Single pages with focused, streamlined content are more popular than ever. In many cases, these are really examples of landing pages and have a common agenda: to drive visitors to a specific desired action such as submitting their information. Where a conventional landing page may be an information-dense, single page exploration of a topic, a streamlined page gets right to the most desired action. From a functional web design perspective it’s a fine-tuned, specialized instrument, rather than the general purpose tool that is your main site.

Believe it or not, pulling back on content can actually encourage more participation, not less. Content is valuable, but it can also become a distraction. In some cases, you may end up with visitors who regularly explore your content and hit their Back buttons because deep content slows their momentum toward the goal. Nevertheless, your streamlined page needs a friendly, appealing feel. How do you get there with less content? Let’s look at five tips:

Essential Content: Pull back on deep content, but don’t ignore the content you do need. Your copy should convey the maximum amount of information in the fewest words possible, and should drive readers to submit information and perform another desired action. Don’t try to be too clever; it’s okay to just tell them to do it.

Instant Gratification: Visitors need an immediate reward for submitting information or otherwise acting. It needs to have real value as well as push forward your marketing goals. Provide a white paper, widget or other benefit instantly. Even if your sales funnel involves close contact, give visitors an immediate taste of the positive rewards of your call. This way, you overcome hesitation once they’re on the verge of making contact.

Minimal Forms: Make your forms short and sweet. If you need more information you can make the effort from your end later, but your form should have no more than four fields or so.

Single Topic: Stick to one message. You may provide every product or service under the sun, but stick to those you really want to boost. Save broader initiatives until after the initial contact or make a separate page for each.

Sociability: Give visitors the ability to share the site via social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. When you provide an immediate reward for filling out a simple form, you create portable appeal; visitors feel safe sharing it because they know their friends will get something out of a brief visit.

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