Pre-landers are the key to getting your customers to convert. In this article, we’ll be showing you what you need to include in yours to drive your sales home.
What is a Pre-lander?
A pre-lander is usually the penultimate stage in your sales funnel. It comes just before the landing page, hence the name, pre-lander.
The purpose of pre-landers is to reassure the customer about what they are going to get and to help ensure that they convert when they reach your landing page.
Pre-landers give you an opportunity to really sell your products, and that power shouldn’t be underestimated.
What do pre-landers need to contain?
There a somethings that all pre-landers should contain, regardless of the offer you are promoting or the action you desire. In this section, we’ll briefly show you what these are and then expand on them after, to show you how to create maximum impact.
Call-to-Action
Every step of your funnel should have a clear call-to-action, telling your visitors exactly what they need to do. You need to guide your customers every step of the way and make sure they know what to do.
Clear Structure
Structuring goes hand-in-hand with your Calls-to-Action. In fact, your structure should be one of your main CTAs. The best structures will guide customers from beginning to end without them even realising.
Think about your funnel like a good book. The story should entice people to move through the pages until they reach the end and each chapter should be individual but an integral part of the whole. Once you see your funnel like this, you can start to evaluate it logically from your visitors’ point of view.
Decent Design
If you’re trying to convince someone to part with their hard-earned cash, then you need to look trustworthy. Your design should be professional and clean, with minimal distractions.
There are certain things that should go without saying, e.g. never use Comic Sans. Unless of course, you are looking for a graphic designer.
Quick Load Time
Loading time is crucial for any webpage. Google’s data shows that on average, bounce rates on sites with a load time of more than 6 seconds, increase by more than 100%! Which means if your page loads too slowly, then you’ll lose potential customers before they even see your pre-lander.
For a complete guide on how to speed up your pages, check out: Speed Matters: How to Boost your Site’s Performance
Creating your Pre-Lander
If you don’t feel confident in your writing or designing abilities, then you can hire freelancers to help you out. We recommend using sites like Fiverr and OnlineJobs.ph, where you can post specific tasks at your chosen rate.
Whether you’re creating your own pre-landers or hiring freelancers, you first need to understand what it is you want to achieve. The best way to do this is to create an assignment which you or your freelancers to can use as a blueprint for the project.
Here’s a quick guide to help you out.
Step 1: Choose your angle
Decide what angle you are going to use to sell your product and who your target audience will be. You’ll then need to think about your pre-lander’s purpose and style.
Purpose
- What is the unique selling point (USP)? What problem do you solve?
- What do you want people to do? E.g. register, subscribe, buy etc.
- What are the benefits of using your product or service?
- Why should people choose you and not your competitors?
Style
Your style will depend on your chosen target audience, so you should do some research first. For more information about how to grab your target audience’s attention, check out How to Expand Your Lookalike Audience Using Social Media .
When deciding on the style of your pre-landers you should consider:
- The tone of you pre-lander. Is it formal or informal, informative or funny etc.
- What pictures are you going to use? Pictures can make or break a campaign so choose wisely. Don’t use images which are too obviously stock photos. You should also try to highlight the benefits of your product/service within your images, or choose images which demand further explanation by causing intrigue.
For more information about how to choose or create images which convert, check out Brand Awareness and Direct Marketing Explained Using Classic Advertising Techniques!
The type of pre-lander which will be the most effective e.g. blog post, review site, news article, more info page etc.
Angle
Here are just a few of the general angles you can approach customers with.
- Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), e.g. ‘Limited Time Offer’, ‘Last few places remaining’ etc.
- Value for Money/Time, e.g. ‘Get more visitors to your site’, ‘Save time with…’.
- Nothing to Lose, e.g. ‘Cancel Anytime’, ‘Try for Free’
Once you can answer all of the points above, you’ll have a detailed overview of what you want your pre-lander to look like.
Step 2: Start Writing
If you’re hiring freelancers, then this is the point at which you can send them your design brief. However, if you’re making your own, then here are some tips to getting started.
Headlines
Headlines make or break your funnel. Therefore, it’s important to get them right. If you are going to be split-testing, then write down a few headlines to see which works best.
Your headline should explain what you are offering quickly and clearly and with no room for error. Here is an Amazon Prime pre-lander to give you an idea:
You’ll notice how the USP here is about how easy it is to cancel. People hate being tied into thinks, so if you can make the escape route easy, they will be more likely to trust you. Be careful though. If your product doesn’t live up to expectations, you’ll get a lot of people leaving.
Here is another pre-lander by IMPACT Media:
In this case, they are providing value for time in the hope that they will gain customer trust by giving out useful information. The information should then be a compelling reason for the customer to convert.
Body
The body text of your pre-lander should back up the headline and explain it in more detail. With pre-landers, the most interested people will read the headline and then jump to the CTA. However, that doesn’t mean you should neglect the body text.
The body is where you should really try to sell.
Why?
Because it’s make or break for the people who are undecided about whether or not to continue. If people are unsure, you need to convince them that they are making the right decision.
In the body, you can double down on the promises you make in your headline and elaborate.
Here is an example from Fairwinds Credit Union:
Notice how the headline catches people’s attention and the body text delivers the message. The reason this works is that the headline promises extra money in your account but, if that isn’t enough, the body is there to let people know how easy it is and how to proceed.
Now it’s your turn