The term “Marketing”- we all are familiar with. You will also observe that there is a huge shift of activities from “traditional old methods” to online medium – and ‘marketing’ is no exception. The new term “Digital Marketing” has also emerged just because of that. Initially it was only web presence that was important and one could do with static website only. It is not same any more, in the last decade the concept of “Digital marketing” has exploited the power of Internet in true sense. The term “Digital Marketing” was used for the first time in nineties and today it is a field of research and study in its own right.
Today, it is not just about showcasing your products and services online, it is all about traffic and converting traffic to leads. Then these leads are to be converted into actual buying customers. Yes, websites today mean pure business – nothing less than that. Digital marketing has evolved quite fast. Today we talk about very precise methodologies that help us make more intuitive websites that have specific triggers that are capable of generating CTAs or “Call to Actions”. Looks simple, but there is more to it, let us find out.
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is actually just another web page. We make make visitors land on this landing page when they click on an advertisement, call to action or may be one of the emails have directed them to that specific landing page as opposed to website’s homepage.
When the person reaches homepage – you will find there are links to almost every part of your website. There is lot that has been offered on the homepage and the visitors might just get lost and it might be difficult for them to find the path to specific “call to action” trigger.
So it is advisable to make visitor land on a specific “Landing Page” – that just talks about “one thing” and that “one thing” is something that aligns with needs of a visitor. Since there is nothing else on the landing page – there is a high probability of converting visitor to a lead and finally lead to buying customer.
Why to have a landing page?
We must find an answer to this primary question – “Why should I have a landing Page in the very first place?” Here are some suitable and most appropriate reasons to have a landing page on your website.
- Rank higher locally
- You should create landing pages that feature very localized perhaps few kilometers content.
- Exploit Social network
- Target your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook traffic to well designed landing pages. It is a great way to connect and deepen the connection.
- Smart Content
- Create a better business funnel by creating landing pages that can address business specific
- Market segments,
- Product segments or
- Key content segments
- Capture Leads
- Landing pages are your lead capture tool.
- If a landing page consists of good combination of video, audio, images and descriptions along with well designed intuitive CTA (call to action) is a guarantee for lead capture.
- Best use of Advertisements
- Advertising will only be effective when it is takes visitor to a targeted landing page. All that this page should contain is content that supports the message in your advertisement and nothing else.
- Create a better business funnel by creating landing pages that can address business specific
What are the main elements of any good landing page?
Main elements of a Landing Page
Digital Marketing has brought the science behind the idea of “Landing Page” and because of that it can be learn and adopted easily into your own website by acquiring the knowledge about basic elements of a landing page.
Best part about the effective landing pages is – to make it very clear about the elements that a visitor is going to get from a page and once we know them we can incorporate them in our landing pages. That’s it plain and simple.
Elements of a Landing Page – You must take them into account
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Compelling headline
A compelling headline is the one which has clarity, compassion and should also be relevant to the message. Headlines which are tempting and fake only bring disappointments and visitor never comes back to such a website.
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How much is too much
Too much of a content and customer looses interest. Too less of a description generates suspicion. To the point description is what customer is interested in.
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Writing Style
Make it customer-centric by using words like “you”, “your” instead of “I”, “We” or “us”. You should also be able to convey why your product or service is better than the others. Do explain the benefits of your product or service.
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Formatting styles
Since most of the people today are online and scan through web pages for almost anything, a well designed website will only be able to keep them on your site for a while. A well designed website uses various formatting techniques, like bullet lists, ordered lists, formatting for example bold, italics, underlined etc. This ensures that the most important bits of information stand out and helps visitor to take some decision.
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Engaging Content – using images, videos and animations
Landing pages should grab immediate attention. Use different media’s like images, videos, animations etc. to grab that attention.
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Videos
- More than 90% of consumers find videos helpful while taking decisions online for making a purchase.
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- It is observed that brands that produce videos are found to be more trustworthy.
- How much time consumer spends on your website has a lot to do with conversions. Website containing videos has very low bounce rate as compared to the ones that contain pure text or/and images.
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Images
- Showcase products or product features
- Evoke emotions, give a human touch
- Create a story about your product or brand
- Draw attention towards the most important element on your landing page for example a CTA (Call to Action) button.
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Building Trust – It has to be a part of strategy
Customers should be able to trust your brand, before they initiate any action. Have those elements on your landing page that help build trust. It is observed that a good landing page incorporates the trust building elements that boost conversion rates. The trust building elements could be:
- Some kind of statistical evidence
- Badges and seals that enforce trust
- Testimonials
- Privacy Policy
- Third party seals that ensure your website is safe – SSL, McAfee, Paypal, Verisign etc.
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Collect Visitor’s Information – through Lead Capture FORMS
Landing Page Form to collect visitor’s useful information
Forms are like “must haves” on your landing page. Form helps you collect useful information from a visitor. They don’t always work well, unless designed properly. Keep in mind some key points, while designing a form for a landing page:
- Less is more – Large forms only intimidate visitors. Only take essential information from prospects.
- Should be organized well to make it easy for visitors to complete a form. (Especially if there is large amount of information to be taken)
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CTA Button – Prominent and Visibly appealing
Call to Action Button
Landing page without a CTA button is not a landing page. CTA (Call to action) section is very important part of your landing page. Must have thoughts about CTA:
- Where to place CTA button on a landing page?
- Not too early, not too late: Don’t placing your CTA button prematurely early on the page.
- You might not be able to convert it since you’ve not introduced and explained your offer. It is advisable to explain your product and offer and that is more likely that visitors will already be convinced to make a decision.
- Does color of my CTA button or CTA section matters?
- Make it stand out at the same time it should contrast well with the rest of the page.
- What should be the size of my CTA Button?
- It should be big enough to “Stand out” among other elements on your landing page.
- CTA Copy – Winn or loose factor
- Use compelling words that are also personalized and human. Visitors might just find copy like “Submit,” “Subscribe,” “Sign up,” or “Download” little boring as it has now been over used and it doesn’t appeal any more.
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Don’t show the exit door to your visitor on a landing page
This last point could have been the first one actually. Don’t include external links on your landing page. Landing Page is designed to be highly focused on your specific product or service offer – external links, even link to other pages except for pages like “Terms and Conditions”, “Privacy Policy” or “Disclaimers” should be strictly avoided. Landing page should not have even “Navigation Bar” or Menu that connects to other parts of the website.
External links might just show a visitor an exit door, resulting in loosing a would be customer.
Can I create a Landing Page myself? Without expert support
Yes, today it is not that difficult, there are tools you can do alomost anything without writing a single line of code. You can create entire site so easily including landing pages with the help of CMS tools like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla etc. They support the concept of themes and plugins that can make your life easier.
⇒How to create a landing page in wordpress using fee and premium themes? Click here
Conclusion
So make a point, your landing page is all different breed. It is designed exclusively for the purpose of conversions and any element that takes visitors attention to something else should not be part of your landing page.
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