The Basics of Landing Pages: What Business Owners Must Know

Creating a landing page is easy today. If you prefer to DIY your landing pages, you have your pick of drag-and-drop landing page builders—otherwise, you can hire a web designer to create your pages for you. Unsure whether you need landing pages for your business? Keep reading to know why you most likely do!

Landing Pages, Defined

A landing page is usually a standalone page that serves a single purpose. It is distinct from your home and service pages, and it isn’t part of your blog either. A landing page usually contains a special offer like a free trial, an e-book, or webinar registration. 

When people download or sign up for these offers, they’ll have to provide contact information like their email address in exchange. Landing pages can also introduce people to new products and services. 

Good landing pages convince potential customers that it’s worth giving you their contact information. Also, you can have more than one landing page—it’s even better if you have multiple pages targeted toward various customer populations.

Why Do You Need Landing Pages?

When you have an established brand online and a website that represents it, you have to ensure visibility to your target market. Lead conversion tools can help with that. Landing pages can help drive your traffic and improve your SEO. It can also be part of your PPC ad strategy—you can link Facebook or Google ads to a landing page and see even more results than if you rely solely on the ads.

A landing page is a great way to drive traffic, improve your SEO and build your brand. It can also form part of an effective PPC strategy. Landing pages can lead customers to a service or product for which you want to drive conversions. 

If you let people browse your website and do not direct them through a sales funnel, you’re going to have fewer purchases or subscriptions. Even if people think that your product or service is helpful, most will need the extra push that a landing page provides.

Many businesses think that landing pages are challenging to build and that it isn’t easy to create an effective page. That’s far from the truth—keep reading to know the traits of good landing pages.

What Makes an Effective Landing Page?

Landing pages are tied to specific programs, services, or products. As such, you cannot make your home page also your landing page. You need to send customers to a different one tailored especially to whatever you’re promoting. This provides you with a better chance of engaging your readers and capturing their attention. The most effective landing pages share these traits:

1. They Talk about the Offer, Not the Company – Customers are interested in making their lives easier, chasing their dreams, and feeling good. They’re not interested in what makes your company awesome; at least, not yet. When your landing page does not provide more information on the product or service you teased in your ad or email, it will disappoint most people. Your prospective customers are clicking because they want to know more about the offer, and if you don’t give them what you promised, it won’t leave a good impression on them. Good landing pages are an extension of your brand, but it doesn’t focus on what your company does or has achieved.
2. They are Distraction-Free – A good landing page will have tightly curated content. This type of page has two goals: one, to give the user what they want, and two, to make them register and provide their contact information. Landing pages are free from anything that does not contribute to these goals.
3. Their Forms are Easy to Use – Suppose your offer and UX are engaging. That isn’t enough to get people to convert; you need to get your forms right. Visitors can get discouraged when they see that you have a lengthy form. Instead of taking advantage of the freebie or the trial you’re promoting, they’ll move on. As much as possible, keep the process to a few actions. If you must have multiple steps, let users see where they are in the process—for example, you can say that providing an email address is step one out of four.
4. They Have a Distinct Audience – Customer segmentation is a crucial part of marketing. Targeting specific customers will help you respond to the needs of different segments of your market. For example, you can send bargain-lovers to a landing page offering a discount or a free trial of your services. Landing pages act as a segmentation device and helps you create highly targeted campaigns in the future.
5. They Collect the Right Information – Good landing pages collect the right data on their audience. Even if your page targets the best audience for your products, you cannot convert them into customers if you don’t collect the right information from them. It’s not enough that you have a name and an email address. You must also know why that person clicked on the link, their long-term connection to your company, and whether or not they’ve purchased from you in the past.
6. They Maximize all Points of Contact – Good landing pages also create various opportunities to connect with the audience. For example, when people respond to your CTA and provide their contact information or purchase from your landing page, you must direct them to a thank you page. Doing so is polite and informs the customer that their registration or purchase has been recorded.
7. They Connect to Other Online Properties – Finally, a good landing page isn’t isolated from the rest of the brand’s online materials. For example, you can link your landing page to your social media pages or to a blog post that you think this customer would enjoy.
   

Conclusion

When you have an offer or a promotion, it’s not enough that you run ads about it. Instead, create a landing page for your offer. People are more likely to sign up for your webinar, download your e-book, or purchase your product if you move them from email or ad to landing page. Having landing pages in your marketing mix is an effective way of generating leads and conversions.

Another effective way of generating leads is by optimizing your website rankings. When generating organic traffic, you can’t go wrong with Ranked; we are an SEO platform and service trusted by more than 2,000 enterprises and agencies in over 40 countries. Book a call with the team to learn more or start your free trial today!