Anything You Need to Know About Landing Pages and How it Can Help Your Business
In today’s marketing work, a lot of effort goes into driving visitors to websites through various channels such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media, email marketing, and paid to advertise such as PPC (pay-per-click) or display advertising.
Converting visitors is the main purpose of having a website. Thus, once visitors are on a website, it is important to lead them down the conversion path by providing relevant and targeted content that speaks to their needs.
This is where landing pages come in!
Table of Contents
What is a Landing Page on a Website?
A landing page is a specific page on your website that is designed to convert visitors into leads or customers. It is generally a standalone page that is distinct from your website’s home page.
Visitors “land” on this page after clicking on a link from another page on your site, an email campaign, a social media post, or an advertisement.
Unlike a homepage, a landing page is structured and designed with a single, specific conversion goal in mind.
This could be anything from subscribing to a newsletter, offering ebooks or whitepaper downloads, registering for a webinar or demo, or making a purchase.
The most common criteria that a landing page follows is that it is commonly designed with a form that asks visitors for their contact information in exchange for something of value, like an e-book, report, coupon, or webinar registration.
It doesn’t contact complex or unnecessary navigation, and it generally removes any links to other parts of the website so that visitors can’t get distracted.
How Do Landing Pages Work?
A call-to-action (CTA) is where everything starts. When a person happens to stumble on your website or is directed there from another page, an email, or an ad, they will see some sort of CTA that invites them to take the desired action.
For example, a CTA could be a button that says “Download My Free E-Book” or “Register Now for My Upcoming Webinar.”
When the visitor clicks on the CTA, they are taken to the landing page where the person is led to sign up or fill out a form with their contact information.
From there, the information collected from the form will go through your database where you can further market to them through email or other channels including but not limited to:
- Retargeting ads
- Email nurture sequences
- Special offers
- Relevant blog content
One of the most popular tools in the digital marketing space today is HubSpot. If you use such a tool, HubSpot will provide you with a detailed overview of what and how people interact with your landing pages and what’s working and not working.
These details will enable you to map out or strategize your marketing and sales funnel to close more deals based on data rather than guessing.
Important note: In lead generation, a nurtured lead is more likely to turn into a sale than a non-nurtured lead.
This is because when you have their contact information, you can build a relationship with them and offer relevant information that leads them further down your sales funnel.
The Conversion Process
A landing page is arguably the most important factor when it comes to the conversion process. But, to create a successful landing page, there are a few key elements that must be in place.
CTA (Call-to-Action)
A call-to-action (CTA) is what will drive people to your landing page in the first place. CTAs are commonly found on your website’s page where the content correlates with the CTA.
For example, if you have a blog post about “How To Create a High-Converting Landing Page” and at the end of the blog, there is a CTA that says “Click here to download our free e-book on landing pages,” then that would be an effective use of a CTA.
This is applicable basically to all types of pages or content such as health where you can take a quiz to help you figure out the best health plan for you.
The more that the CTA reflects what the landing page is offering, the more effective it will be.
Landing Page
The landing page is where the actual form is located where customers or visitors will input their contact information and other asked details in exchange for what you’re offering.
A well-designed landing page will be very concise and to the point, encouraging people to take the desired action.
Thank You Page
Once done filling out the form, visitors will be redirected to the thank you page. The thank you page is a good place to put additional offers or CTAs so that visitors can take further action. This is also where the downloadable item located that they signed up for.
A “download now” button is often integrated into the thank you page.
What You Need Before Creating a Landing Page
Planning should take place before designing or constructing the actual landing page. There are several factors to consider when planning to create a landing page.
The following list will give you an idea of what needs to be considered.
The Buyer Persona(s)
A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. You want to consider who would be most interested in what you’re offering and what their needs are.
Creating buyer personas will help you understand your target audience much better. You can base this on market research or your existing customer data so you can better understand what they’re looking for.
Customer behavior plays a critical role in the decision-making process, so this data will be very valuable when planning your landing page.
If you’re a business owner, you probably already have an idea of what types of customers buy your products or services. This will give you more advantages on how to start.
The Offer
The offer can be anything outside your products and services. From e-books and webinar links to video series, the offer must be something that is of value to your target audience and helps them in some way.
Knowing the pain points of your target audience is a good place to start developing an offer that will attract and convert them.
The Buyer’s Journey
Another thing to consider is the buyer’s journey. Simply put, the buyer’s journey is the process that your potential customers go through before they make a purchase.
There are three stages to the buyer’s journey — let’s go through them to better understand how they will affect your landing page.
Awareness Stage
In this stage, the buyer is aware that they have a problem or a need that must be addressed. They might be under the stress of researching to find the best solution possible.
That is where content such as e-books, guides, and whitepapers that specifically tackle their problem comes in. With potential customers in this stage, your offer must be something that will help them become more aware of their problem and the best solution.
Consideration Stage
The consideration stage is basically where the customer or visitor defines their problem and is now looking for the best solution to solve it. The recommended types of content offered at this stage are webinars, videos that showcase your product in action, and free trials.
Decision Stage
This is where customers filter their options and finally decide on what to purchase. Also, the decision stage is where they know the solution and the right approach to dealing with their problem.
At this stage, content such as pricing pages, product comparisons, and case studies are most effective in closing the deal.
Building a Great Landing Page
After all the considerations have been made, it’s time to start building the landing page. While many companies do what they think will work best on their end, there is a special recipe that proves to be effective on most landing pages.
Landing Page Best Practices
The Headline
The headline is not there to just label the page. The headline should be able to get the attention of the visitor and make them want to stay on the page.
A great headline should be eye-catching and to the point. This is the first thing your prospect will see on the page, so make sure it’s something that will make them want to stay.
Putting Value on Your Offer
Depending on how you deliver or support your offer, it might be a good idea to put some value on it.
For example, if you’re giving away an e-book, you can put the value of the e-book in terms of how much it would cost if they were to buy it from a store.
This will help prospects understand the offer better and see that it’s something of value. Apply the “blink test” on your offer. This means you have only a few seconds to capture their attention, so make sure your offer can do just that.
Include Bullet Points
We mainly see bullet points in a blog post or service page of a website to list the features of what is being talked about in the content.
For landing pages, bullet points are a great way to quickly give your prospect an overview of what they will be getting should they decide to take advantage of your offer. This is also a good way to highlight the key features and benefits of your offer.
Moreover, it eliminates lengthy paragraphs that might bore your prospect and could make them leave the page.
Don’t Go Overboard on Your Form
Your form should consist of the necessary information that you need from your prospect. The rule of thumb is to only ask for information that you need. Asking for too much information might turn away prospects as they might feel that you’re being too invasive.
In addition, it also helps to have a shorter form as it is more likely to be completed than a longer one. This is because people in general don’t like filling out forms that take them more than a few minutes to complete.
Don’t Include Any Site Navigation
The landing page should focus on converting and converting alone. It eliminates unnecessary distractions that might take away the prospect’s attention from your offer.
This also helps ensure that prospects won’t leave the page without completing the form. Otherwise, they might get sidetracked and forget to come back to the landing page.
Insert Images
Don’t just put random images or generic images of a person holding a product. The image should be able to deliver the message of your offer and help prospects understand what you’re trying to promote.
Try to search for an image that is highly relevant to your offer and make sure that it looks professional. Boring pages with only text often end up with high bounce rates.
Include Social Sharing Icons
Yes, we know what you think. Eliminating site navigation might make social sharing icons redundant. However, this is not the case.
Just because you eliminate site navigation doesn’t mean that prospects can’t leave the page. The social sharing icons will still be there as a reminder for them to share your landing page on their social media accounts or to anyone they know that could benefit from your offer.
Adding social sharing icons is a way of promoting your landing page organically.
Include Testimonials When Needed
Not all offers require the use of social proofs. However, if you’re selling a product or a service, then it would be a good idea to include testimonials from past clients.
This will help boost the credibility of your offer and make prospects more likely to take advantage of it.
Most consumers read reviews and testimonials before making a purchase. 95% of consumers say that online reviews influence their buying decisions.
Be Clear With Your Instructions
Customers tend to have a short attention span. The average person only spends eight seconds reading an offer before they decide whether or not they’re interested in it.
With this in mind, you need to make sure that your instructions are clear and concise. Otherwise, prospects might not understand what you’re trying to promote and will eventually leave the page.
In some cases, they are highly interested in your offer but get confused about what to do next. Make sure that your CTA is highly visible and that the instructions are easy to follow.
Helpful Hints
- Proofread: While this should be the norm for every marketer, a lot still fail to do so. Make sure that there are no grammatical or spelling errors on your landing page since this will reflect badly on your brand.
- Keep It Short: Ever seen a landing page where you need to scroll down just to get to the form? Yeah, that’s a no-no. The shorter your landing page, the better. Prospects are more likely to convert if they don’t need to scroll down just to get to the form.
- Test and Test: Don’t just publish your landing page and hope for the best. You need to test it first to see if there are any improvements that you can make or if there are steps you missed. Fill it out yourself and make sure the information is stored in your database as intended.
Promotional Tips
- CTA: CTA is the name of the game. It is important that your CTA resonates with your target audience and is placed in a strategic location. Don’t put it at the bottom of the page — prospects might not see it there. Integrate it into high-traffic pages and make sure it stands out.
- Email: Another way to promote a landing page is to manually send promo emails. If you have a database of email addresses, then this should be easy to do. Automate your process through an app or with the help of online tools so you can save time and focus on other important things.
- Social Media: Utilize the power of social media. Today, there are over 4.7 billion active social media users worldwide. Don’t miss that huge chunk of potential leads by not promoting your landing page on social media.
Analyzing the Results
By analyzing the results of your landing page, you can get an overview of its performance of whether or not it is achieving its purpose. Compare your landing pages if you have multiple offers running at the same time and see which ones are getting more traction.
If one stands out, then try to re-promote it and see if you can increase the conversion rate even more.
With the ever-changing landscape of Google, customer behavior, and new technologies, it is important to constantly monitor the performance of your landing page and make the necessary changes when needed.
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