If you are investigating the best way to sell products or services, you’ve probably come across at least one article telling you to create a landing page. But… What are landing pages, and do I really need one?
Well, that answer isn’t a simple yes or no…
It depends on what your goals are. So let’s dig in a little and see if YOU need a landing page.
What are Landing Pages?
The answer to this question is easy.
Landing pages and website pages that you want your ideal client to “land” on. For the purpose of marketing, landing pages are created for the sole purpose of getting people to buy from you.
If you have your own website or blog, then you can create pages. These pages can be set up for marketing and product campaigns. Additionally, many email programs offer ways to build landing pages too.
Landing Page Examples:
Pinterest Services – This is an example of a landing page created straight from this site.
Pinterest Strategy Guide – This is an example of a landing page created through Mailerlite.
If you are ready to jump in and create some great lead magnets to use with your landing pages, then hop over to my Funnels on Fire course, and let’s get started!
How to Use Landing Pages
Depending on the theme you have or type of website you may already have landing page templates available. If you don’t – then don’t worry to much. With a few thoughtful practices you can create your own.
What is your purpose? This is the first step in making any great landing page. What are you actually trying to get someone to do? If you want them to join a live event, then adding a count-down timer to the event may help. If you want them to sign up or purchase something a button to perform that action is more appropriate.
Understand what the fold is. The fold is what you can see when you land on the page. Experts disagree on if your opt-in choices should be above the fold or below the fold. You can always try both and see which one works best for your lead magnets/landing page offers.
Keep it Simple. Landing pages can be long or short, and you should play around with both. See which type of landing page works best for your offer. However, you need to try and keep things simple. Explaining things in words your audience won’t understand is not going to help you.
Above all, please make sure you have a Clear Call to Action. This is a way to quickly answer what are landing pages going to offer your customer.
Metrics to Measure
Like most things, there are LOTS of metrics you can measure. Here are the 4 that I have found to be the most useful.
CTR – Click-Through-Rate
I’ve had many people tell me they aren’t getting enough people to purchase, sign up for, or attend their webinars based on marketing campaigns. The first thing to look at in determining if your campaign was successful is how many people who landed on your page signed up.
Calculating this is easy. Through Google Analytics or another method, you identify how many people landed on your page and then divide by the number who signed up for whatever you are selling them. If you get 100 people to land on your page and only 5 sign up, you actually have a CTR of 5%. Five percent (5%) in many niches is an excellent CTR.
Time on Page
How long are people spending on your page? This will tell you if they were at least interested in what you are trying to sell them. The higher the number, the more likely they are to be reading or interacting with your page.
Now, if your page is short, your time on the page may be shorter than a long-form page. So you do have to take into consideration how much text there is to read.
Bounce Rate
If you have your landing page set up to redirect to another thank you page, then your bounce rate should be fairly low. Bounce rate is the percent of people who landed on your page and left with no further action.
Most of the time, you want to hide any way to get off your page until they get to the Thank you page, so this may be higher than other pages on your site. It can, however, provide a unique perspective if people are clicking into other links without signing up.
Traffic Source
Where is your traffic coming from? This is another metric you can get out of Google Analytics but tells you how people found your page. This can give you unique insights into your audience and how they are finding your campaigns.
Helpful Hints
Thank you pages are important to redirect your customers to after they sign up or opt into your landing page offers. This gives you a chance to redirect them to other resources, give them more free information, or tell them instructional content.
Add in Social Share options if you want your audience to share with other people. We like things easy and likely won’t share if you don’t ask. Adding in quick share buttons helps ask them to share.
Proofread! There is nothing worse than articles and landing pages, which super obvious editorial issues. We all miss things occasionally but have another set of eyes to glance through or use tools to help you.
Landing Page Conclusion
Hopefully, this article answers the question “What are landing pages?” for you and gave you some additional information you will find useful.
Knowing what landing pages are and how to use them can be an important tool in your business resource kit. If you are selling products or services, you will likely need a landing page at some point.
