Optimising Landing Pages for Maximum Lead Conversions

Your landing page is the key to turning casual visitors into loyal customers—but is yours pulling its weight? In this episode of the New School of Marketing Podcast, we’re tackling the art and science of landing page optimisation to help you boost your lead conversions.

We’ll break down what makes a landing page irresistible, from crafting compelling headlines to creating a clear and persuasive call to action. You’ll learn the common mistakes that could be costing you leads and the proven strategies to fix them.

Whether you’re building your first landing page or fine-tuning one that’s already live, this episode is packed with actionable tips to help you convert more visitors into leads and customers.

What you’ll learn in this episode:
✨ The must-have elements every high-converting landing page needs.
✨ How to design a page that grabs attention and keeps visitors engaged.
✨ Pro tips for testing and optimising your landing page for even better results.

Don’t let your landing page be a roadblock to success—let’s turn it into a lead-converting machine!

Tune in now and learn how to make your landing pages work harder for your business.

Connect with me

Website: www.newschoolofmarketing.com
Facebook: @newschoolofmarketing
Facebook group: @newschoolofmarketing
Instagram: @bianca_mckenzie

Learn from me:

🟣 FREE MASTERCLASS: Sell more of your online course with Meta Ads
https://www.biancamckenzie.com/masterclass

🔵 AIMFUL ADS ACADEMY: Tools, resources & 1:1 support to attract more ideal clients and make more sales with proven, easy to follow Facebook & Instagram ad strategies for any budget. https://www.biancamckenzie.com/aimful-ads/

🟢 FACEBOOK ADS PREP SCHOOL: Find out what you need to know and do before spending money on ads. https://www.biancamckenzie.com/prep-school/

🟡 INVISIBLE AD FUNNEL PLAYBOOK: A practical step-by-step guide to making a big impact with a tiny budget. https://www.biancamckenzie.com/playbook

🟠 FUNNEL FUNDAMENTALS: Building effective sales funnels that drive conversions and grow your business. ...

Transcript

Hey, welcome to the new School of Marketing podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. Before we dive in, I would love to pay respect and acknowledgement to the Palawa people of Lutruwita, who are the traditional owners of the land on which my business operates.

And I pay my respect to the elders, past and present.

Alrighty. Welcome back to the podcast. Today, we're diving into something literally every marketer and every business owner needs to know. I'm going to talk about landing pages.

So whether you're using them for lead magnets, for course signups or event registrations, a landing page is your first impression.

And first impressions are important. Right?

Here's the thing, though. I've seen so many landing pages throughout my career, and yeah, some are downright awful, some are amazing.

And if you're running ads and you know, you know, I talk about ads all the time. If you're running ads, a poorly optimized page can mean that you're wasting your ad spend, you're losing leads, and you're basically missing opportunities.

So I want to talk about how you can make your landing pages irresistible so that you can actually maximize your lead conversions and actually go grow your business and not waste your ad spend.

So let's get started.

First, let's get clear on what a landing page actually is.

So, unlike your homepage, which literally is the hub for everything about your business, like your website homepage, a landing page is actually built for a specific purpose.

And usually that is to get someone to take an action, like signing up for your freebie or registering for a webinar or buying an event ticket or something like that.

So think of it as a funnel guiding your visitor towards one clear decision without distractions.

So often landing pages have no navigation, like no menu, no links, all of those things. It has one sole purpose.

It's like there's like no scrolling, no going anywhere, just one action. That's what you want them to do.

So let's have a look at landing pages, and I'm talking about let's have a look, as in you might have to go and find some landing pages to look at, but let's talk about landing pages and what makes them convert like crazy.

Firstly your headline.

So this is the hook and it needs to be clear and benefit focused. So for example, if you're offering a time management guide, a headline like unlock your productivity potential in just seven days, something like that, like it's specific and it speaks to a pain point.

The other thing is you got to think about where are people going to see this? Are they going to look at it on desktop, on mobile? Most likely both because you always have a little bit of a split.

But the main thing is your page. When, when it comes up like that headline needs to sit above the fold. And when I say above the fold it means that you don't have to scroll to see this kind of stuff.

So ideally what you want above the fold is your headline, a tiny little description or something or other, and the button or sign up box. So you want to minimize the amount of scrolling someone has to do.

But you still want to obviously have that, like that bold headline, that hook right there. And then that hook needs to be so good that people go, oh my gosh, yes, I want this.

So you got your hook. Next is your call to action.

Do you want to keep it simple and keep it direct? So instead of something vague like I don't know, learn more, which is great because that's what Facebook ads do all the time.

You want to have something specific. This is like micro copy, like a call to action is like microcopy and you still want to use that. So you want to go get your free guide now.

So the more actionable the better.

So you've got a compelling headline. So it needs to be like, it needs to be super clear and having like sort of like that benefit stated.

Then you want to have a sub headline.

So it like it really something that supports the headline with a little bit more detail or urgency. So that could also be like.

So for example, unlock your productivity potential in just seven days, register for the free masterclass and you know, date times, all of that and then your call to action.

You also want to use eye catching visuals. I would say visuals are not the most important thing, but it still needs to have, you know, high quality images or potentially a video that resonates with your audience.

Remember you need a really clear and specific call to action and only one action per page. Like don't send them to other places. This is like the main thing of this page is to get them to take that one action.

So you want no distractions, like minimal kind of distractions. So have a clean layout, no extra links, no navigation, no clutter like just keep it clear. You just literally want them to take this one action.

You might want to think about adding things like social proof, so testimonials, case studies, reviews, those kind of things like that build trust or like, you know, logos of businesses that you worked with, awards that you've won, that kind of stuff.

This works really well. For example, for E commerce, having like awards listed like trust icons and stuff like that. It's not a necessity, but it does build trust.

And I've always, I've already touched on this mobile optimization. So people are going to go to this landing page on a mobile and even on a small screen, you want them to have that hook right up front.

Like the less scrolling they have to do to get to places, the better. So you want your hook at the top, ideally like your little sub headline and then your button where they can literally.

Or like your, your box where they put their details in. You don't want them to have to scroll too far, make sure it loads fast, it's responsive so you know, it actually works on mobile and people don't have to zoom in and things like that.

So.

All right, let's chat about some mistakes that I often see. One of the biggest mistakes that I see is overloading the page with options.

So if your landing page has like multiple calls to action, like buy now, subscribe, learn more, you're literally confusing people. So you really want to keep it focused. I also talk to a lot of people that go, oh no, I want my menu to be there because I want people to find like other things that you know, they might be interested in.

Yes, I get that.

But you really want them to take this one action. That's why you have a landing page. Like otherwise, don't even bother making a landing page. If you have this landing page where you want them to take this one action, AKA signing up for your email list or like, you know, to get your freebie or your webinar.

Then don't distract them with other things because I know myself, if I have all these other distractions, I'm like, oh, I'm going to read that. I forget why I was there in the first place.

Like, you know, 10 minutes later I'm like, what am I doing on this page or on this site? So you really, you want to take away those distractions.

Another thing that I often see is loading times, slow loading times. So if your page doesn't load in three seconds or less, you are losing potential leads.

So optimize your images and test your page speed. And images is one of those things that often slows the page down. So that's why I'm saying optimize your images.

So yeah, you want to make sure that you stick to one action.

Don't confuse your visitor by too many calls to action.

You want to keep your page focused. So don't try to do too many things on one page like that one page should have one focus.

Don't have too much text because people scan. So keep it concise. This is why, like you need that hook and like just some IDIs and dot points or like some sentences, but don't have a lot of text.

Again, slow lighting times. So if your page doesn't load fast enough, people tend to leave. So and another mistake I see is people you ignoring mobile users. And I know I sometimes do this as well because I designed on my computer.

I can't, you know, do those kind of things on my phone. But make sure that once you have finished creating your page that you check it on a mobile because you really want, you want it to work on a mobile.

Because when I look at my advertising stats, the majority of the subscribers or the people that take action on my landing pages come from mobile. So you really want your mobile pages to perform.

So mobile first is what you really need to think about.

All right, let's talk about optimizing. And I recently did a whole episode on optimizing.

And optimizing basically just means making small tweaks to make improvements. So optimizing A B testing is your friend. So for example, you can test two headlines.

One focuses on pain points and another one can focus on benefits. And then whichever gets better results stays. So there's so many things you can actually test.

So you can test different headlines, you can test different call to actions, you can test different layouts.

When you do this kind of testing, make sure that you only change one element at a time so that you actually know what's making a difference. So I don't have like two different layouts with two different headlines and different.

Because then like they're completely different pages. Test it so that you only change one element. So you know you have two of the same pages but two different headlines. Or if you want to go with two different headlines, at least have all your copy and all your calls are action the same.

Don't forget to use heat maps. So tools like hotjar let you see where people are clicking or where they're dropping off.

So if you notice that everyone's ignoring, for example, your call to action button, you Might need to change the color. Like it could be that simple. So keep an eye on how people are moving through your pages and then what you want to look at because you need to start tracking things like that.

So metrics, for example, you want to look at conversion rates, like how many people that those who go to the page are actually taking the action.

And if that's like signing up for a freebie, you want that to be over 30%. I'm high achiever, so I always want my pages to perform like at 40 to 50%.

Not everyone's going to convert. That's totally fine. But just track those numbers.

Bounce rate. So how many people of that go to the page actually like don't stick around or leave straight away.

And a lot of them might bounce because of slow loading times.

And then the other one you want to look at is how long are they actually on the page? Like how much time are they spending on the page? Are they like reading all of the bits and pieces?

And that's where Hot Jar comes in really? Well, some people spend ages on your page, but it could literally be that they just left a tab over. So just make sure that you like, you just keep looking at it and keep making changes.

Obviously not too often. So literally optimization is an ongoing process. It's not a, like a, not a one time task. You look at it, you make one change, you test it again, then you make another change, you test it again.

There's just it. I feel like it never finishes. At some point you kind of go, okay, well I'm happy with this as it is.

But yeah, keep looking at the numbers and making small tweaks.

So over the years, I've seen so many landing pages, I've created so many landing pages and I've optimized so many landing pages. And I know how hard it is when you're doing it for yourself because you're so close to it and you don't always see what someone else sees.

I worked with a client who was launching a webinar and their original landing page was literally packed with text. And it had like two different calls to action. Like it was really confusing.

So we stripped it down to one action. So like save your spot now or like register now or something like that. We added a testimonial and the result literally was like a 40% increase in signups.

On the flip side, I have seen pages that looked absolutely stunning but performed really poorly because they just literally loaded too slowly.

Or you know, sometimes I just don't make that Value clear upfront. So pretty doesn't always equal effective. It really, like, sometimes it's better to just have a super, super simple page, but the value is incredibly clear and the hook is incredibly clear.

Sometimes it's just worth looking at it with someone else, which is what I do with my students inside the Aimful Ads Academy. Um, we literally, like, once they've run some ads to certain pages, we go through the pages.

Like, we're like, well, what's working? What's not working? Where can we make changes?

And I look at it so differently. Like, I would look at a page and go, why is that there? And why is, you know, why don't you have that there?

And. And then I mostly get people to install hotjar to see where people are clicking, where people are dropping off. So start doing all of these things because, yeah, it's not a set and forget kind of exercise your landing pages, you create it, you test it, and then you make, you know, changes and tweaks.

So I would say landing pages are the secret sauce to converting, converting visitors into leads, but they don't have to be complicated. So you really want to focus on clarity.

So super, super clear. Like, it needs to be so clear what you want them to do.

It needs to be simple. Like, honestly, don't make it harder than it needs to be. Some people try to just be too clever and like, you know, blah. Just be straight to the point to be honest.

You want a strong call to action and like, literally having all of those things, like clarity, simplicity, and strong call to action, you're literally ahead of the game.

So it needs to be clean, it needs to be focused, compelling, and I would say test it and then audit your own landing page. Like, look at all those stats that I've, you know, told you to look at at your conversion rate, at your bounce rate.

How long are they spending on the page? Install hotjar. Have a look at where people are clicking and where people are dropping off. Like, put your investigator hat on and go, well, what is this telling me?

And as always, if you have questions about this, please feel free to get into my DMs. I am always happy to help people answer their questions. Like, you know, if you have questions about landing pages, Facebook ads, just marketing, please send me a message because I am happy to help you.

All right, that is a wrap. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the new School of Marketing podcast. I hope it was helpful. And as always, I am so excited to share more marketing tips and strategies with you.

Next week. Now, if you're ready to take your business to the next level with Facebook and Instagram advertising, make sure that you head to newschool of marketing.com for practical free resources.

And if you want to grow your business but you don't want to spend all your time on slow and unpredictable organic social media, then the Aimful Ads Academy is for you.

It's seriously the place to learn how to be seen by your audience, attract the right people's leads and turn them into paying customers, all with my proven for Ad Stack method.

Plus as a part of the program you'll have one on one access to me and I'm a marketing strategist with over 10 years of experience so that you don't have to navigate ads and marketing and funnels and landing pages all alone.

I'm here to help you be seen, attract leads and get more paying customers.

And make sure you subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. I can't wait to keep this journey going with you until next time. Take care and market your business every day.