Your Landing Page – the page where visitors are directed after clicking on the link in an ad or banner, can make or break your advertising campaign.
Send potential customers to the wrong page or provide irrelevant content and you will be wasting your money and wasting a great opportunity to increase your online success.
Think of the landing page as your personalised sales letter. It is your one chance to gain the attention of someone you’ve brought to that page. Now is the time to prove that your site provides some value to them, and walk them through a logical next step of purchasing your product or service. You will want it to be eye-catching, informative, welcoming, and to include a call for action.
Sometimes this will this be your website’s home page but most experienced internet marketers have more than one landing page, depending on who it is (and why) they’re bringing to that page.
The Landing Page should be customised according to where the visitor is coming from and what keywords they used to get to your ad. Consider these tips to create a landing page that will result in increased sales.
A Single Message
Don’t try to make your landing page everything to everybody. Promote a specific message with appropriate, concise, and interesting content. For instance, if your campaign is focusing on the keywords “free anti-virus software”, then the landing page should have a link to a free trial offer. This single message is relevant to the visitor.
Looking Good
Most consumers are visually oriented. While very few will read a long block of text, everyone will take a look at images and graphics (in moderation, of course) in a theme that is clean, simple, and appealing to the eye. In this same vein, ensure that a “call to action” button is easy to see and not buried in the overall page design.
Make It Easy
Not only should the landing page look good, it should be easy to navigate within the page as well as throughout the rest of your site. Make the process intuitive and the requirements for completion of a “call to action” clear and simple.
Interesting Headlines
The headline is going to be the first thing a visitor sees, so ensure that it is succinct and relevant. It should clearly state what the rest of the content on the page is about.
Not Too Busy
Too often, great website aesthetics are ruined by the addition of stuff – lots of images and graphics, video content, complicated wallpaper, a fancy, but hard-to-read font, etc. There is nothing wrong with a bit of white space and in fact, this makes the page easier to scan.
Provide Value
Convince visitors of the value of your website and what it provides. Answer their questions before they have to ask them. It should be quickly apparent to someone visiting the page exactly what your business offers and why they ended up there. A bullet point or FAQ type of format can accomplish this very nicely.
Convince and Compel
The overall purpose of the landing page is to function as an online sales tool by convincing visitors that you have what they need and compelling them to purchase it. Entice them to stay and take the action you desire.
The Landing Page in your advertising campaign is vitally important to its success. Make sure yours is just right to receive the most return on your marketing investment.
Bonus Tip:
Finally…don’t forget to capture their information in case they’re not ready to buy yet. By including a squeeze page (or opt-in page) you can continue to market to them in the future.
Have a most outstanding day.
Sean RasmussenAussie Internet Marketing
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008 - 2010
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sean
Appreciate the tips. Is the setup of a landing page different if it is for an affiliate product?
If so how?
I am not confident enough to do it myself. Where would I find people who are skilled at this?
There is no difference between a landing page for an affiliate product or your own product Gee. If you are asking how to build landing pages, I would suggest outsourcing the work to somewhere like Elance if you are not confident of building the pages yourself.
Thanks Sean
Would I give the developer the sales page so they could develop it from there?
Excellent question Gee. I’m not confident to do one either. It seems way to important to get it wrong. I’d like someone to write the sales copy too. So, I’d definitely be looking to outsource this.
Hi Sean
I would be willing to have a go at this, but truly, I would get someone who specializes in copy writing.
These days I realise I don’t have to do it all myself and it’s OK to admit that. Creating a landing page is highly suited to a professional in the field who can make a great job of it until I have peddled fast enough to catch up and learn to do it myself.
Hi Elly,
I think we’re all in agreement on this one. I think it’s too important to my success for me to stuff it up. Much better to get someone else to build the landing page.
I could have a go at the copy writing but again, it’s not a strength of mine and it’s too important to leave to chance. This is one time I’d be happy to part with my money.
I never thought about sending people to another landing page on the website, I always just assumed that you would land them staight on the homepage and let them direct themselves from there..but I see by landing them straight on the relavent page would make their visit more enjoyable.
After reading this I suspect I need to really review what Landing Pages I have set up! Convince and compel indeed!
Hi Sean,
Can a landing page be to long. Is a landing page the same as a sales page?
I’ve experienced where a landing page has my attention in the beginning. Then half way through reading, I lose interest and don’t purchase. Would this mean the marketer has done something wrong, Sean or is it that I just wasn’t interested enough in the product in the first place?