The what, when, why and how for landing pages
You will have visited numerous landing pages over the years. Some you will have engaged with, some you will have clicked away from. The next few minutes on this page will guide you through when to use them, why they are so effective and your options when it comes to building them.
What is a landing page?
A landing page is the first page you land on, usually after clicking on a PPC ad or social media post. It is designed to get you to do just one thing. That may be signing up for an event, subscribing to a newsletter or purchasing something.
Its single job is to convert you to a lead or a customer.
How landing pages differ from web pages
The biggest difference is the single-minded focus of a landing page. It is designed to quickly get you to do that one thing. Website pages are a communication tool. They are designed to help you understand something and then act. Landing pages want you to simply act.
Landing pages will lack menus and any links that can distract you away from doing that thing. They don’t want you wandering away and getting distracted. You have three choices on a landing page:
- Do the thing they want you to do
- Click back
- Close your browser
Web pages aim to keep you on the website. They are part of a journey around the website that wants you to eventually contact the company to talk about their products/services, or to buy online.
When you should use a landing page
As alluded to before, landing pages should be used when you want someone to do something. That may be
- To subscribe to a mailing list (you can subscribe to our Daily Marketing Tips here – via a landing page of course).
- To register for an event
- To buy a product, often a relatively low cost product such as books, guides and digital tools
Your landing page will be the final step in the marketing process, where people basically say yes or no. You can use email marketing, social media or PPC ads to drive people to the landing page.
They can be particularly effective when you launch a new service or product, for special promotions or for events.
Why are landing pages so effective?
They’re effective for these reasons:
- There are no distractions or easy ways to go elsewhere
- The messaging is aimed precisely at you and your peers
- The Call to Action stands out, making it very clear what you have to do
Stats show that landing pages convert, on average, 4.3% of the time – one conversion for every 24 people visits. Ecommerce websites convert, on average, 2.5% of the time. Average B2B buyers will visit 7 different websites and consume 5-7 pieces of content before engaging.
How to build a landing page
You have a myriad of options when it comes to building landing pages for your small business…
- Add them to your website. If you use WordPress, you may have functionality within your theme, or you’ll need a specific plugin.
- Mailchimp has a great landing page tool, as do most of the email marketing platforms.
- Specialist one page site applications such as Carrd are a good alternative.
- SEMrush has a specialist landing page builder as a paid addon to its SEO performance tools
As a Mailchimp Pro Partner, we often recommend their tool, as it is built into your subscription, even the free version (although you don’t get Customer Journeys, so we wouldn’t recommend using the free account). The ability to follow up immediately using their Customer Journeys and tagging makes it a very easy tool to use.
What data do you need?
Depending on what people get from using the landing page, you need to decide what data you really need to collect. Less is frequently more at this point. Remember that you can always ask for more later on as the engagement between you and the customer increases.
We recommend at least first name, as well as email address of course – helps you to personalise future communications.
Grab their attention
You have moments to create a great first impression so your hero image/colour scheme and headlines need to be good. Make them relevant to both your target audience and what you are giving them.
The headline is the main benefit – less than 10 words.
Sub-heading should be less than 25 words and convey additional benefits.
Any additional content should be concise and only there if really necessary.
Call to Action
An easy to complete form and an obvious button that completes the transaction are essential. Click Here or Subscribe Now won’t hack it anymore. The button wording should convey immediate action is needed and be about the benefit they’re about to get.
Social proof
Testimonials and review ratings can help you increase your conversion rate. This is particularly important if people are parting with money at this point, as it helps reduce perceived risk in the mind of the buyer/subscriber.
What next?
By this point you have a landing page. You have tested it does what you want it to do – haven’t you?
The next challenge is driving traffic to the landing page and then following up to either convert them to customers (if they only subscribed at this point) or get them to buy more, if they bought from you. We’ll cover these in future articles, coming soon!
If you would like to talk more about how landing pages can work for you, or you need a hand building them, please get in touch. BTW, if you want to get a Daily Marketing Tip, click here to subscribe and improve your marketing performance.
