{"id":3218,"date":"2023-10-30T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T12:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/?p=3218"},"modified":"2023-11-03T14:57:38","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T18:57:38","slug":"8-proven-strategies-for-effective-higher-education-landing-pages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/blogs\/education\/8-proven-strategies-for-effective-higher-education-landing-pages\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Proven Strategies for Effective Higher Education Landing Pages"},"content":{"rendered":"

Higher education marketers regularly navigate challenges when promoting academic programs and recruiting students. With such a broad recruiting pool, it\u2019s essential to craft messaging across multiple channels that engage prospective students at all touchpoints in their journey.<\/p>\n

Unlike traditional web pages, which feature multiple CTAs and navigation paths, landing pages make it easy to move readers from different channels (typically email or social media) to one place where they are encouraged to take specific action. Well-designed landing pages demonstrate an understanding of audience needs and clearly explain how those needs can be met. The following tips are designed to help you build targeted, concise landing pages that drive engagement.<\/p>\n

8 STRATEGIES FOR BUILDING BETTER LANDING PAGES<\/h2>\n

Each landing page should support a promotional objective \u2013 creating an opportunity to convince a prospective student, donor, or faculty member to take a specific action, like signing up for an event, requesting information about a course, or making a donation. Consider these tips when building your next landing page to ensure it\u2019s user-friendly, drives traffic, and gives visitors the answers they want.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Target Each Page to a Specific Action:<\/strong>\u00a0Landing pages aren\u2019t the same as web pages, so resist the urge to create complex layouts and page navigation. Instead, focus each page on a single piece of information and a related call-to-action, such as requesting info, registering for an open house event, or applying directly to the program. Too many distractions will only keep viewers from completing your intended action.<\/li>\n
  2. Lead With Value Propositions<\/strong>: If you don\u2019t grab a reader\u2019s attention right away, there\u2019s a good chance they\u2019ll look elsewhere. You can accomplish this with a compelling headline and a brief explanation of key benefits. For example, if your landing page promotes a program of study, you could highlight that the program features hands-on learning, leads to internship opportunities, and helps enhance career outcomes. Follow with clear, concise bullet points on why your school\u2019s program is distinctive.<\/li>\n
  3. Showcase Success:<\/strong> It\u2019s perfectly acceptable to \u201cshow off\u201d a little on your landing page. After all, prospective students will want to know how your programs will lead to their success and earning potential, potential faculty would want to know why joining staff supports their career objectives, and alumni would want to understand how their support has made a difference for the university brand over time. By adding standout data, you will reinforce your key messaging. And it never hurts to include quotes from students, faculty, or alumni to further enhance your value proposition.<\/li>\n
  4. Highlight Faculty Expertise:<\/strong> If your landing page is promoting a program or a faculty hiring initiative, remember to highlight points about your faculty\u2019s research, field experience, awards, thought leadership articles, and other accolades. This not only adds credibility to the landing page messaging but also reinforces the broader value of the education your school provides.<\/li>\n
  5. Include Simple, Compelling Copy and Calls to Action.<\/strong> Keep sentences short and to the point. Write in a style that reflects your school\u2019s ideals. Make your calls to action clear \u2013 \u201cMeet with a recruiter,\u201d \u201cEnroll today\u201d or \u201cApply to Study Abroad\u201d \u2013 highlighted as clearly defined buttons with contrasting colors.<\/li>\n
  6. Bring Your School\u2019s Experience to Life:<\/strong>\u00a0No matter the program or initiative, your landing pages should serve as an extension of your school\u2019s branding and student, faculty, or alumni experience. Enhancing page messaging with photos, videos, and testimonials can better connect the landing page intent with the overall school experience. Include video testimonials, quotes and photos, spotlight stories, and surveys to boost prospects\u2019 confidence in your offerings.<\/li>\n
  7. Use a Streamlined, Mobile-Friendly Design:<\/strong>\u00a0Use your school\u2019s branding, colors, and logos, but don\u2019t clutter the page with unnecessary decoration. You should include relevant awards and logos to boost authority and trustworthiness, as long as these elements are part of a clean design that guides readers toward an intended CTA. Also, keep in mind that many people primarily consume content via smartphones. So, be sure your design is optimized for mobile and that the messaging and CTA are legible in a mobile format.<\/li>\n
  8. Test, Test, Test\u2026 Then Test Again:<\/strong> Before you launch your landing page, use optimization platforms such as Google Optimize, HubSpot, or Optimizely to A\/B test page headlines, content, layout, visuals, and CTAs to see which elements draw the most interest and encourage conversions. For good measure, you should also test after your page launches, to determine if improvements need to be made.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    To maximize conversions, design landing pages to provide an exceptional user experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3227,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218\/revisions\/3227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelightstreamgroup.com\/old_bak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}