The Anatomy of a Landing Page: Improving Your Marketing Efforts
Optimizing a landing page can lead to a 120% increase in conversions. But, to optimize a landing page you first have to have one and understand what its function is in your overall marketing efforts.
Landing pages work to do many things for businesses of all sizes. They’re designed to serve specific goals and provide visitors with a more specific call to action.
Not sure what we’re talking about? We’ll help walk you through the ins and outs of what exactly a landing page is, what’s its function and how to create a page that actually converts.
What Is a Landing Page?
In simple terms, a landing page is a stand-alone web page where visitors can virtually “land” after clicking on something specific like a Google ad, Facebook post, or any other link.
This is different from your normal website.
A general website serves as a place for people to find more broad information about your business while being able to interact with your brand. A website has many goals whereas a landing page has one specific goal.
The goal? It depends! It can be everything from encouraging people to sign up for a seminar to downloading an e-book or even simply entering their email to receive more constant updates from your company.
When it comes to the landing page vs. website debate, that’s really the main difference. Landing pages are designed to accomplish one single goal. There is always a call-to-action and it’s always something very specific.
When taking the funnel approach to marketing, this means that you funnel in potential leads from places like Facebook, Google, and other platforms.
The landing page is in the middle of the funnel and the campaign goal and eventual conversion are at the bottom.
Usually, you’re offering something to the client in exchange for their email. But, you can also be offering something in exchange for their brand loyalty.
Offering a free e-book or study is a great way to get them interacting with your brand to then later convert them into a paying customer.
How Landing Pages Improve Your Marketing Efforts
So, now that you know what a landing page is, it’s important to understand its function within your marketing efforts and overall marketing goals.
When it comes down to it, there are two main types of landing pages. You have the landing pages that work to generate leads and then you have the landing pages that are more focused on a high click-through rate.
In reality, even the click-through focused landing pages are all about generating leads as well, just on a smaller scale than ones focused on a particular conversion such as a landing page with email capture.
Landing pages are able to increase leads and conversions for businesses by giving the visitor one single goal to focus on.
The page is just that, one page! This means that there’s nothing else for the visitor to click around on to distract them from the goal at hand.
It’s this kind of targeted marketing that leads to the 120% increase in conversions that we mentioned before. You’re limiting the lead’s ability to navigate away from your messaging while also keeping things short and sweet.
You use high-quality keywords that are transactional and informative. You combine that with giving them four or five major points to read through. Then, you hit them with a very direct call-to-action.
It’s hard to accomplish this by directing traffic to the homepage of your website. Now you see why landing pages win out in terms of a landing page vs. homepage contest? It works to accomplish one specific goal, which therefore increases overall conversions.
The Anatomy of a Great Landing Page
You understand what a landing page is and why it’s so beneficial in lead conversion. Now, it’s time to understand the anatomy of a great, successful landing page.
To improve a landing page or create a new landing page that increases conversions, you’ll want to focus on:
- Keeping your messaging short
- Reducing distractions
- Getting rid of the navigation
- Delivering lots of value
- Making it responsive
- Having a very clear, consistent call-to-action
- Engaging in A/B testing
While all of these are important, ensuring you’re using responsive design to build your landing pages is a major factor that you’ll want to address first.
The same study that revealed the information regarding a 120% increase in conversions noted that just a one-second delay can cause someone to jump off the page.
So, factor in the loading speed and overall responsiveness of your site for mobile users.
Then, you can focus on other factors. Get rid of any navigation menu to avoid tempting the visitor to click away and ensure the site structure is set up in a way that allows them to clearly read a few bullet points and then get to the call-to-action.
Make sure the call-to-action is consistent with the overall messaging. If the ad they clicked on used keywords like “free meditation guide” then the call-to-action shouldn’t be about a mindfulness app offering paid meditation classes.
It only makes sense, right?
Take a look at your sales funnel to help you cultivate this messaging. Funnel management and monitoring will give you a better sense of your customer’s buyer’s journey and the process they go through to reach your site.
How to Build a Landing Page That Converts
Looking to enhance your marketing efforts this year? For most businesses, that means creating high-quality landing pages to convert more leads.
And, while we can provide you with all of the steps to take in order to create successful landing pages, there’s a lot that goes into each specific page. So, why not have us do it for you?
Here at Clutch Creative, we offer digital marketing and SEO solutions for clients of all needs and sizes. And that includes creating landing pages that convert. Contact us to see how we can help you grow your business online.
