Let’s talk landing pages. And why you need them.
The goal of effective marketing for any small- to medium-size business is conversion. Awareness is a good start, but it’s not going to immediately affect your bottom line. Return on your marketing investment ultimately requires action by your targets.
Landing pages are an essential part of a well-conceived digital marketing campaign. They are a pivotal stop on the road to conversion, bridging the gap from initial interest to sale. According to Interactive Marketing Inc., keeping relevant, focused information on a targeted landing page can increase conversion by 55 percent.
How Landing Pages Work
An optimized landing page uses an online form to collect contact information after a lead clicks a call-to-action link on a web page, blog post, email message, text message, pay-per-click ad or ad on a social network. Leads land on the page and submit their information to receive the offer.
Landing pages are a much more effective alternative to sending traffic to a generic “Contact Us” page on your website because contact pages aren’t targeted to specific visitors or offers, are generally hidden somewhere in your website, and frequently attract spam and salespeople. Thoughtfully designed landing pages steer people to exactly where they want to be.
Like any marketing channel though, getting your landing page right can be the difference between conversion and missed opportunity.
Best Practices
Relevant Content. Landing pages that communicate relevant information on topics your targets care about will convert at higher rates. But even relevant content must be concise and clear to be effective and keep targets’ (short) attention so they’ll complete and submit the form.
The content on your landing page should begin with a simple but compelling headline that clearly sums up your offer. The rest of the page’s message should directly and quickly convey the value of your offer and why and how to follow the page’s call to action. Every word on your landing page should support your call to action. Be a ruthless editor of your message. Bullets. well-organized text and memorable images also help.
Thoughtful Design. Page design and formatting have a direct impact on conversion rates. Simple design converts at higher rates.
Like content, the page format should help make it easy for visitors to follow and complete the desired call to action, without distraction. So it’s important that you design your page without any of your website’s navigation. This prevents jumping from page to page and losing focus on the offer.
It’s also important for the page design to be consistent in look and feel to the original email or ad.
Lastly, landing pages should be built so they re-size properly on all devices, from computer screens to tablets to smart phones because increasing percentages of people are consuming marketing messages on mobile devices.
An Effective Form. The form is the main event on your landing page since your ultimate goal is to get visitors to complete it. The form should not require visitors to scroll down to see it. Immediate visibility is crucial.
Once they get to the form, people are less likely to complete and submit it if it requires too much information. While more specific information about a lead is helpful, a good landing page strikes a balance between collecting enough information and not asking so much information that visitors give up and never submit. Your goal is to collect just enough data to contact and qualify the lead.
Test and Measure. Set up tracking on your website so you’ll know who is visiting and the conversion rate. Use the data to make changes and increase results because although best practices like these are a good guide, many variables determine success. Testing then tweaking as needed is the most effective way to optimize results.
