wordpress landing page theme

5 Features You Need in a WordPress Landing Page Theme

Landing pages are one of the most effective marketing tactics you can implement to kickstart your business. For a WordPress landing page theme to truly convince users to take action, you need to make sure that it’s hyper-clear and focused.

It needs to be capable of standing on its own in relation to your website, with no distractions such as unnecessary menus or sidebars. And, naturally, it has to guide the visitor’s thought process smoothly and inevitably towards the action you want them to take.

Great landing pages serve one purpose: to direct visitors to take a specific action. Classic examples include signing up for your newsletter, filling out a form, or making a purchase. These days, luckily, WordPress landing page themes make it very simple to build a landing page that knocks it out of the park.

With that in mind, let’s look at five key features you should insist on.

1. A Great WordPress Landing Page Theme Needs a Flexible Layout

Shaping Rain's Just Landed theme ships with a number of variations.
Shaping Rain’s Just Landed theme ships with a number of variations.

Converting visitors is not a one-size-fits-all process. Depending on your audience, choosing between an all-text layout, one with testimonials, or a video-focused offering could make all the difference.

You’ll need to be able to customize your layout as you go to fit your content and respond to conversion data. Most WordPress landing page themes should provide pre-tested layouts to choose from straight out of the box.

Choosing a theme that provides customizable layout options, in addition to pre-made variations, enables you to modify the design of your landing page with ease. With the flexibility of point-and-click and drag-and-drop interfaces, even non-technical users can create and change landing page layouts in minutes.

2. Customizable Color Scheme Variations

YouLanded theme makes it easy to match your branding with unlimited colors.
The YouLanded theme makes it easy to match your branding with unlimited colors.

The proven psychological effects of color become even more relevant when trying to persuade a visitor to your landing page to do something specific.

It’s essential to use colors that match your brand, create a unified color scheme, and draw attention to the important parts of the page (like the button you want them to click).

Most WordPress landing page themes will come with pre-set color schemes that you can use to get started. These give you something professional looking straight out of the gate with balanced colors and adequate contrast.

If you have particular colors you want to use such as those in your logo, these color schemes may be too restrictive. A good WordPress landing page theme will offer you starter color schemes but also provide easy customization options along with an intuitive color picker.

3. Built-in Responsive Layouts

Themify's Landing theme provides fluid responsive design.
Themify’s Landing theme provides fluid responsive design

Mobile device penetration is skyrocketing. Your website and landing pages simply have to be easily viewable on phones and tablets unless you want to needlessly antagonize the majority of your audience. Getting the user experience right on mobile is particularly crucial.

You need landing pages which function equally well on desktop and mobile by default. A well-built WordPress landing page theme should ensure that, whatever layout is used, it works beautifully on mobile without needing further expensive designer intervention.

4. Available Widgets and Shortcodes

Landing Page theme from Templatic provides a wide range of widgets to customize your page.
Landing Page theme from Templatic provides a wide range of widgets to customize your page.

Your well-thought out words may not be enough on their own to convince visitors to take action. Videos of a product in use or testimonials from previous customers, for example, can strengthen your case by offering convincing detail and social proof.

Most WordPress landing page themes will allow you to use widgets and shortcodes to easily add various types of useful additional information to your page. Strategic use of these goes a long way towards helping your visitors make the right decision.

5. Easy Integration with Email Signup Forms

OptimizePress integrates with most major email marketing providers.
OptimizePress integrates with most major email marketing providers.

Email hasn’t gone away. With people still feverishly checking their inboxes multiple times per day (or even per hour) it remains one of the most high-impact marketing channels out there. Getting visitors to give you their email address is one of the most valuable goals a landing page can achieve.

Copying email addresses from a landing page database to your mailing list is tedious and leaves lots of room for error. The process should really be automatic.

The best WordPress landing page themes should all offer straightforward integration with prominent email marketing tools such as MailChimpAweber and Infusionsoft.

Conclusion

Landing page themes have come a long way in recent years and you should feel comfortable insisting on the five features we’ve highlighted above when making your choice. Let’s briefly recap them. You’re looking for a theme with:

  1. Flexible page layouts.
  2. Customizable color scheme variations.
  3. Built-in responsive layouts.
  4. Available widgets and shortcodes.
  5. Easy integration with popular email marketing tools.

You may well find you need assistance with customizing a particular theme once you’ve selected it. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us here at IvyCat and we’ll be happy to help.

Got a favorite theme you’ve found success with or any questions? Get in touch via the comments and let us know!