Landing pages are the single best way to convert your website visitors into leads.
You want to be sure that the precious traffic you work hard to generate to your website through marketing activities such as social media, email blasts and search advertising doesn’t go to waste. Landing pages ensure it won’t.
Landing pages allow you to capture information about your visitors.
You can then utilize that data to nurture those leads into future sales.
According to HubSpot, a leader in inbound marketing software, “Landing pages are the heart and soul of an inbound marketer’s lead generation program.”
What Exactly is a Landing Page?
A landing page is the webpage that a visitor is directed to after clicking on an external link. When you are going after leads and conversions, you should use landing pages instead of sending visitors directly to your homepage.
Effective Landing Pages Include:
- Headline – Make it compelling and specific.
- Benefit-oriented copy – A few bullet points that detail the benefits of your offer.
- Keywords – Keywords should match your visitors expectations based on the content that drove them to the landing page (tweet, ad, email, etc.).
Important note: In the case of Google advertising, you will want to make sure that your landing page copy and keywords align with your ad. This is very important to your ad’s “quality score,” which Google uses along with your bids to rank your ad’s placement in relevant searches.
- Social sharing – The ability to quickly share the page on someone’s social network such as Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest will make it easy to spread your content.
- Conversion form – This is your lead capture form. Be sure not to ask for too much information and include a brief privacy statement.
- Call-to-Action – This should be a prominent button to click on below your conversion form. It should have a clear and engaging offer. Examples include a complimentary eBook, free consultation, trial subscription or access to coupons and discounts.
More Landing Page Details to Keep in Mind:
- Social signals – The ability to see how many shares your page received on social networks will provide “social proof.” The more shares, the more likelihood someone will share it with their network.
- Strong design – There are a lot of cloud-based tools for creating quick landing pages. However, be sure to take the extra time to create well-designed pages that are branded with your organization’s logo and color scheme.
- Graphics – An image can help sell your offer and earn you that precious click on your CTA. However, if you use stock art, choose wisely. Quality original photography, graphics or illustrations are always preferred.
- Testimonials – If you have great (and relevant) customer quotes, use them. They will boost credibility.
- Hide the main navigation of your website – You want visitors to your landing page to stay focused on completing your form and clicking your CTA. Don’t distract them with other links that will take them away from your conversion goal.
- Optimize for mobile – Again, many landing page tools, such as Instapage, allow you to quickly create mobile versions of your landing page. This is especially important if you are driving a lot of traffic from your social media efforts since as many as 50% of social network users are accessing those networks through mobile devices.
Convinced that landing pages should be in your digital marketing program for inbound lead generation? We’d love to collaborate with you!
Contact us for a free consultation.
This post was written by Brenda Bryan, MA, President of Kalpana Marketing.