A nonprofit’s landing page in the ideal sense refers to the web page where donors can arrive at or land on. Also called a ‘lander’ or ‘destination page’, the major goal of this page is to transform viewers into leads. Media Cause defines Landing Page as “A standalone web page distinct from your main website that has been designed with a single focused objective in mind.” To design this page, nonprofits should have a detailed plan, creative design and an all-inclusive strategic approach.
Home Page and Landing Page – The Difference
Mike Lieberman, CEO, Square 2 Marketing highlights that a good website design of Nonprofits should engage people at three levels– Awareness Stage, Consideration Stage and Decision Making Stage. The first stage should provide information about mission and objectives of the organization. The second stage should highlight activities, work being implemented and the third stage should compel the viewers to act.
A Home Page provides essential information about the strategy, goals and organizational objectives of a nonprofit, creates an ‘awareness’ and connects people to its cause or mission. Research By Nielsen Norman Group and Google and Microsoft reveal that users spend 10 to 20 seconds or even less time on a good home page which offers clear value proposition. Thus homepage with its navigation links emotionally connects the user to their website.
On the other hand, a Landing Page is specific. This page enables the users to take decisions. This should be a compelling well-organized page which shall convert users/visitors as a lead to cultivate them in the future too. The visitors have navigated through the home page with a fair idea of what the nonprofit is doing, and the landing page must have a concise narrative without any navigation keys to convert the users’ thoughts into action.
Donors Destination – Landing Page
A Landing Page is a digital tool for nonprofits to create targeted donation pages. For nonprofits it is of significant importance to have a persuasive landing page which shall attract donors. The key is not ‘talking at’ donors but rather engaging them with a humanitarian feature and the ultimate impact of the outreach of the nonprofit’s campaign or programme.
The Design of a Landing Page
To make the landing page convincing and increase conversion rates of probable viewers to definite donors, it is essential to have certain key elements:
- Minimum distractions
- Strong commanding headlines
- Depict benefit based words
- Have a conversational tone
- Good design with catchy captions
- Reduce barriers of various tabs, navigation buttons or clicks
- Specific Information Dissemination
The Landing Page should be ultra specific. The headlines or the company’s tagline should be precise. It should not be complicated to confuse or intimidate the donors. The headline should not get lost in the design of the page. Detailed stories or objectives are not required. Research by Kissmetrics reveals that ‘by removing redundant stories and unnecessary details’, the focus on landing page increases by 62%.
- Enhance Your Call To Action
To attract donors online, nonprofits’ Landing Page should strike an emotional chord with the viewer. Avoid generic statements, instead use adjectives that vividly describe the campaign and highlight the reasons donors should invest. Encyclopaedia Britannica increased its conversion rates by 103% simply by modifying the e-commerce sales page. The ‘Click to Action’ button should stand in sharp contrast in colour from the body of the text with a usage of word like ‘Click Here’ or ‘Donate’, instead of ‘Submit’. Donations are not submitted.
- Explain the Purpose of the Page
Don’t be vague, come straight forward with the message. Make the donors understand the purpose of the page. One Landing Page should have one primary purpose and not divert the attention of the donors with several Call of Actions. Focus to gain their confidence by giving proof of your social cause. Share some fact sheets and statistics. Provide confidence to donors by weaving a conversational tone. For example, Pathfinder International clearly highlights want it wants from its donors.
On the other hand, Charity:Water, does not clearly specify the purpose in its headline. Though it mentions the objectives in the sub- sentence, the connect through an image or captivating words is missing.
- Keep the Landing Page Free From Barriers
The Nonprofits should attempt to keep the donors on the Landing Page. There should be no sidebars or any navigation tabs which at a click shall take the donors away from the page. Kissmertics states that an increase of 100% has been experienced by HubSpot by merely removing the top navigation bars. Smile Foundation’s Donation page has all the navigation tabs which are also present on the home page at the top and bottom. This might take away the attention of the donors from the main objective.
Case Study – ‘Moz’ Webapp Site
Nonprofits can benefit a great deal by evolving, improving their goals and objectives and by prioritizing what they want from donors by adopting simple value addition tactics on the Landing Page. Here’s how Moz, a provider of tools and resources for online marketing, generated 52% improvement in sales and is in the list of Fortune 500 clients only due to Landing Page optimization.
- They focused on creating a page long enough to tell an engaging story.
- Stimulated reader’s interest through a headline with a punch and which would infuse curiosity.
- Explained clearly about their digital tools and what paid members can benefit.
- A section of testimonials from professional SEO specialists was added
- The page was augmented with a video message and turned the attention of clients into offers.
These simple strategies were complemented with an offer of a 30-day full featured membership for just $1. A feedback was taken from non – subscribers as to why viewers did not accept even a $1 membership. Moz focussed on persuasion and retention strategies by evolving involvement mechanisms to help viewers/customer derive value from their service. These helped Moz “achieve a conversion increase of around 170% over four months and generate more than $1 million in additional revenue.”
Quick Do’s for an Effective Landing Page
Simple measures can make the Landing page of Nonprofits attractive and give confidence to the donors to be a lead and convert their sentiments and reactions into action.
- Make the donor feel important. Connect with them by using ‘You’ in your tag line instead of ‘We’
- Do not put any graphics which is not remotely associated with your cause.
- Make the main image powerful, let the picture speak and instil emotions.
- The interface should not be a multi-step process. Unbounce shows that despite a good landing page, World Vision is confusing the donors with the goal. The click button on ‘Sponsor Drissa Now’ gets the attention of the donor but right below ‘Find a Child to Sponsor’ with so many extra fields might just make the visitors loose the page.
A donor attractive Landing Page should have CLARITY, Be SPECIFIC and have an APPEALING and COMPELLING factor. As Oli Gardener, Unbounce Co- Founder states ‘Clarity beats clever every time when it comes to high-converting landing pages’.