The landing page is one of the most important items in a digital marketer’s toolkit. Even if you’re not sure what it is, chances are good you’ve been on more than a few landing pages yourself!
If you’re wondering what landing pages are and how they fit into a digital marketing strategy, you’re in luck.
Let’s start with the landing page’s meaning or what it is.
What are landing pages?
The short version: a landing page is a webpage that consumers land on.
The long version: it’s a webpage designed specifically for consumers to land on as part of a marketing campaign. Its purpose is to get the consumers landing on it to do something, whether to sign up for a service or buy a product.
As you can see, the short version makes it seem as though any page can be a landing page. After all, the only requirement seems to be that people can land on it.
But when marketers talk about landing pages, what they really mean is the long version.
They’re talking about a page where the focus is on getting people viewing it to do one thing – to convert, basically.
That tells you how they differ from a typical webpage. They usually have just one purpose, so they don’t encourage much of anything else.
You’re unlikely to find a lot of links on a landing page that lead to other parts of a company’s website, for instance. That shows you a big difference between it and homepages.
After all, the landing page is not meant to encourage exploration of the company or its services (unlike homepages). Instead, it’s a page meant to encourage you to perform an action that is usually at the Conversion and not Discovery stage of your funnel.
How landing pages work
Now you know the answer to “what is a landing page in digital marketing”.
The next question would be how these pages work.
Well, let’s start here: these pages are optimised in every way to lead to the conversion.
Let’s take an example to illustrate. Try checking out Shopify’s sign-up landing page.
From the very start, there’s no question about what the page is trying to get you to do. It’s right there at the top in the largest font on the page: Sell online with Shopify.
Right below that is the step you need to take to sell online with Shopify: a sign-up field that gets you a 14-day free trial.
Now, everything else on the page acts to support or lead you back to that CTA or call to action. Look at the notes about features, the social proof, the second sign-up button when you scroll down, even the FAQs at the bottom.
Even the page’s spare design supports it, actually. The ultra-clean UI, the short text, the lack of confusion – everything helps the actual CTA stand out more.
There are no significant links that can lead you elsewhere. There’s barely anything else to go from the page other than the CTA.
Then there’s the simplicity of the CTA itself. You don’t even need to fill out more than a single field to sign up, making it easier than ever to do what Shopify wants.
This is just one example. Different landing pages have different designs, CTAs, and styles, of course. Some landing pages even have more than one CTA.
But whatever the case, this demonstrates why they’re critical for digital marketers. They’re tools designed for the express purpose of getting you more conversions.
Types of Landing Pages
Now, there are different types of landing pages.
Here are some examples to give you an idea of what forms the landing page can take, though they can take all sorts of variations beyond these, like local SEO landing pages and so on:
1. Lead Generation
These are designed to collect leads with data capture forms. They do it by presenting the request for the data with an offer for a reward in exchange.
They’re most often used in the middle of sales funnels. You’re most likely to see these pages ask for names and emails, though they sometimes ask for data like phone numbers too.
Usually, when it asks only for names and emails, the page is called a squeeze page, by the way.
2. Click-through Landing Page
With these, you don’t have a form to fill since they act as simple middlemen between the advertisement (that leads to the landing page) and the page that it is directing visitors to (which is typically the page with the actual conversion CTA).
This may sound a bit odd at first. Why not just put the actual conversion CTA, like the call to actual checkout a purchase for a product, on the click-through landing page?
It’s because there are actually some cases where doing that works against the company’s interest.
E-commerce sites are good examples. When their ads lead directly to the checkout page, the visitor very rarely buys.
But when their ads lead first to a click-through landing page that has details of the product, they have more time to “warm” the visitor to the idea of buying.
So, when the visitor finally clicks through to the conversion page, he’s more likely to buy the item.
3. Sales Page
Again, another straightforward one: this type aims to convince people to buy.
Making a sales page isn’t very straightforward, though. You need delicacy and understanding of customer’s needs and their position in the buying journey, or people might hop off the page instantly.
People need to be convinced to buy something first. That’s why these pages usually have a lot of USPs (unique selling propositions, which we’ll talk about later) for whatever’s being sold and testimonials from others who’ve bought it.
What makes a good landing page?
So now you’re probably wondering how to make a good landing page. Again, the ideal landing page design depends on the purpose and situation, but here are some general tips:
Ensure you have a unique proposition (USP)
What makes your offer appealing & enticing? Why should visitors take action?
That’s your USP. You want to make it as visible and compelling as possible.
It’s even possible to use a USP as a headline to gain attention and encourage the visitor to read supporting copy.
To achieve this, you’ll have to use all the best practices of great headline and persuasion copywriting. That means being clear, concise, and reasonable, among other things.
Have a visible CTA
You should have figured out by now that the CTA is the most important part of the landing page. It’s the whole purpose of having a landing page!
So, make it obvious. Ensure it’s easy to see, easy to act on, and easy to understand.
Don’t forget to explain the benefits of offer
Remember: don’t sell features, sell benefits. Think about what the visitor actually cares about and how what you’re offering relates to it.
This is where appeals to emotion as well as logic can mix quite effectively. Explain how the visitor could feel by buying into the offer while explaining how it makes life better for them.
Employ social proof
Word of mouth and social approval offers trust and will sell more products and services than anything else. So use it!
People don’t like to take risks, after all. Seeing others have a positive experience offers credibility and instills confidence that the product will meet their needs.
To that end, consider quoting reviews from happy customers. The same goes for testimonials from professional reviewers, ratings on Google Reviews, etc.
Add landing pages to your own marketing strategy now
As you can see, landing pages have a lot to offer to any business. They’re vital components of any digital marketing strategy since they can boost conversion rates.
If you need help making your own, feel free to reach out to us. We’ve done a lot of landing pages for our clients as part of their marketing strategies and can help you figure out what you might need.
So, don’t hesitate – contact us if you want to get started on this or any other part of your marketing today!
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