If you could do one thing to dramatically improve your marketing ROI today, it would be to use landing pages on your website.
What is a landing page?
A landing page is a website page that allows you to capture a visitor's information through a lead form. A good landing page will be targeted to a particular stream of traffic - say from an email campaign advertising a particular whitepaper - and, because it is targeted, and because it has an interesting offer behind a lead capture form, you will convert a higher percentage of your website visitors into leads with which you can follow up.
Why are landing pages so critical?
Too many companies send their advertising, email, or social media traffic to their homepage. This is a huge missed opportunity. When you know a stream of targeted traffic will be coming to your website, you can increase the likelihood of converting that traffic into leads by using a targeted landing page.
For example, imagine you have a Google AdWords PPC ad running for one of your best keywords. Even if you advertise how great your company is (a boring offer for any company) and someone (amazingly) clicks through on that ad, do you want to send them to your homepage? When they land on your homepage, what are they supposed to do? What do you want them to do? Once you figure out what you want the visitor to do, make it easier for them to do just that. Send them to a landing page that prompts them to complete that action. You'll see the effectiveness of your online marketing improve dramatically.
What makes a landing page most effective?
Ready to create your first landing page, or improve on a landing page you already have? Here are some of the most important elements to make sure your landing page is working hard for you:
- Limit Navigation. You've brought your targeted traffic to a page where they can take your desired action. Don't distract them! Limit the number of exits from your landing page so that your visitors are focused on filling out your form. A key part of this is to hide your website navigation elements on landing pages.
- Deliver Value. First and foremost, if you have a valuable offer, your visitors will give up their contact information in exchange for your offer. Ask yourself if your offer is compelling to your audience and make sure that your landing pages demonstrates that value.
Enable Sharing. Tap into a huge community of your best (and free!) marketers: your audience. Add share links to your landing page to encourage your website visitors to share your content with their audiences.- Keep it Short. The longer your landing page and form, the more friction you add to the lead conversion process. Keeping your lead form short and straightforward will increase your conversion rate.
Test, Test, Test. As many best practices as you may read about online, your landing page can always use more testing and improvement. Make sure you have a landing page creation tool that allows you to create and test many different landing pages to see what works best for your business.
Are you a landing page guru? Check out some of our advanced tips and data around landing page best practices on effective calls to action and the best/worst button text (hint: don't use "Submit"). Do you need to make any of these 10 Quick Fixes to Build Killer Landing Pages?
If you're working hard to drive traffic to your website, don't make the mistake of not capturing that traffic as leads.
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Sofia 8:06 AM on November 29, 2010
Hi guys, very nice article. Shame we can't see the "Anatomy of a Landing Page" - the picture is too small.
Scott Hampton 8:55 AM on November 29, 2010
@ Sofia—right mouse click and see the image in a new window. ;)
God article, indeed. I like the idea of the landing page instead of pointing right to the home page. Not sure about the limited navigation, though. Some savvy readers may want to poke around at their own speed and then come back to the landing page. I'd rather not limit them.
I have some ideas for landing pages, and I'll use your article for motivation. Thanks!
Scott
David Zielski 10:55 AM on November 29, 2010
I like this post, very short and to the point for an effective landing page. One addition would be when you mention "image that supports the topic" I would include "image or video" that supports the topic. Video on landing pages has been attributed to very significant increases in conversions rates.
Justin Cambria 12:05 PM on November 29, 2010
Great basic Landing Page primer Ellie, thanks.
@Scott I think Ellie is right on this one, don't want to give traffic exit points from an LP. Site structure should be such that when they end up on an LP, only one thing is happening: there's a compelling, valuable reason for the visitor to drop their email and click 'submit'. If you want to educate them more, direct them to a blog post or video on what it is you are trying to educate them on.
You question is a common one, though, and as an advisor to online marketers, I often have a tough time persuading them on this point.
Ellie, how would you persuade a HubSpot client that wants to provide nav options on an LP that that's the wrong course to take?
Scott Hampton 12:40 PM on November 29, 2010
@Justin—OK, that's clearer: "don't want to give traffic exit points from an LP". I see.
I use a premium WP theme. I'm pretty sure that I can hide my nav, or even create a stripped down version of it. Now I have some more to think about.
Thanks!
Chris 12:45 PM on November 29, 2010
Good info. This will come in handy for some thing I am doing soon. I've done landing pages before, but this is a good resource.
Jillian Wilson 12:47 PM on November 29, 2010
What are some of the things we should be testing on our landing pages?
Las Vegas Internet Marketing - Kris 1:25 PM on November 29, 2010
Great point on landing pages, and I like the fact you mentioned about keeping it short. Some landing pages are way too long, they read like novels. Basically, when I see a landing page, I want to find the information I'm looking for in the first 5-10 seconds. Otherwise, I'm going to look somewhere else.
Kris
Las Vegas Social Media Internet Marketing
Scott Hampton 2:15 PM on November 29, 2010
Do you suggest making the landing page available FROM the home page, or independent of everything? I understand that you want clients to click through from an email or link somewhere, but what about for those who already are familiar with your website, or are already ON your website. SHould the landing page be readily accessible to them?
Ellie Mirman 4:11 PM on November 29, 2010
Justin, Scott, et al -
You put it very well, Justin, you really want to limit the "exit points" for your user. If you do want to offer more info to browse, consider providing those links to the user after they fill out your form. That way they focus on converting on your landing page but also get the benefits of the additional resources.
Also, it's a great idea to link back to your landing page from elsewhere in your site - these calls to action help drive more traffic back to your landing page in case someone does navigate away but wants to take advantage of your offer later. And it makes sense to promote the offer and link to the landing page from your homepage as well if your goal is to get your homepage visitor to convert into a lead.
Dave Hale 5:45 PM on November 29, 2010
Great info. I was just going over some of these same points with a client today. A few I forgot; but, now that I have the article to refer to, you have set me free. My client stated his company does not like to limit navigation on the landing pages and has me adding it. His experience has been that clients/leads are less likely to leave their info. At least that is their experience. I have not found that to be true.
Dave Hale
Horace Moning 7:17 PM on November 29, 2010
Hi i have a new link i need help with is there help.
Makati Directory 10:48 PM on November 29, 2010
I am a fan of using them as long as the reason for using them is well defined. For instance, a good time to use one would be for a product or service that is currently in its hot season or is otherwise in high demand. You create a VERY point text ad with a good amount of very pointed (and some longer tailed) keywords, and you drop them in for some action.
However, this should be used for specific transactions and never to represent your business or industry as a whole, as they are far too limited to ever achieve that.
Anne - InteliWISE 1:06 AM on December 06, 2010
Which is better for a landing page, the front/home page or pages inside for example blog posts or other pages?
Ellie Mirman 12:33 AM on December 09, 2010
@Anne - I think it will vary from business to business and depends on the prominence of the call to action. For us, our homepage drives a lot of traffic to landing pages but that traffic converts at a lower rate. Our blog and other more targeted sources of traffic end up converting at a higher rate.