Every business owner worth their salt understands the relevance of digital marketing in brand visibility and awareness in today’s world. It would be hard to attract the right target audience to your business without employing the many strategies of digital marketing.
As such, it is rather common to see businesses investing in their search engine optimization campaigns and strategies.
What is search engine optimization? Well, it is the process of optimizing your business website and pages to rank high on search engines like Google and Bing. You can check this video to learn more about SEO. But that is a topic for another day.
Today, we will be talking about one part of Digital marketing that some people tend to get wrong: landing pages.
What exactly are they, you may be wondering. Let’s discuss everything you need to know about landing pages. We will cover subtopics like what they are, how they are different from other pages, the different types we have, and everything else in between.
What Are Landing Pages?
Landing pages are web pages that a visitor “lands” on when they click on a link from an ad, email, social media post, or any other location.
Let’s say you have an Instagram account for your business, and you want people to buy a product, you can add a link to your Instagram bio. When a potential customer visits your Instagram and clicks on the link, it will take them to your business’s landing page.
On the landing page, the potential customer will be encouraged to do certain things like provide their contact info, subscribe to your newsletter, or even buy your product. This means that this page is a means of converting potential customers.
If the potential customer carries out the action that is being asked of them, then it means they have been converted.
Landing pages are often standalone pages. This means that they aren’t connected to the business’ website; they simply exist on their own.
Typically, this page should encourage visitors to take a particular action. If there are multiple actions for the visitor to take, chances are they would be spoilt for choice and end up choosing nothing.
Homepage Vs Landing Page
It is possible to confuse a homepage for a landing page, especially if you are new to all these. But the truth is they are not the same. Homepages have certain characteristics that distinguish them from landing pages. Let’s look at some of these unique features below.
More Links
Homepages typically have several links. A homepage can have as many as 10 links. They often have a top navigational menu and a footer. There’ll be content and links on the page.
Landing pages on the flip side do not have as many links. A properly optimized one will have just one link. This link is usually there to serve one purpose: to convert users.
Purpose and Audience
Most people who visit a business homepage do not exactly know what they are looking for.
The audience here most times is simply trying to learn more about your business. On the flip side, a landing page is a place where users who already have an interest in converting end up. They are often there to conclude or go on to the next stage of their customer journey.
Broader CTAs
Homepages are sort of an introduction to a business; visitors can come here to find different areas of your website. Because it has to do a lot of things, your homepage will have broad CTA, examples include learn more, read more, and so on.
Whereas landing page CTAs are more specifically tailored since they are meant to serve a particular purpose.
You can find a CTA like “Sign up for our newsletter” on this page.
Types of Landing Pages
This type of webpage can be divided into two broad categories based on their structure and purpose. We have the lead generation ones and the click-through type. Let’s look at them below.
Lead Generation
These pages can otherwise be called lead capture or lead gen. As you can guess from its name, a lead gen landing page is used to collect lead data. Simply put, it is used to collect the contact information of your potential customers.
So, you’d typically find a form that acts as a CTA on them. Businesses often offer value to get their potential client’s information. You’ll find that these pages will offer a service or product in exchange for information like phone numbers, names, and email addresses.
Some businesses ask for specific details such as age and even job titles.
Collecting lead data can help your business in many ways. For instance, it can help you learn more about your target market. This would then help you tailor your marketing strategies to fit your target market. Subsequently, this would cause your lead conversion level to increase.
Click-Through
A click-through landing page simply takes users to another page to complete an action. Therefore, the important feature for them is a Call-To-Action button. You can visit CreativeWritingEdu to learn more about call-to-action marketing.
When the user clicks on this button, they will be redirected to another page to complete the action you want them to.
For instance, if the CTA button says, “Click here to order now!”, the user upon clicking on the button will be redirected to your checkout page. This is why click-throughs are often used by websites that are all about making sales such as an e-commerce website.
Other features you may find on click-throughs are user testimonials and product details.
All of these are used to persuade the user to click on the CTA button.
Conclusion
Having a landing page for your business can generate a lot of benefits and perks. A major advantage is it can significantly increase conversions. Aside from this, it can also help boost your business’s credibility, increase brand awareness, generate new leads, and increase traffic.
All you have to do to enjoy these benefits is to set up a landing page and then make sure it is properly optimized.