If You're Not Converting Visitors to Customers, Blame These Common Landing Page Copywriting Mistakes.The time and effort you spend on site design and marketing is mostly wasted if you don't get your landing page right.

ByNathan Chan

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Rostislav_Sedlacek | Getty Images

Most marketers approach landing page strategies with the wrong mindset. After they've spent all their time and money on paid search ads, social media marketing and acquiring incoming traffic, they assume that designing the perfect landing page will be as simple as throwing together a few words and pictures.

Unfortunately, just like every aspect of yourmarketing strategy, agood landing page design is all about establishing the correct combination of crucial elements -- like the recipe of a cake. You need to consider everything from the layout of the page and placement of your CTAs, to the color pallet that you want to use to make an emotional impression.

Related:4 Things Your Website Needs to Convert Visitors Into Customers

Kissmetrics describes thelanding page layout like this:

C: Call to Action

O: Offer (the thing that convinces your traffic to convert)

N: Narrow focus (be concise)

V: Very Important Attributes

E: Engaging headline

R: Resolution-rich design

T: Tidy Visuals

S: Social Proof

All of that seems simple enough, but before you can begin designing the ideal landing page, you need to eliminate some of the negative habits that can weasel their way into your creative process. Many of us convince ourselves that we're on the right track with marketing, but we make the same mistakes time and time again, like rats in a maze.

Below, I'll show you the landing page copywriting mistakes you want to avoid so you can design a page that actually C.O.N.V.E.R.T.S.

Mistake 1: No goals.

The "goal" of your landing page marketing strategy relates to the "C" and "O" of our conversion list above (call to action and offer).

副本没有任何真正的目标设置你的着陆page up for failure. If your visitors don't know what they're expected to do when they approach your page, they may consider it a waste of their time and go elsewhere.

A good way to get your goal across to visitors is with an engaging headline and persuasive subhead. Your headline should outline the pain point of your goal, but in a way that is short, exciting and valuable enough to grab the reader's attention. Once your headline has made your user look, your subhead can make them stay by leading into your "Very Important Attributes."

Mistake 2: Misunderstanding your audience.

To better understand your audience, and therefore simplify the process of crafting your offer and showing off your very important attributes, ask yourself the following questions:

  • What stage of the sales funnelare your visitors probably in?
  • Are they likely to have heard of your product before?
  • What are the chances of them making a purchase?
  • Do they have all the information they need to decide?
  • Could something be holding them back from a conversion?

Once you know the answer to these questions, you will be able to narrow the focus of your landing page, and address the needs and pain points of the people who visit.

Related:Three Problems With Your Landing Pages That Are Costing You Sales

Mistake 3: Problems with legibility.

Writing copy is easy. Making sure that people read your copy is much harder.

Internet users don't have time to lament over long words and jargon that has no place in their everyday lives. We all go to websites and quickly scan the information before deciding whether something is eye-catching enough to deserve our attention.

Landing pages aren't the place for poets and literary masterminds. Though you want your copy to sound good, the most important thing is to ensure it gets read, and that's all about scanability. Make sure that you use thefive-second testto check whether your copy is easy to scan.Focusing on the legibilityof your copy with scannable words, tidy visuals and a resolution rich design is also a great way to boost your chances that whatever you write actually gets read.

When you're choosing the font, the bullet points, and even the way that your words appear on the page, ask yourself whether the combination of all these elements will give your visitors an easy reading experience. Does the color stand out well against the background of your landing page, or are the letters too close together? Once you've got that figured out, you'll be able to focus on other details, like how many lines each paragraph should have.

Mistake 4: Failing to pinpoint benefits.

Listing the important features of your product is a good way to make sure that your audience understands the value of whatever you're offering. At the same time, however, it's a good idea not just to focus on a list of features, but also establish the benefits of your product in your marketing strategy too. Consider the problem that your product or service addresses from the perspective of your target customer, and show them what you can do to make their lives better.

People often buy items in an attempt to avoid pain and discomfort. While we frequently make purchasing decisions according to how we feel at the time, or what we crave, we also buy things that we believe we need. For example, we buy food because we want to avoid the pain of being hungry, and we buy soap because we want to avoid the discomfort of being dirty.

Related:7 Ways to Get More People to Trust Your Content

If you make your copy about your customers and what they can get out of your product, then you're far more likely to make a positive and lasting impression. A good first step might be to interview your current clients, and find out what they think is the biggest benefit of your product. Use the answers you get to guide your writing, and your chances of creating convincing copy are sure to skyrocket.

Creating the right landing page.

Sometimes, creating the right landing page for your marketing strategy isn't just about knowing which elements you need to implement, but also knowing which mistakes you should avoid. Be careful, and stay away from the problems outlined above, and you should find that you deliver copy that only boosts the performance of your marketing efforts.

Nathan Chan

Publisher of Foundr Magazine

Nathan Chan is the publisher ofFoundr Magazine, a digital magazine for young, aspiring and novice stage entrepreneurs. He has had the pleasure of interviewing rock star business leaders to find out what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur.

Editor's Pick

Related Topics

Business News

凯蒂·佩里是Fighting the Founder of 1-800-Flowers for a $15 Million California Mansion He Doesn't Want to Sell Her

The eight-bedroom, 11-bathroom estate sits on nearly nine acres in the Santa Ynez foothills in Montecito.

Business News

Heinz Announces New Condiment Mixture Inspired By Taylor Swift Dipping Sauce Meme

The multi-Grammy winner was spotted eating a chicken tender with ketchup and "seemingly ranch" while watching Travis Kelce at the Chiefs' game last weekend.

Growing a Business

Want to Sound Smarter? This Stanford Professor's Simple 3-Point Technique Will Help

With a little structure, you can impress audiences with your ad-libbing all day.