Landing pages are a great conversion tool for email marketers. The prospects who land on a landing page are provided with targeted information and a strategically placed CTA can convert them into leads. Understanding how a landing page works and how to create landing pages is important as 44% of B2B marketers redirect their customers to the homepage instead of a landing page (MECLABS) and 77% of marketers treat their homepage as the landing page (Nifty Marketing).
Another blasphemous mistake that certain marketers tend to commit is creating a wall of text, paired with a signup, a CTA button, and calling it a landing page. People landing there are discouraged at the very first glance and would exit as soon as possible. For the content paired with images, users are 80% more likely to read it (Xerox), and including visuals in your landing page will surely improve the conversion rates.
In this article, we shall deep dive into the alluring world of visuals in landing pages and certain psychological traits involved in using certain visuals.
Psychological Traits – Why to use Visuals in Landing Pages
As we stated earlier, people are 80% more likely to read content paired with images. This is because the human brain processes image 60,000 times faster than text. So, as soon as someone reaches your landing page, their eyes automatically are drawn towards the image and once that is registered, they move towards the text. Some more psychological traits associated with visuals are:
- People remember 80% of what they see, 20% of what they read, and 10% of what they hear. (Venngage)
- Humans process an image within 150 milliseconds and take another 100 milliseconds to associate any meaning to it. (FIAS)
- A face is mostly the first thing people observe in any image. (Science Daily)
- People tend to follow the line of sight of people in the image. So marketers use images where the people are looking towards the call to action. (Wikipedia)
- Subtle animations tend to draw more attention than obvious movements
- People tend to associate the emotions depicted by the image with the product
Now that we are aware of some of the psychological intentions behind using visuals on a landing page, let’s learn which kind of visuals work best in landing pages…
Types of Visuals to Use in Landing Pages
Icons and Illustrations
Breaking away from the standard practice of using images and photographs, illustrations provide a fun and creative angle to your landing page designs. Since these are an abstract form of art, the only limitation would be the time invested but in return, you get the ability to visually represent your idea via illustrations. These are a simpler option when compared to organizing a photoshoot and all you need is an illustrator.
Static Photographs
Photographs and images are a great way to visually represent what would take a paragraph of text to explain. When you have an image complementing the text, people are more prone to take notice and read it. Moreover, when you show relevant images or images of the product in real life, people are easily able to make the association as they are able to bridge the empathy gap. Moreover, as we stated earlier, people tend to follow directional cues by following the line of sight of the person in the image (implicit clue) or when the person is pointing in a direction (explicit clue).
Explainer Videos
Videos are trending for the past 5 years. An average person spent 84 minutes every day watching online videos in 2019 and it will rise to 100 mins in 2021 (Source). Moreover, including a relevant video on your landing page can increase the overall conversion by 86%. The video can act as an explainer video, highlight reel of your services, a testimonial from customers, a slideshow of your products, etc. The only thing to consider here is that the video needs to lead the visitor to the actionable CTA for maximum conversion potential.
Animated GIF
While videos are great for engaging visitors, sometimes, low bandwidth may play spoilsport. Animated GIFs can come to rescue at such moments in creating video-like experience without the higher bandwidth requirements. Moreover, with the rise in the use of memes, GIFs are a great way to share fun and interactive content on your landing page. Popular GIF sharing platform, Giphy reported that more than 500 million active users spend a collective 11 billion hours watching GIFs (Oracle).
Charts or Graphs
Charts or Graphs are a great pictorial way to represent data without sounding too academic. When you use graphs in a landing page, you manage to explain complicated statistics or data in a visual form.
Wrap Up
In a nutshell, landing pages are a part of your webpages (but are not homepages) and so should maintain the design consistent with your other pages while using visuals. This not only helps make a good impression but also helps in captivating visitors and pushing them in the correct direction. Never choose a visual just for the aesthetics alone, it should have a strategic position in your overall landing page design. Let your next landing page design be influenced by this article. Check out the latest infographic by email uplers to learn more. 
Source: How to Use Visual Elements in Landing Page to Boost Conversions
