What is a Landing Page & Do You Need One?
Author: Ben Wilson
November, 2020
A landing page is your customer’s virtual first impression of your business. It’s the web page that opens when people click on links found on the web, in search engines like Google, or on your social media sites. An excellent landing page is essential to ensure visitors to your website will be interested in purchasing your goods or services.
The result of an effective landing page is gaining interest from potential customers, building a relationship with them and getting them to purchase from your company.
There are two types of landing pages:
- Click-through page - these landing pages don’t have a form, and can be your home page. They usually offer a warm up for visitors and will ask them to click through to another page where the conversion will happen.
- Lead generation page - these pages include a form as a call to action, which most often request information from visitors which is then collected. This may include asking for their email address which can then be used as part of a mailing list.
This diagram shows where the landing page exists - after people click a link anywhere on the web. It is where the conversion occurs, such as a purchase or a registration.
What Makes a Great Landing Page?
Optimizing your landing page means more potential business and success so it makes sense to create a really good one. When searching the web, we all want it to be a quick and easy process to find out the information we’re seeking. Here are some things to focus on:
- Keep the page organised and clean. Keeping only minimal information, using bullet points and having space around the text makes it user friendly and gives a clear overview of your products and services.
- Include a good headline, to entice visitors and make them feel they have come to the right place.
- Images are a good idea but don’t clutter the page with them. Use one or two good shots that give visitors more information, at a glance. People can be drawn to images more so than text, no matter how catchy the words may be.
- A call to action is absolutely essential so include a form or button which will bring in potential new business. Don’t give visitors too many options though, or it may lead to confusion and they’ll leave. Keep it simple and obvious, such as a button “Get your free quote”, “Contact us now” or “Sign up for free”. Alternatively include a form to obtain contact information. Make it a bold color so it stands out on the page.
- Put the most important information at the top of the page, ‘above the fold’ - the brief information that will make visitors want to scroll down to find out more. Further down the page, explain in a bit more detail how they will benefit from what you are offering. Here is a good example of an effective landing page.
- Include testimonials as evidence that what you offer is worth having. Stats show that reviews about products and services are important to consumers and can influence sales.
- The page should be easy to navigate for a good user experience. It is essential that your landing pages are mobile friendly.
- If you operate in different regions, consider creating a landing page for each area.
- Test your landing pages to make sure they work. A good website content management system will offer testing tools so you can quickly discover new ways to drive leads.
- A good tip is to create various landing pages with different offers so you can track which topics lead to the most conversions. This will give you insight into your target audience which will be invaluable in producing more personalized marketing strategies. You can find out which content they prefer and also which channels they are coming from.
- Consider engaging a web company who specializes in website content management systems. They will ensure your landing page is smart, effective and easy to use.
How to Create a Landing Page
Landing pages are created on your website, like any other page. The only difference is that you are creating a page specifically designed to receive and convert traffic, possibly from an online marketing campaign, rather than a regular site page. So, create your landing pages as you would create any page, and use the tips above to ensure they are focused on obtaining new customers and conversions.
Creating a high-quality landing page can be a bit of hard work unless you have good design and coding skills. It doesn’t need to be overwhelming - the team at Web Force 5 are committed to website design and development and helping all business owners build a website that is easy, quick and affordable - you don’t need to be tech savvy.
An easy CMS platform such as Continuum is a simple yet powerful platform that offers a range of functions for your business, including a straightforward process to create ideal landing pages. Continuum is integrated with Google Analytics so you can track and measure results, and therefore tweaking your landing pages when necessary.
Speak to a specialist consultant for a free, no obligation chat about professional website design and get your landing pages up and running today.
