KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Make sure you think about how your advertisement works with the landing page. You’ll want to keep them consistent with one another.
• Only use one CTA or call to action on your landing page. Make sure it’s clear and tells your audience what to do. Place it high on your page, in case they want to make a move straight away. Make the CTA button standout!
• Try your best to include an image of your offering. This will help your audience visualize what they will receive. Also, include an image of yourself to help your audience get to know you and your brand!
• If your landing page is connected to Facebook ads, the way your page looks on mobile is extremely important. Make sure your landing page looks great and is easy to read on mobile and desktop.
• Be creative with your page elements! Videos add personality and countdown timers are unique and create urgency.
• Don’t ask for loads of information from your audience. Instead, keep it simple and ask for name and email address.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

Content is crucial! The amount of content on your landing page will differ depending on your audience and your goal. If it’s a cold audience, you’ll want more information. If it’s a warm audience, a smaller amount of information is okay. Use your best judgment and make sure the CTA is clear and straightforward. Keep your text broken up with short paragraphs and bullet points, making it easy to read and straight to the point.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• What is a landing page? – 05:37
• Secret #1: Create a page that is clean and direct – 10:06
• Secret #2: Use one call to action – 11:59
• Secret #3: Include an image of what they will get and a photo of you – 14:25
• Secret #4: Think about mobile – 16:19
• Secret #5: Be creative in your page elements – 17:06
• Secret #6: Keep your audience’s effort minimal – 17:43

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Episode #2: How Lead Magnets Help You Build Your List & Stay Connected With Your Followers

Transcript below

Hello, and a really warm welcome to this week's episode of The Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast, and I'm your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. I hope you've had a great week. I feel like we're like friends now, so I feel like I can come on and be super honest with you, because this week, I don't know about anybody else, but boy, have I struggled with motivation.

I don't know whether it's still because we're in summer holidays here in the UK and obviously things are a bit up in the air with children off school and that sort of thing, but I have just not wanted to do anything this week, and I hate it when I'm like that. I get so frustrated and so cross with myself.

I was listening to James Wedmore's podcast, which I've talked about before and I listen to regularly, and really strangely, but wonderfully, he talked this week about being in a funk, basically where you don't want to do anything. No matter how hard you try, you don't get seem to get anything done. Work isn't coming easily. You're not very motivated.

I know that sometimes in the world of a personal brand or someone who speaks to people like I do, that you feel that you should always be on your game and you feel like you should always be showing other people that you don't struggle with this sort of thing or that you find it really easily to get on with stuff, but I really don't.

Sometimes I find it so difficult to motivate myself, and that's one of the downsides I would say of working from home. Even though I have this great team that work with me, we're all virtual. Three of them are in the States, so obviously we're virtual.

Sometimes it just is really difficult to get yourself motivated in the morning and I have to say, I have really struggled this week. I'm hoping that it's just a bit of a blip and a little bit of time that maybe my mind and body is saying to myself, "Do you know what? Take a bit of a rest. You don't need to be working this hard at the moment. Take it easy a little bit and then we'll get back to it," and I am confident we'll get back to it very quickly, but sometimes like I said, you just don't feel motivated to do anything.

So, I managed to make myself record the podcast, which is really bad because I love recording the podcast, but I'm making myself do it early so that I don't leave until the last minute like I did last week, and the poor team had to run around and get it all sorted for me in time.

As always, I apologised to them and I'll apologise again. However, much to their delight, we've started recording interviews, as I mentioned last week, and therefore, it's forcing my hand to be organised, so they are going to have a much easier run at it this time, which I'm sure they'll be most grateful of.

Anyway, onto today's podcast episode. Anyway, onto today's podcast episode. I think I might have mentioned this, I can't remember, but recently, I have been running an exercise to build my email list and I could not be happier how that exercise has gone. I've been giving away a lead magnet. Talked about that before.

In fact, I did a whole episode about what a lead magnet is back in episode number two, all that time ago, and I gave away a really good lead magnet in order to get people to give me their email address and hopefully start to see who I am, start to see what I can offer them, and see if I can get them to follow me and become part of my tribe.

The whole idea the lead magnet is that I get them to do this, and I was thinking about doing a podcast episode on the whole process of that, start to finish, everything I had to do, and I realised that is a big, big episode, so I might not do that just yet.

I'll have a think about how I can do that and make it concise for you and useful, but what I wanted to talk about today was how important my landing page was, and the key steps to think about or consider when building a landing page for yourself.

Now, my landing page received a 68% conversion rate. I have to tell you, I couldn't have been more over the moon with this. This is a really good conversion rate, and I'm going to give you some of those winning secrets and formulas as to why that page converted so much.

I'm also going to link to that page in the show notes so you can go and have a look at my landing page. Great if you want to sign up and get the free checklist that I was giving away, but really I'm doing it as an exercise so you can have a look at the page and see how I put that page together.

What is a landing page?

Now, before I talk about the key things that you should do on a landing page, let's just talk briefly about what is a landing page. A landing page is a page that is not normally on your website. That page has one very specific goal, and that normally is to get someone either signed up to a free lead magnet or someone to purchase something. It also tends to only have one call to action. Like I said, it's very direct, very succinct, and it's there for one purpose only.

When I create a landing page, I use the system Lead Pages. Now, there are other systems you can use out there, and if you wanted to and you have a web developer, you could essentially just build a landing page from scratch. However, I am a huge fan of Lead Pages.

I'm going to put a link to it in the show note and it is an affiliate link, and I have to tell you that A, I don't do lots of affiliate links, but B, when I do have an affiliate link, it's because not only do I use that system but I love it. I have to say, Lead Pages for me is a great tool. It does what it does really, really well.

Even though I've actually just started with Infusionsoft and I know that they have a landing page section of Infusionsoft, I'm actually still sticking with Lead Pages, and I'm going to continue to use it because it's worked so well for me in the past. Like I said, I'm going to link up Lead Pages. It is an affiliate link, so don't feel like you have to click on it or use that link. You could literally just search Lead Pages and find them.

The other great thing about Lead Pages is they have lots of tried and tested landing page templates that you can use for lots of different reasons, so whether it be for a webinar or a download or an eBook, they have lots of different examples, so you can go and check them out, as well.

But what I really want to get on with today is telling you the key things that I do or look out for or how I put together my landing page so that it converts as much as possible, because obviously when you're putting together a funnel, you're going to start off with, let's say you're advertising on Facebook, so you're going to start off with your reach on Facebook. That's the number of people that see your advert, and that will then come down based on the number of people who actually then clicked on your advert to go through to your landing page.

That then comes down again when people actually input the details into the landing page that you've created, so at each point, people can drop out of that funnel. The key thing here is in every single step is to maximise that bit so that as many people stay in the funnel as possible, so the bit that I'm talking about with you today is specifically the landing page.

Now, one thing I should say before I talk about building the landing page. When I say building, I don't mean physically building. I mean the things that you should think about when putting the landing page together. Before I start talking about that, one thing that you need to bear in mind is the advert that you're going to use, and it doesn't have to be a Facebook ad. It can be just a post on social media.

It might be coming from somewhere else, whether you do a talk or whether it's a blog or whatever, but wherever you're going to send them from, I.E. where they're going to click to get through to the landing page, the very first thing you need to think about when you're putting this process together is, are they consistent, because that's going to have a bit effect on how many people then convert when they've hit the landing page.

So, let's say I have the best landing page in the world, but the advert that drove them to that landing page looked nothing like the landing page. It talked about a different product. It had a different tone of voice. It was aimed at a different audience. Then, no matter how good my landing page is, they're not going to convert because the thing that they're expecting to see when they got to it was not what they saw, so make sure you think about the advert that you're putting out there and how well does that match with the landing page that they're going to.

Okay, so when they then reach the landing page from wherever they've come from, they're going to see a consistent colour, tone, voice, images all on that page, so they're going to match up what they saw on the advert. One of the first things I do when putting together a landing page is I want a page that is really clean and direct.

Secret #1: Create a page that is clean and direct

Now, the amount of content you have on the page can completely differ. Unfortunately, there's no hard and fast rule to help you with this, but to give you an idea, if I'm talking to a completely cold audience, I might give them a bit more information on the landing page than I would if I was talking to a warmer audience.

If I was trying to sell something, then I would definitely put more information on that landing page. If the thing that I was trying to give away for free required some effort, I.E. if it was a video series, if it was something that someone needed to spend time and energy doing, then again, I probably would put more information.

If it's a simple download or a simple access to something, then I might not put so much information, but what you've got to do is when you get to that page, is it clear and obvious what you're asking me to do or what you're giving me?

In lots of cases, less is more because if I go to a landing page and there are reams and reams of writing or there is loads of content on there, then the chances are I might get a bit distracted or bored before I do the thing that you're asking me to do.

Another really good tip is if you are going to put text on that page, which obviously you need to put some text on there, if you are going to put text on a page, then obviously bullets always help to keep the text broken up. I tend to keep the length of the text boxes fairly short, so I won't use massive long paragraphs. I tend to keep it quite short and succinct.

Secret #2: Use one call to action

Obviously, one of the most important things you need to have on a landing page is a call to action. Only have one call to action on the page. Again, you don't want to confuse people by giving them more than one thing to do and run the risk of them doing the thing that you don't want them to do or the thing you want them to do least, so one call to action on the page.

It's also a really good idea to have that call to action high up on the page in case they just want to go ahead and do is straight away. Sometimes people put the call to action right at the bottom of the page. Well, actually, if I've read your ad and I definitely want the thing that you're giving away, give me the opportunity to do it the minute I get to the page.

Try and give that call to action, that first one above the fold. Imagine the kind of standard size of a website page, and then try and imagine the thing that would fall into the bit you see first. I hope that makes sense.

Also, with your call to action button, the colour of your call to action button should stand out massively on that page. It should almost jar with the rest of the page and be really garish in terms of how it stands out on the page.

Now, I have to say, the inner creative person inside me that likes everything beautiful really struggles with this part. I was looking at the landing page I've just talked about earlier, and actually, the colour I picked for my call to action button, even though it really stands out, it does appear somewhere else on the page. I've not listened to my own advice there, but because I wanted it to be consistent, that's why I chose to use that colour. It still does stand out and it still is a strong colour on the page overall.

However, if you really want to maximise that call to action button, you should use a differing colour that doesn't appear anywhere else on the page and like I said, is almost jarring in terms of all the other colours on the page, but it doesn't mean that overall, your page can't be consistent with your brand.

Again, if people do know you or have come from a website, a blog, a Facebook page, then you're going to want to make sure there is some consistency in your branding, your text, and your fonts and your colours and your photos.

Secret #3: Include an image of what they will get and a photo of you

Now, really quickly on photos and images, it's always a really good idea to actually include an image of the thing they're going to get. Now, I know that this can be tricky, especially if it's going to be a download or something like that. However, do try super hard to include some kind of image.

Now, for me, because it was checklists and there was three checklists they got in the one download, I actually had my designer not only design the checklist once I had given him what I needed on there, but also, then I got him to superimpose them onto clipboards because I really liked the idea of them being on there and it gave you something to physically look at, so you can see and get a feel for the thing that you're going to download.

I know sometimes if you've got an eBook or something like that, then you can run these programmes on something like Photoshop where it superimposes it onto a book, and I know there's websites as well that do that sort of thing. Again, like I said, a visual cue or something that shows them the thing they're going to get can help.

The other thing that can help, especially if like me, you're basing your download on the fact that I want people to get to know me, I've got a picture of me on there. It's advisable if you have a photo of yourself or someone, the picture is either looking at the person who's getting to that page or they are looking towards the button where you actually want them to click the call to action button.

I initially set up a page a while back where my photo was actually looking away from the page and out of the page, as it were, and that wouldn't convert very well because I wasn't connected, or my photo wasn't connecting with people coming to my page, so now my photo on there is looking you right in the eye and hopefully drawing you into that page.

Secret #4: Think about mobile

The other things that I want you to make sure that you're doing is think about how this is going to look on a mobile device. Really important, especially if it's coming from Facebook ads. I know a lot of my people who convert on my ad are on a mobile, so again, if my landing page didn't look good on a mobile, the chances would be that they wouldn't convert.

One of the great things about Lead Pages is the fact that they give you a view and a preview of how your page can look on a desktop and a mobile device, which is great, because actually, when you're building on the desktop, and I know I did it with this particular page, I looked at it on the desktop and thought, "That looks brilliant," and then I put it on the mobile device and thought, "Not so much." I needed to edit some things because it didn't quite look the right way.

Secret #5: Be creative in your page elements

Some other things that actually work quite well, as well, are things like videos. If you've got a short video explaining the thing you're giving away, then that can work really well. Also, things like countdown timers, if you're trying to create some urgency, if there's a webinar coming or something that's going to run out, a particular deal or offer, then having a countdown timer on there can be a really good tool.

Again, Lead Pages have all this built into their system. I swear this sounds like an advert for Lead Pages. It really isn't, I promise. It's just a really good tool that I use and some of these things are really helpful to have on your page.

Secret #6: Keep your audience’s effort minimal

Now, the final thing that I want you to think about when it comes to a landing page is what are you asking them to give you? What effort does it require in order to get the thing that you're giving away? The actual box where they put in their details should be as minimal as possible, so you shouldn't be asking them for loads of different information, because the chances are, if you're trying to get them to fill in a big long form with everything including their inside leg measurement, they're not going to do it.

In most cases, I literally have first name, email address, and now for GDPR, I have a tick box where they can opt into my email list. Obviously, that is super important because this whole exercise of trying to get people to...