Landing Pages That Lead …

Getting back to the nitty-gritty … A website introduces your business’s brand, product, services, values, who and what it’s for, who to contact … you name it. It is meant to set a “first impression,” encompass all your business has to offer, and direct visitors to learn more throughout different sections of your site. Being tasked with that high-level introduction means a website must speak to the broadest audience — including those who may have never even heard of the company, let alone know what it does and why it’s valuable. This makes for relatively generic messaging, multiple-page goals, and a whole lot of links, buttons, and navigation for visitors to take various actions. So, that is amazing for increasing a business’s outreach but less for effective marketing. And for sure, more for sales is needed.

Think of a web page as a bucket and the traffic you send to it as water. A landing page bucket has one hole drilled into the bottom, so the stream of water naturally flows through that specific hole. And that’s your call to action right there. You have directed it to EXACTLY where you want it to go. Conversely, a webpage bucket has multiple holes in the bottom and around the sides. You can choose which tap that water is sourced from, such as Instagram, email, a Google Ad, and what have you, but once it enters the bucket, you can’t choose which hole it’ll flow through or where it will land. Those extra holes are something we like to call “conversion leaks.” However, landing pages zero in on ONE carefully chosen conversion goal, giving you more control over where the traffic flows and, ultimately, where your marketing efforts and ad dollars should go.

Another way to distinguish the two is landing pages avoid navigation at all costs.

Whether found at the top or bottom of the page, a navigation link will carry visitors away from your call-to-action and flick the invisible switch in their brains from “buy” to “explore.” For that reason, keep additional navigation off your landing page whenever possible. Minus a few clickable social media icons in your header or footer. Yes, that means your visitors won’t have a direct path to the rest of your website. But … if you want them to convert, that’s a good thing! Laser focus is what makes a landing page a landing page.

On average, a great headline or cool page design doesn’t make a visitor click that “Buy Now” button. It’s the overall experience from that very first ad, email, or social media click. The more customized and, YEP! focused, that experience is for them, the more compelling it will be to accept your offering. Landing pages can be very versatile, though, too. They are ideal for businesses that have more than one product or service on the go. And they can advertise their contexts on separate pages.

“It slices! It dices! It does your taxes!”

That’s at least two landing pages. LOL!

And if you run a campaign across a range of channels, creating landing pages with messaging that matches the source is a must. For instance, the captivating visuals you run on Instagram may benefit from a different headline, copy, or call to action than text-based search ads. The versatility is endless and can really pull your campaign together flawlessly.

Here’s a great example of what I’m laying down for you here … 

You get an email promoting dresses for puppies. You have puppies, and in your head, you are thinking, um, yes, please! Your expectations are aligned with that offer. Clicking through to a landing page dedicated to that exact promotion, with a gallery of adorable dress designs and a call to action to buy before the sale ends, not only meets those expectations but guides you directly to the offer you’ve already expressed interest in by clicking through in the first place! Whereas if you’re sent to the Puppies Dress Emporium website … that customized, streamlined experience is instantly broken and puts it on you — as the buyer — to locate the offer amongst all the other information and endless clickables. That interrupted momentum, and lack of focus makes it way more likely you will abandon the offer out of confusion, frustration, or simple distraction. Lost interest, a puppy with nothing to wear to the prom. Do you see where I am going with this?

Another big difference worth noting is the landing page’s ability to completely customize a visitor’s experience from the ad to click-through to conversion. And this is what gives us all the warmth and fuzzies over here because this is where things get creative! You can then apply that necessary focus on a granular level down to the very last pixel. Sending people to a landing page customized to match the ad, email, or social media post, along with targeted messaging, cohesive and fantastic design, tailored information, exceptional branding (that matches your website) and that SINGLE call to action, harnesses the interest they’ve already expressed. And it gives them the experience, or an even better one, they subconsciously expect from that initial click. That focused, flowing experience leaves less room for pause and fewer chances for distraction, creates more opportunities to showcase your offer and shows visitors that you respect their time and attention by giving them exactly what they want.  

Your relationship just became more substantial, and they are more likely to return. You have solved their problem; you made their lives easier … from a marketing standpoint, I don’t see how it gets any better than that! Simplicity itself. And here is the cherry on top of the ooey gooey fudge sundae … because this experience was so good, they may become inclined to go to your website now and check out what else you have to offer. Can I get a hallelujah?!

Now don’t get me wrong, there is more creativity than we know what to do with when it comes to creating a website for ourselves — or our clients — and that process is one of the best outlets for us to fly our creativity flags! But there is something to be said about entrepreneurs who become so emotionally attached and focused on the end product of their site that they can tend to forget about the most important thing when creating a website … customer experience. Some people prefer to avoid scrolling through buckets of information, and I know for a fact that every single user out there wants their experience to be easy. When creating websites and landing pages, user experience should always be top of mind. No, if and’s, or buts about it!

In conclusion, we firmly believe that both marketing strategies are needed as both are integral parts of a goldenly delicious — yet simple — strategy. And they both serve fundamental purposes. Regarding both uses, it’s important to note that exploration can sometimes equal distraction. And when it comes to marketing, that distraction can sometimes erode your campaign’s focus with diluted messaging, competing links, and options to stray away from a specific conversion goal, competing for your attention! And send them to your competition instead.

In other words, if an ad promises 15% off dresses for puppies and sends people to your homepage, the chances they’ll end up on the “About Us” page instead of making a purchase and wasting your advertisement spend is super high. Simply put, websites can only do some of it. Let them focus on informing and directing traffic — and let the landing pages focus on turning traffic into getting that ever-elusive YES to that sale!