Free software trials are a great way of converting a lead into a customer. Your product is sure to impress, but you need the user to download your software first to see it in action. This is a guide on how to build a landing page that will maximise sign ups for a free trial of your product. In it, we explore the copy and design elements that you should include to engage visitors and increase the likelihood of them trying your product.
Why do I need a landing page?
Your landing page is a form-enabled web page where prospective customers can sign up for your product (or whatever it is you’re promoting). For them to make this decision, they need to be well-informed on what your product can offer and how it will benefit them.
When it comes to designing your landing page, the goal is to make it as easy as possible for the visitor to digest this information, take action and sign up.
Not only is your landing page useful for generating leads but added analytics can tell you how well it is performing. Analysing this information can help you improve your landing page in the future.
Why are they so hard to get right?
While it can be tempting to squeeze as much information as possible regarding your company and your product, the notion that less is more certainly rings true for landing pages. The more information you have on your page, the longer it will take the visitor to get to the bottom, which is where your sign up form will be. Instead, keep it short and sweet. Leave company information for the rest of your website.
Slack makes use of contrasting type to create a hierarchy and a flow for the visitor, leading them to the Get started button.
With brevity being so important, it can be difficult to know what to include in your landing page. Let’s detail what you should include.
How to build a landing page: what to include
You need to consider the hierarchy of content on your landing page. The most important bits of information should be the most visible: either by being placed further up the page or by contrasting against the rest of the content (or both).
Copy
Your landing page copy must communicate your purpose statement and USP (Unique Selling Point). You need to provide a comprehensive and compelling overview of your product and its benefits in as few words as possible. It’s best to use short paragraphs with action-oriented words and clear value statements.
Be sure to identify your target audience and cater to their interests, needs and pain points. As a general rule, your landing page copy should include these elements:
- Headline
Include your USP (Unique Selling Point) and try to grab the visitor’s attention.
- Sub heading/intro
Use this space to explain how your product solves the visitor’s problem. This section should be no more than 1-2 sentences long, but if you have more to say here, it might be a good idea to supplement it with a bulleted list.
- The benefits
People generally buy the benefits of using products, rather than the actual product features. Use your copy to demonstrate how the features can create good results and benefits for the reader. Lay them out using easy-to-read bullets and iconography to make the content as easy as possible for the reader to take in.
- Answers to common questions
If there are any specific questions that are frequently asked by your customers, be sure to include answers to these in your copy. Or if you prefer, add a short Q&A section towards the bottom of your page.
- Social proof
If your current customers love your product, make sure the visitor knows it! Make use of testimonials and include current clients’ logos. However, be sure to ask for permission from your customers before publishing anything with their name on it.
Images
Images serve two important purposes: to showcase your product and to break up your landing page copy.
Images could include screenshots of your product, showing off its user interface or a particular feature. If you want to display how users interact with the product, you could include animations. There are free-to-use screen recording apps available which are useful for creating this type of imagery, such as ScreenToGif and RecordIt.
Call-to-action
This is arguably the most important part of your landing page – the action that the visitor will take to sign up to your product. The call-to-action (CTA) is typically formatted to look like a clickable button and can feature repeatedly on your page. It is a good idea to include your CTA at both the top and bottom of the page, so the visitor can immediately see the purpose of the landing page and so they have the option to take action when they have taken in all the information.
An example of a simple call-to-action by Asana, using contrasting elements to lead the visitor to the ‘Try for free’ button.
Some tips for your landing page CTA:
- Keep it consistent
Your call-to-action should look the same wherever it is used, to send a clear message that it will lead the user to the same destination – signing up for your free trial. You want to make sure your CTA is as visible as possible. This can be achieved by making it larger compared to other elements on the page and styled in a contrasting shape and colour.
- Surface your sign up form
If the sign up process for your trial is fairly simple and requires no more than a form with just a couple of fields, it can be a good idea to embed it right on your landing page, rather than just link to it. Call-to-actions on the rest of the page can link to the part of the page where the form is placed, using HTML anchor links.
- Call-to-action copy
Your CTA copy needs to be declarative and instructional. By using actionable language that clearly tells the user what they can expect from clicking your call-to-action, and reassuring them of how easy it is to sign up for your trial, you have a much higher chance of converting that visitor into a lead. For instance, “Start free trial” sounds like less work and commitment than “Register for a trial” does.
How to build a landing page: what should it look like?
Designing your landing page so that it looks attractive and professional will capture your visitor’s interest, and designing it with your target audience in mind can help attract and convert your ideal leads. Your landing page needs to be designed to be effortlessly navigated and easy to read to have the most success.
The branding
It’s important for your landing page to match your company brand, so that users can easily make the connection between your landing page and your brand as a whole.
Keep in mind:
- Your brand colours
- The fonts you normally use
- The type of imagery you normally use
Don’t forget to include your logo in at least one place on your landing page, preferably at the top where it’s guaranteed to be seen by your visitor.
The layout
You should again think about the hierarchy of elements arranged on your landing page, i.e. which are the things that need to be seen by the user first? We read web pages from the top left corner to the bottom right corner, so the placement of your elements should reflect that.
Some tips for your landing page layout:
- Keep it simple
Make it easy for your visitor to follow the track you’ve created for them by getting rid of distractions. For example, consider removing the menu or navigation bar from your regular site, since it can draw attention away from the landing page.
- Don’t give your visitor extra work
Scrolling is easier than clicking, since it doesn’t involve making a decision and leaving one page for another – keeping everything visible on the page, rather than hiding some of the content behind tabs is a good example. This means that the visitor can see all of the information they need without having to click. The decision to click is left exclusively for the call-to-action; you want to make sure your reader has taken in all the information by that point.
How to build a landing page: getting started
If your website isn’t set up in a way that makes creating new custom landing pages easy, there are a number of tools you can use. These tools can enable you to build your landing page on a separate domain and link it to your domain so that it looks like it’s a part of your regular website. Leadpages and Unbounce are two examples of tools that do this that don’t require any coding skills to use. However, basic knowledge of how your website is set up is needed to implement your landing pages onto your main site.
Don’t have time to create one yourself?
Getting your landing page just right requires time and effort. With dedicated experts for all branches of digital marketing – copy, design, SEO and more – Fifty Five and Five is perfectly equipped to help you create a landing pages that converts.
Fifty Five and Five is a full-service digital marketing agency that specialises in B2B technology. Get in touch with us today to find out more about how to build a landing page or so that we can help you create one for you.