Before you can research the best kind of landing page for your business, it is important to understand what a landing page is. A landing page is a page that someone who has clicked on an online marketing call-to-action lands on. It is a dedicated, standalone page that is designed for a specific marketing campaign.
There are two categories that landing pages commonly fall under:
- Capturing leads to help market to individuals in the future
- To prepare a potential customer to look at a product you are trying to sell them before sending them to your actual site
It is important to keep in mind that dedicated landing pages are different than your homepage. A homepage is general and speaks to your overall brand and corporate values and encourages individuals to explore further. On the other hand, a landing page has one purpose. Think of it this way, each link on a page is a small leak that dilutes your message, ultimately reducing the conversation rate. Therefore, the fewer links on a page means that your message has the potential to be more powerful.
TARGET MARKET
Understanding the target market you are attempting to reach with your landing page is the first thing you will need to know. Knowing the basic demographic information needed to create any type of web page is a good base, but it would also be helpful to keep in mind the following things while designing a landing page specifically:
- Where are the visitors coming from?
- Were the visitors directed to the page from social media or a blog?
- What are they looking to get from your landing page?
PAGE COPY
Next you need to decide if long form copy or short form copy would be best for your organization. Each one is best for certain types of landing pages; for example, short copy is better for calls to action that involve low commitment, low cost or low perceived risk, such as signing up for a newsletter or free trial. It doesn’t matter if its long copy or short copy, you need to make sure you are breaking up the text to make it easier to read.
UNDERSTANDING THE COMPETITION
Don’t be afraid to look at what your competition is doing. You do not want to deviate too far from the industry norm or you might decide to go a completely different direction than your competition.
The first impression you make is vital to the success of your landing page. If you are able to determine where the majority of your visitors come from then you will be able to target those markets and increase traffic to your website. By becoming informed about the elements needed to design a landing page you will be able to direct an effective marketing campaign.
