It might seem like an obvious answer to the question, what is a landing page? But just because the answer can be simple does not mean that a landing page itself is simple or something to look past. A landing page is an important marketing tool bringing awareness to specific content and prompting visitors through calls-to-action to provide data in exchange for information, and thus can significantly increase conversions.
Web Page vs. Dedicated Landing Page
While the definition of a web page and landing page may seem to be alike to many small businesses, in reality, the two are highly distinct. Web pages make up the hierarchical structure of your website and consist of pages like the home page, about us, team, industries, product overview — pages that typically make up your site navigation. Web pages, including the home page, are designed to deliver your corporate value and help your audience gain insight into the company. Whereas, landing pages are solely optimized to deliver on a content promise with the goal to convert visitors to customers. Unlike web pages, landing pages typically don’t have external links or navigation to other pages. Their one agenda is to make visitors click the call-to-action.
It can be easy to confuse, and often the term landing page is used to reference the page in which a visitor is directed to/lands on via a link. However, a landing page itself needs to have specific content and functionality in order to:
- Attract visitors.
- Capture visitor data such as Name and Email.
- Convert lead to customer.
Landing Page Types
So, what is a landing page? There are many types, here we look at the two essential types of landing pages:
Click Through Landing Page
As the name suggests, the main objective of this landing page is to entice visitors to click through to another page. Such a landing page is typically used in e-commerce sites. It helps to warm up visitors with sufficient details about the product and services offered before they make a final purchasing call.
Many times, traffic generated by inbound advertisements, such as pay-per-click, have low conversions as potential clients are typically directed right to registration pages or shopping carts. The reason this can lead to poor conversion rates is that it merely takes the visitor to the final page before giving out specific details of the product or service that would be beneficial to the visitor in their decision-making process.
Therefore, businesses should make use of click through pages that lead the visitor to a registration/shopping cart page as the destination with a higher chance of a lead conversion or sale.
Lead Generation Landing Page
Lead generation landing pages are used to collect visitor information, like name and email, that will enable you to effectively engage and market to them along their buying journey. This page consists of detailed content about what you are offering along with a form to collect visitor data in exchange for specific content or offer. Be mindful about the length of your form, only ask for the information you need as this can have an impact on the conversion. Therefore, it’s best to keep it short and on point.
Lead Generation Landing Page Uses
Landing pages are used for numerous reasons. Here’s an outline of some of the most common uses of lead generation landing page.
- Free Trial Sign-up
- Blog Sign-up
- Product Demo
- White Papers / Reports
- eBooks / Guides
- eNewsletter Sign-up
- Event / Webinar Registration
- Podcasts
- Consultation service offers
Besides these uses, a landing page is also successful in generating sales leads by warming them up with essential details about products and services. This can lead to the purchase of your company product online and increase the number of subscribers for your site.
Benefits of Landing Pages
A landing page is favored by many marketing and sales teams. They are a great opportunity to generate qualified leads for the sales conversion funnel. Some of the benefits of a landing page are:
It Works, While You Don’t
This is by far the most popular benefit that businesses love. You develop a landing page for one segment (niche) and market it as part of your content marketing strategy. Visitors are then persuaded to check out your page and may potentially sign up or download your opt-in offer. The process is automatic, with no extra work on your part. So, you can easily go on vacation with your family, sleep in, or work on your next real estate deal without worrying about manually generating sales for your business.
Instant Credibility
Your landing page gives you credibility in the eyes of your visitors. This is because when you develop a landing page for your visitor, you tend to solve a problem for them (one specific niche). Hence, visitors of your website will consider this and put their faith in your website. This gives your business credibility and starts a new relationship based on thought leadership and trust.
Improve SEO Rank
With increased competition, businesses need to be constantly generating content and relevant, quality content to keep SEO ranking. With a landing page, you can leverage your SEO rank on the web with search engines such as Bing, Google, Yahoo, etc. These search engines rank your website in given search results based on your content authenticity.
If you have a relevant landing page with organic content, it will definitely help to elevate your rank in search engines.
Increase Your Chances
Often times, many business owners prefer having a website page to feed customers with loads of information about the product or service. While this sounds like a lead generating tactic, it is actually quite the opposite. A website visitor will be overfed with so much information to navigate through one web page that they might just give up the idea of continuing on leaving you with a lost opportunity.
On the other hand, a landing page provides visitors with the solution to their problem and directs them in submitting their email address to further cater to their needs. Thus, at the end of the day, you will have more qualified, valuable leads.
For small businesses to large, a landing page can act like a lead magnet gold mine if used correctly. It works towards creating your brand image, trust, and helps you to stand apart from your competition. In other words, you gain a competitive advantage while simultaneously catering to your visitors’ needs and converting them into leads.
Source: Meshlivebuild
