A landing page, in marketing terms, is a stand-alone page that is separate from the main website. For NonProfits, a landing page promotes the brand’s main objectives and converts visitors to donors.
While the nonprofit’s website may serve a generic purpose, a landing page is concerned with making visitors take a specific action, whether signing on to a mailing list or donating. When building out landing pages and marketing campaigns for NonProfits, VisualFizz takes some core design elements into account.
Elements of a High-Performing Fundraising Landing Page
Before creating a landing page for your nonprofit, consider some elements that are proven to encourage a high conversion rate. Some of these high-converting elements include:
1. Compelling Headlines and Subheadings
Research shows that on average, 8 out of 10 people may read a headline copy, but only 2 of out the 10 would proceed to read the other parts of the content. People generally have low attention spans and may not be willing to read whatever they perceive isn’t interesting or worth their time.
For maximum conversion, your headlines must grab the attention of visitors because that’s the only way to make users follow your Calls-to-Action (CTAs). These headlines should not be lost in the overall design, so pay special attention to them.
Your headlines should be clear and concise, effectively conveying what you do. They should also highlight how you solve problems.
Make each heading level throughout your landing page consistent. Avoid floating headlines– your headline should be farther from the text before it and closer to the text after it.
2. Passionate Body Text
The aim of your website copy is not to address customer pain points. Instead, your main body text should make visitors feel strong emotions. After all, donating is often triggered by emotions.
Tell compelling stories in your main body text, and give your website visitors a vision and idea of what happens after they complete a conversion action.
Communicate what impact the user’s donation(s) will have. Share testimonials, infographics, and stories from real-life beneficiaries. However, ensure that you seek the user’s permission before publishing their name and picture.
In this section, your site can address any doubts visitors may have and answer any questions lingering in their minds. These include, “Once I donate, what next?” and “What should I expect after signing up for this mailing list?”
To make it easy, outline a list of possible objections people may have to your program. Then, address each one of them on the landing page.
3. A Powerful Call to Action
Every statement on your landing page should serve one purpose—to drive visitors to make a financial contribution. When people see your landing page, they will have one question in mind: “What should I do here?”
Provide powerful CTAs that provide clear directions to visitors. Nonprofits have different conversion actions, with “donate” being the most popular, as you can’t keep your doors open without charitable donations.
However, since there is money is involved, your call to action will require high levels of commitment and trust. For better conversion rates, personalize the CTA, the touch the visitor’s conscience.
Further, present a clear view of what happens after they click the CTA button. Will they get a donation receipt? Will they get a personalized video from the founder?
Then, make the contact option visible so that visitors can contact you if they want to.
4. Prioritize Clarity
When it comes to designing amazing nonprofit landing pages, the need for clarity cannot be overemphasized. As basic as this seems, this is the point where many nonprofits make mistakes.
For example, it’s popular these days to have background displays (videos or text) on landing pages. While these may be aesthetically pleasing, they can make texts hard to read.
Without a doubt, visuals matter, and creativity is important. However, they should not come at the expense of clarity. There must be a balance between visual appeal and clarity, readability, and precision.
You can start with using simple vocabulary, one that makes your copy an eighth-grade readability level. Reduce jargon and hyperboles by cutting out most adjectives on your landing page.
Overall, make sure there’s nothing on your nonprofit landing page that stresses the visitor to think. Everything should be clear enough that the older man down the street should understand what you want him to do on your page.
Credit: CarmenMurillo on istockphoto
5. Make Donation Forms Easy to Fill
For most non-profits, landing pages double as donation pages. Even if it doesn’t have a large “donate now” banner, it will still, in some way, encourage the site visitors to give.
So, no matter how well-designed a non-profit’s landing page is, conversion rates will be low if the donation form is complicated. The donation form on a non-profit’s landing page must be simple enough for site visitors to fill out without assistance.
Ask for only the necessary information in the form because the user may get tired from spending too much time filling it out.
6. Make Landing Pages Readable and Responsive
When visiting a non-profit’s landing page for the first time, the user is not necessarily looking to read the displayed texts. Users are probably checking out several organizations to see which stands out.
That said, users are likely to browse through a series of texts instead of reading through them. As a result, a nonprofit’s landing page needs to be readable to stand out.
One way non-profits can do this is by creating visual hierarchies, as one of the tenets of readability is placing the important information first. Then, replace short paragraphs with bulleted lists—while these may seem unprofessional, bullet lists convert better.
Another way is to stay consistent. There are certain words users expect to see on the site, like “sign up” or “donate now.” The average user is accustomed to seeing the donation button on the top right corner of nonprofit landing pages.
So, it’s also advisable to place a donate button there. The only time non-profits are advised to deviate from standard practices like these is if there is a new and better way of doing things.
Apart from making landing pages readable, they need to be responsive. This means that the landing page has an excellent display on every device. It’s difficult to predict what device users will visit the non-profit website from, and if the site is not mobile-friendly, non-profits can lose out on valuable donations.
For what it’s worth, 70% of internet users are likely to return to a responsive page optimized for mobile and other devices, and 60% won’t recommend a page with a poor mobile user experience.
Read more about Best Practices for NonProfit Landing Page design: https://www.giveforms.com/blog/nonprofit-landing-page-design-best-practices-and-tips-2022
Conclusion
Many barriers prevent donors from giving, and your landing page should not be one of them. It should help you to achieve your nonprofit goals and convert website visitors to long-term supporters.
Implement the nonprofit landing page strategies above, start converting, and make a better impact than before.
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