Do I Need a Landing Page?

May 24, 2021
Emilie Mitchell

Studies show that businesses capture leads at a higher rate by sending traffic to specified landing pages rather than the website's homepage. Landing pages are the simplest, most effective way to generate more leads for your business.

What exactly is a landing page?

Created specifically for a marketing or advertisement campaign, a landing page is where visitors “land” after they click on a specific link, such as a Google text ad or display ad. Landing pages are designed with one goal: to create conversions.

What's included in a landing page?

Headline

A headline captures attention and makes your customer want to learn more. A good headline is able to effectively do the following:

1. Grab attention

Headlines are what determine whether or not your target audience is going to continue reading. What catches the reader's interest and makes them want to choose to keep going?

2. Generate curiosity

Your headline should leave readers left with a question or wanting to know more. This is what encourages them to dig deeper and not leave your page quite yet.

3. Promise a benefit

How is your product or service useful to the reader? If the reader is unable to connect why they should continue reading, they probably won't.

4. Be specific

All that your readers need to know, and nothing that they don't. Your headline should give readers enough information to know how it’s relevant to them.

Value Proposition

A value proposition displays why a customer should choose your product or service. How do you create a good value proposition?

1. Identify customer benefits

Make a list including all the benefits your product or service offers.

2. Connect benefits to value offering

Identify what value your product or service provides for the reader.

3. Differentiate and position yourself

Be clear on who your target audience is, what you're offering to them, and why they should choose you over competitors.

Call to Action

A call to action tells the next step you want your customer to take. How do you ensure that your call to action actually results in action?

1. Use strong command verbs

Command verbs help give clear directions. For example, "buy," "download," "subscribe," "download," or "join" are all concise verbs that tell the reader exactly what you want them to do.

2. Provoke enthusiasm or emotion

Using enthusiasm or emotion helps audiences engage with what you have to say and encourages them to take action. For example, "Call today." feels much different than "Start saving money today!"

3. Create a sense of urgency

Often times, readers have an "I'll come back to it" mentality. Creating a sense of urgency by clearly explaining why they need to act now, not later is crucial. An example of this is, "While supplies last."

4. Keep it short and sweet

You want your reader to take a specific action, not struggle to remember what to do. Keep your call to action short and sweet, while including the necessary information, to achieve the best results.

Why should you use a landing page?

Landing pages support your advertising and marketing efforts with information specific to that campaign, allowing you to determine its effectiveness. Landing pages lead customers to a specific product, service, or offer and encourage them to take action.

Let's compare your visitors' experience with your landing page to a visit to the grocery store.

Leaving a First Impression

Landing pages often serve as the front door to your business. They're what your consumers experience first and remember most about your brand. What are you offering? Are you making it easy for them to find what they need? What's keeping them from walking out and trying out a competitor's business?

Generating Leads and Conversions

Many businesses focus on driving visitors to their homepage. This is like dropping customers off at the entrance of the grocery store. They can go inside and look around for they need, but they may not find what they're looking for, or might even get distracted by things they don't need. Will they end up making a purchase? Maybe. By directing them to a landing page instead, it's like you're pointing them to the exact aisle that the item they're looking for is in. This not only makes it easier on the visitor, but also you as you're more likely to make a sale with this method.

Identifying Visitors

You've placed your visitors right in front of what they were looking for, and now they're ready to take the next step. Let's help them make it to the checkout line. Once your visitors engage with your landing page's call to action, you can gain your visitor's basic information by having them fill out a brief contact form. This is like when the salesperson at the register asks for the shopper's name and contact information to access their rewards. This lets the business know who their customers are and how they should reach out to them in the future to keep them coming back.

Eliminating Distractions

Landing pages are meant to be direct and to the point, removing possible distractions that your business's regular website may have. Normally, customers would have to pass the candy, chip, and bread aisle to grab a gallon of milk, but now they can go straight there, avoiding a pit stop to grab a bag of potato chips that weren't on the list.

Testing Results

Unlike traditional ad copy, landing pages allow you to alter your content immediately based on what's working and what isn't. For example, let's say the grocery store has noticed the sales on tortilla shells have been down, resulting in a waste of product and money. They could now attempt strategized testing to gauge where the product sells best. If the tortilla shells were originally placed in the bread aisle, they could now place them next to the taco kits instead and record the change in sales. From here, the store can better determine how they should position their product based on the data collected.

If you have a well-designed landing page, you're bound to increase conversions and capture more qualified leads.

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