How to Make a Landing Page a Rainmaker
Landing pages are too often the last picked member of the digital marketing team. But, by focusing on one thing, landing pages can become the digital marketing star.
Using landing pages is an effective way to accomplish a marketing goal for a brand site. The problem is, too often, brands use landing pages for multiple objectives blurring the goal of the page, leading to lower conversions and a wasted effort.
Brands across the spectrum seem to believe that an effective landing page includes all the marketing messages ever created. This is about as far from the truth as it gets. A great landing page doesn’t try to convince a customer to click on fifteen links before, hopefully, filling out a form on the page and clicking the CLICK HERE button.
There is a better way.
By following a goal oriented approach to landing page content creation and design, brands can keep the focus narrow and achieve higher conversion rates.
Know your goal
Before embarking on content creation and design, be sure the goal of the landing page is known and concrete. Without a well defined goal, the landing page becomes a mud puddle. If the purpose of the landing page is to gather emails, focus the content on enticing customers to provide their information to the brand via a simple form.
By knowing your goal, the landing page becomes a focused marketing tool instead of another page consumers ignore. Increase the value of your time and the brand’s site by keeping landing pages simple, with goal focused initiatives.
Know your audience
If you’re trying to speak to everyone, you will reach no one. A simple rule with devastating results to brand marketing efforts. Each landing page should be focused on a specific goal to reach a particular audience. If the landing page is trying to sell soccer shoes to an audience of basketball players, the effort will fail.
Keep to your goal
The urge to insert hyperlinks and an abundance of distracting content on a landing page is powerful and must be suppressed. The goal is the only thing that matters. The brand’s website can (hopefully) handle all the other stuff.
With the goal firmly established, create content that compels customers to accomplish the goal of the page (sign up, click a link, buy a product). Each element and word on the page must lead towards the accomplishment of the goal. Save the details and distractions for blog posts.
Test
The nature of the web is one of fluidity and change. Gone are the days of set it and forget it websites that only get updated every two years during the next frustrating website overhaul. Instead, websites and landing pages are the testing ground for ideas.
The cost of A/B testing two different colorways on a landing page is pittance compared to deciding in a conference room what the site should look like and making it the law. The web is littered with derelict conference room approved e-commerce sites that do a great job of ruining a brand’s reputation and opportunities to serve and sell to customers.
By creating goal focused landing pages and testing different messaging, design elements, and calls to action, brands can actually save money, convert more customers, and actively research and design future iterations of the brand’s site.