Let's analyze an existing website to determine the how effective a landing page can be. Athlean-X is a fitness brand started by Jeff Cavaliere, a former Men's Health writer. He promotes his own fitness program - guaranteeing results for his clients in achieving their fitness goals. At a cost of $67 per 3 month program, which includes:

• 90 day fitness program at the gym
  
• 90 day program for home workouts
  
• an exercise guide
  
• 90 day meal plan with recipes
  
• home gym blueprint, which provides instructions on how to build your own gym at home
  
• a 1 hour mp3 audio interview with Jeff Cavaliere on his nutrition strategies
  

His landing page was created to get his target audience to convert from multiple traffic sources. A large part of his traffic comes from social media such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. His YouTube channel has the most views and drives most of his traffic to his website. 

Any landing page should provide relevant, focused, and detailed information about a specific product or service. It is most effective if this can be included on a single page - this information should be visible above the fold. According to various web optimization agencies this can increase conversion by 55 percent.

Planning the landing page

The first step in developing a landing page would be to consider the end goal. Ask yourself: 

• What are you hoping visitors will do when they get there?
  
• Is your goal to sell a product, help visitors learn more about a service?
  
• Do you want them to provide you feedback? 
  

You have to remember that once a browser lands on your page you have to get them to perform an action you want. By understanding what your goals are, you can create the right landing page. An effective landing page helps convert visitors by providing them with information that answers all their questions and quells their fears. Remember, they may not know your brand, and they want to trust that their problems will be solved through your product or service...  What you would want to do is provide them all the information that they need without having to go anywhere else for answers.....

The 6 Components of a great landing page

There are 6 components that each page must have to increase conversion rates: 

1. Headline
   
2. Offer
   
3. Lead
   
4. Benefits
   
5. Images
   
6. Brand/Design
   

1. Headline - The headline is the first line that visitors will read, it offers the biggest opportunity (about 80% of the opportunity) for improvements in conversion rate. Use headlines that clearly state the biggest benefits that your product offers - mentioning exactly what they can get on the landing page. 

In the screenshot above,  Jeff has listed 3 clear benefits on the headline. His headline is placed beside the video providing a constant reminder to the benefits of his program. What Jeff has done is create an introductory video on the top right which plays automatically as soon as the page loads. In it, he describes his program and has client testimonials about his product. The browser has no choice but to listen and watch. 

2. Offer - Your offer is the "call to action" that asks your visitors to act (purchase, sign up, opt-in). Jeff's first call to action in this case is the "Add to Cart" that he has placed below the lead section in the white box. 

Remember to place your offer right after each lead as your browser may be convinced enough to buy immediately. Make it easy for them.  

3. Lead - The “lead”  is one of the best  opportunities for capturing the attention of your prospect and helps in increasing your conversion rate. Jeff's video lead tantalizes the prospect to learn more about his program and scroll down towards the supposed training secrets of professional athletes and how his readers can achieve results through his program. However, he has inserted a lead paragraph that includes strong benefits that capture his visitor’s attention and make them want to continue reading on. 

4. Benefits - By listing the benefits of your service or product in bullet points is another way to encourage conversions. As many people want to look like professional athletes, Jeff has listed the benefits that cater to his audience's need to train and perform like pro athletes. His readers want to know what secrets pro athletes have that they can emulate and achieve the same results. With that in mind, he has listed his benefits in the order of his service's "value hierarchy" to his target market. In other words, state your product’s strongest benefit first, and its weakest benefit last.
 
5. Images - As Athlean-X's product niche is related to fitness, images play a key role here. Jeff has designed his site to be very visual, presenting before and after pictures, including using videos and showcasing the bodies of his successful clients. This supports his credibility and having a big impact on his conversion rates.

The best practice is to use images that clearly portray the biggest benefit your product or service offers your customer (in this case the ripped bodies of successful clients - rather than generic imagery like unknown logos and clip art). Studies show that product images usually work best when placed to the left of your product description (or lead paragraph) since it makes it easier to read your copy from left to right. Also, do not forget to put captions under your images. So, add powerful captions and make your images click-able to the order/sign up page if needed.
 
6. Testimonials - According to a recent study by Stanford University, 46% of online sales are lost when websites do not have the critical elements that build value and credibility with visitors. A major reason browsers indicated why they wouldn't buy from a website was because it lacked credibility. Having a great design and third party credibility (such as VeriSign and BBBOnline certifications) will help convert more of your website's prospects into new customers.

Athlean-X's website has been designed to lead the online visitor to convert. The key features and benefits are easily listed, while allowing the prospect to go over the client testimonials.  By placing the emphasis on visual statements and videos,  Jeff includes his client testimonials in his story providing a powerful one-two punch to help convert prospects.

According to wikipedia, a landing page is built to convert leads from an email, social media, ppc or search campaign. They are an important tool in any online marketing campaign and are effective in converting browsers into clients. The landing page contains detailed information about the specific product or service that is mentioned, especially benefits and features. It should be considered part of the marketing campaign and shouldn’t just be another page on your website.  

Using landing pages can significantly impact your conversion rate. A survey by MarketingSherpa  asked marketers the effectiveness of dedicated landing pages. 43% of marketers found it extremely effective with 49% finding it somewhat effective. 

Another survey by Atlas Onepoint, found that the average conversion rate when companies used their homepage as the destination for an advertisement or link was only 6 percent. However, companies that used targeted landing pages had almost double the conversion rate, with 12 percent of their visitors converting.  

The following chart on the right indicates the effectiveness of a landing page by website objective. Almost across the board,  it has been found that landing pages are valuable for all types of actions, including ecommerce purchases.  

So, if you want a solid argument to create a dedicated landing page to convert your browsers, look no further than these stats. 

At the least, you should optimize your core service pages on your website to target and convert browsers - either for lead generation or transactional opportunities.