It’s clear to the majority of marketers that mobile is a key part of planning when it comes to marketing campaigns. The continuing rise in mobile content consumption means that landing pages need to be properly constructed to be mobile aware in order to really drive action.
With that in mind, today we’ll be looking at what makes the perfect landing page to drive action on mobile.
Speed is Everything
Firstly, it’s worth pointing out that when it comes to mobile, speed is even more important than it is for desktop web surfers. A slow landing page can reduce conversions by as much as 7%, so ensure that yours performs well. In order to do this you’ll need to keep images to a minimum and ensure that they’re well optimised so that they don’t slow the experience down.
We’re not very patient when it comes to mobile and will abandon a site within seconds if it doesn’t load as well as we’d like, so make sure that you have nothing loading that will slow it.
Constructing the Page
As with most things in business, planning is a key element in the success of any project. Start to construct your landing page with sketches; these don’t have to be in a notebook, there are apps available which you can use to get together a quick sketch. Whilst you’re doing this, think about where the content will appear; it should be made up of the following:
- Logo
- Headline
- CTA
- Descriptive copy
- Input field
- Company information links
Depending on the business that you’re in, this will of course vary. It’s worth remembering that a simple landing page is often the most effective and if we look at one very famous example of a page that converts really well, then we can see that it’s pretty minimalistic. Dropbox was one of the pioneers of growth hacking, and its site is a great example of it.
Take a look at the screenshot above and you can see that it’s very simple. It has strong CTAs which catch the eye immediately as there’s very little else to look at. Further down the screen, beyond the fold, there’s more information for those that don’t like to just leap in and sign up for something immediately and this is carefully crafted too. Dropbox found that when it added video to its initial page (also simple and very similar to the above) it prompted 70,000 new downloads in just one day. Video is of course heavily consumed on mobile too, so it’s worth considering using alongside a little text and CTAs in order to gain conversions.
Logos and Images
The landing page logo should be your business logo and it should be strongly branded with colours that are suited to your niche. According to Steve Krug in his book Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, the placement of logos is important as we expect to see it in the top left hand corner of the page. Where we expect to see things is important as it allows us to take in information quickly, so take advantage of conventions in web design to optimise for the user.
“When applied well, Web conventions make life easier for users because they don’t have to constantly figure out what things are and how they’re supposed to work as they go from site to site,” Krug says.
And it’s worth paying attention to this if you want to prompt users into taking action. It’s nice to get creative of course, but you should stick with standard conventions, such as logo placement and the CTA appearing above the fold just because it makes life easier for the user and things that make life easier are those that we like.
Images should be kept to a minimum when it comes to designing for mobile too. All images used (and really, it shouldn’t be more than one or two on a landing page) should be fully optimised so that file sizes are kept to a minimum to boost speed. Images can tell a story, or they can be distracting, so you should take care to ensure that you’re not using an image just for the sake of it and that it has a specific purpose.
Headline
The headline should be no more than six words long and it should reinforce the message that sent the visitor to the page in the first place. If you have the capability of using dynamic content on the landing page, then ideally, you should use the keywords that the visitor was attracted by in the first instance. You can construct different headlines to match the keywords that you use in search campaigns, PPC and in your web copy.
Remember, headlines should be short and snappy and easy to scan too, so don’t use complex words that will make the visitor stop when they scan the text.
Descriptive Copy
You don’t have a great deal of space to deal with on a mobile device, so ensure that you use words carefully and don’t write up any ‘fluff’ that’s there just to pad out a sentence. There should be absolutely no need for padding in your copy at all. Use short sentences and very short paragraphs and ensure that the copy is easy to scan, using bullet points and H2s where necessary to break up the text.
You can provide more copy beyond the fold, but make sure that it tells a story and that it’s really got a place there. If the visitor wants a lot of information before making a decision to respond to your CTA, then they’ll go off and get it from your about section anyway.
Input Field/Sign up Box
This is going to be your main CTA in many cases, so it’s important that on mobile any input form contains as few fields as possible due to the difficulty that some people have with typing on a mobile device. In many cases, a simple email field is sufficient but if you need more it’s important to keep it as simple as possible for the user.
When it comes to sign ups, you can use social logins to make the process really quick and easy or if it’s not for you, or is unsuitable for your niche, then again, make the process painless and include as few fields as you possibly can. After all, is it really necessary to know how many employees a company has, or how much they spend per year on products in your niche? No, it’s useful for sales but it’s not essential and on mobile landing pages, should be avoided.
Informational Links
Remember that visitors will still want to be able to find their way around the full site at times. With this in mind, put the usual footer links in, as well as your social media profile links and navigation links where the user would expect to find them at the top of the page. This is something which is debated in some circles as it’s thought that users hitting a landing page will be in ‘action’ mode, rather than information gathering. However, it’s frustrating for users if they have no way of finding the main site again, so you’re giving them an option to find out more and then come back.
A/B Test
Finally, it’s worth carrying out an A/B test before you decide on an absolute design. Simple things like the colour and text on a CTA button can make a surprising difference when it comes to conversions. elcomCMS allows you to easily create pages for mobile and you also have the ability to A/B test using our software, so make the most of it and ensure that your mobile landing page is one that converts.
Mobile use is steadily increasing around the world. Even in developing countries mobile (although not necessarily smartphones) has taken off. Those businesses that ignore mobile are doing themselves a serious disservice in the modern, mobile, connected world, whilst those that take advantage of technology to reach customers through mobile are the ones that are winning out.
Next Steps
Want to ensure you build the perfect landing page for your website, intranet or portal?
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