What is a Landing Page?
by Dave Maloney You keep hearing about them and you know you need them; so what is a landing page and what makes it different from any other page on your website?
A landing page is any page on your site to where visitors are drawn (by clicking a link or "Call to Action") to complete a particular action (such as filling out a contact form). By definition, any page with a form to fill out on it qualifies, but a well-thought-out landing page can do so much more!
The Job of a Landing Page
A Call to Action grabs the attention of your website visitors with an "offer"; something they'll want. If you think of your offer as a dangling carrot in front of your visitors, then the landing page could be considered the net you scoop them up in.
The job of a landing page is to convince your visitor of the value of your offer in the hopes of collecting their contact information - upgrading their status from "visitor" to "possible sales lead." The page's specific purpose is to:
- Describe the offer
- Explain why this offer is so great that no one can live without it
- Explain to the visitor what they need to do to get the offer
Sound simple? "Simple" is the key here, because of course there's a little catch. You only have a few seconds to reel them before you lose them, so keep it succinct and right to the point.
- Don't put anything not relevant to your offer on a landing page that could distract your prospect; to keep them focused on the one goal you may even want to remove the navigation on the page. An image of the offer helps.
- Don't give them a lot to read, keep it short! Use headlines and bulleted points to make it clear what to do.
- Lastly, keep the form as short as possible...no one wants to waste their time filling out a mile-long questionnaire no matter how great your offer is. (You can ask for the name of their favorite aunt's first pet further along in the sales process if you really need it, but for an initial landing page just ask for basic lead info!)