What is a Landing Page?
Definition:
A web page that is reached from a specifically defined marketing effort and is intended to serve as the beginning of the user’s online experience.
Landing pages are a critical part of a modern small business marketing toolbox. They serve as your marketing guide or online receptionist, by telling prospects exactly why they are there and what they need to do next.
Previously, marketers would direct all prospects to their company’s homepage; however, this left prospects a little overwhelmed by all the products and services and unsure of where to start. This makes them less likely to convert.
Follow these 7 steps to create an inviting and effective landing page that informs, converts and tracks leads for your business.
Step 1: Maintain a Consistent Design Between the Ad and Your Landing Page
This may seem trivial, but it is very important. You need your landing page’s design to be consistent with the ad or leaflet that directed them there.
You don’t want your prospects to arrive at your landing page and think they are in the wrong place because the landing page looks so different from the ad, or the offer they received through a leaflet distribution campaign is inconsistent.
The look and feel of the design should be seamless because if your prospect thinks they are on the wrong website, they won’t stick around for very long to explore. They will retreat to the safety of the back button. You don’t want to lose prospects because of something as simple as your landing page’s appearance.
Step 2: Create a Bold Headline to Engage Prospects and Continue the Conversation
Your landing page is a continuation of a conversation started by an advertisement on a leaflet that was delivered on their letterbox or any other ad online.
If your landing page doesn’t grab their attention quickly, then they will lose interest, and leave your page.
You don’t want to lose them right away. You want to continue drawing them into your marketing offer and convert.
You need to create a bold, eye-catching headline to engage them when they arrive at your landing page. However, you don’t want to give away all the information on the landing page, so focus on building interest without giving them all the information because it can be overwhelming from the start.
Remember, your landing page is like a guide. It is meant to lead prospects to visit specific pages on your website, or to take a specific action, not to throw them with an encyclopaedia of information or an epic story of how your company came to be.
You DO need to engage them in order to keep them reading and continuing the marketing conversation.
Step 3: Include Incentives to Visit Your Landing Page
(e.g. coupons, discounts, free reports, additional access to information, free consultation, free samples).
Most people won’t click on an advertisement, or visit a web page, just to hear a sales pitch.
They want to find out more about your company, your expertise, and it doesn’t hurt to give them incentives and other free offers.
Great things to use for this are one-off offers and free consultations. These offers give you the opportunity to prove your expertise to your prospects while giving them something of value for free.
It gives them a reason to visit, to interact, and eventually to convert.
Step 4: Always Include a Contact Form
You want to give visitors incentives for visiting your landing page, but you don’t want to give them away for nothing.
You won’t charge them anything, but you do want to get their contact information at least.
If you can get some basic contact information (name, email address, and address), it gives you the opportunity to continue marketing to that prospect, even if they don’t convert the first time.
If you just give away a free offer without getting their information, they could take it and, for whatever reason, not convert.
Now you’ve lost them forever.
Including a contact form builds your marketing reach and keeps prospects connected to your company.
Your landing page is guiding prospects through the sales process. Not all prospects are the same, though. Some are sure they need your product or service, and are ready to buy. These are
These are your hottest leads, and won’t require much more marketing to convert.
However, on the other end there are some prospects who simply had their interest peaked by an ad. These will take a lot more convincing, and aren’t very likely to buy right away. So, you need
These will take a lot more convincing, and aren’t very likely to buy right away. So, you need a mechanism to keep these prospects in your sights, but you have to include those incentives to get them to give up their valuable contact info.
Step 5: Add Trust Building Logos to Establish Credibility (such as customer logos, online security, trade affiliations, etc.)
Building trust is CRUCIAL to your marketing efforts, and building trust is about creating familiarity between your prospects and your company.
Let’s use a simple analogy to exemplify this concept. Let’s say you own a golden retriever, and you think it is the greatest dog in the whole wide world.
You are also going to have a natural affinity to other golden retrievers because they are familiar to you. Not only that, but you will also have an affinity toward the owners of the other golden retrievers because owning a golden retriever gives them credibility in your mind. Subconsciously, owning a golden retriever is the sign of someone with the same values as you (even if that turns out not to be the case).
The same goes for your business. If you can affiliate yourself with reputable organisations and figures, you can feature these affiliations and build trust much faster than by trying to prove yourself to prospects on your own.
Adding the logos of trusted affiliations or previous customers, says to your prospects, “These trusted organisations can vouch for me. I am credible. You can trust me, too.”
Step 6: Present All of Your Contact Information to Visitors to Show Accountability and Facilitate Interaction
If you visit a page that shows no contact information, or maybe just an email address or phone number, how comfortable are you going to feel interacting with that company?
Probably not very comfortable. Displaying your full contact info (office address, phone number, email address, etc.) shows prospects that your company is established and accountable to be contacted or visited whenever needed.
It also gives prospects more opportunities to contact you. Some leads are hotter than others, and you want to give those hot leads every opportunity you can to get in contact with your company.
Step 7: Prominently Feature a Dedicated Phone Number for Prospects to Call
Using a dedicated phone number allows you to track the success of each landing page specifically. It will track the calls brought in by the particular message or offer on that
landing page, giving you a good idea of what is working and what isn’t. You can also record the calls to analyze and improve your sales process.
You can also record the calls to analyse and improve your sales process.
Eye-Opening Landing Page Statistics
- Landing pages that include full contact info, a contact form and a clear call-to-action increased average monthly calls by 67% and average monthly web interactions (such as
contact form submissions and quote requests) by 74%. - Featuring trust logos, a dedicated phone number, and clear call-to-action increased conversions by an average of 27%, with average monthly calls up by 87 and average monthly
web interactions (such as contact form submissions and quote requests) up by 140% - When over 2500 marketers were surveyed; 92% rated landing pages as an effective conversion and measuring tool for a small business.
