For institutions of higher education, a strong digital presence is no longer optional—it’s essential. Landing pages are a critical tool for schools looking to meet their goals, such as attracting prospective students, encouraging campus visit registrations, and increasing enrollment rates.
When thoughtfully designed, these pages can guide users seamlessly through the decision-making process. We’ll explore how a combination of strategic content and user-experience design can transform higher education landing pages into high-converting assets.
Understanding the Unique Goals of Higher Ed Landing Pages
Unlike e-commerce or general marketing pages, higher education landing pages have specific objectives tailored to the institution’s mission and audience. Below are common goals schools aim for and tips to align landing pages with each one.
Attracting Prospective Students
A landing page focusing on attracting potential students should highlight what sets your institution apart. Emphasize unique and prestigious programs, cutting-edge facilities, vibrant aspects of campus life, and relevant student success stories to engage first-time visitors. Compelling visuals and concise messaging will also aid in engaging users.
Encouraging Registrations for Campus Visits
With campus visits being a key step in the decision-making process for a prospective student, generating materials that encourage them to attend can help institutions drive visits and, consequently, enrollments numbers. Engaging hero images, interactive campus maps, and compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) can encourage potential students to take this critical step.
Promoting Specific Programs & Events
Landing pages for particular programs and events can serve both prospective and current students. The more specific and tailored the landing page is for each program, event, or offering – such as a graduate degree, summer courses, study abroad, or open houses – the better. Focused messaging helps you more accurately target a niche audience.
Boosting Application & Enrollment Rates
Applying to college can feel overwhelming, but it’s arguably the most important step in the whole process – for students and for schools. Simpler landing pages with clear CTAs in this category are often more effective. Streamline the process with intuitive forms, clear deadlines, and step-by-step guidance. Effective CTAs can additionally nudge users toward conversion.
How Design & Structure Impact User Journeys & Conversions
A well-designed landing page has the potential to be more than just an element of visual appeal; it’s a gateway to a seamless user journey. Design and structure influence both the visitor’s experience and your conversion rates.
Above all, remember that first impressions matter. When someone arrives on your landing page, they’ll automatically start to form an opinion – not just about the page, but also about your institution as a whole – within seconds. A clean, professional design builds trust and encourages them to explore further.
Building an intuitive website navigation is also critical for promoting a smooth user journey and helping a site visitor get from point A to point Z, without unnecessary detours or interruptions. Ensure users can easily find important information like tuition costs, program details, and application forms. Features like breadcrumb trails and well-organized menus can simplify the navigation journey
In line with maintaining a smooth and seamless user journey, be sure to avoid "dead ends" on both your landing pages and throughout your site as a whole. When it comes to your landing pages, the user should always have a clear idea of the next step to take with links to additional information or a compelling and persuasive CTA. At each level of your site, every page should be connected to another. The copy and design should guide users toward the next step, whether it’s learning more about a program, scheduling a campus visit, or starting an application.
Being intentional with your layout and visual hierarchy can also enhance your overall strategy. Your headlines, subheadings, and visuals don’t only communicate your main message, they can also guide users’ eyes to the most important sections of the page, all the way to the CTA.
Keeping the design of the page simple and efficient can help reduce cognitive load for site visitors, decrease overwhelm, and improve focus. Content should be scannable, with long blocks of text broken up with bulleted lists of visuals. A clean layout with plenty of white space helps visitors digest information while still focusing on the most important elements of the page.
The 6 Key Elements of an Effective Landing Page for Higher Ed
An effective landing page combines engaging content with thoughtful design. Here are the six must-have elements:
1. Compelling Headline
Your headline is the first thing visitors see. It should clearly communicate the value of your institution or program while sparking curiosity and addressing prospective students’ aspirations. A good way to think about crafting a headline – and much of the copy on your landing page as a whole – is to make sure you’re highlighting benefits rather than features.
“Build Your Future,” for example, is framed as a benefit to a prospective student. “20+ Academic Programs,” on the other hand, is a feature of a particular school.
2. Captivating Hero Image and Visuals
Visuals play a powerful role in capturing attention and evoking emotion. Use high-quality images or videos that showcase your campus, student life, or faculty expertise. Visual content should always be original and specific to your institution to showcase your branding and values.
3. Clear and Persuasive CTAs
Your CTAs should be specific, action-oriented, and easy to spot. Examples include “Schedule Your Campus Tour,” “Learn More About Our Programs,” or “Start Your Application.” A user that lands on your page should never be confused about what they’re supposed to do next. To achieve this, keep your landing pages focused on a single call-to-action (CTA) throughout the page, ensuring clarity and avoiding distractions that might dilute the user’s decision-making process.
4. Mobile-First, UX-Driven Design
More and more users are accessing content on their mobile devices. This makes responsive design more important than ever. Your landing page should load quickly and function seamlessly on screens of all sizes. It’s critical that this be considered at the design stage so any layout changes can be accounted and planned for.
5. Social Proof and Testimonials
Including stories from current students, alumni, and/or faculty can help build trust with prospective students. Spotlight quotes, photos, or videos that reinforce the credibility of your institution and help them understand what life will be like on campus or if they enroll in a specific program.
6. Optimized Forms
Keep forms simple by minimizing the number of required fields, ideally aiming for 3-5. Long, complicated forms can deter users from completing them, so the more you can reduce friction at any point in the conversion process, the better. Only asking what is absolutely necessary will help keep the form fields concise.
Crafting Landing Pages for a Digitally Immersed Audience
Today’s incoming college students are digital natives who expect seamless, intuitive online experiences. They consume content differently, valuing speed, personalization, and authenticity in their digital interactions. To grab and keep their attention, it’s critical to meet them where they are.
Ensure your landing pages load quickly and function smoothly on all devices. Slow or unresponsive pages can lead to high bounce rates. Where possible, you should also leverage any available data to deliver personalized experiences, such as tailored messaging based on user behavior or geographic location.
To build trust and familiarity with this audience that prioritizes authenticity over almost everything else, maintain a cohesive design and look across any advertisements, landing pages, application portals, or other marketing materials you use. Gen Z wants to feel like they know you. Let them.
Measuring Success & Making Improvements: Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
It doesn't end with designing, developing, and launching your landing page. To ensure your landing pages are performing at their best, it’s important to continuously measure how they’re doing and further refine them. This is called conversion rate optimization (CRO).
To truly optimize your landing pages, you first have to understand what you’re optimizing for. Take time to decide which metrics are most important and what success looks like for you, then define your KPIs. Consider tracking metrics such as bounce rates, time spent on page, and conversion rate to evaluate how a page is performing.
Once you have your KPIs defined, you can develop various tests to determine the best optimizations. With A/B testing, you can experiment with different headlines, CTAs, visuals, and layouts to identify the most effective combinations.
After you’ve run a test, leverage tools like Google Analytics to understand which version(s) performed best and uncover insights about user behavior. Armed with this information, you can further refine your user journey and address any bottlenecks you’re finding in the conversion funnel where users are dropping off.
Optimize Your Landing Page with Acevox
As experts in higher education marketing, Acevox has mastered creating high-quality, compelling content that converts. We can help create marketing content that maximizes your engagement and audience impact.
Whether it’s crafting content displayed on your school’s site, or conducting audits to help pinpoint areas of improvement within your website’s structure or design, the Acevox team can help you bolster your digital presence for a positive and impactful user experience.
An external perspective allows us to pinpoint what’s working – and what’s not. We can quickly identify areas of potential growth and make strategic recommendations for improvement. We know that each school is different, so we bring a tailored solution to working with each of our partners to maximize impact.
Discover how working with Acevox can help you strengthen your landing pages, from content to design.
