Elements of Effective Landing Pages

For many small businesses, marketing can be somewhat of a gamble. There are all sorts of components one can use in order to generate business or awareness for their company.  There are several ways to attract consumers to your company or capture lead information, but the simplest and most effective tool to implement is a landing page.

What is a Landing Page?

A landing page is a stand alone webpage on your main website which has a specific and certain purpose. Landing pages direct website visitors to take a specific action through a lead capture form.

Purpose of a Landing Page

Most business owners are seeking to direct and generate more traffic to their website. So, what’s the purpose of a landing page? The purpose of a landing page is to get visitors to take a specific action like making a purchase, signing up for an email list, or registering for an event. Landing pages work to collect contact information for lead generation or to persuade a potential customer to click through to another page.

Related: Example Marketing Plans

Elements on Effective Landing Pages

What should you include on a landing page? Before creating a landing page, you should have a clear understanding of what you’re hoping to get from it by setting a marketing goal for every landing page. Examples of marketing goals for a landing page include event registrations, email newsletter signups, purchases, or content downloads.

Once you have set your goal for the page, here’s what you should include on your landing pages:

Lead Capture Form

Every landing page includes a form to capture lead information. Since the purpose of a landing page is to get a visitor to take an action, a landing page must include a form to capture that information. Forms on a landing page could be an email form, appointment request form, or a payment form for a purchase.

Strong Call to Action

A strong call-to-action is a must for any landing page. Without one, you won’t reach your goal. You want it to be immediately apparent that the potential customer must do something in order to receive your enticing offer. This is how you’re able to capture information about potential customers so that you can later follow up with them.

Clear and Obvious Information

It’s important for a landing page to be obvious to the visitor. Having a strong call to action and obvious written content will help your customer immediately understand how the promotion would benefit them. If reading your landing page is more like playing a guessing game or a Where’s Waldo situation, then you’re doing it wrong. Keep landing pages simple and obvious.

No Links or External Information

Landing pages should not include any links or contact information other than a lead capture form. Landing pages work by taking a website visitor by the hand and walk them down an exact path which you have laid out for them. One way to ensure this happens is to remove any navigation options which may point them in a direction other than what you’ve intended.

The whole point of a landing page is to wrangle clients into your company’s fishing pond—don’t send them somewhere else on the internet. Links, even internal ones, can send a potential customer on the verge of making a purchase off of your landing page. Keeping people on the landing page increases your changes of reaching your marketing goal.

Landing Page Best Practices

There are a few golden rules when it comes to designing and developing your landing page.

Keep It “Above the Fold”

Keep all important information above the fold. The term “above the fold” was originally meant to reference the top half of a newspaper—the area that you see when a paper is folded in half. In regards to a landing page, you want to place important information, like your call-to-action, above the fold. In other words, don’t force the reader to scroll to the bottom of your page before they reach your CTA. Click through rates on offers below the fold are significantly lower.

Mobile Friendly

Make sure your website and landing pages are mobile friendly. A recent study found that 54% of smartphone users said they’d save their phone in a fire over their pets. That’s how attached people are to their phones! If your landing page cannot be viewed easily from a mobile device you should consider getting a better website.

Unique URL

In order to effectively track the success of your landing page, you should track the link for it. You can track links with a link tracking site of software or you can use a unique URL for a landing page that you use only for one type of advertisement like a newspaper, radio, or other offline advertising campaign.

Use Photos Appropriately

Photos can also be powerful when used appropriately. Don’t use them to simply take up real estate. Add value with your photo choices by picking those which illustrate your main objective or point the reader in the right direction. Remember, your landing page is just that, a single page. Every inch of it is must help you reach your objective. Wasted space is wasted opportunity.

Examples of Landing Pages

There’s a myriad of different types of landing pages. The most popular examples are:

• Lead Capture: these pages generally request minimal contact information (ex: name and email). There should be no exit path from this type of page, only the option to submit information usually tied to an incentive for doing so.
• Event Registration: Use a landing page for event registrations to monitor registration numbers and collect attendee contact information.
• Content Downloads: Lading pages can work to provide something of value like an eBook, free guide, checklist, or content download to customers.
• Special Offers: Use landing pages to track the effectiveness of Facebook ads or other advertising platforms. By using a unique landing page for advertising campaigns, you can track the effectiveness of the campaign.

Landing pages are a cinch to put together once you’ve gotten a few under your belt. Give it a try with your next campaign!