Why You Need To Start Making More Landing Pages

What is a landing page? To put it simply, it’s a page that a user ‘lands on’ after clicking through a source of traffic (ie. email, PPC campaign, display, social media post). Generally, when producing a campaign or post, we have an end result in mind. Whether it’d be for a consumer to make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter or enrol in a class you’re offering it should very clear what the call to action (CTA) is and relevant to their be clear that the page this user lands on speaks specifically to the ad or post they just clicked through. The correct use of this activity is known to increase online traffic to your site, build brand awareness and ultimately increase lead generation.

There are far too many examples on the web of marketing campaigns that target a specific product or category and then drive traffic to a completely irrelevant page. When users are searching for a particular product, they’re expecting to see that product in their search result. This may be due to other reasons like the keywords you are bidding on. Ensure that you are in fact looking into the search terms users are using that are driving your traffic for PPC campaigns. There’s nothing worse than finding out that you’ve been wasting money on clicks that were completely irrelevant. A good way to clean up this mess if it’s happening to you is to change your bidding strategy from ‘broad’ to ‘phrase’. That being said, your homepage is definitely the most important landing page on your site because this is where the majority of your organic and direct traffic will land. It’s also where the majority of users will make their first impression of your brand. While it is the most important, it should also not be the landing page of any campaign – unless you’re bidding on your own brand.

Related: Five Design Elements That Can Kill Conversion

Business-to-Business and eCommerce

It’s going to get big! For perspective B2C in the US represented $304.9 billion in 2014, where B2B sales are projected to reach $780 billion by the end of this year alone. Forrester’s figures are also estimating eCommerce sales in the US to top $1 trillion by 2020.

The overall state of the B2B market has evolved and has been continuously transforming over the past decade. In a world where customers were used to contacting vendors directly, we’re just starting to see a switch in this behaviour now where businesses can make purchases through websites, mobile commerce devices and online marketplaces. Below we can see the impact landing pages have vs. the number of leads within the B2B and B2C markets;

It’s hard to deny that there is not a direct correlation between number of landing pages and leads. While both the B2B and B2C industries see an increase in leads when increasing use of ad specific landing pages, it’s quite evident that the B2B industry sees the greatest benefit. This is likely because 90% if B2B buyers online use a search engine to research potential purchases.

Avanade recently reported that 61% of B2B buyers look to third-party reviews prior to purchasing a product or service and 42% look for reviews of the company through a third-party site.

Related: Trouble “down there”? You’re not the Only One Having Problems – Converting Below the Fold

What Makes A Good Landing Page?

So what is the secret recipe to create the perfect landing page? In truth there isn’t one. Yes, there are best practices which we’ll outline below, but you’re going to need to test and find out what works best for your customers –regardless in you’re in the B2B or B2C industry.

Overall you want your landing pages to speak to your visitor in a way that they’ll engage best with your products or brand. Generally, you would not want to send a first time visitor to a specific product page as this practice is best used with retargeting campaigns. Instead, a first time visitor would benefit most from a brand awareness campaign and land on your homepage. From there, they can navigate through your site to see what type of products are offered and hopefully sign up for your newsletter and become a returning user and ultimately future customer.

Homepages best perform (ie. have a small bounce rate) when there’s minimal ‘noise’ for users to get lost in. You want your homepage to be simple.

Some best practice rules to highlight are:

1. Clearly outlines your brand and communicates why you exist or the end-user benefit you offer
2. Offers Minimal Links
3. Few Visual Distractions
4. Limited Text
5. Strong Call-to-Action (CTA)

Here are a few brands that exemplify great homepages.

Boathouse

Rent The Runway

Umbra

And Examples of Not-So-Good Landing Pages

J.P. Morgan

Related: Home Page Conversion Optimization Tips

Campaign Specific

Ads that are generated towards a specific product should land on the specific products landing page. Here’s a perfect example of an ad that was live on Facebook the exact time I was writing this post that is generating traffic to an irrelevant landing page.

The Facebook Ad:

The Landing Page:

What is seen here is what is unfortunately the norm for too many campaigns. The “Book Now” CTA should have landed on a page tailored specifically to the destination resort featured in the ad. Instead, a user lands here where they’re left to free-range your site to likely lose interest and abandon.

Instead of falling into this trap, here are a couple best practices to keep you on track;

1. Relevant Headline and Secondary Headline
2. Clear Product or Service Image
3. Product Information and Ad Copy
4. Strong CTA
5. Testimonials and Trust Indicators

The post Why You Need To Start Making More Landing Pages appeared first on Demac Media.