The holiday season is here. Thanksgiving Weekend (Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday), Super Saturday, Christmas, etc, are all loading. Last year, U.S Black Friday sales brought in $7.9b in online spending.
Are you prepared for 2019 holiday sales?
A growing number of buyers now research products, compare prices and shop online. Hence, it is becoming more imperative to develop an effective e-commerce marketing strategy to maximize sales this season.
One of the ways to do this is to create optimized e-commerce landing pages for your website.
Your landing pages are your first point of contact with visitors to your website, and the impression you create with them can either make or break you this holiday season and beyond. This is why optimizing your e-commerce landing pages to create the ideal user experience that is not only credible and inclusive but also, informative and efficient in the prospect’s conversion journey is vital.
In this article, you will discover what a landing page is, the importance of a landing page and finally, some proven e-commerce landing page optimization tips for the holiday season, but first
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page or destination page is a stand-alone action-oriented page on your website that people land on or get redirected to when they click on your offer or link, from any digital platform. They neither link to other pages on your website nor include a navigation bar.
Specifically created for the purposes of a marketing or advertising campaign, landing pages are designed to drive certain pre-determined actions. this action could be a purchase, download, form submission, or phone call. Landing pages are valuable tools for driving conversions and generating leads for your e-commerce business.
Good Ecommerce Landing Pages
A good e-commerce landing page is designed to suit a particular buyer persona, with an engaging headline, eye-catching colors, layout, and images. Below are some examples of good e-commerce landing pages to inspire yours.
Hello Fresh
This landing page is designed to appeal to those who want delicious and healthy meals fast.
What we love
- Quality and enticing imagery
- Distinct color codes and layouts
- There are no extra navigations
- Engaging headline
- Visible discount offered
- A clear CTA button
- Testimonials down the page to further convince customers and a CTA after.
- A sense of urgency created with the duration given for the discount offered.
Casper
This landing page is designed to appeal to those who are interested in buying the experience of sound sleep on a comfortable mattress.
What we love
- Quality image of a happy family using the product.
- An engaging headline.
- 2 Clear CTA buttons for the visitor’s convenience.
WINC
This landing page is designed to appeal to wine lovers.
What we love
- An engaging headline
- A clear and engaging product picture
- A distinct CTA button.
- Testimonials down the page to further convince visitors to take action.
- Clear and bold fonts that complement the imagery and make it pop.
The Farmer’s Dog
This landing page is designed to appeal to dog owners that want to buy quality dog food.
What we love
- Discount offered
- Simple imagery
- Logos of reputable companies with their reviews about the brand, which creates trust in the mind of a shopper.
FitFabFun
This landing page is designed to appeal to beauty product lovers.
What we love
- Quality imagery
- A clear CTA button
- Discount offered.
Why Landing Pages are Important
It’s not enough to build your brand and create a website for it if it does not translate into sales especially this holiday shopping season. Below are some detailed reasons why landing pages are important:
Generate New Leads
Landing pages play a critical and effective role in helping you generate leads and convert them into customers. Leads are captured at a higher rate when they are sent to a dedicated landing page on your website. They can be directed from your Facebook Page or profile, where over 60% of internet users hangout. These leads can then be easily segmented and distributed to your sales team for developing marketing plans.
Collect Prospect Demographics
Every time prospects complete a form on your landing page in order to get access to your offer, information about the contact info and demographics of these prospects are collected. The info collected can then be used by your marketing and sales team to understand your new leads and segment them effectively for optimal targeting. This helps to boost conversion rates and improve sales.
Gain Insights
Your website landing pages serve as a data asset for your marketing campaign. Data tracked and analyzed can be used to understand your prospects persona and their conversion journey on your landing pages and also, the effectiveness of your marketing offers by comparing them to know what’s working and what isn’t. Insights gained can help you optimize your marketing strategy better.
Build Brand Credibility
With the ability to integrate elements such as customer testimonials on landing pages, potential customers are convinced of the credibility of your brand, products, and services. This will help build your online reputation and also lead to an increase in conversion rates and sales.
5 Proven Ecommerce Landing Page Optimization Tips for the Holiday Season
1. Incorporate High-Quality Product Image and Video with Enticing Headlines.
Your product image or video is a vital part of your e-commerce landing page and product pages. Therefore, it is important to invest your time and resources into creating high-quality product display photos.
93% of consumers say product photos is a key purchase factor. The good news is, you can achieve great product photography on a budget. Make sure to include an enticing headline to draw attention to the copy that complements the picture.
2. Highlight Offers, Promotions and Specific CTA
Shoppers love promotional offers and discounts. Highlighting promotions, discounts and offers on your landing pages can lift conversion rates. First and foremost, it is important to develop a valuable offer that influences your visitors to take action upon landing on your landing page and making sure your landing page demonstrates that value.
Also, create a sense of urgency by emphasizing the time-sensitivity of your offers this holiday season to prompt shoppers to act quickly. It is necessary to include a compelling call-to-action (CTA) button with a clear and concise message telling prospects exactly what to do on your landing page.
3. Create a Quick and Seamless Experience
From the entry point through all touchpoints, it is vital to create a quick and seamless experience to help visitors get exactly what they are searching for and carry out the desired action intended by you for your landing page.
This means that your prospects should be one click away from your product or order form. You can feature a conversion form directly on your landing page if your business is service-oriented. Also, endeavor to create landing pages that load quickly. Slow loading sites increase process abandonment and bounce rates.
4. Create Mobile-Friendly Landing Pages
Approximately 50-60% of search queries usually come from mobile devices and up to 70% of web traffic happens on a mobile device (CIODive, 2018). Also, 46% of people say they would not purchase from a brand again if they had an interruptive mobile experience (Google, 2017).
This implies that a lot of shoppers now purchase via mobile devices and as such, mobile-friendly landing pages are vital. Carry out mobile responsiveness tests to see if your landing pages are compliant.
5. Incorporate a Festive Makeover
Show the fun side of your brand in the spirit of the festive season by creating a festive makeover for your landing pages. Decorate your page to attract customers and influence a purchase.
This way you remind visitors that it is the holiday season, and this triggers holiday shopping season hormones in every true shopper. Capture the joyous mood of the holidays, plus add offers to make it even more joyous for your visitors.
Conclusion
Your e-commerce landing pages are essential for your online marketing campaign this holiday shopping season. The best of them are attractive, focused, and tailored to a specific buyer persona.
Use the e-commerce landing page optimization tips above to prepare your landing pages to stand out from the competition, boost your SEO, conversions, generate new leads and conquer this holiday shopping season.
Author Bio
Amos Onwukwe is an AWAI trained Business and Ecommerce Copywriter who also covers Tech and Social Media. When not writing, he’s thinking of writing or making music. He’s been featured in Huffington Post, Dumb Little Man, Ecommerce Nation, eCommerce Insights, Understanding Ecommerce, Result First, Floship, GrowMap, Self Growth, among others.
You can connect with him on:
Twitter: @amos_onwukwe
LinkedIn: Amos Onwukwe