Landing Pages Capture Leads and Grow Your Email Lists
Capture Leads Using Diverse Landing Page Types
For the purposes of online marketing, a web page which appears as a result of a web search is commonly referred to as a landing page. You may also reach a landing page if you click on an online advertisement. Each landing page displays specific and directed sales copy which is an extension of the advertisement, search result or link.
Landing pages are primarily used for lead generation and email list building although some can be used to inform and educate visitors. The advertiser’s conversion rate is determined by the actions taken by each visitor that arrives on the landing page.
Are Your Landing Pages Reference or Transactional?
There are two main types of landing pages, they are either reference or transactional pages
A reference landing page presents information which your visitor will find to be relevant. These pages may display text, images, compilations of links, or other elements designed to inform or educate their visitors.
Transactional landing pages are designed to persuade a visitor to take action by completing a transaction. This is accomplished by providing a form that needs to be filled out.
Visitor’s information is gathered to add the visitor’s email address to a mailing list of prospects. An email campaign can then be developed based on responses to the transactional landing pages.
Your goal is to capture as much information about each visitor as possible. Your hope is to convert the visitor into a customer.
Linking Your Social Media to Landing Pages
Social Media Energizes Landing Page Contacts
Landing pages are often linked to social media, e-mail campaigns or search engine marketing campaigns in order to enhance the effectiveness of the advertisements. The general goal of a landing page is to convert site visitors into sales or leads.
If the goal is to obtain a lead, the landing page will include some method for the visitor to get into contact with the company, usually a phone number, or an inquiry form. If a sale is required, the landing page will usually have a link for the visitor to click, which will then send them to a shopping cart or a checkout area.
By analyzing activity generated by the linked URL, marketers can use click-through rates and conversion rate to determine the success of an advertisement.
How Landing Pages Originated
Landing pages originated within the IT departments of Microsoft in late 2003 in response to poor online sales of their Microsoft Office product. At the time, the process was tedious, time-consuming and not hugely successful. As a result, in 2009, several startups, including Unbounce, were formed to simplify and streamline the landing page process.
The rise of cloud computing and e-commerce around 2009 provided ideal conditions for these startups to flourish. Since then customer requirement’s have evolved. Integrations with other solutions such as email marketing, lead nurturing and customer relationship management systems have become common practices.
Your Landing Page Format is Critical to Your Success
The Landing Page Format has Evolved
Over time, the format of landing pages has evolved from their simple roots. Today landing pages contain clear, consumer targeted headlines and content designed to evoke positive responses from visitors. A successful landing page explains the product offer clearly and places visual emphasis on the value of the product or service presented.
Landing Pages Need To Be as Simple as Possible
Marketing experts today recommend websites remove the navigation menu and limit internal and external links on landing pages. Your form length should be kept to a minimum, gathering the crucial information required without burdening visitors with too many extraneous questions to answer.
Successful pages will also include relevant images, animation or a short video to engage and inform your visitors. Don’t make the mistake of over complicating your pages with too much content. Keep them simple.
Your pages should also contain small icons for Facebook, Twitter or other social media to enable quick and easy social media sharing of your content. Social sharing means that the conversation is expanded to include others falling within your visitors social sphere. That’s the best type of response you could receive…..
Landing Page Optimization is Growing
Landing page optimization (LPO) is one part of a broader Internet marketing process called conversion optimization, or conversion rate optimization (CRO). It’s goal is improving the percentage of visitors to your website that become sales leads and customers.
When your landing page is displayed after a potential customer clicks an advertisement or a search engine result link it begins a conversation with that visitor. The displayed content needs to be a relevant extension of your advertisement or link. LPO ensures that you provide page content and appearance that makes the webpage more appealing and informative to your target audiences.
The Three Types of LPO Based on Targeting
Associative content targeting or rule-based optimization or passive targeting. This page content type is modified based on information obtained about the visitor’s search criteria, geographic information of source traffic, or other parameters that can be used for explicit consumer segmentation and targeting.
Predictive content targeting or active targeting. In this case the page content is adjusted by correlating any known information about the visitor to anticipate future actions based on predictive analytics.
Consumer directed targeting or social targeting. The page content is created using the relevance of publicly available information based on reviews, ratings, tagging, referrals, etc.
Two Types of Landing Page Optimization
Closed-ended experimentation. Consumers are exposed to several variations of landing pages, altering elements like headlines, formatting and layout while their behavior is observed in an attempt to remove distractions that will take the lead away from the page, including the primary navigation. At the conclusion of the experiment, an optimal page is selected based on the outcome of the experiment.
Open-ended experimentation. This approach is similar to closed-ended experimentation except that more variations will be added for testing and experimentation will not stop when a winner is found. This method is used by large corporation to dynamically improve their conversion rates and improve user experience. Landing page can also be adjusted dynamically as the experiment results change to further enhance user experience.
Your Landing Pages Fuel Lead Generation
The general goal of a landing page is to convert site visitors into sales or leads. If the goal is to obtain a lead, the landing page will include a call to action for the visitor to get into contact with the company, usually a phone number, or an inquiry form.
If a sale is required, the landing page will usually have a link for the visitor to click, which will then send them to a shopping cart or a checkout area. By analyzing activity generated by the linked URL, marketers can use click-through rates and conversion rates o determine the success of an advertisement.
