One of the major goals of a business online is to increase traffic to their website. But it doesn’t stop there. Traffic should then be turned into conversions or sales. While there are a number of ways to do this (email marketing, PPC ads), the most direct or asserted path is through a landing page. So if you are looking for a way to streamline your digital marketing efforts and convert traffic into leads, landing pages can be the key to successfully doing that.
How?
Well, landing pages were BORN to convert.
But before we move on to the importance of having a landing page, let’s start by defining what it is. And no, a landing page is not a page where you “land” on by mistake.
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a web page where visitors are directed to after they click on an advertisement with a call-to-action from your blog, social media or search engines. Here, they find more information on on the ad they clicked on, with a clear call-to-action, such as a sign up form. Landing pages are more specific than websites, and are usually used in marketing campaigns because of their effectiveness of converting visitors to leads. Because the nature of the page is to get you to take a specific action, the design of is quite simple: clear, concise text, maybe an image or a video, and a form to get what they were looking for – contact details in exchange for a free e-book, for example.
Regardless of the fact that you are trying to sell a product or get more subscribers to your newsletter, a landing page is where you want to convert your visitors into leads. By including a form for visitors to fill, out, you collect valuable information for your database – names, email addresses – which allows you to continue to have a conversation with them in the future.
What are the benefits of having a landing page?
- Leads to more conversions: Due to the nature of landing pages of being so specific and focused, the likelihood that they will be converted into leads is high. By providing users exactly what they were looking for, they are more likely to interact with your call to action can convert into a lead. A proper landing page that is simple and has a clear call to action, reduces problems such as high bounce rates and traffic that leads to nowhere which would normally happen in other web pages on your website. Think about it: instead of directing your visitor to your website and having them search for what they are looking for, wouldn’t it be better to just give it to them? Landing pages were created for converting visitors to leads, and if you do it properly, you can do just that. Formstack has a great guide on what a perfect landing page should look like.
- Reduces your advertising costs: Placing an ad that does not produce any results in terms of leads or conversions is a loss. The purpose of a landing page is to solve that problem. Thus, the effectiveness of your ads increase: conversion rates are higher, which generates more leads and eventually sales. This in turn allows you to focus your advertising dollars on other efforts such as improving your social media reach, other keywords for your SEO efforts or making more PPC ads.
- Helps better target your keywords: Keyword research and implementation is one of the main pillars of search engine optimization, or SEO. The purpose of creating specific keyword phrases for your business to drive traffic to your website is half the step of the way, but getting them to stay on it is another. Landing pages can be creating with this in mind, in where users can not only find you, but find exactly what they were searching for. Landing pages are especially helpful when it comes to long tail keywords, which are phrases that are typically three words or more. Sometimes, it is a little difficult to include these long tail keywords in your website’s main pages. Creating a landing page that will specifically cater to that keyword will be more likely to attract visitors and convert. One of the most common mistakes in SEO is the failure to adopt long tail keywords. Not only are they proven to be more effective in reaching customers already looking for specific products or services, but are less difficult to compete with in search engine rankings.
- Metrics are easier to monitor: One of the major elements of digital marketing is the ability to monitor the effectiveness of your marketing decision through analytics. Getting the metrics from your website can help you better optimize them. Doing so in a landing page is much easier than in a normal web page. Whereas in another page on your website has links, text, images and other distractions, a landing page is stripped to the bare minimum. Elements such as bounce rates can be easier to monitor on a landing page because of the few elements it contains.
- Enhances your content marketing efforts: As mentioned previously, a landing page should have very few elements to avoid distracting the viewer from taking action. What words and elements go on it, and how they are organized should be focus of yourcontent marketing plan. Not only should the words compel the viewer to take action, but the images, color and other media present should do so as well. Knowing what works and what does not is important. For example, including videos on landing pages increase conversion rates by 86% (stat from EyeviewDigital).
Landing pages are perfect places to include long-tail keywords.
Adding a video on your landing page can increase conversion by over 80%
The design and layout of your landing page is very important, as everything from images to colors can affect its conversion rate. Whether you are using a software to create landing pages or are using a web designer to do so, make sure they have the basics down first. If not, you can always go to our web design team in Vancouver for some help Remember, a great layout can make or break a viewer from becoming a lead. Regardless of how big or small you are, we’re here to help.
Cover photo image credits: www.randallreilly.com
