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By: Matt Dunleavy
Published by: Excedra
Categories: Marketing Solutions & Process Management
Sub-Categories » Conversion Optimization | Creative

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Landing Page Design has evolved into a specialty science almost completely independent of conventional web site design.  A landing page should be constructed for the sole purpose of converting the visitor into a customer.  Any unnecessary content should be stripped from the page, and every piece of content or image you display should serve a purpose.  While designing hundreds of landing pages over the years across different industries ranging from fashion to insurance, three techniques seemed to do some serious damage with regard to converting traffic into leads.  Included with the techniques are free Photoshop templates that you could use to implement these techniques into your own landing pages.

1. Button with Repeating Light Glare

The eye catching light glare over the call-to-action button has time after time proven to be major in the conversion optimization process. It doesn’t matter where you put it on your page, you can be certain your visitors will be aware of this button. It should be used only for the purpose of compelling your visitors to make a purchase or complete the page’s desired action so not to annoy the reader.  Make sure that the button’s appearance and animation are smooth so not to look cheesy.  The repeating glare effect can be achieved in most newer versions Adobe Photoshop via the Image Ready animation panel.  I’ve also created a sample animated Light Glare Button Template in Photoshop (PSD) format.

2. Moving Arrow

Another eye catching  enhancement thats guaranteed to get the attention of your visitors is the moving arrow. Aside from capturing their attention, the arrow also provides direction and helps aid the reader into making the decision of completing the desired call-to-action. I typically only use a moving arrow for Purchase & Lead Generation buttons.  I’ve included a sample(shown to the left) of a Moving Arrow Template in Photoshop (PSD) format.  The motion of the arrow is controlled by the amount of frames in the animation panel of Adobe ImageReady.

3. Wrap-Around Arrow

The “wrap-around” arrow is usually situated at the very bottom of your message, overlapping the content area of the page from the background, and usually points toward the page’s final call-to-action button(add to cart, or app submission).  The arrow’s three-dimensional appearance immediately demands the eyes of the visitor, and should be placed after the crucial sales components of your message (so not to distract the reader before they’ve read important sales copy). The wrap-around arrow image to the right is transparent in PNG format, so feel free to use and modify it for your designs.

Practical Uses for Conversion Objects

It’s probably not a good idea to use all three conversion objects above on the same Landing Page Design because at some point your pages will appear too pushy and drive your visitors away. I’ve seen a few pretty good uses of the three combined conversion objects so it’s not entirely impossible to pull off without annoying the visitor.  When deciding where to place the objects, consider the overall flow of the page and make sure that you’re driving your readers in one direction effectively- with both your message, and your images. Before developing a landing page for a search marketing campaign or social media effort be sure to spell your objectives out on paper and use the enhancements sparingly.

Now that you’ve seen some of the things that can improve your conversion rate, I can show you some of the things that can damage it. Be sure to check out my last blog post titled “Six Ways to Tell Your Web Site is Stuck in The 1990′s“.

Have a question about Landing Page Design, or Conversion Optimization? The marketing professionals at Excedra are standing by to help you.  Get a Free Marketing Evaluation Report now.

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