Everything you need to know about Landing Pages, the tools, tips and tricks and How to create a landing page in WordPress.
If you want to market your service/product online, than a landing page is going to be the most important part of your campaign.
A Landing page becomes a direct means of communication between you are your interested visitors/prospect
customers and therefore, it needs to be designed carefully.
However, with the different Landing page builders, tools and techniques available online, you can easily create a landing page on your own.
But at the same time, you must always remember that a Landing Page is no ordinary page. It plays an important role in marketing and overall conversions/output of your marketing.
In this article, we will discuss the following:
- What is a landing page
- Why WordPress for Landing Pages?
- Different ways to Create a Landing Page
- Creating a landing page using the Elementor Page builder
- Tips and tricks to create an effective landing page
What is a landing page?
A landing page is a page different than the ordinary pages on your website. I would like to call it a special page or a ‘standalone page’ designed for a special purpose.
In marketing terms – A Landing page is a page crafted to capture leads, to promote/introduce a message/service/product. It is a page with Call To Action.
This is the page where you want your visitors to land when they click your Google Ad or any other ad. It is a page specifically built for marketing or advertising purpose. The purpose and all of a Landing page’s content is specifically directed towards conversions.
So, we can say that a landing page is your medium to communicate with your targeted users and convince them to take the required action (This is why I called it ‘special’ at the beginning of this section)
There are 3 important aspects of this page
- Content & Image
- Format/Design
- Call to Action
1.Content and Image
How will you talk through your landing page?
Through image and text content, or even videos. Use whatever best delivers your message.
The content here should be simple and easy to understand. Avoid using difficult words. Avoid creating bulk content and keyword stuffing.
As much as you would want your Landing page to score good on search engines, you should also put efforts to make it more reader-friendly so that it converts well.
Therefore while you should definitely take care of the SEO factors for your Landing page, you must also see that a natural language is maintained and your page is easy to be processed by your visitors.
When it comes to Landing Pages, everything related to the content matters; the typography, the size, the length of statements, readability and the appeal of the words used to deliver your message.
Instead of writing lengthy boring paragraphs you can go for carefully chosen brief, tell-it-all text to describe the features of your product/service.
Tip: when writing landing page content, instead of plainly mentioning the service/product features, try explaining how the your solution will help the readers solve their problem or make it easier for them.
Also, choosing the headlines carefully is a trick. A user browsing through the landing page won’t necessarily spend the time enough on your site to read the description line to line.
Therefore, smart headlines that helps your readers understand that your solution can really help results into more conversions.
2. Format of your page
The design/format of your landing page matters too. Your landing page should be descriptive, concise and interesting.
Today, you can find landing page templates and designs of different subjects in minutes.
The most common idea while creating a landing page is following AIDA principle.
1) Attention : The very first step is to grab user’s attention. Show them content/designs that instigates their curiosity.
2) Interest : After you capture users’ attention, you have to make the most of it by keeping them interested to read further.
3) Desire : At last, you must make your readers think positively of your product and service. This is when the visitor starts believing that your solution will really help
4) Action: This is the final part of your website building when a visitor is actually inspired to take the required action.
While this is just a way you can design your sales page content, there can be a lot of different variations for the content organization of your Landing page.
3. Call to Action
Last but not least, the Call to Action area of your landing page where the user takes the required action. This is certainly the most important part of your landing page.
The Call to Action section typically consists of persuasive titles/content that directs the visitor to take the desired action.
The content: A Call-To-Action typically consists of persuasive headlines and sub-heading. The text is typically short and you must try to make powerful and compelling to take the action. Even the text on button matters and you can try different variations of text combinations to find out what work best for you.
Design: The design of your call-to-action section should be distraction free and must highlight the text/button/form on it. If you are using button, there are tips and tricks to design a call-to-action button.
While this section should stand out, you must also make sure it complements the design of the rest of your landing page and everything looks connected.
Location: The location of your Call-To-Action section plays a major role. But unfortunately, there isn’t a fixed location that works best for all Landing pages.
The ideal location of your Call-To-Action section on your landing page depends on the type of your landing page. For some pages, the Call-To-Action is included right in the banner section, while some CTA’s are attached subtly at the end of the landing page.
Here is an example of Call-To-Action of our Theme Club Page.
Obviously, you can have more than one CTA section on your landing page. Even the text/designs preceding and following it has a say on how effective the Call-To-Action will be.
Why WordPress for creating Landing Pages?
Over the years, it has emerged as a powerful technology that helps people build different types of websites in no time.
WordPress powers almost 33% of the total websites on the internet and naturally, not all of them are blogs.
You can use this flexible platform to create different types of websites- Corporate business websites, eCommerce websites, Online directories, blogs or news magazine websites, etc.
With the help of WordPress themes and plugins, you can create different types of websites with different features very easily.
- WordPress is free and opensource
- The themes for WordPress make it possible to create your site in just minutes
- For extending the features of your website, you can use the WordPress plugins
- No knowledge of coding/programming or designing is required to use WordPress
- Customizing websites with WordPress is generally very easy
- You can easily get responsive and mobile friendly themes to create device friendly websites
- WordPress websites have a built-in blog
- It is really easy to use and manage as well
- WordPress is SEO friendly and it increases the chances for your landing page to rank
- You can use page builders on WordPress to create a totally custom made landing page without writing a line of code
- There are different lead generation tools for WordPress that you can integrate on your landing page
- Landing page design(themes) for a different purpose are available
- You can use social media integrations on your website for promoting your Landing page
- Changing the complete designs through WordPress is really easy
When you create Landing pages with WordPress, the possibilities are unlimited. Moving further in this article, we will see different ways on how you can use WordPress to create a totally flexible and customized landing page on your own.
Different Ways build a landing page?
Landing pages are generally created as a marketing gateway. Therefore, unlike other pages in your website, the content of a landing page must be conversion focused.
This needs a different design specially crafted to explain yourself to your readers easily, with different sections each dedicated to talk about the advantages of your product/services and a call-to-action.
However, thanks to the advanced technologies and there are so many different ways you can create a landing page. You can obviously have it programmed and designed with the help of professionals, but we recommend creating it yourself using the tools available.
We’ll talk about these tools in the next section of this guide, but before that here are a few reasons why you should create a landing page on your own:
- Paying programmers and designers to create and maintain your landing page is expensive
- You are in control, if you want changes, you won’t have to contact your programmer and pay him again for the updating your Landing Page
- You can get creative with the design
- Landing pages built with Landing page builder are very flexible
- No coding/programming/designing skills required to create and maintain your landing page
- You can have it just the way you want
So these were few of the many advantages of creating your Landing page on your own. The tools/page builders/plugins that you use may cost you a subscription fee, based on the option you choose. But it is still affordable considering the high fee you need to pay to programmers to have it created for you.
1) Landing Page WordPress themes to create a landing page
Nowadays, you can find a WordPress theme for almost every niche.
And these themes makes creating and maintaining websites really easy. With these themes, you don’t have to be a programmer or a web designer, you don’t need to learn any programming language.
You can just use the inbuilt options and create professional looking, feature-packed websites in minutes.
Using WordPress themes is as easy as using mobile applications. Just install the theme and you can use the different options to create your landing page easily.
However, different WordPress landing page themes work differently, they have different designs and the options and flexibility may vary.
So you can choose a theme of your choice easily and create a landing page design on your own.
This option is perfect for you if you want to build a landing page from scratch, you can choose from the available designs and settle for a Landing page theme that works the best for you.
Best WordPress Landing Page Themes
2) Using page builders to create a landing page
If you want to create a landing page inside as one of the pages on your website then you should rely on the page builders to create it.
There are different drag and drop page builders that you can use to design your landing page on your own.
The beauty of these page builders is that they come with some ready to use templates to create your landing pages.
Besides a complete landing page template, they also include different design variations for different sections. And they work on the basis of different page building elements.
If you already have a design in your mind, you can use these page builders to achieve it. It doesn’t require coding at all, but if you are a web designer and want to use an external CSS class for an element on your site, you can do it too.
We recommend the following page builders to create a landing page on WordPress
1. Beaver Builder
The Beaver builder is one of the most popular page builders with WordPress. This page builder also comes with an option to create a landing page on your website.
This page builder lets you create the designs of your choice with easy drag and drop options. It has beautiful options specifically included to let you create beautiful landing page.
While a free version of Beaver builder is available, we recommend using Beaver Builder Pro because it comes with more features, more design and can help you create a more powerful landing page.
Read the full Beaver builder review here.
2. Divi Builder
Divi builder is one of the most efficient page builders. It is the best because of many reasons. First of all, because Divi builder is flexible and lets you create elegant designs in just minutes.
What makes Divi builder one of the best options amongst it’s competitiors is it’s pricing. The Divi builder or the Divi theme cannot be purchased individually. Instead, you have to buy the club membership. The best part is – the price of the club membership is as low as the price of an individual WordPress theme.
With the club membership, you get access to the Divi Theme, Divi builder, and all the other themes and plugins available at the Elegant theme store. It includes Bloom, email opt in plugin, Monarch social media sharing plugin, etc, that can all help you capture leads.
Moreover, the Divi Theme allows split testing so that you can decide which version works best for you.
3. Elementor Page Builder
One more page builder to create landing pages is the Elementor page builder. It is a drag and drop page builder similar to the ones mentioned above.
Elementor page builder is extremely easy to use and comes with lots of pre-designed elements and templates to get you started. The Elementor comes with some basic Landing page templates to choose from.
We love Elementor because it has some of the best features even in its a free version. The premium version has some classic designs, and more elements and flexibility on what you can build with it.
Read the full Elementor Review
4. Thrive Architect
This one is special because Thrive themes is a business that focuses on Conversion oriented solutions. And Thrive Architect is just one of them.
Thrive Architect functions similar to the other page builders and lets you create conversion-focused landing pages on WordPress.
Since Thrive Architect is a page building tool specially designed for building a landing page, it has the features that make it easy to create conversion-focused landing pages (like superior hover effects, special building blocks for conversion-focused content, etc.)
The drag and drop page builder makes it really easy to create a feature packed landing pages in no time. Thrive Architect is a premium page builder priced at $19 for a month which is quite affordable. Moreover, there are other subscription plans that might prove more beneficial to you. You can use Thrive Architect along with tools like Thrive Leads to create beautiful, conversion focused Landing pages.
You can use One of the above mention page builders to create a landing page on your WordPress websites. Also, note that the use of these page builders is not limited to creating a landing page. You can even use these page builders to create other pages of your website.
The page builders come with drag and drop features and pre-designed and highly customizable page building elements to build your pages.
One of the main advantages of using a page builder to create your web pages is that you get to apply your creativity and create the exact design you have in mind.
You also have the pre-designed templates for different sections that can help you accelerate your landing page building process.
So if you want to apply your own ideas on your landing page, create a unique design without writing a line of code, then try these page builders to create your landing page.
3) Using WordPress plugins to create a landing page
As mentioned earlier, you can use different WordPress plugins to add more features on your WordPress website.
And what makes creating landing pages on WordPress easier, are the plugins specifically designed for the purpose.
These plugins can be integrated into your WordPress website just like any other WordPress plugins, and they are compatible with mostly all the WordPress themes.
There are WordPress Landing Page plugins in both the categories – Free & Paid.
You can choose a Landing Page plugin for WordPress, that best fits your requirements and create a landing page that converts.
These plugins are basically landing page builders, that provide a template and/or let you create a landing page, section by section.
Below mentioned are some of the Best Landing Page plugins that you can try for your WordPress based Landing Pages
WordPress Landing Pages by Inbound now
This is a Free WordPress landing page plugin that lets you create landing page on your WordPress website easily. This plugin can be downloaded for free from the WordPress plugin store.
However, to create a fully functional WordPress landing page, with this plugin you will also need WordPress Calls to Action & WordPress Leads for the lead generation.
This plugin has many good features like tracking conversions, visual editor for customizing your designs, etc. You also have some pre-designed landing page designs to choose from.
This plugin helps you generate more leads and track conversions, and also has the options to let you conduct split tests on your landing page.
Landing Page builder by PluginOps
The plugin is designed for creating marketing based lead generation pages on your WordPress website with easy drag and drop options.
It comes with some inbuilt templates whereas you can create new ones too. Moreover, you can easily edit the existing ones to change your Landing Page.
You can use this plugin with any theme you use. The page will not use the theme design but will have a unique clutter free, landing page design.
The plugin includes a Live Form Builder and supports Integrations with various email marketing services.
Other External Tools & Software
While the software listed here are not WordPress based, they are website building services that can help you create landing pages on your own.
LeadPages
LeadPages is one of the popular solutions to create effective Landing Pages. It focuses on Landing page building and Lead generation. Like WordPress themes and plugins, this solution is also designed to let you create conversion optimized Landing pages on your own, without technical expertise.
It comes with a drag and drop mechanism like those of the page builders, to create a responsive landing page design you want. It also has other features like A/B split testing support, popups, opt-in templates, Sales pages and checkout pages too.
Optimize Press
This is a WordPress plugin that you can use to create conversion focused Sales pages, landing pages, and pages with powerful call to action.
OptimizePress lets you create Landing pages with built in opt-in forms, more than 300 conversion optimized landing page templates, and are highly customizable. You can even use it for creating a membership page/gateway for your website.
It is a premium solution with the base price of $97 with a year of support and updates.
WordPress landing page tutorial
Creating Landing pages is easy, with the available tools and techniques. There are many landing page tutorials that you can rely on to create landing pages.
Here, is a quick & short tutorial on how you can create a Landing page. We will use the Elementor Page builder to create a landing page.
You can try the free version of Elementor page builder for a little overview and experience, but we recommend using the Elementor Page builder pro that comes with lots of different options and templates to create the final copy of your landing page.
Requirements
- Active Hosting & Domain (Or you can create on your local environment and move it online later)
- WordPress installed
- Elementor Pro
Building a landing page using Elementor
Advantages of using Elementor Pro for creating a landing page
- Helps you build professional landing pages quickly
- No coding knowledge required
- Easy to edit/update or change your landing page as and when required
- Relatively cheaper as you don’t need to engage technical experts to create landing page
Installing Elementor
Elementor can be installed into your WordPress just like you install any other WordPress plugin. Once installed, activate it and “edit with elementor” option will start appearing on your pages and posts.
On the homepage itself, you will see “create new page” option to start creating a page with Elementor. Start with an empty page and try different options to experience page building with Elementor.
Upgrade to Elementor Pro
You can have a look at the Elementor options using the free version of the Elementor plugin. Looks easy enough? When you are sure you want to use the Elementor page builder to create a landing page, you can click the “Upgrade to Elementor Pro”.
Building a Landing Page with Elementor
Start with a blank page and access the settings panel and document settings. Choose Elementor canvas to start with your landing page.
The screenshot explains the process. You have to choose “Elementor canvas” under the Page Attributes under document settings.
This will eliminate the default page template design and let you design your landing page from scratch without any design interference.
If you don’t choose this option, the properties of the default template of your page will appear along side the chosen template. While choosing “Elementor Canvas” the default design will be over-written and replaced by the template you choose.
Anyways, you can even choose this option at a later stage while creating your landing page.
Landing Page Templates
To cr eate Landing Pages with WordPress, Elementor comes with certain pre-designed Landing Page Templates. You can open the list of these templates by clicking the folder icon on your active section.
There are 45+ landing page templates that you can use to create your landing page on WordPress with the Elementor Page builder. If you have the Elementor Pro upgrade, you will be able to use any of these templates. The free version provides access to only few basic ones.
You can easily use this template as your landing page design with a single click by pressing “Insert”.
Pre-designed blocks
Besides complete page templates, Elementor plugin also come with pre-designed blocks with beautiful layout. There are different design variations for different types of blocks.
There are different section designs that you can use to describe the features of your product/service. There are section designs for Call to action, for testimonials, contact forms, etc.
Here is a complete tutorial on how to create a landing page with Elementor Page builder.
You can also refer to this Elementor Review to understand the full features of the page builder.
How to create a landing page that generates leads?
First of all, take your time to know about your target audience, competition and the market you are stepping into.
For different types of the landing page, different strategies work. If only there was a specific set of rules than every landing page would convert the best.
Anyways, here are a few tips to create an effective landing page for your website.
- Choose a landing page design that is clean, and highlights your content
- Avoid clutter, create a page that is minimal
- Know your audience, and write for them
- Make them easy to navigate, use link names that are self-descriptive
- Carefully choose the headlines
- Use easy language and focus on conversion
- Include testimonials/success stories for building trust
The internet is full of articles on using different sales copy-writing tips. You can refer them to optimize your content and make it effective.
However, one thing that always works is simplicity. Make your landing page easy to process. Keep your design subtle and avoid unnecessary details – in form of both, design as well as content.
If possible conduct A/B split testing to find out what works for you.
Wrapping up: What is the best way to create a Landing page
If you are determined to create a landing page on yourself, you have many options to choose from. We can’t recommend a particular solution out of the one’s mentioned above because the ideal solution depends on the type of page you want, amount of efforts you are ready to put in.
If you are in a hurry and want a quick solution, there are hundreds of Landing Page themes you can choose from. The themes have all the flexibility and customization options to make your website look and work the way you want. The advantage of using a WordPress theme is – since it comes with sample data and is pre-designed, pre-programmed, all it will need on your part is configuration.
So we recommend WordPress Landing Page themes for those who want quick, effortless results.
On the other hand, page builders are best if you are ready to be creative. If you already have an idea in your mind, a blueprint- of how your WordPress Landing Page should look, you can use a page builder to achieve it.
Even if you are a WordPress beginner, these page builders make it really easy to convert your ideas into live design. Obviously there are pre-designed templates that you can use on page builders. And there are pre-designed blocks too that are completely customizable.
So for those who want a custom design, and want to create it on their own (without having to learn web designing), page builders are the solution.
Next, there are the Landing Page plugins, they are the best solution for you, if you have a running website and want to create a Landing page on it.
Landing Page plugins are simple and easy to use.
However, you can choose a solution on what you think works best for you. Since a Landing page is a page designed for marketing, you can apply your marketing knowledge and create a design that converts well.
Have you ever created a Landing Page? Or have you used any of the plugins mentioned in this post? Do share your experience with us and help the people with your tips & knowledge.