Why Use Landing Pages
So, what are the benefits of using a landing page? This is a question with many answers. The first thing you need to know is that no up-and-coming website should be without one. They’re that important!
Targeting your audience
What’s the difference between your landing page and a page from your website? The ability to target your audience as directly as you can. Your landing page is specifically designed for content targeted to a users search. This is significantly different from a generic page from your website. Whereby visitors with varying intentions would be signposted through the site structure to the content which they are looking for.
Landing pages most commonly feature as part of Paid Search campaigns. This is because you can be so targeted with your content on a Landing Page; and the last thing anyone who is using PPC advertising wants to do is waste money! If someone searches for what it is that you are offering, they will benefit much more from visiting a well-built landing page rather than being taken to a standard web page on your site.
To put this into perspective, think about previous searches you may have done. When hitting search, you would have been shown ads at the top of the page and some ‘organic’ search results below. If one of those ads sounded like they were offering exactly what you were looking for, then you would give it a click. At this point, what you want to see on the next page would be exactly what was offered in the ad. A good landing page would provide you with just that.
A traditional web page, however, would require you to navigate yourself around the site to find all the information that you need. Not so great.
Increase Conversions
Not only do your landing pages create awareness of your brand, they also act as a platform for conversions. In fact, arguably the main benefit of having landing pages, is the increased conversion rates that they will inevitably bring to both your PPC campaigns and business as a whole.
Conversions are essentially a measurement of success. A conversion happens every time a visitor to your website does something that has either lead them to, or could lead them to, becoming a customer. There are quite a few types of conversions that could feature on a landing page.
Email subscriber
How many websites have you landed on where they offer you the option to sign up to their newsletter for something in return? A lot of times I should say. This is undoubtedly one of the most common types of conversions. Because once the visitor does submit their email then they can be used for future email marketing campaigns.
Having a mailing list full of people who have willingly provided their details can be priceless. You know that they are interested in what you offer as they arrived at your landing page. This means that you can confidently spend time on a quality marketing email to go out to this list and know that you’re not wasting your time.
Phone numbers
You may provide the visitors to your landing page with a phone number to call. If they make the choice to actually call the number you have given them, this can be counted as a conversion. It means they are clearly intrigued in your page and are wanting more information. It’s then down to you to convert that phone call into a sale!
It also gives you the opportunity to communicate with your visitors first hand and get to better understand your target audience.
Enquiry forms
Enquiry forms usually crop up on landing pages. They can appear in various shapes, sizes and with an assortment of possible fields. But the most common type that you will have seen before are the ones which ask you to provide your name, email (maybe number) and any questions you might have. Not only does this give you the chance to answer any potential customers questions yourself, but they almost act as a source of feedback for your page. If you have multiple visitors to your landing page asking the same questions about a certain topic, maybe it would be a good idea to feature information about that topic on the page?
Making a sale
Obviously, the conversion you will be striving for the most (if possible) is the visitor purchasing your product/service. Landing pages are designed to maximise sales and lead generation, so this type of conversion is a big success!
If you are wanting to increase your conversion rates, optimising your landing page is always the best place to start.
Freedom of change
I know, this may sound like a philosophical speech. But seriously, landing pages give you the ability to change what you want, when you want. You have freedom!
This is in contrast with your actual website. All of the content on your website needs to be structured in a way that follows a theme, it needs to be informative and it needs good internal linking. Basically, it makes it very difficult to change much without having to change your whole site. Landing pages are standalone pages, meaning you can always be changing them without having to change anything else on your site.
A-B Testing
Now, because of landing pages’ freedom, we have the ability to change and update content. You need to take advantage of this. Conducting A-B Testing will help you to determine what content on your landing pages leads to the highest conversions. To be able to do this, you will need more than one landing page for the same purpose. You can run them both landing pages at the same time and see which one performs best. Think of this as having them compete with each other. This way, you can see which features are more effective than others. Just make sure the content is regarding the same topic! It’s no good if you are A/B testing two landing pages, both offering completely different products/services!
If one landing page isn’t getting many views, you can compare it to a more successful one and see what’s going wrong. Doing this gives you data on what changes you need to make to boost those conversion rates.
In conclusion, landing pages are the backbone of a successful website. They greatly help conversion rates, boost PPC campaigns, generate awareness for your brand and allow you to have the freedom to change whatever you want. Why not make one yourself?
