We know what landing pages are, but do we remember to review them or refresh them? Possibly, the idea of creating or updating the landing page(s) has slipped to the bottom of our virtual “to do” pile. If you are not using landing pages, it is time to add the creation of one (or more) to your list of things to do.
What is a Landing Page?
The idea behind a landing page is to encourage conversions.
While conversions can (and do) happen on the home page of a business site, they are much easier than using a landing page. Why is that? Let’s picture the visit to the home page of a new website. We may become excited over all of the resources that are available there, but we may also become overwhelmed at how much content is available and wonder where we are supposed to start. Let’s face it. We are living in the “Information Age” and we can easily become inundated with information and border on the precipice of information overload. That is where the landing page comes into play.
The idea, as a business owner (or website owner), is to reach our goal, our business objective, whatever that objective is. Generally, there is some sort of monetary element to our objective(s), but even if there is not (i.e., growing an email list, brand exposure, etc.), we want to “convert” the website visitor from a lone visitor to a participant on the overall path to that business objective. Hence, what we call the “conversion.”
In some cases, a business may have a website that is really just a landing page, but generally, it will offer additional links for more information and resources, which is, in essence, a landing page home page.
The key thing, on the landing page, is to keep it simple, and more than that, keep it focused on your overall business objective, without any additional distractions that will impede that conversion.
The Creativity of Landing Page Marketing
For years, marketers have understood the need and possibilities that landing pages had to offer. In an article in Entrepreneur magazine in 2008, called “Stick to the Landing Page,” author Gwen Moran provides case studies and information from marketers on how to use landing pages. Some of those ideas are still relevant. The ideas include the combination of postcard marketing to pull people to the landing page instead of to the business home page. As a part of that postcard marketing, the landing page itself can be used as the graphic on the postcard, creating that appeal as soon as the would-be customer opens his or her mailbox.
This can also be done with business cards and handed out at trade shows and conferences, saving that postage cost that comes with the postcard marketing.
Another idea is to include the marketing of the landing page through the use of QR codes on posters and coupons that are given out in your local area or local stores that allow you to offer your printed promotional material.
The offline opportunities really are endless.
You may want to obtain an easy-to-remember domain for your landing page, so that it fits well on your printed material and is easy for the future client to remember. That doesn’t mean that you have to be married to that particular landing page as you can always change the design of the landing page or point to the domain to another landing page, changing your campaigns as they need to be changed.
Do the Math
In an article this year (2014) in the Journal of Advertising Research, authors Ewing, Steward, Mather, and Newton discuss the need to understand the difference between the viral aspect and the non-viral aspect and the mathematics on how to measure the success. Their article is called, “How Contagious Is Your Viral Marketing Campaign? A Mathematical Model for Assessing Campaign Performance” (that is a loooong title, eh?!).
Fortunately, many landing page tools and providers exist and the online providers tend to have built-in analytics so that you do not have to do the math yourself. The importance of these analytics is how you can review the effectiveness of your landing page and whether it is providing the conversions that meet your business objectives.
Combine that with the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), as quarterly or monthly goals that feed into the overall business objective(s), and the analytics become a real view into the success of your landing page campaign(s). It provides a view into what is needed to have even greater success.
While you can create the landing page “by hand” coding it in html, you can also hire someone to create the landing page for you or use a service where design templates are available to get your landing page up and running right away. The advantage, there, is that often, those analytics and A/B testing are built into the online system. If you do it by hand or hire someone to create the landing page for you, be sure to hook up Google Analytics, or a similar analytics system so that you can track the results. By doing that, you can find out which landing page or landing page design is providing the most conversions for you. You don’t want to rely on just how many sales (or conversions) you are receiving because without the analytics, you will not have a clear view into the “what” is behind the conversions and that is what you need to repeat the success (or minimize the failure).
Conclusion
We have refreshed our memory on why it is so important to use landing pages. More importantly, understanding the purpose of the landing page, which is to obtain conversions. It is helpful (more like a requirement) to have analytics to measure the success of your landing pages to ensure that they are meeting your KPIs and your overall business objective(s).
So, what is next? If you have a landing page, it is a good time to review the effectiveness of that landing page and consider whether it needs a refresh or update. If you do not have a landing page, it is time to create one. Remember, it does not have to be perfect right out of the starting gate and you are allowed to improve over time. You can always apply what you learn to your own designs and future endeavors with your landing page objectives and campaigns going forward.
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