“Can someone tell me what a ‘landing page’ is???” is a question a friend posted on their Facebook account a long time ago. They had good reason to post it there as ten years ago it was quite hard to find an answer to even simple questions about marketing, like this one.
Many internet marketers will spit jargon like landing pages, bounce rate, key performance indicators, link building, and click-through rates to impress you, while also building up an aura of expertise. However, we know that you don’t care about the jargon and just want to know how it will help you sell more of your services and goods.
Well here’s the simple answer. A landing page is just a web page built for a specific goal. That’s all there is to it. Your home page, about page, contact page, shop page, etcetera will have different goals. Many marketers refer to landing pages as strictly those pages that are built to get an email, phone number, and/or a contact form submission.
Still not convinced you may need one? Well here are few factors that may persuade you otherwise…
First, Here’s A “Bad” And A “Good” Landing Page….
It’s hard to decipher whether a landing page is good or bad until you send traffic to it. However, there are some standards of higher converting landing pages that every business owner can use in their future designs.
This image was taken from a YouTube video by Neil Patel, who is an amazing Internet Marketer to follow. The design is fine and there is a good use of colors, but the overall problem is that there is no clear focal point. What does this page want someone looking for a loan to do right now?
It’s “bad” not only because of that, but because it’s trying to be a catch-all for every visitor to the site. That is, it’s not created to catch someone who is merely looking at loan options or even for someone who is ready right now for a loan. Besides that, the landing page is asking for a big commitment from a casual browser.
Now take this page from the Instapage website. It has a logo, a background image, a heading, a subheading, and a blue button with the text “Get Started Now.” There is no confusion at all about what this page’s goal is, and that’s what your landing pages should try and mimic.
Do You Have A Website That Receives A Significant Amount Of Traffic? Are You Actively Building An Email List Or Plan To?
This is the number one question to ask yourself when considering the investment in decent landing pages.
If you’re receiving a significant amount of traffic, you should consider making a landing page where they get free information on how to fix the specific problems you solve. Your home page can lead to this landing page, or you can buy traffic from places like Facebook and Google Search to send there. The latter solution is a great strategy if you’re not receiving lots of traffic.
The other question, regarding building a possible email list, is something to consider when making landing pages. Even though there are several social media channels out there, most people still use and check their emails every day. So sending regular emails to these prospects, or at least building a strong follow-up sequence is a great 1-2 marketing punch, along with your landing page itself.
Is Most Of Your Traffic From Mobile Devices?
More and more traffic is coming from mobile sources like Google Search, Instagram, and Facebook every year. Sadly many websites have still failed to optimize for this, and landing pages are a great way to start preparing for mobile traffic.
Most mobile landing pages will be even more stripped down and have little more than what you saw in the Instapage image above. This is good for mobile as visitors are quickly browsing for a possible solution, and can easily leave a site if your page doesn’t have what they’re looking for.
Are PPC Click Visitors Staying On Your Website For Long?
Along with optimizing for mobile traffic and working to build an email list, it’s also important to make the web page they’ll land on as specific to the ad as possible.
One of the major reasons Google increases the cost for a click is because the users don’t stay on the page for long. Google reasons that if they do this it must be because you’re not offering what they actually want. You’ll only know what they want by testing various landing pages, but this is a crucial step to understand when buying any sort of web traffic.
Are You Trying To Get Calls Or Email Form Submissions?
Another thing that both Google and Facebook dislike is landing pages that offer no value and only ask for a form submission of some kind. Many marketers will argue that these pages outperform the landing pages that Google and Facebook want, but you must understand that you’re playing in their yard and you must follow their rules.
So you don’t have to remove any calls to action that ask for a phone number or an email. Instead, add additional elements to your page that explain the benefits of working with you instead of your competitors. This can be a short about section, a services section, or some brief 100-200 word sections that educate the visitor about the problem you’ll solve.
In Conclusion
Having a marketing team that can inspect your business and current marketing tools is indispensable if you’re still struggling to see whether you need a landing page or two. They should also be able to know the best ways to quickly have a few landing pages designed and installed on your website.
All it takes for a great landing page, besides the factors just listed, are research into your audience’s wants and fears, as well as the experience to craft a marketing message that’ll make YOU the solution to all of their problems.
