04 Jun What is a Landing Page and Why Do You Need Them?

A landing page is the first page a visitor encounters when they get to your website. It can be your about page, your home page, or your blog page.

Landing pages are individual web pages distinct from your main website that has been designed for a single focused objective. This means your landing page should not have a main navigation, in text links, or inessential elements like a sidebar menu.

The key purpose for a landing page is to have a single focused objective to limit the options available to your visitors, in order to help guide them toward your intended conversion goal. So ditch your website’s global navigation and take look at the anatomy of a well-constructed landing page.

There are two basic types of landing pages, ones that drive Conversions (or Click-Throughs) and ones that drive Lead Generation.

Here are the two main types of landing pages:

Click through pages

These are web pages, typically on Ecommerce websites, used to promote clicking through to the next page where the sale can be made. Think of them as teaser pages which warm up the prospect for the main offer.  Though they’re generally used in Ecommerce, they can be adapted to other sales funnels such as digital products.

Lead generating pages

Lead Generation landing pages are mainly used to capture customer data in order to allow you to market to the prospect at a subsequent time. A lead capture page generally contains a form, along with a description of what the user will get in return for submitting their personal data.

This is the most common type of landing page. Their focus is to get your visitor to part with their contact information so you can market to them later in a more controlled setting i.e. Email.  It’s done by giving away something of value in exchange for the contact information.

A few examples of lead magnets are:

• Ebooks
• Webinars
• Cheat sheets
• Video tutorials
• First chapter of a book
• Free consultations
• Contests
• Free trial
• Notifications on updates
• Whitepaper

Why Should You Use Landing Pages?

The short answer is because they help increase your conversion rates.

Targeted promotion or product specific landing pages are focused on a single objective, and are designed to match the intent of the ad or marketing collateral your visitors clicked to reach your page.

Consider what happens when you send traffic to your homepage. Most homepages are designed with a general purpose in mind – to speak to your overall brand, product and corporate values, and are typically loaded with links and navigation to other areas of your site.

Every link on your page that doesn’t represent your businesses’ conversion goal is a distraction that will dilute your message and reduce your conversion rate.