When it comes to successfully running an online business, there are a variety of factors that you need to take into consideration. What is it you’re selling? How do you achieve conversion rate optimization when you create a marketing campaign? What is your profit margin? How do you reach your target audience and what is your target demographic anyway? Most importantly, how are you going to even reach your target demographic (the people you want to talk to)? After all, you can have the most perfectly executed website in the world, with the best prices, but if nobody knows that your website is there, the lead generation will be non-existent, the conversion rate will be poor, and you’re not going to be making any money! This is when your best marketing strategy comes into play, and that, more often than not, includes a landing page. In this article, we are going to examine what a landing page is, what it’s used for, and how to effectively design a landing page to improve conversion.
What Is a Landing Page?
A landing page is typically a page that is separate from your main webpage. A landing page design is created specifically to convince a potential customer to turn from a reader to a buyer—hence the idea of landing page conversion rate. As a retailer or service provider in 2019, your competition is larger than ever before and, as a result, the attention span of your audience is shorter than ever. Therefore, the need to have a carefully executed and well-designed landing page with well written, succinct content (landing page copy) is critical. It takes less than a second to form a first impression, and less than three seconds for a potential consumer to decide that, after choosing to even open your page in the first place, whether you truly have anything that appeals to them.
What Is a Landing Page Used For?
As mentioned above, the purpose of a landing page is to convert potential customers from readers into buyers at the touch of a button—but this doesn’t mean that you’re purely just trying to sell a product. This could mean that you’re trying to grow your email subscriber list, you’re trying to get more awareness for a campaign, or you are offering a discount on an item or service you are selling. The purpose of your landing page has to be clear from the first click. Nobody is going to spend more than a few seconds at most trying to determine what message you are trying to get across, much less click on the link you are trying to direct traffic to.
How Can I Tell if My Landing Page Has Been Successful?
In order for you to consider your landing page “successful,” you first need to determine your definition of success. What goal are you trying to achieve? If you’re a retailer, is there a certain amount that you are looking to profit from the result of this exposure, or are you just looking to break even to get your company’s name and products out there? If you’re promoting a campaign, how many signatures are you looking to get? Would you consider your landing page a success if you simply got any clicks at all? As stated before, generally the goal of a landing page is to convert someone from a reader to a buyer—whether that’s buying your service, or simply “buying in” to the message you are trying to get across. In terms of tracking your progress, landing pages are often created with the ability to track your campaign traffic, as this is their only job. They are not a part of your website but designed to provide awareness and exposure, and boost sales.
How Do I Provide Traffic to My Landing Page?
If you are not providing traffic to your landing page, there is little point in designing one at all. Landing pages can not only be the first pop-up link that you see when accessing a website, but they can also be provided as links and well-crafted content on external sources, separate from your own website. This means that they are sent out via email marketing, and on social media. With the popularity of social media at an all-time high, and new social media platforms always on the rise, there is almost always somewhere to insert the link to your landing page. You can easily provide access with something as simple as a Facebook post, or a link inserted into an Instagram bio.
What Is the Most Effective Way to Design My Landing Page?
When it comes to designing your landing page, you want to keep it simple, and effective. Again, this page is not designed to be a permanent fixture on your website. It’s not actually part of your website at all. A landing page is not intended to provide a ton of information—just to get your main point and message across while providing enough intrigue to get your potential customer to click into your website. A piece of cake, right? Well, not necessarily. You need to think about what would make you, as a potential customer, want to click into somebody’s website and try their product or service. Think about what grabs your attention on social media. After all, social media is one of—if not the—most effective ways to attract new customers. If you really think about this, you will most likely realize that images are what attracts you to a product or service. Images can tribute a reaction or emotion instantaneously, as your brain does not need time to read the text and then process the information. This is why social media platforms such as Instagram are so effective, and why more and more companies are sponsoring social media influencers. By posting a single image, a powerful thought or emotion can be triggered. Your brain can more quickly make the connection that, “Hey, I need that!” before your attention span is lost after the typical one to three seconds of deciding whether or not you will continue on a page. Therefore, keeping it simple through design and text, while powerfully portraying your message through the power of an image will be the most effective when it comes to a successful landing page conversion.
Having a landing page is a clever tool when it comes to getting your product, service, or message across, and tracking your progress to get it there. By understanding what a landing page is, and carefully executing it to be as effective as it can be, you may well be on your way to successfully change your potential customer from a reader into a buyer in no time.
