When you run any campaign for your small business, your ultimate goal is conversions—that is, when members of your target audience perform a particular action such as downloading a piece of content or even making a purchase.
However, no matter what your call to action may be, or how effective your ad copy is, simply directing people to your business website’s homepage is not an effective way of getting people to that final step. A good business website may help with conversions, but a landing page dedicated to that call to action is almost essential for conversions.
A landing page makes the steps to conversion clear and simple, thereby increasing the number of people who take action. In this post we’ll go over the basics of landing pages and how they help to drive more conversions and customers to your business.
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is any page that a visitor lands on or arrives at by clicking a link, whether from another website, a paid search ad, a social media platform, an email, or other source. While a typical web page usually contains multiple links and offers various paths of action to take, landing pages are designed to facilitate a specific objective of your business through a single action of a user.
A landing page may be a page within your website, but it is typically a separate standalone page. The reason for this is that with no other links to take the user away from the page, the user is more likely to perform the action the page is designed around. As such, a good landing page tends to be action oriented and goal driven.
The Purpose of a Landing Page
The main purpose of a landing page is to generate conversions, which is achieved in one of two ways. The first way is by collecting leads that you can reach out to at a later time and eventually turn into customers. The second way is through action users take directly on your website, which may be a direct purchase or other activity that moves them along your sales funnel.
Because landing pages are used to achieve specific objectives and actions, a business typically has more than one landing page—one for each objective or action. A business may also create a unique landing page for each channel users are coming from and which campaign they are targeting, so they can obtain analytics and learn about their target audience. This is one of many best practices for landing pages that can lead to campaign success.
Types of Landing Pages
Given the two ways mentioned above in which landing pages achieve their purpose, there are two types of landing pages: click through landing pages and lead generation landing pages.
Click Through Landing Pages
Click through landing pages contain more detailed information about a product or offer, for the purpose of warming up a visitor for that offer. For example, a roofing company may create an online ad for a solar panel consultation, or even installation. Rather than linking directly to the signup page for this registration, the company may link to a landing page instead, that provides more details about the consultation or installation. The landing page would then contain a call to action that directs them to the registration page on the website. By providing more details about the offering, the users are more inclined to click through to that offering.
Lead Generation Landing Pages
Lead generation landing pages also have a call to action, but rather than it being to proceed forth to a page on your website, the action is completed entirely on the landing page. Lead generation landing pages are designed solely to collect leads through forms located right on the landing page.
A lead generation landing page can be centered around the same offer as a click through landing page. The only difference is that the user fills out a form and receives whatever is being offered in exchange without even going to the business’s website.
Lead generation landing pages are great for offers that are clear and risk-free. They are geared toward actions that people aren’t as hesitant to take, such as downloading an ebook or getting a coupon voucher. Unlike detailed click through pages, lead gen pages are short and sweet.
While lead generation landing pages don’t direct users to your website, you can always create a thank you page that users receive upon providing their information, which may link to your website.
Why Use Landing Pages
There are several benefits of landing pages. Although normal web pages may contain similar characteristics and features of landing pages, they are not nearly as effective at getting your audience to engage and convert. Utilizing a well designed landing page with any of your campaigns—such as Search Engine Marketing, email, or social media campaigns—almost guarantees conversions which will ultimately generate more revenue for your business.
When to Use Landing Pages
Landing pages can be used to boost various types of campaigns, promoted through paid search ads, display ads, Facebook ads, social media, email marketing, and more. Landing pages can help in getting users to perform a variety of call to actions, such as:
- Downloading an eBook
- Signing up for a webinar
- RSVPing to an event
- Learning about a new product launch
- Registering for a free trial or demo
- Requesting a consultation
- Getting a quote
- Entering a contest
- Claiming a promotional offer
When promoting a campaign across multiple channels, you may want to create a separate landing page for each channel. This will allow you to track the effectiveness of and user behaviors within each channel. In addition, your content in each landing page will likely vary. A landing page coming from a link in an email, for example, might not need to contain as much detail as a landing page coming from a Facebook ad where less information can be provided up front.
Landing pages make the steps to conversion as clear and simple as possible for your target audience members. They are an excellent way to ensure that your campaigns yield successful conversion rates and bring in more customers. Try one in your next campaign!
