Tips For Creating a Landing Page On A Squarespace Website

Landing Pages Allow You To Capture Contact Information from Prospective Clients. Emailing them is the most Effective, Lowest Cost Marketing Tactic You Can Use.

Squarespace “Cover Pages" are single-page “sites” perfect for splash pages and landing pages. If you're a Squarespace user, cover pages eliminate the need to independently design a new page or site for every unique offer. You can only use Squarespace templates to get started with the creation of an elegant and efficient landing page. The increased efficiency means you can churn out dozens or perhaps hundreds of tailored landing pages that will go far in your lead-generation efforts, one of the most critical aspects of any comprehensive digital marketing campaign.

We're going to walk you through some of the best practices for landing page development and help you maximize lead capture on Squarespace cover pages. But first, we'll cover some basics to make sure we're all starting from the same place.

What Exactly Is A Landing Page?

If you're somewhat new to inbound or content marketing campaigns and website development, you may have a vague idea of exactly what constitutes a landing page. First of all, the name isn't quite as intuitive as it may sound. A landing page is not any page on which a potential visitor may “land.” Those, in a marketer's mind, are merely web pages.

A landing page has a more specific purpose than a general web page on your site. A landing page is designed specifically to capture visitor information through the inclusion of a form. (In Squarespace, these can be added with the “Form” block.). In fact, the landing page's sole purpose is to capture a prospect's contact information. That's why sound landing pages have few distractions, and every design element points users toward filling out the required form.

The form serves as the tipping point between visitor and lead. Anyone who comes to a landing page is a visitor. Once they fill out your form, they're a lead. Forms request various information for different reasons. Filling out a form could give a new lead access to a white paper, ebook, or another in-depth piece of content. It could also subscribe the lead to your newsletter, email list, or include transactional information to purchase a product or service on your site.

Just because a page—your homepage or otherwise—has a form doesn't mean it's a landing page. In particular, your homepage serves a variety of purposes beyond acting as a landing page. Landing pages fill a particular niche in the digital marketing landscape, and for good reason. Great landing pages are lead-generating machines, with an efficiency that surpasses the casual addition of a form onto your homepage. Research has shown that businesses that increase their number of targeted landing pages from ten to fifteen typically see a 55 percent increase in leads.

A good landing page also features an equal exchange: The information the webmaster receives should be of equal value to the offer to the consumer. If you want more than a few pieces of information, be prepared to make an incredibly strong offer, something compelling enough for the visitor to not only give up the personal information but spend a couple of minutes to do so.

Landing Page Design Tips To Drive Lead Conversion

If we've already won you over about the importance of landing pages, great. But you're the only part way there. Designing effective landing pages is all about focusing and encouraging your visitors to fill out your landing page form. Everything from text to layout to color can impact this choice. Thorough A/B testing is the best way, over time, to find out what works and what doesn't.

That said, it doesn't take a team of full-time designers to implement effective landing pages. Any little improvement adds value to your landing pages. Best of all, the metrics you receive from your landing pages will give you the statistical evidence you need to adjust your landing pages based on data, not intuition.

Here are some tips to get you started:

1. STAY FOCUSED

Do you read every word of copy on a website? Even half? Your landing page shouldn't contain any more text than is necessary to push your visitor toward filling out the form. No matter how convincing your copy, potential leads will glaze over remarkably quickly. Instead of going line by line through your landing page, they will quickly scour the page for key information, which is defined more by font size, color, and layout than actual content.

One of the benefits of targeted landing pages is that your copy can specifically tap into the expressed need of the consumer. A one-size-fits-all landing page structure just doesn't work; the more tailored your landing page, the more its content will speak directly to the visitor.

Focus on what you're offering your clients—their part of the exchange in the give-and-take between you and your prospective lead. Of all the reasons they may have come to your landing page, the joys of filling out another form and handing over their email address likely wasn't one of them.

Adding headings and subheads can help focus the attention of a visitor, as can bullet points. Headings and bullets should address interests, concerns, and pain points of your visitors. Use bold text or italics to hammer home the most critical details. Be succinct.

 2. UP THE CONTRAST

Complementary and contrasting colors are critical to helping your call to action pop from the page and keep visitor attention focused where you want it - on filling out and submitting the form. Your form block should be easy to spot, and the “Submit” button should be equally enticing to the eye.

The actual colors you choose are far less important the degree of contrast between them. Stick to your general design and brand, but don't be afraid to use a new, dynamic color to highlight the call to action or submit button. Keep in mind, it is important to stay within brand.

 3. BRAND YOUR PAGE

Branding your page with your logo is a great way to give visitors confidence of their place in cyberspace and further your business's recognition. Your logo doesn't need to become the focal point of the landing page, but it should be readily visible and strategically placed so that consumers feel secure as soon as they show up.

Adding your brand can become even more critical if potential leads arrive at your landing page from a non-branded source, such as a social media link. Wherever you decide is best for your logo, keep it in the same place throughout all your landing pages. Consistency builds confidence, and it has the double benefit of removing one more decision from the landing page design process.

4. KEEP IT CLEAN AND FREE FROM DISTRACTIONS

Design elements that lead to conversion are sometimes counterintuitive. This is one of the benefits of A/B testing, which has consistently shown that flashy design elements don't always correlate with conversion. In fact, a cleaner, simpler design typically functions best when your goal is conversion. Multiple images, even if visually appealing, often distract the visitor from the primary task - filling out your form.

Beyond the “friction” an image-heavy landing page may generate, it also slows page load times, meaning you'll lose some visitors simply because they aren't willing to wait a few extra seconds for a page to load. (Who could blame them?) A study conducted by the Aberdeen Group revealed that a one-second delay in page-load time decreased page views by 11 percent, customer satisfaction by 16 percent, and conversions by 7 percent. No image is worth enduring those declines.

Whichever image or images you do choose, make sure it connects with your call to action and your form. It should encourage, not distract, your visitors.

 5. FORMAT MATTERS

Formatting, like branding, has a double benefit. A clear, consistent format helps visitors quickly navigate your page, scanning the content and filling out your form. Once you've established a format, it also saves you the trouble of redesigning every landing page. Find what works and stick with it.

To format a page well, follow a natural font size progression from title to headline to subheads. Call-out boxes are effective ways of keeping your form front and center. Often, landing pages will have arrows leading from one section to the next, or pointing directly at the form block.

 6. OFFER CREDIBILITY

For many visitors, arriving at your landing page may be their first or deepest connection with your brand. You want to give them confidence that they're providing information to a trustworthy company.

One way to do this is by adding “social proof” to your landing page. Social proof is a way to add third-party credibility to your site. Examples include excerpted portions of tweets or Facebook posts from satisfied customers, or data about how many people have already signed up for the offered download.

For example, you could include text like “Find out why more than 5,000 people have already downloaded our ebook” or “Join the more than 1,000 marketers that rely on our newsletter to keep them informed.”

 7. STAY CONSISTENT

Of all the elements on your landing page, the layout has the greatest effect on conversion rates. The most important aspect of landing page design remains the ability of your visitors to interpret quickly what they should read and where they should go to fill out your form. If the same visitors arrive regularly at various landing pages, consistency can become incredibly important to reduce friction and give your visitors a predictable, easy-to-follow experience on your site.

Even as you test different versions of your landing page, don't go overboard with regular, wholesale redesigns. Think about it as you would your local grocer: No matter the increase in the efficiency of the shopping experience, you don't want the products to move around to different aisles every time you stop by the store.

 Getting Started

The best time to get started with your landing page design (or redesign) is now. Landing pages are the critical conversion point from visitor to lead. If you currently don't have any forms on your site, you have no way to capture the valuable Web traffic that arrives. If your only form is on your homepage, you need to develop dedicated landing pages. For one, your homepage is likely an extremely distracting environment, with basic information about your business and a bevy of links in your header. Second, your homepage is generic—it doesn't take into account the path your visitor chose to get to your site. (This isn't to say you shouldn't have a form on your homepage, just that you shouldn't depend on that form as your primary lead generation tool.) With every custom landing page you develop, you provide a more tailored experience for your visitors, which increases the chances you have of capturing their information and getting them started down the sales funnel.

Lead generation is one of the most critical steps for an inbound or content marketing campaign. If you're already attracting Web visitors through a robust social media campaign or well-read blog, you've taken on successfully one of the most challenging elements of inbound marketing - developing great content. But while great content is the end for media and news organizations, it's just the beginning for businesses that use content as a means of lead generation. Until you translate your visitors into leads, you'll never be able to capitalize on your investment in great content.

As you develop your new landing pages, remain diligent about your reliance on data to make your design decisions. This may be especially challenging if you report to a superior wedded to old notions of marketing, but, over time, your data should become more and more convincing. And if you still have no idea where to start, take a look around the Web. The best landing page designs are already out there in clear view. Borrow what might work for your product, budget, and design skills, and then refine that solution over time. Having trouble with landing pages? Contact us. We would be glad to help.

Learn how to quickly build a Squarespace landing page using a cover page template, form and thank you page.

About Michael Conway and Means-of-Production

My firm builds Squarespace websites, Houzz profiles, and content marketing and advertising solutions for architects, interior designers, design-build contractors and landscape design firms. Our all-in-one tactics attract the right clients with exceptional architectural photography and brand messaging that sets you apart from the competition. Contact me for a free-of-charge consultation and marketing review. It takes about 40 minutes and you'll be provided a list of actionable improvements designed to solve your specific marketing problems.