some control as well. Here are some tips for not shooting yourself in the foot that come mostly from our article on conversion rate optimization.
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…Think about the way your visitors are going to be consuming your messages. The design MATTERS.
Make it obvious. Imagine your entire site or email was translated into Greek—or some language that you are unable to decipher. All you would be able to see would be the design elements and the size and placement of text. Could you figure out where you’re supposed to click? Intuitive layout is a hallmark of good design. It should be clear what a user should do. And if it’s not, work on making the call-to-action link or button more obvious.
Visual hierarchy. I like to say that content needs to ‘pay the rent’: If it’s going to be there, there better be a damn good reason. Of the information you’re trying to convey, some things are critical, others important, and others are helpful. Look over the messages you want on the page and determine the most critical, what provides additional support, and what might be great to include if there were space. Play with text sizes, weights, and colors. The design should reflect this visual hierarchy.
Above the fold. You’ll hear this term a lot, and it refers to the amount of pixels site visitors see without scrolling. Part and parcel to making it obvious, is putting the call-to-action above the fold. Don’t bury the button way at the bottom of your site – make it easy. Oh, what? You need to include a War-and-Peace length of sales copy to convince people to click on the button? No, you don’t.
And a bonus tip for blog readers…
Don’t let the background image distract from your call to action. Some of the best designs include a background image. But the conversation rates are higher if the image is subtle or directly related to the message. If people are gazing at the image they aren’t reading your content or filling out the form.
Get more tips and read the full article on conversion rate optimization.