A landing page is a standalone web page is going to be the first point of contact for visitors to your site, and as such it needs to effectively promote a specific product or service, capture contact information for lead generation, or present your brand in an engaging and accurate way.

In this post, we’ll guide you through the process of building a custom landing page on WordPress, covering everything from selecting a theme and creating a layout, to adding content and ongoing optimizations. Let’s jump in!

Step 1: Choose a Theme

The first step in building a custom landing page on WordPress is to choose a theme. WordPress has thousands of themes available, both free and paid, so it’s important to choose one that is suitable for your needs.

When selecting a theme, consider the following:

• The theme should be responsive, meaning it should look good on all devices (desktop, tablet, and mobile).

• The theme should be customizable, with plenty of options to change colors, fonts, and layout.

• The theme should be optimized for conversion, with elements such as a clear call-to-action and a form for capturing contact information.

Though any theme can be customized to the point that it’s unrecognizable when compared to the original template, the theme you choose in this first step can have a profound impact on future design decisions and the overall direction your landing page takes.

Think carefully about your choice here, taking cues from example projects and considering how the theme fits into “bigger picture” decisions from the business leadership.

Step 2: Create a Layout

Once you’ve chosen a theme, the next step is to create a layout for your landing page. This is where you will decide on the placement of elements such as the header, the main content area, and the footer.

With every decision you make regarding the layout of your landing page, it’s essential to consider whether or not a certain feature or design will benefit the visitor’s experience.

The final result can follow established norms or do something way outside the box, but should still prioritize certain principles of UX design. This means keeping your layout uncluttered and easy to understand, aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate, and designed to move the visitor naturally towards a specific call to action.

Think of some of the competitor sites you admire most, and you’ll likely see that their layout is setup to check all these boxes in a way that delights their specific audience.

Just like your product, if the layout of your custom landing page is geared to delight your leads, you’ll be sure to maximize your conversions and enjoy higher-quality traffic.

Step 3: Add Great Content

Once you’ve created a layout, the next step is to add content to your landing page. This cover copywriting, adding images and videos, and curating any other content that’s necessary for your landing page to function.

When you’re filling your landing page with content, one of the easiest things to screw up is the copy. Remember to aim for copy that’s both compelling and persuasive, but also concise and scannable. Some studies suggest that modern humans have an average attention span of just 8 seconds, meaning your content has to be easily digestible and compatible with the skim-and-scan approach modern web users have to the written word.

Using bullet points and lists to break up long blocks of text, changing up font sizes to help visitors differentiate by importance, and using as few words as possible to communicate salient points can all contribute to a more effective page.

Once you’ve made your page as user-friendly as possible in these areas, the next important step is to think about optimizing it for SEO. You’ll likely be some of the way there as Google’s algorithms increasingly favor positive user experience.

“With Google using at least 200 different factors to assess where a website should rank for a specific search query, it’s understandable to not know where to start.” says KAU Media Group. Getting a free SEO audit from a trusted agency will highlight some of the more technical shortcomings and help get your wider SEO moving in the right direction.

Step 4: Test and Analyze

Once you’ve curated your content and optimized your landing page for conversion, it’s time to take a deep dive into how your visitors are interacting with your page and make calculated adjustments to improve its effectiveness.

Though there are plenty of best practices touted by web design specialists, no two audiences are exactly alike. Continuous analysis and improvement will separate your landing page from your more passive competitors.

There are a few key metrics that you should track when analyzing your landing page:

Bounce rate: This is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing a single page and not taking any further action. A high bounce rate indicates that your landing page is not engaging or relevant to your visitors.

Conversion rate: This is the percentage of visitors who take a desired action on your page, such as filling out a form or making a purchase. A high conversion rate indicates that your landing page is performing effectively and moving your visitors down the funnel.

Time on page: This is the amount of time that visitors spend on your landing page. A high time on page indicates that your visitors are engaging with your content.

To test and analyze your landing page, you can use tools such as Google Analytics, Hotjar, and Optimizely. These tools will allow you to track and analyze key metrics, as well as run A/B tests to compare different versions of your landing page.

Step 5: Keep on Improving

After following the previous steps, you’ll have a functional landing page that’s ready to start bringing in qualified traffic. The fifth and final step in this process is to make a plan to continuously analyze interactions with your page, and make regular improvements based on your findings.

This could include things such as changing the layout, rewriting the copy, or adding new elements such as images or videos. Just like your business, your audience and modern consumer trends are always in a state of flux, and making sure you’re caught-up with these market shifts is essential to your continued success.

It’s important to remember that building a custom landing page is an ongoing process, and you should always be looking for ways to improve it. Keep testing and analyzing your landing page, and make adjustments as necessary to ensure that it is as effective as possible.

Final Thoughts…

By following the steps outlined in this post, you can create a landing page that is simple, visually appealing, and optimized for conversion.

Remember to keep your audience at the center of your decisions, and maintain a mindset of constant improvement, and your landing page is certain to make a splash with your unique audience!

The post How to Build Custom Landing Page on WordPress appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.

With such an impressive number of active websites on the internet, the competition is tough. The tried and tested method to cut through all competition is to brand your website to stand out in cyberspace.

Branding has evolved a lot over the years. Even today, people think that your colors, tagline, or the way you communicate represent your brand. This has changed! These are very important, but they are just a tiny piece of this puzzle called branding.

Who has the ultimate power over your brand? Your stakeholders: clients, employees, partners, etc.

Why so? If all that you communicate isn’t consistent with your behavior, it’s all for nothing. People can’t be fooled that easily, and they’ll definitely sanction promises that aren’t delivered. Social media has empowered everyone by giving us a voice. And brands are walking now on thin ice.

As Marty Neumeier puts it  “a brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.”

Now, today we’re going to talk about visual identity (one of the many branding tools out there), and how to build it inside your WordPress site. So follow me!

Branding on WordPress: Getting Started

In ways more than one, branding is the most exciting and creative part of the process of building your website. WordPress makes this process more thrilling with a host of features, themes, and settings that will make your website look professional in an instant.

To get a head start on all your competitors, use WordPress’ exciting features to kickstart your success.

1. Choose an attractive theme

An alluring theme is the first element that catches the eye of a viewer. WordPress offers a vast variety of themes that are compatible with many different types of websites, be it crisp and efficient looking ones, colorful and preppy looking ones and so forth.

There are several themes available on the free version of WordPress and in case you are comfortable with shelling out a few bucks, the paid version has exclusive themes available for use.

Once you choose a suitable theme, you can move forward and edit and customize your website as per your requirements.

Everything including the fonts, graphics, and color palette you choose will cement a visual identity that will stay in the minds of viewers and customers. This means it becomes even more important to stay true to the brand personality and make sure your website echoes the same.

Here’s how you can install a WordPress theme.

2. Include a unique logo

A logo is not just an extra visual element. A logo that is well-designed, attractive, can be memorable.

As a newcomer in the digital landscape, questions like “how to make a logo” are bound to confuse you. Here is a quick primer to choose the perfect logo for your website. You can also use an online logo maker software for this job.

The most common way is to hire a professional, but you could very well design a logo yourself. With a working knowledge of an illustrator like Photoshop or Canva– making a logo is an easy task. Even without any background in design, you could trust an online logo maker to do your job.

Certain guidelines are important to keep in mind while crafting a logo that will be synonymous with your brand. This includes making sure the logo is neat and creative, it resonates with the brand, and is generated ethically without any plagiarism.

A logo is a key element in enhancing the brand image in the minds of viewers and arousing curiosity in the minds of potential customers. Only making the perfect logo is not all, to complement and enhance the visual impact of your logo – choose a complementary theme, pay attention to its placement, and avoid clutter around it. Additionally, creating a favicon can prove to be a make or break step. Simply use your logo as your favicon for maximum brand reach and retention.

Uploading and placement of your logo and creation of a favicon are steps that may seem complicated but are made simple with WordPress’ user-friendly interface. From your dashboard, go to Appearance – Customizer. Now, depending on the theme you’re using, the submenu may differ.

In my example, I’m using the Mesmerize theme. All I have to do is head over “General settings” and identify the “Site identity” submenu. In here you can also change your website’s title.

3. Choose a global color scheme and typography

Now that your logo is done it’s time to figure out the colors you want to identify with. This can take a while, there are so many combinations out there, that it can get overwhelming. but, in order to start, you definitely need to know your product/service and your audience.

Let’s say you sell electronics in Indonesia, make sure to avoid green if possible…

Did you notice that most of the fast-food brands out there use red and orange in their logos and other visuals? It’s because red speaks to people’s appetites, it’s making them hungry.

Green goes with fresh food, eco, bio, environmental topics.

And the list can go on.

What does this mean for you? Do your research! Take your time, don’t hurry this. Dig a bit into the psychology of color, to understand the relationship between emotions and colors. You need to make an informed decision when choosing your brand’s colors. They will affect your website design, social media visuals, and much more.

How can you change the global colors for your WordPress site? It depends on your theme or builder. Free plans are usually a bit limited, oftentimes paid ones let you do any change you want. Usually, you can make the changes inside Appearance-> Customizer.

Going back to my previous example with the Mesmerize theme, inside “General settings” I have” Colors” and “Typography”.

You’ll now have the option to add any color you want.

Moving on to typography, there are some rules you need to stand by:

• Don’t use more than 3 different fonts, else, your website will look unstructured and unprofessional.
• Don’t go over the board with your font choice, it’s a trap! Unless your website has something to do with a very creative line of business, you’d better stick to standard system fonts. You wouldn’t want the reader to be more interested in the font than in the actual content.
• Use fonts with distinguishable letters.
• To ensure readability ensure a line-height of 30% more than the character height.
• Careful with the contrast between the text and its background!

4. Tell the world about yourself

Let us pause for a bit and come back to you. Design and logo aside, the star of your website is your personality and creative talent. Without an interesting personality to shine through, an attractive-looking website can only do so little for a brand. This truism holds for all kinds of websites – personal blog, business, online stores, and more. To keep a person gravitating to your website, to convert a viewer into a customer, add relevant pages that tell viewers more about you.

Think of a crisp and concise ‘About me’ page that details your journey as a blogger, business person, fashion enthusiast, or baker. Talk about your motivations, your passions, your dreams – all in a few words to not bore your visitor. Information like this is necessary to make sure your visitors feel an emotional connection with your venture and your services.

In a succinct ‘About blog name/business name’ familiarize your visitors with the core values of your venture, vision and mission statements, awards and recognitions, services, and other necessary details.

In case you happen to run a business that is looking for clients, adding a ‘Testimonials’ page can prove to be fruitful. Displaying real-life testimonials from your previous and current clients or both is a smart way of establishing a reputation in the minds of your potential customers. It makes visitors feel that your services are reliable, praiseworthy, and worth a try.

Finally, the most necessary yet often ignored page is the ‘Reach out/Contact me’ page. Simply putting out your social media handles is not enough. An email ID and contact/telephone number are crucial even in the 21st century. In case you feel uncomfortable in putting out sensitive information like this, install and use one of the many contact form plugins available on the internet.

Wrap up

Branding your WordPress site is a process that may test your patience at times but it is the thin line between success and failure that must keep you working. The aim is to build a brand identity that is salient and resonates with people. This can be achieved by executing 3 simple steps: choosing an appropriate theme, incorporating a logo, and publishing relevant information about yourself and your venture. With WordPress’ exciting roster of features, themes, and plugins you can create and customize a unique website that will stun your audience.

The post WordPress Branding: Prepare Your Website for Success appeared first on ColibriWP Blog.

Now, what does this mean for you? If you don’t interiorize what you say (aka you’re not delivering on your promises), your clients and employees won’t be fooled. You’ll be the one fooling yourself. 

Now, the world is shifting. The way brands communicate and behave has been disturbed by this unforgiving pandemic. And we must adapt and change.

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/LDMe_27JW1Q

As the folks at Deloitte noted in their “2021 Global Marketing Trends ”Purpose-driven companies inherently understand why they exist and who they are best built to serve regardless of what they sell today”. 

Now, what’s your business’s purpose?

If you still haven’t figured it out, don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Step 1 is acknowledging, step 2 is doing something about it.

I’ve invited Marcos Bravo, the brand ambassador of LiveChat, for a Q&A to help us understand how to build a powerful brand. In short, LiveChat is one of the biggest brands in the chat software market, serving companies like MacDonald’s, Mercedes Benz, Unilever, Adobe, or PayPal.

Going back to Marcos, he’s a veteran marketer and brand expert with over 20 years of experience in many industries. Storyteller, podcaster, marketing mentor, and icecream creator, let’s hear him out!

Q: What are the treats of a powerful brand?

Marcos: A clear voice and a unique selling point. Everything the brand does can be exactly the same as their competitors, but a powerful brand understands how to relate to their customers, how to make a difference by covering every aspect of the customer journey, from discovery to loyalty. The powerful brand can convert their customers into brand ambassadors.

Q: My product is not unique. How can I make it stand out?

Marcos: Knowing your competitors. If you understand the way your competitors sell their product, you can identify their UVPs, then you compare that with what is it that you offer that is better or unique and milk that. If you sell the exact same set of features, then use a different language. Talk to the target customers in a better or different way.

Q: What’s your take on the power of storytelling? 

Marcos: Storytelling is both underrated, and overrated. We turned a natural way of communicating into a marketing buzzword. Storytelling is something we have been doing for millennia, it is how the wiseman or the tribe elder will tell the stories to the younger generations. It was born and developed so nothing gets lost and stories are memorable, but after all, it is a great mix of ups and downs and twists. 

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/k7fUP9RQj3Y

Q: How can you become a better storyteller?

Marcos: You want to get it right? Try telling a story to a 5-year-old. If you manage to finish it you have this covered.

Q: Is content still king in all this noise?

Marcos: It is and will always be, as long as we define content as the voice we are using to talk as a brand. If it is just a SEO strategy and a way for us to make us “findable” we are doomed.

Q: How can you make your content stand out?

Marcos: Understanding the needs and expectations of your customer. There is no other way.

Q: What’s your preferred video marketing hack?

Marcos: The magic of the THUMBNAIL, how this badly designed and tiny graphic piece makes the difference between watching or not watching a video that took a huge effort to make.

Q: Influencer marketing: your 3 tips.

Marcos: Constancy, relatability, and entertaining.

Q: Marketing on a low budget: is it possible?

Marcos: Yes! And is the easiest because people and customers can see that it is a real and honest approach and effort. It pushes your marketing brain to be creative and humble. There is a big number of “celebrities” CMOs that made their job remarkable only because an unlimited budget, something not all of us will ever get.  

Q: Chocolate or salted caramel icecream?

Marcos: Salted Caramel. Just like life, nothing can be sweet forever, a salty twist makes everything more interesting.

My vote goes to salted caramel as well! Chocolate is overrated, people!

Now, I loved this advice from Marcos: “Try telling a story to a 5-year-old. If you manage to finish it you have this covered”. Sounds pretty hard. But if you nail this down, you’ll be over the moon with your brand.

If you liked this article, and you want to learn more about how to take your marketing efforts to the next level, how to design a website that converts, make sure to subscribe to our Youtube channel and follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

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