What is a landing page?
Talking with website owners over the years, we noticed that there was some confusion over what, exactly, a landing page is & what its purpose should be on a website.
Let’s get this out of the way now – a landing page is not your website’s homepage.
A landing page is a web page that is set up for one specific purpose, which might be collecting contact info for potential customers or selling one specific product or service. Landing pages work better than other web pages for the purpose they were made because they minimize all other distractions & make it very clear what the website visitor is expected to do on the page.
A landing page is a page on your website with a specific purpose that you can share with people as a part of your marketing strategy. On these web pages, visitors will see one thing or an invitation to do one thing, like sign up for your mailing list, download something, or buy a product. Website owners might share this link directly with their target audience or advertise it on search engines, Google Ads, for example, as a part of their marketing campaign. The page will also have distractions from its goal minimized, so it’s common for a good landing page to not have links leading away from the page, for example, otherwise it runs the risk of distracting prospective customers from the goal. Normal web pages on the site, however, will usually include link options for visitors to reach various destinations on & off the website, as opposed to the landing page, which was created specifically to achieve one task.
How does it work?
A landing page is usually a standalone page used as part of marketing campaigns. As an example, if you wanted to pre-qualify customers for the future launch of a new game you’re developing, you would probably advertise to all the gamers out there who might be interested in buying it, directing them to a landing page specifically set up for the game where they’ll learn more information about the game & leave their contact info to be notified when the game is released. The main reason a visitor would go to this link is that it’s advertising something that they’re interested in (the game), so their attitude towards what they’re seeing will be much more positive than if you sent them an advertisement for something they had no interest in. This would be a good example of a lead generation page.
It’s important to understand your web traffic.
When a dedicated page is created for a marketing campaign, it’s really important to ensure that the website is tracking the performance of that landing page. It’s pretty easy to set campaign URL parameters so the overall page performance can be analyzed & lessons learned can be implemented in future campaigns. Website marketers will usually set up a digital marketing campaign & set the destination URL from the platform they’re advertising on in a way that they know exactly where a visitor came from using a tool like the Campaign URL Builder & then they’ll check how well the page performed in Google Analytics.
This isn’t to say that organic search traffic won’t land visitors on the page, because search engines will probably still index the landing page & understand that gamers looking for this game will be interested in the landing page.
Why would I need my own landing page(s)?
This is easy to understand once the question “what is a landing page” is answered. Using the example of a new game, if your aim is to sell your new game to interested parties, the page would be set up solely to collect the information about potential customers, so you’d probably have a short video clip & some information on the game & an opt-in for people who like what they were seeing to provide their contact info. Once the game hit the shelves, these are excellent, hot leads, and sales are virtually guaranteed when you reach out to them.
Being able to reach a target audience with a lead generation landing page like this is a great method because you are able to save money while not compromising on the results. It is cost-efficient and saves you time & money in your ad campaigns. Driving site visitors towards a specific, achievable goal with a marketing campaign and landing page is such a big reason behind why many companies use landing page optimization in their digital marketing funnel.
What are the different types of landing pages?
Really, a landing page can be used for just about any specific purpose but here are a few of the most common landing pages:
- Squeeze page: A squeeze page provides info or a coupon in return for an email address or phone number, usually. Think of a page that says something along the lines of “Want more leads? Enter your email address here,” and that’s a pretty good example of a squeeze page.
- Lead generation landing page: A lead generation landing page is similar to a squeeze page but will provide more information, usually. The example that we use of a future game launch is a leadgen page.
- Splash pages: Splash pages are usually redirects that a user sees when they click a link to go to a social media post, for example. A good example might be seeing an ad with a countdown that shows how long the ad will be displayed before the user is redirected to their intended destination.
- Unsubscribe pages: An unsubscribe page is what’s displayed whenever a user clicks on that tiny unsubscribe link at the bottom of a marketing email.
- Click-through pages: A click-through page is useful whenever a service has a free trial – “click now to begin your 30 day free trial” would be a great example.
- 404 pages: A 404 page is a page for a link that wasn’t found when the user clicked through. The reason could be due to several things but a 404 page is one that a lot of website owners overlook & can be a powerful tool to refocus your visitors.
- Coming soon pages: We’ve probably all seen a coming soon page on a website or a product that we were interested in. These can also function as lead generation landing pages, with an email opt-in field for visitors to provide their email address to be notified when the site or product is ready.
- Product landing page: A product landing page is set up for one thing – sell that specific product or service. A good example might be a limited availability product that a company is selling & might include a countdown timer showing how much longer that product will be available. Note that this is different than a normal product page – the landing page usually won’t have any links that lead away from the page.
- Thank you pages: A thank you page is usually just a peace of mind item for someone who has just ordered something – “Thanks, we’ve received your order & will be sending out the doohickey shortly!” Still, there’s always a possibility of further optimizing these pages to enhance a business, depending on the business & its clientele.
How can I use it?
Creating a landing page is usually fairly easy in the mechanics involved since it’s primarily just a standalone web page. Understanding the proper way to appeal to your audience might require more in-depth marketing knowledge, though, depending on your landing page that you’re putting together.
The primary idea behind a landing page is that it’s not there to fuel other pages on the website, it has one specific purpose & should direct users on exactly what to do.
Landing Page Best Practices
- Use a clear call to action (CTA)
- Remain focused on the purpose of the page
- Minimize distractions
- Measure your audience metrics to understand how well it’s performing
- Build the page with the potential customer in mind – what would they expect to see?
- Usually, brevity is best on landing pages, consider boiling knowledge down to specific bullet points
More Advantages of Creating Landing Pages
A clear advantage of creating lead capturing landing pages instead of using traditional ways of generating leads is to give what they need at the right place. If they are interested in your product or service, you can create the landing page as a sales page and send them more information about your offers and deals by connecting with them right away. This would also help you create a decent lead list which will assist in making big profits in the future when used properly.
If you’re selling software as a service (SAAS), then a click-through page can be particularly useful in nurturing potential customers as they evaluate the service. Setting up an email marketing drip campaign that triggers when the user signs up that provides some useful “getting started” info to help the user get the most out of their trial should help seal the deal quite a bit. This can help convert visitors to a SAAS website into paying customers, thus improving the company’s outlook!
eCommerce sites might use a “spin to win” popup that effectively serves as a landing page, providing a sense of excitement to the website visitor when they check to see what coupon they can get for their order, which they happily surrender their email address to obtain, helping the website generate leads.