Have you ever come across a landing page that somehow seems off?
Its headlines are catchy, and the images are well-chosen. Yet, it’s just missing that oomph.
If you have, you’ve just stumbled upon the concept of conversion-centered design. Or, rather, in this case, the lack thereof.
As a marketer, it’s understandable if page design isn’t your area of expertise. However, conversion-oriented design isn’t about graphics and web design as much as it’s about how you envision marketing content.
In this article, we’ll discuss how this strategy works. Then, we’ll explore its core principles and dive into a few best practices for implementing it effectively.
Let’s get to it.
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What is conversion-centered design?
Conversion-centered design is a framework for creating high-performing digital marketing campaigns. Its primary goal is to create a seamless user and page experience to motivate prospects to take a desired action.
And it does this by maximizing the impact of three core elements. They are:
- Visual cues on a web page
- Psychological triggers to prompt user action
- The fundamentals of web design (text/image/CTA placement, page flow, etc.)
Here’s an example from Hiba Hayek where all those components are in play. For example, the stylized use of hanging jewelry acts as a visual cue. The CTA, placed right in the center, is positioned perfectly to motivate user action.
Finally, the drop-down scroll animation is a subtle call to explore the page.
Now, before we move further, it’s critical to clarify two things in particular.
First, you can apply the principles involved in conversion-oriented design to any marketing-focused digital environment. This includes email campaigns, your landing page copies, newsletters, and even your product pages.
Second, ‘conversion,’ in this context, doesn’t just mean ‘sales.’ Often, it can be simple actions such as:
- Downloading an ebook or case study
- Opting for a free trial or a product demo
- Sharing or reposting content on social media
Put simply, this isn’t a strategy to boost your revenue. That’s not to say that it can’t augment a sales funnel. It can and, in most instances, will generate more leads for your pipeline.
However, it’s best if you treat it as a tool to optimize user interaction with your digital content.
7 principles of conversion-centered design
While it sounds like a broad term, conversion-centered design works based on seven specific rules. And it doesn’t matter what you’re designing. It could be a fashion email marketing campaign or a simple landing page for downloading an app.
The principles always stay the same and are as follows:
- Focus user attention: The idea here is to instantly capture user/prospect attention toward a single conversion goal. This means eliminating unnecessary page elements that don’t contribute towards that objective.
- Build structure: Design your page layout with a clear information hierarchy. That helps visitors ‘naturally flow’ to the desired conversion goal.
- Maintain consistency: Any content you create through this framework must remain consistent with your internal design and branding guidelines. This is where ad and design matching comes into play.
- Visualize the benefits: Clearly communicate the benefits that accompany the ‘conversion’ action. You can use visual cues or compelling headlines to achieve this.
- Direct visitor attention: Utilize design techniques, such as the strategic use of white space or contrasting colors, to emphasize the most crucial elements on your page.
- Design for trust: Your pages must inspire customer trust. To that end, build content credibility by integrating brand logos of high-profile customers, testimonials, certifications, or accreditations.
- Minimize friction: This is all about ensuring a seamless conversion process. In some cases, that could mean redesigning submission forms, optimizing for mobile devices, and improving site responsiveness.
While seemingly simple, these principles can be quite difficult to implement.
So, say you’re designing a landing page for online business coaching or consultancy services. Do you highlight your newsletter to incentivize email subscriptions? Should you present your previous projects with high-profile clients?
These are all valid elements to include. Yet, at what point do they become too much? That’s where the problem lies.
7 best practices for conversion-centered design
Now that you know the principles behind conversion-oriented design, let’s get down to a few best practices when using the framework. To keep things simple and concise, we’ll align each tip to one principle.
1. Aim for a 1:1 attention ratio to create user focus
Every time you create a landing page, there’s a possibility you’re including more elements than necessary. That distracts visitors from the primary campaign goal.
So, start by asking yourself a simple question:
“What’s the singular action that I want users to take when they visit my page?”
Once you have the answer, prioritize segments that only service that goal. A great way to accomplish this is to aim for a 1:1 user attention ratio.
User attention ratio is essentially the number of things a visitor can do vs. should do on a single page. Take a quick peek at one of the landing pages for Discord to understand this better.
The page only presents one option for what visitors can and should do (download the app). More importantly, everything’s consolidated in one space.
You can take this a step further and:
- Remove any unnecessary social, website, or navigation links
- Hide non-essential text with ‘reveal-on-hover’ or collapsible animations
- Present multiple variants of the same action (Download for iOS/Android/Mac)
That said, maintaining a 1:1 user attention ratio isn’t ideal in every scenario. It depends on the landing page you’re designing. For example, your homepage should have multiple tabs that let visitors explore your brand and all the services you offer.
2. Decide on an information hierarchy to build a page layout
Data indicates that the global average for website conversions is 2.35%. Yet, the best-performing pages boast a conversion rate of 11%.
So, what’s the reason behind that disparity?
For one, conversion-centered pages always come with an information hierarchy. This is the order in which you present users with (you guessed it) information about the desired conversion action.
Here, you can begin by identifying:
- What your visitors must know when they visit the page
- Core elements (images/CTAs/links) that are critical to the overall page layout
- The size and logical placement of those components (CTAs must be 2x the copy size)
When that’s done, everything depends on the copy you’re left with.
If there isn’t a lot of it, you’re better off opting for a Z-pattern layout. This is typically how visitors browse through pages that don’t have much textual content. Here’s a basic example using Trello’s homepage:
Play with this layout as you like. Alternate between left and right blocks or indent images where you see fit.
Meanwhile, an F-pattern layout will work well for pages with more text. In this case, users will often start from the top-left, glance at the top-right half of the page, and then scroll through the left side again until they come across a catchy headline or design element.
The New Yorker’s ‘Latest’ section captures this page layout perfectly:
3. Design match and follow branding guidelines to stay consistent
A common practice when creating digital marketing material is to treat them as standalone pages.
That’s a habit you must stay away from.
You see, the purpose of conversion-centered design is to ensure a uniform page and user experience. That can’t happen if your material comes off as disjointed.
Fortunately, this isn’t difficult to achieve. You can ensure parity between your landing pages, email marketing content, and newsletters by using your site as a reference point. Merely lift the primary color palette and typography from there.
Now, if you’re considering automating this process, opt for platforms that at least offer multiple template choices. The top software options also come with generative AI features. This can make customizing your material much easier (if you decide to go down that route).
There’s also the concept of design matching.
Here, you must ensure visual similarity between the ad/link and your landing page. It doesn’t have to be a replica. In fact, importing broad design elements will do just fine.
Take a look at the snapshot below. Both are landing pages (specifically sign-up pages) and stick to a similar layout and color scheme. Yet, there are differences in how the fields are included or the CTAs are placed.
4. Visualize the benefits with a clear ‘hero shot’
A ‘ hero shot’ is the first visual users see on your page.
Naturally, it needs to be appealing to capture visitor attention. However, it must also offer sufficient clarity if you want it to effectively generate leads.
That said, when it comes to such visual cues, you’ve primarily got three options. These include:
- Static images: The ‘default’ for most layouts. Images and photographs, especially ones that showcase your product, can lend credibility to your page copy. The best part? They’re easy to create on your own.
- Illustrations: Custom illustrations are best suited for playful brand personalities. Consider this format only if you want to convey an abstract idea because it may require third-party resources to create.
- Feature videos: These can be an excellent way to highlight nuanced product benefits. Background videos (the ones that automatically play as a user scrolls) are also a great option here. However, this format is the trickiest to execute well.
To offer an example, here’s an illustrated hero shot from a landing page by Doo. It’s simple, effective, and quickly conveys what the app does.
An additional tip is to perform a ‘squint test.’ Merely zoom out of the page and squint your eyes. If you can still tell what the page is about by looking at just the images, you’ve got a solid hero shot to work with.
5. Draw user attention with the effective use of color and white space
Opting for your primary brand colors is the most straightforward design technique. Still, sometimes it’s better to put more thought into choosing your landing page colors.
Specifically, we’re referring to a color wheel and pairings that harmonize well.
A few basic combinations that work well in a conversion-centered design framework are:
- Triadic: A collection of colors that are evenly spaced on the wheel (red/blue/yellow or violet/orange/green)
- Analogous: Combines colors that are directly next to each other to create soothing visuals (yellow/orange/green)
- Monochromatic: Different tints of the same color that offer a clean and angular look
Take Apple as an example. Its website pages mostly follow a monochromatic color scheme to create a minimalistic aesthetic.
Strategic use of white space is something else you can rely on. This is a bit more nuanced and may require a bit more effort on your part. The general idea, though, is to use the space to create visual contrast while maintaining cohesiveness in your overall page format.
A perfect example here would be Tesla’s ‘Accessories’ page.
6. Offer social proof to build customer confidence
You already know the importance of social proof.
In a conversion-centered design framework, though, merely offering social proof isn’t enough. Its placement, position, and framing matter just as much.
So, say you’re incorporating client testimonials in your pages. Don’t just go for a text blurb and leave it at that. Instead, place a high-resolution headshot of the customer next to the quote. That grounds what’s being said and provides users with more context.
To understand this better, take a look at the two following customer testimonials. Which one seems more credible to you?
Another tip is for those considering placing logos of high-profile clients in the copy. If you’re one of them, try to keep things simple. Either desaturate the logos so they aren’t overly distracting or stick to a black-and-white color scheme.
Here’s one such example:
7. Simplify your forms and automate processes to minimize friction
The final principle for ‘closing’ your visitors is to make a conversion action as simple as possible.
For some, that’d mean optimizing sign-up/submission forms. As a rule, you’d want to:
- Use no more than 3-4 fields to collect critical visitor details
- Avoid requesting personal details (Name/Position/Experience) at the first interaction
- Segment submission into a multi-step process to improve completion rates
Here’s an example of a free app trial that only employs two fields and still gets everything across:
Streamlining your copy for mobile devices is also something you should look into. And that goes beyond simply enhancing page load speeds.
In some cases, you may need to rearrange the content entirely. If you do, cut back on anything unnecessary and use a single column that’s roughly 980 pixels wide.
Relying on chatbots for business processes can be helpful too. For instance, you could use them to offer personalized product/service recommendations, resolve user queries before sign-ups, or even collect feedback based on visitor actions.
Bringing conversion-oriented design to life
Create user focus. Build page structure. Remain consistent. Visualize product benefits. Draw visitor attention. Design for customer trust. Minimize friction.
These are the seven principles for conversion-centered design. The tips above can help you implement them effectively in your next marketing campaign. Use them well, and you’ll notice a marked improvement in your content performance.
However, that’s not where it ends. Even though the rules are pretty strict, there’s enough room for you to get creative within the framework. Test new layouts. Create multiple variants for the same copy. You could even publish them at the same time for A/B testing.
After all, the more you experiment here, the better your chances of coming across the ‘perfect’ copy.
