If you think landing pages serve conversion, you’re thinking about it in B2C terms, where sales are direct and immediate. In B2B, where a sale takes a longer time to close, a better landing page metric is click-throughs. That is, for a software vendor landing pages are effective to generate leads, not to convert a sale. In fact, a MarketingSherpa study showed that 68% of B2B businesses use landing pages to get new sales leads for future conversion.

In short, B2B landing pages are useful to generate subscription for free trial, white paper, webinars, or case studies. It’s important to be clear about that goal distinction because your landing page’s success hangs on it. Below are the 6 great tricks used by successful B2B vendors to craft their effective landing pages.

1. One main message

The landing page should only have one main message: your goal. The rest of the copy is all about reinforcing that single message. Is it to offer a free trial? Download a white paper? Attend a webinar?

However, it doesn’t mean that if you’re offering a free trial you should not present other offers. You can, but as a supplement to your main offer. For example, a case study of a satisfied client complements a free trial offer. Keep in mind though that a downloadable industry report can take the prospect’s attention away from the free trial offer, or vice-versa. The important thing is to focus your offers with one goal in mind.

Divide your message between a compelling headline and body. Your headline should right away tell prospects your value proposition, the main benefit of your offer to them. The body should not repeat the head, but expound the proposition into specific benefits.

Likewise, keep the body short and concise by breaking paragraphs or long sentences into bite-size pieces using bullet lists, violators, and blurbs.

2. Clear Call To Action

Inciting prospects to like your offer with compelling headline and body is half the battle won; the other half is to move them into action. To do this, make sure to have a clear to action (CTA) button, which leads prospects to fulfilling your landing page’s goal.

If you want a free trial opt-in, place a clear CTA that tells prospects to subscribe to a free trial. Many copywriters and advertising people swear that the lower right corner is the best place for CTAs because it’s the last section that our eyes usually see. In short, you want the prospects’ last action on your landing page to be clicking on that button to achieve the goal.

Likewise, be specific about the action to be taken by prospects. Don’t just write “free trial” but use active verbs, such as, “get,” “enjoy,” or “subscribe,” to create a sense of urgency.

3. Trust seals

Trust seals are a mark of approval granted by a credible third party, which increases user trust in your brand. It signals to prospects that the company has been verified and found to follow certain industry standards. An example of this is BBB and McAfee.

On the other hand, a trust seal can also indicate that the online platform is technically secure from hacks, guaranteeing privacy. Norton is the most popular of this type.

Another type is a specialist trust seal, which focuses specifically on an industry or set of products. One advantage of this seal over broad-based trust marks is that it understands the specific issues particular to the niche. For example, in B2B one of the great trust marks is the Verified Quality Seal provided by ab popular B2B review platform FinancesOnline. It’s unique because, unlike a technical or general trust mark, this seal goes one step further to validate the quality of specific business solutions and the vendor’s reliability to provide support. For B2B researchers, seeing a niche trust seal like the Verified Quality Seal is like getting the opinion of a specialist doctor who understands their unique medical case. If you’re interested in improving credibility of your product you can easily request the quality seal here.

An overview of the FinancesOnline Verified Quality Seal details.

4. Testimonial quotes

Prospects know that they are anecdotal and subject to manipulation, but as supplement to other trust elements on your landing page, testimonials give that small nudge to tilt prospects’ decision in your favor.

The real value of testimonials is not to show prospects that your offer is great, but to empathize with their situation. Once prospects realize that you understand their situation, they’ll be more attentive. That’s why you shouldn’t just use testimonials with general shoutouts proclaiming that your product is great or awesome, rather, pick quality quotes to display on the landing page. Be specific. For instance, prospects who read a testimonial about how a live chat app resulted to an increase of inquiries in a customer’s website by 50% will have a clear picture how that app can help them, too.

You can get testimonials in two ways. First, search across your social mentions and amplify the best ones. There are a lot of CRM solutions that speed up this process by collating your company and brand mentions with just a single click. Second, you can ask for testimonials from your happy set of customers. Give them a token of good will–a free month of subscription or add-on, perhaps–to motivate them to share their positive experience.

Make sure to quote only the juiciest part of the testimonial, up to ten words, maybe, to avoid cluttering the landing page.

5. Show your social media page links

Just like trust seals and testimonials, your Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter act as social proof or third-party opinions that impact on your credibility.

If you have a strong following, display social media buttons on your landing page to show prospects that other people have already come across you and, at the least, they’re not complaining.

People, being social animals, act on a bandwagon or crowd mentality. When we see others are into something, we feel less anxious to try that something, too. That’s why social media is not just for B2C. If you haven’t yet, now is the good time to start building your social network to generate social proof for your product.

6. Be transparent about privacy and policy

Unless you’re a well-known brand, bear in mind that prospects, by default, will doubt your offer when they land on your page. Adding privacy and policy links on your landing page can ease user anxiety. It signals to them your transparency.

Even if you’re just asking for an email address, make sure your privacy and policy terms are clear. Making the terms clear also allows you to avoid a misunderstanding, where a prospect might think receiving future emails from you after subscribing to a free trial is spamming.

CONCLUSION
The tips above are the most basic trust-building elements your landing page should have. Skip one or two and you run the risk of losing what little amount of trust prospects have in vendors that they never heard of.