Let’s start with a thought exercise. Think about your newest product, service, event, etc., that you would like to present to your audience.
It could be anything really — an instructional workshop to teach one of your skills, a limited run of the clothing you design, or an eBook informing people about how they can improve their lives — you get the picture.
Now, think about how you will get that idea out to your people. You could run an email campaign, blast your text list, or post it on social media — we suggest you do all three. But once you reach out, where will your audience go to interact with what you’re offering?
If you thought landing page right away, you’re on the right track.
Landing pages are simple web pages on your site that serve many functions. They can inform customers about upcoming promotions, direct them toward making purchases, and even grow your precious contacts list.
At Carter & Custer, we believe that landing pages are an incredibly effective way to highlight what matters to your brand, convert customers, and drive sales. With the right design, you can create landing pages that make an impact.
You may be thinking to yourself, I definitely want the benefits, but I have no idea where to begin when it comes to designing a landing page. And that’s okay: It means you’re in the right place!
We’ve got some great design tips and tricks to help you build landing pages like a pro, so stick around if you’ve never created a landing page before or even if you’re a seasoned veteran.
In this article, we’re going to touch on some of our favorite landing page design elements that will make your landing pages pop and, as a result, help your business make a splash with your audience. Let’s get going!
Make Your Landing Pages Simple But Effective
Less is more when you’re making an effective landing page.
Have you ever landed on a website full of flashing icons, peppered with GIFs, and had a jumble of colors? Did you stay on it very long?
We can answer that second question for you — it was a resounding NO. Here’s why we know it was a no. People should have no distractions when they reach your landing page, and if your site looks like the light show at an EDM concert, they’ll bounce.
So what can you do to make an inviting landing page? We’re glad you asked.
#1: Be a Minimalist
You want your landing pages to stand out, and the best way to do that is to keep everything to a minimum. Keep things simple, clean, and cohesive to make the best impression on your visitors.
Here are a few of our favorite dos and don’ts when it comes to setting up your landing page layout:
- Do use images that stand out: You don’t want a boring landing page filled with text blocks, so add images that reflect the mission of your page — utilize images of the product you’re presenting or photos related to your brand’s overall design.
- Don’t use too much text: Your landing page visitors don’t need a table of contents when they show up. Keep the text to a minimum, and get straight to the point. Your customers can learn more as they further investigate your product.
- Do create a call to action: You want a singular CTA that directs your visitors. Effective calls to action include where you want them to go or what you want them to do, like “Visit Our Store” or “Join Our Mailing List.”
Sticking to minimalistic principles as you build your landing page will keep everything neat and tidy, which is paramount for holding your visitor’s attention.
#2: Use a Simple Font and Simple Graphics
Typography is a subtle yet powerful art when building your landing pages. You want to select a font that can be read clearly, resonates with your brand, and stands out on the page.
There’s been a heated debate about what fonts are better than others — except for Comic Sans, everyone dislikes Comic Sans — but you don’t need to find “the best one” for your landing pages. You just need to find one simple enough not to be distracting yet interesting enough to make people want to read your content.
The same rule applies to the graphics you incorporate into your landing pages. We said earlier that images are great for your landing pages, and we stand by that.
However, you need to choose images and graphics that add balance to the page. You should avoid using low-resolution, grainy photos or icons, but you also need to steer clear of too large or detailed images. It may take a couple of tries to find your “Goldilocks graphics,” but your visitors will be happy when you find the images that are just right.
#3: Stay Mobile Friendly
There’s no denying that mobile internet access has revolutionized the way people access the web. In fact, around half of the world’s internet traffic comes from mobile users, so you need to create landing pages that reach that demographic.
At C&C, we highly recommend that you build a responsive website, which means that it automatically adjusts to the screen size and device type that your visitors are using. Responsive sites just make sense in today’s internet landscape.
You don’t want to isolate half of the world’s internet users when it comes to your visibility, which means mobile-friendly designs are necessary for landing pages. Many page builders will solve this problem for you. Just make sure that you choose to optimize it for mobile as you build and your design regularly during the building process.
Remember That Your Landing Pages Reflect Your Brand
Everything you create for your website needs to live within your brand’s ecosystem.
As you’re building landing pages, think of how your page meshes with the rest of your site. It’s tempting to throw in off-the-wall colors, fonts, and graphics to make your pages pop, but you need to think of more than that single page when you build landing pages.
Your visitors should immediately know that your brand is represented when they arrive at that page, and you need to have your brand’s design scheme laid out to do that effectively.
Nail Down Your Brand Colors
Color plays a huge factor in every aspect of design, and you need to know what colors represent your brand. The hues you choose to showcase your company play an integral role in how customers react to your brand.
Think about brand logos and color schemes that stand out to you. Some that come to mind for us include:
- Apple: The black, gray, and white color scheme at Apple reflects their hardware’s sleek designs and creates a clean aesthetic. However, Apple isn’t afraid to shake things up and add pops of color into their products — the new iPhones and Macs are proof of that.
- Google: Red, blue, yellow, and green are Google’s go-to colors, and the founders actually took them from the color of the LEGOs used to create the brand’s original server storage.
- Coca-Cola: The red used at Coca-Cola really stands out among the rest, but it was developed for practical purposes. In fact, Coke originally developed its signature shade to distinguish the company’s barrels from barrels used for alcohol.
You can do years of research trying to find the perfect colors to display your brand to the world, and some people dedicate their lives to studying color theory. However, the most essential factor in choosing your brand’s colors is that they resonate with you. It’s your brand, and you need to choose colors that you can get behind.
Choose a Clean Design
Cluttered landing pages are a no-go. If you want to effectively reach your target audience and make an impact with your landing pages, you need to have a clean design that showcases your brand’s colors, logos, and mission.
That means you should keep the layers to a minimum, be concise with your text, and utilize words and images that make your brand shine. One great way to do that is by utilizing contrast.
You might choose to have a white and blue background on your landing page, and you want to make your CTA button pop on the screen. If you’re placing the button on the blue side of the screen, a yellow or orange would be an excellent button choice because those colors complement blue and also stand out on a blue background.
Where you place things on your landing pages also plays a significant role in how clean your page design comes across. Pages with overlapping text and images may come across as cluttered and hard to navigate, so make sure you give everything the right amount of space, contrast, and scale to keep things tidy.