Best Practices in Responsive Landing Page Creation for Beginners

Best Practices in Responsive Landing Page Creation for Beginners

Compelling and responsive landing pages are the epitome of professional digital marketing these days. More and more studies show that well-designed landing pages can boost conversions through the roof, either a business wants more sales or more newsletter subscribers. The primary purpose of a landing page is to convince people to take a specific action. On the other hand, since most people spend their time using smartphones and tablets, landing pages should be more than pleasant to look at; they should be fully responsive and follow a couple of best practices.

Responsive Web Design for Landing Pages

Mobile usage surpassed desktop browsing some time ago, evolving continuously. Non-coding entrepreneurs and even seasoned web designers need to adapt to this shift in paradigm and understand that Mobile First is not just a buzzword, but also a way of web designing, marketing, and doing business.

As we know, responsive web design in landing pages means that the page in question automatically recognizes and adapts to the user’s screen size and device type, adjusting its layout and content accordingly.

Is responsive design for websites different from the one of the landing pages? If you read a couple of responsive web design tutorials and guides, you know the two of them to share fundamental similarities. However, since a landing page is a place where users end up after clicking on an ad, you have just a couple of seconds to convince them they are in the right place, at the right time, and need to click on that CTA button right then and there. For that to happen, you need to keep some best practices in mind.

1. Think Big but Keep it Simple and Flexible

As designers know, a framework like Bootstrap has breakpoints at 480px, 768px, 992px and 1200px, which are the most popular ones. What you should not forget, however, is that mobile responsivity refers to all types of devices and screens, tiny and massive.

Since you get a different type/size of the mobile device every day, your design should be flexible enough to adjust automatically to all the new tech challenges.

Moreover, don’t forget that people use a host of different devices throughout the day. They can reach the landing page on a smartphone in the morning or on an oversized LCD screen for PC in the evening. The landing page should look great and work correctly at all times. In the Mobile-First paradigm, you need to start the design from the smallest screen size (say 320px wide) and enhance it for larger and larger platforms.

For a landing page like Instapage and Unbounce, this is the best practice: the smaller space, the less clutter and more tidiness you will achieve. A better arrangement, neatness, clarity, and full relevance is what makes the best user experience.

For non-coders, the building of a responsive landing page is a more straightforward path to take, as they have plenty of affordable builders that allow them to create highly converting landing pages on already responsive templates.

2. Pay Attention to the ATF Section

The “Above the Fold” section of a landing page is everything users see before they scroll down. The crucial elements of a converting landing page are, among others, a compelling headline, a supporting sub-header, engaging visuals, persuasive copy, a list of benefits for the prospective lead, and an influential CTA.

Both designers and non-coding entrepreneurs need to focus on the outline of the landing page, keeping in mind that the ATF section can make or break conversion rates. The layout, the typography, buttons, form fields, the copy display, the color scheme, etc. are more than just responsive designer tools; they are marketing instruments as well. If you want to achieve a perfect UX score with a landing page, trying and testing different designs, headlines, colors, fonts, and copy placements is mandatory.

One rule in landing page creation is to have a large, colorful, and engaging CTA button. Your designer tool kit will help you choose the best one. Now, should you put it above or below the fold? Top of the page or bottom of the page?

It all depends on the information complexity of the page. If a product/service requires extensive explanations, the CTA button is usually below the fold. If the page only requires just a click for a user to enter a giveaway, you should place it above the fold, to blend in with the headline and copy.

At this point, you might want to try some A/B testing to understand how the targeted audience responds to complex vs. simple and long vs. short landing pages.

3. Integrate Others’ Expertise

While it is true that design still trumps content when it comes to digital marketing, it does not mean you can disregard copywriters, the marketing team, and SEO specialists altogether when you create a landing page. It is your responsibility as a designer to make sure that users enjoy attractive layouts, quick loading times, and eye candies, easy-to-read fonts, and vibrant button colors, but we are way past the era of “art for art’s sake.”

As a beginner designer, you should learn quickly to collaborate with the other parties involved. You may place a button where you know it should be, but listen to what marketers have to say, as a second identical button at the bottom of the page might double the conversions. It applies to all websites and responsive landing pages.

While it is not a lesson in design per se, it is a model of good practices to be open at other peoples’ input. In case you need to update and modify that landing page, you have to make sure its design works in full coherence with the new copy, fonts, headlines, and copy you need to add or remove.

Bottom Line

In the past couple of years, building responsive landing pages that convert has become the norm for all designers, seasoned and otherwise. It does not hurt, however, to overestimate things and forget to check out the newest best practices in a landscape of ever-changing user behavior and trends.

2 Comments on “Best Practices in Responsive Landing Page Creation for Beginners

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *