Testing and optimizing the conversion of your landing page can be frustrating.
But you have to do it. You’re leaving too much money on the table if you don’t. A lot of time the conversion has NOTHING to do with the content on the page. I mean, who reads that stuff anyway? 
Eye flow, font size, and button colors impact the success of your call to action. So while you can start with the basics you’ll need to test if you want to wring the last bit of conversion (aka money) out of the page. And that testing should start with the design and layout – not the copy.
(NB: if your copy truly sucks putty balls then you are screwed in a totally different way. Thankfully, most people don’t actually read – they skim. So as long as you focus on benefits and “what’s in it for them” even bad copy can convert)
The fine folks over at Unbounce put together a “7 Habits” (actually 8 in this case — the +1 must be a Google thing!) guide to landing page design. My favorite part was about PLANNING:
- Create a “Design Document” for your Landing Page, using this design document template to start. This is where you will document the content that will live on the page.
- In your design document, create an outline of the landing page content. Include:
- Audience profile
- Audience pain
- Product or service solution. Create a list of features and benefits.
- Conversion goal
- Potential Headlines
- Supporting sub-headlines and content modules
- Call to Action
- For each of the above items, make a note of imagery and/or video that will help deliver the message
- Once you have defined each of these elements, sketch out your landing page on paper. Create several potential layouts for the content you’ve outlined, then pick one as your starting point.
- Do all of the above before before hopping into Photoshop or your Landing Page publishing platform.
You want to read the whole article, It’s packed with good examples of landing page design tweaks that increased conversions.
8 Ways Your Landing Page Design Is Sabotaging Your Click Through Rate