So you’ve decided a landing page is the right destination for your campaign. What actually needs to go on it?

As I covered in What Is a Landing Page & How Can You Use One?, a landing page might be purpose-built for an advertising campaign, or it could be an existing page you’ve deliberately chosen as the best destination.

Either way, the principles are much the same.

A good landing page needs to quickly reassure somebody that they’ve arrived in the right place, give them enough information to make a decision and make the next step obvious.

You don’t need a secret formula. You need to understand who’s arriving, why they’re there and what you want them to do next.

Start with the campaign, not the page

Before opening WordPress and adding a new page, start with what is sending people there.

It might be:

• a Google Ad
• a social media advert
• an email campaign
• a QR code on a brochure or exhibition stand
• a link from another website
• a particular search or audience you’re targeting

What did that person see before they clicked?

What interested them?

And, importantly, what did you promise them?

If your advert promotes commercial air-conditioning servicing, the landing page should immediately continue that conversation.

Don’t advertise one thing and then drop somebody onto a generic page covering everything your company has done since 1987.

The advert gets their attention. The landing page needs to pick up where it left off.

This is why landing pages work best when the campaign itself has been thought through before the website page design begins.

Make it immediately obvious they’ve arrived in the right place

The headline is usually the first opportunity to confirm that.

It doesn’t have to be clever.

Someone clicking an advert for Office Refurbishment in Sussex probably doesn’t need:

Transforming tomorrow’s workspaces today.

They need to know they’ve reached the people offering office refurbishment in Sussex.

You can introduce personality, benefits and your sales message afterwards.

Clarity gets first dibs.

The same applies visually. If somebody has clicked a particular advert, there should ideally be some continuity between the two. Colours, imagery, typography, language and general presentation can all reassure the visitor that the page is the destination they expected.

That’s where graphic design, brand identity and web design need to work together rather than behaving as separate bits of marketing.

Give them enough information to make a decision

There’s a persistent idea that landing pages need to be extremely short.

They don’t.

They need to be as long as they need to be.

Someone downloading a free checklist might only need a headline, a short explanation and a form.

Someone considering a £20,000 piece of equipment, a major business service or an expensive home improvement is probably going to want considerably more information before making contact.

Think about the questions somebody is likely to have:

What exactly are you offering? Who is it for? What does it cost? What are the benefits? How does it work? What happens next? Why should I choose you?

Answer the questions that help them make the decision and remove the stuff that doesn’t.

That’s also a useful principle for planning a business website generally, but it’s particularly important when you’ve paid to bring somebody to a specific page.

Give them a reason to trust you

Telling people you’re professional, experienced and provide excellent customer service isn’t particularly convincing.

Almost everybody says that.

Show them.

Depending on what you’re selling, that might include testimonials, customer reviews, case studies, photographs of completed work, client logos, accreditations, qualifications, guarantees or measurable results.

If somebody has never encountered your business before clicking an advert, these signals can be particularly important.

Your presentation matters too. Consistent branding, good photography, clear typography and professional design all contribute to the impression somebody forms of the business behind the page.

You don’t need to plaster the page with trust badges like a Formula One driver’s overalls.

Use the evidence that actually matters.

Make the next step obvious

Decide what the page is primarily supposed to achieve.

Do you want somebody to:

• request a quote
• make an enquiry
• book a consultation
• call you
• buy something
• download something
• register for an event
• request a sample

There can be other links and information on the page, but the main action shouldn’t be a mystery.

The wording of the call to action can help too.

Submit tells somebody what happens to the form.

Request a quote tells them what happens for them.

And if it’s a longer page, you can repeat the main action at sensible points. There’s no prize for making an interested customer scroll all the way back to the top to find the button they passed three minutes ago.

Don’t make the form an interrogation

Once somebody has decided to contact you, try not to put another obstacle in their way.

Only ask for the information you genuinely need at that stage.

If somebody wants to download a brochure, do you really need their address, telephone number, job title, company turnover and if they love coffee?

Probably not.

A quotation form for a complicated service may reasonably require more information. The aim isn’t necessarily to make every form tiny.

It’s to make it appropriate.

Every unnecessary field creates another small reason for somebody to decide they’ll do it later – which frequently means never.

Design the page around the journey

Once you know the message, content, evidence and action, the design has a job to do.

Good web design should create a clear hierarchy:

What is this? → Why should I care? → Why should I trust you? → What do I do next?

That doesn’t mean every landing page needs to follow an identical template. But somebody shouldn’t have to decipher the design before they can understand the offer.

It also needs to work properly on mobile.

People arriving from social media, email or a QR code may be particularly likely to arrive on a phone. Headlines need to fit, forms need to be usable and calls to action need to be easy to find and tap.

And don’t forget speed.

A visitor who has clicked your advert hasn’t entered into a contractual obligation to wait for your website to load.

A slow page can waste the visitor’s time and, if you’re paying for that click, your money too. I’ve covered the wider relationship between performance, search and conversions in How Website Speed Affects SEO & Conversions.

Measure whether it actually works

Finally, decide what success looks like.

Page views are useful, but if the purpose of the page is to generate enquiries, the more interesting figure is how many people actually enquire.

Depending on the campaign, you might track:

• completed forms
• telephone calls
• purchases
• downloads
• bookings
• registrations

If lots of people see an advert but nobody clicks it, the problem may be the advert.

If plenty of people click but very few take the next step, the page, offer or audience may need looking at.

You can then make changes for a reason rather than randomly moving buttons around and hoping Google Analytics eventually gives you a round of applause.

A landing page should make the next step easier

Creating an effective landing page isn’t really about following a rigid formula.

Start with the person you’re trying to reach and the message that brought them there. Confirm they’ve arrived at the right place. Give them the information they need, show them why they can trust you and make the next step obvious.

Some landing pages will be short and simple. Others will need considerably more information.

Some will be purpose-built. Others might be existing pages that already do the job perfectly well.

The important part is the journey.

Get the right visitor to the right destination – then make it easy for them to continue.