The Why, When, What and How of Landing Pages

The goal of any landing page is to convince visitors to provide you with their contact information in exchange for something you are offering. Landing Pages have this “magic” ability to convert a visitor into a lead, far better than your website would.

If I have peaked your interest, keep reading. This article is going to answer your questions about why you should be using landing pages, when to use them, what should be on a highly converting landing page and how to use them effectively.

So lets get started…

Why Should I Use Landing Pages?

The short answer is because they help in increasing your conversion rates.

Why?

Because a product specific landing page or a targeted promotional landing page have a focused, singular objective that matches the intent of the button in the email campaign or ad that your visitors clicked on.

If we look at the difference between your website and a standalone landing page, we can see that a website is designed with a more general purpose of describing your overall business, brand, products and/or services. As opposed to a landing page that has the sole purpose of promoting a particular product/service or is intended to drive a visitor towards a specific call-to-action.

When Should I Use a Landing Page?

You should try to use a landing page for every type of ad campaign that you are running.

You might be selling multiple products or setting up different promotional offers for different target markets and if this is the case, your home page cannot possibly handle this type of differing messages and calls-to-actions.

What Does a Highly Converting Landing Page Look Like?

Unfortunately, there is not one standard or “winning” landing page that has a 100% conversion rate. There are so many different factors that make up a landing page. Every landing page could have a different call-to-action, different readers, a different product or service offering, and a different target market or niche.

However, there are certain elements or components that help in increasing conversion rates on a landing page.

A Landing Page is made up of six main elements:

1. Your offer or unique selling proposition: Your offer should be simple and easy to understand. You need to convey your offer through your main headline and secondary headline.

2. Image/Video: If you include a relevant image or video, this will give visitors an idea of what you are offering and what they will be receiving. Plus, it will help make your landing page much more visually appealing.

3. Benefits of your offer: This can effectively be shown using a short paragraph that summarizes the benefits plus a quick bullet point list for the reader to skim through.

4. Testimonial: A testimonial can help act as a trust symbol. A visitor wants to know that they can trust your business and what you are offering and if they can see a trustworthy testimonial, this will definitely go a long way.

5. Lead Capture Form: This would be the most critical element of a landing page as this is where visitors submit their information in exchange for the offer, which is converting that visitor into a lead.

6. Your Call-to-Action: This could be the most important element on your landing page. What action do you want your visitor to take? Do you want them to download an eBook? Do you want them to fill out the form in exchange for them receiving a free consultation? Your Call-to-Action needs to be decided before you start designing your landing page. Your Call-to-Action should be shown somewhere on your lead capture form, either in the form title or in the button in order to emphasize what it is you want your visitor to do.

How to Effectively Use Landing Pages

You can utilize landing pages in many different methods within your inbound marketing strategy.

One effective way is by connecting any PPC ads that you may have online with a targeted landing page.

If you have decided to invest your marketing efforts and dollars into Pay-per-Click campaigns, than you need to make sure you are implementing the strategies that will help you to increase your conversion rates which ultimately ensures that you are getting the best ROI. And one of those strategies is to connect your Ad campaigns with a targeted landing page.

Let’s assume you own a professional contracting company that specializes in finishing basements. You have already implemented inbound marketing strategies, which is why you maintain a blog on your website that features articles about contracting tips and tricks and other free educational content.

Now let’s also assume that a mother was looking for ideas on how to convert her unfinished basement into a finished playroom for her two young children. She is searching on Google and comes across your blog post titled “Top 10 Safety Features you Should Consider Before Converting Your Basement into a Play Area.” When she clicks on this post, she is taken directly to your full blog post.

When she reaches the bottom of the blog, she notices a Call-to-Action (CTA), which is your offer for a free consultation to help her discuss different ideas on how to convert her basement into a play area for children. She thinks this would be a great idea and clicks on the CTA which takes her to a landing page which provides some additional information and details about what is included in the free consultation. Essentially, this landing page is convincing her why it is worth providing her contact information on the form.

She decides to sign up and submit her information and you now have yourself a targeted new lead for your business!

What I have described above is not the only example of converting a visitor into a lead. You can use your landing page link in email marketing campaigns or on social media posts. In addition, you can also place your call-to-actions throughout your website which will lead your visitors to the targeted landing pages.

Landing Pages play an important role in your inbound marketing strategy because it is proven to help with increasing conversion rates and bring in more targeted leads for your business.

If you are interested in learning more about how to implement landing pages in your marketing strategy, leave me a message or feel free to send me an email!