What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a webpage that is dedicated to a specific call to action. This could be gathering email addresses or other data, selling products or for product validation. Landing pages usually have a minimal amount of links, this helps keep users on the page and increase conversions. For most landing pages this even means removing the top website navigation.
It is sometimes known as a ‘lead capture page’, ‘lander’ or ‘destination page’. Great landing pages focus on a single desired action and guiding the user to perform that action. By focusing on this action, and not traffic, conversion rates increase.
How is a Landing Page Different From a Homepage?
A homepage is about telling a brands or products story. A landing page has a specific job to do, get the user to perform the desired action (like filling in a form). A home page has lots of links and ways to navigate away from the page, a landing page minimises links and aims to keep the user on the page until they click or submit.
A homepage is generally the entry point to a whole website that contains many pages, information and resources. A landing page is a single page that only contains the information relevant to getting the user to perform the desired action.
Why use a Landing Page?
Landing pages are used for lead generation. The ultimate goal is to convert visitors into leads that will buy a product or service. It aims to provide all the information necessary in a clear format to achieve the call to action. By doing this conversion rates are increased.
It can be changed to be specifically relevant to the desired action. Many companies have multiple landing pages that all have different purposes and receive traffic from different sources.
Where is the Landing Page Located?
It can be on your own website or on a dedicated landing page service such as Leadpages and Instapage. That doesn’t worry about SEO and is often hidden from the search engine bots so as to not show in the search listings.
Where Does Traffic for Landing Pages Come From?
The traffic for landing pages can can come from the following sources:
- Google Adwords campaigns
- Facebook advertising campaigns
- Twitter and other social media campaigns
- Youtube video links
- LinkedIn advertising campaigns
- Blog posts
- Email campaigns
- Affiliate marketing
Key Components
Branding
The landing page needs to clearly display the branding of the company. If it is a well known company this can be smaller and more discreet, for lesser known companies the branding needs to be clearly displayed and show what the company does.
Unique Value Proposition
A unique value proposition is a key component of a great landing page. It should be conveyed simply and clearly by using the minimal amount of information necessary. Larger purchases or commitments will need more information.
Validation
Once the value proposition has been clearly communicated it needs to be validated. This can be with relevant information, examples or social proof. A list of features is great here.
Single Action
A landing page should have a single desired action. Examples of this could be:
- Download a PDF
- Subscribe to a newsletter
- Sign up to a email course
- Purchase a good or service
Video
People love videos and they are a great way to communicate your value proposition whilst keeping the page simple. A video on a landing page increases conversion by 80%. The video doesn’t need to be too long or expensively produced. Focus the video on the relevant information to help the user perform the desired action.
The Problem and Solution
So you’ve done your market research and discovered a problem your target market has. A landing page is the perfect place to simply outline the problem and then provide a solution. This don’t need to be complicated, simple concise pages are the best performers.
Long Form or Short Form Content
Lead pages vary from being barely more than a few lines of text and a form to long descriptive pages with more complicated actions. So which one should you use? Generally the smaller the action you are asking of the user the shorter the page.
If you are asking to sign up to a mailing list or download a guide the page should be short and simple. If you are asking the user to buy an expensive product or service the page should be longer and address all the points necessary to give the user confidence to perform the desired action.
Our attention span is limited, its best the keep the content as brief as possible to achieve the desired action.
A/B Testing
It’s recommended that you A/B test your advertising campaigns. I recommend you do the same for your landing pages. By splitting traffic and sending to different versions of the page you can see which is the best performer. You can then use this page as a base and try different images, videos and text to improve the conversion rate over time. Always be testing and changing so your campaigns remain competitive and cost effective.
Gathering Data
You will need data to be able to make decisions about which pages perform the best. Luckily Google and Facebook (and others) provide great free analytics tools that simplify this process. When users visit your landing page the analytics code records their actions and gives you the data to make informed decisions.
The main free advertising platforms that provide tracking are:
- Facebook Ads
- Google AdWords
- Bing Ads
Conclusion
If you are running online advertising campaigns you should be using landing pages. Just sending traffic to your homepage will provide low conversion rates. To increase this use landing pages to get users to perform specific actions that will help you to convert them into customers. Online marketing has evolved and to get a position return on investment your campaigns need to be carefully designed with targeted audiences.
If you need help with this please reach out. I’m a Sydney web designer.
