What Is A Landing Page And Why Do We Use Them?

September 29, 2016

A Landing Page is basically a web page which users “land on” or “arrive at” and it serves the purpose of an entry point for a website or a particular section of a website.

Landing pages are used for many different purposes and if we look at it from an advertising standpoint, internet marketing or “inbound marketing” perspective it takes on a whole new meaning.

In the marketing world, a landing page is usually a standalone web page distinct from your main website that has been purpose built and tailored designed for a single-focus objective.

In this sense, the landing page will be designed with trying to keep the focus on the objective at hand. So you will find the usual site navigation missing and this is on purpose. This is to not detract from the process we are attempting to lead the user down. Which is usually in the form of a goal or conversion.

We most likely want the user to click on a CTA or fill in a form to complete the process, then on the following page, the navigation will reappear so that the user can continue to browse.

There are usually 2 types of Landing pages used. The Click Through and the Lead Generation pages.

Let’s have a look at both and their purpose.

Click Through Landing Pages

Click through pages are meant to sell visitors on a product, service or offer with a value proposition. Think of Click Through pages as a getting to know your page, before the page that leads the user to your actual offer.

This does one of 2 things it allows you to explain your offering better and in more details. Which allows the user to make a more informed & educated decision.

Now the user is warmed up and informed. You would then have a Call-to-action that will continue through to either the shopping cart, PayPal form or registration page. This allows for a much higher rate of actual conversions.

Lead Generation Landing Page

These are pages that are used to capture user data, such as name and emails, via a form.

This allows us to use this information for future marketing and also gives us the ability to nurture these users into potentials customers. This is very valuable information, and people don’t like giving over their information all the time.

So what’s the trick? No trick here, we offer the user something in exchange for their personal information. Some form of content that the prospect will want to have. We need it to be worth their while and pertain to the offer at hand. Lead Gen landing pages are everywhere, here being a few examples of what they can offer:

Free Templates or Worksheets
EBooks or eGuides
Discount Coupon / Voucher
Contest Entry
Free Trial / Software Demos
Free Consultations
Physical Gift
Notifications on launches or Future products
Webinars Registration
Newsletter signup

Points to remember when designing a landing page.

Firstly know build the page to cater for where on the buyer’s journey the prospect is. This can make a big difference in the planning and design. Ask some simple questions.

How are your users arriving? Was it from the user come from an organic google search? If so then this prospect might still be in the awareness stage and you would build your Landing Page accordingly.

Perhaps they came from AdWords or Facebook ad Campaign? Let us say we know there are coming via AdWords or Facebook advertising, the Lead Generation page will be better suited for this purpose.

Next and this is the most important design element in constructing the Landing Page, no navigation links! No other distractions.

Remember we need to limit the options available to them and help guide them to clicking on the CTA or filling out the form. Do not even put social sharing buttons or options here! Nothing!

These can all be offered on the next page which is referred to as the thank you page, this allows you say thank you to the user for filling the form, an option to share the offer on social media, as well as other options like reading your latest blogs or any other offers that may be relevant.