With this post I am going to kick start a series of blog posts on human psychology, consumer behaviour and marketing from a digital media perspective.
You are probably reading this blog post because you are interested in getting your online business off the ground or are helping one of your clients convert their visitors into paying customers.
If you believe that creating a great landing page is about pairing great copy with aesthetically pleasing design, you will be surprised. While both of the aforementioned attributes play a central role in converting visitors into paying customer, they don’t encompass all aspects of action-driven and persuasive landing pages.
The first impression of a landing page has the ability to strike a connection between itself and the visitor. Therefore one must concentrate on instilling and evoking emotions within the first few seconds else the vast majority of your visitors may not convert. Believe it or not, only through instilling and evoking emotions will you be able to make someone part with his/her cash, this is particularly true in our consumerist world.
Great landing pages focus on the following characteristics:
Urgency
Create a sense of urgency by offering:
- Limited time offers
- Free shipping
- Countdowns
- Limited quantities
Value
Tie in that sense of urgency with value
- Freebies
- Discounts/Savings
- Free trials
- Free consultation
Credibility
Demonstrate that you and your product/service are credible
- Client testimonials
- Social proof
- Awards
- Association with industry leaders
Trust
Finally, induce a sense of trust.
- Accreditation logos
- Verification (particularly if its ecommerce related)
- Money back guarantee schemes
- Contact information
Furthermore, you should always combine the above mentioned characteristics with a hint of the following broad psychological human needs.
- Physiological are the requirements for human survival. They include breathing, food, water, shelter, sex, clothing, sleep and comfort.
- Safety needs can be seen as a way to meet tomorrow’s physiological needs. They include personal and financial security, health, order, law and protection from elements.
- Love and belonging needs are about social interactions. We don’t want to go through life alone. Social needs include friendship, love, intimacy, family, community, belonging and relationships.
- Esteem needs include self-esteem as well as recognition from others. Esteem can come in the form of achievement, status, prestige, recognition, mastery, independence and responsibility.
- Self-actualization needs relate to becoming more than what we are, and they can come from peace, knowledge, self-fulfilment, realization of personal potential, personal growth and peak experiences.
Want to see a good example landing page that applies a combination of the above mentioned psychological rules? Here it is:
Rosetta Stone’s landing page for “learning Spanish”.
Study the screenshot for a minute or two and try to identify the characteristics and psychological needs I have listed above in this example. I have highlighted the most obvious ones, you need to find the subliminal ones, yes there are a few of them in there!
If you are interested in this topic please subscribe to my RSS feed as I will be posting about design principles in the light of human psychology.
A great post Mohammad and for me very timely. We are re-branding and that also means completely revamping our website – I am about to think about our landing page! So not only is this very informative and coming at this issue from a very refreshing angle, its handy for both our own website and that of our clients (and clients-to-be!). Thank you – it all makes perfect sense!
Hi Kay,
I am glad you found it useful. Thank you
Great post Yousaf. As you know I am working on a website and this article was very useful.
Glad you like it Hameed. Drop me an email when you are done with your website and good luck!