What is a landing page? Identifying website landing pages

What Is A Landing Page

What is a landing page? A landing page is a specific page on your website designed to collect customer information through a form. 

Usually, landing pages specific audiences, offering valuable deals called “lead magnets” in exchange for an email address and name. 

The more email addresses you collect through landing pages, the more leads you can nurture. After all, it usually takes more than one connection with a customer to ensure a sale. 

Unlike other pages on your website which may allow your customers to jump between spaces and browse various kinds of content, landing pages are highly focused. Most of the time, you won’t include any other links in your landing page to send customers away from your offer.

Landing pages are a must-have in lead conversion.

Let’s look at how these pages work, and how you can make one.

What Is A Landing Page

The anatomy of the landing page

Thanks to a host of valuable software tools (we’ll look at these shortly), landing pages are easy to build. You can design a landing page allowing customers to download eBooks and webinars instantly or redeem offers like coupons or free trials. 

Some companies place videos in their landing pages to help demonstrate the benefits of a service or product; others use images and written copy. 

Some of the most common components of a landing page are:

  • The headline: This is the first thing a visitor sees when arriving on your landing page. This page should allow your audience to see whether it’s worth giving you their email address. Demonstrating value is crucial. 
  • Copy: Although you might not use a lot of written copy on your landing page, there should be enough to push your customer towards a conversion. Your copy needs to convince leads you deserve a space in their inbox.
  • Forms: There’s usually a brief form for your customer to fill out on your landing page. Be careful not to ask too many questions straight away. Requesting too much data can easily scare your customers off. Stick to a name and email address if possible. 

Like many inbound marketing campaigns, you’ll need to implement SEO into your landing pages to ensure the right customers can find you. It’s important to feature the right keywords and use design to draw the eye down the page. 

However, unlike other pages on your site, your landing page often won’t include any navigation so your customers can check out the rest of your site. 

If you’re concerned your customers might need extra information before making a purchase, you can offer links to an FAQ or terms and conditions. Remember, good landing pages are often quite simple.

Why are landing pages important?

Creating great landing pages is an important way to improve your chances of conversions. You can build landing pages which specifically target certain audience members and offer them something of value. This boosts your ability to convert a higher percentage of visitors into leads.

Landing pages don’t just give you customer data either. By looking at which pages drove the best conversions for your organization, you can also determine whether some of your offers are more attractive than others. 

Here are some of the major benefits of landing pages:

Generate qualified leads

Lead generation is essential for any business owner. The more leads you create, the easier it’ll be to make sales. With landing pages, you can attract specific customers to your site using targeted campaigns and keywords. 

When your customer arrives on your website, you use a lead magnet to convince them to give you their email address. 

What Is A Landing Page

Collect valuable information

When a lead completes a conversion from your landing page, you collect valuable information about what kind of customers you attract, and which deals work best. This is great for your marketing team. The more you learn, the better your future campaigns become.

Supplement other marketing channels

Landing pages can supplement and enhance various marketing channels. You can send people to your pages from social media. It’s easy to link back to these pages from guest posts on other sites. You can also include landing page links in email and PPC ads.

Targeted conversion

Landing pages only have one job – to help your customers convert. With a dedicated landing page directing your customers towards your “call to action,” you’re less likely to miss out on opportunities. 

The features of great landing pages

Studies indicate having more landing pages can significantly improve your chances of conversions. The more landing pages you create, the more opportunities you get to convert visitors into leads. Although this doesn’t mean you can skimp on quality or design. 

Here are some examples of great landing pages, and the features you should replicate.

1. Focus on the offer

The focus of a landing page shouldn’t be on your business, but on the benefits, you can offer your customer. Instantly draw attention to what you’re going to give your audience. 

In this example from The Professional Wingman, you immediately find out what you’re going to get, a chance to earn more dates.

Another great thing about this website is it doesn’t direct the customer anywhere else. Even when you click on the CTA, your form will appear within the page so you can convert right there. 

What Is A Landing Page

2. Simple and distraction-free

Although your landing pages need to be compelling to get customers to use them, they should also be simple. Don’t overwhelm your pages with too much content, or you could end up scaring your customers away. 

Focus on getting your crucial value proposition across as quickly as possible, and remove any distractions, such as links to other parts of the page. 

This landing page from Khan Academy lets you choose whether you want to jump straight to the conversion, or discover more as a teacher, or parent. 

As you scroll through the page, you’ll get little complicated copy. Instead, the landing page uses direct sentences and data to get its point across. 

What Is A Landing Page

3. Speak to specific audiences

Good landing pages show you know your audience. Great landing pages adapt to suit different customer segments. A well-made landing page should specifically talk to the customer most likely to click on the ad which leads them to this environment.

Segmenting your customer base will help you to drive more conversions through customized campaigns. You can even collect specific information about prospective customers. 

In this example from Muck Rack, the company ensures that the customer will get the most relevant experience possible, by allowing them to choose the direction of their journey.

What Is A Landing Page

4. Keep forms basic

Forms are an important part of landing page design.

You need to collect information about your audience for the page to be a success. However, asking for too much information during the earliest stage of your relationship with a customer can really put them off. Try to keep forms as basic as possible. 

This example from Code Academy keeps things as simple as they come. The company wants to show its customers they can learn how to code easily. This means the sign-up needs to be simple too. 

Customers can even log in from existing accounts with Facebook or Google.

What Is A Landing Page

How to create a landing page (the easy way)

Once you decide it’s time to start making your dedicated landing pages, it’s time to build your landing pages. There are lots of great tools out there to help with this. 

Thrive Architect is a great tool for companies with WordPress websites. You can create all kinds of squeeze and landing pages through this software without a strong knowledge of coding. 

Your pages look professional and well-made and come with plenty of features, like webinar and product launch pages, sales pages, and more. 

What Is A Landing Page

Alternatively, you could try something like Leadpages

Among the better-known landing page design solutions, Leadpages helps small businesses to close sales and discover new opportunities online. You can design pop-ups to collect lead information, use alert bars, and create total landing pages too. 

What Is A Landing Page

Leadpages supports A/B testing, so you can figure out which of your campaigns are driving the best outcomes. There’s also access to a drag and drop page builder for simplicity and real-time conversion insights. 

Finally, ConvertKit is another highly recommended product on the market for campaigns including emails, landing pages, and more. The company targets creative companies, course creators, and bloggers, offering access to email design, sign-up forms, and automated campaigns. 

ConvertKit is a lot more than a simple landing page builder. Instead, you get a full strategy for finding and converting leads. 

Now you’re ready to go out and start building your landing pages for yourself. 

Remember, you can build multiple pages for different segments of your audience. It’s also a great idea to continue experimenting with page offers and solutions, so you can see what it takes to convert your customers. 

Check out our other articles for guidance and tips on how to master your landing pages and the marketing campaigns which come with them. 

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Steve Harvey
Co-founder
Steve Harvey
Co-founder
Our co-founder, Steve Harvey, is also a regular contributor to Brand Fabrik, a flagship publication covering topics relevant to anyone in branding, marketing and graphic design. Steve shares his enthusiasm for brand naming through his articles and demonstrates his knowledge and expertise in the naming process.

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