What is a landing page in digital marketing?

A Marketo survey found that more than two thirds (68%) of B2B businesses use landing pages to acquire leads. If you're not among them – or your landing page isn't properly optimised – you're missing out on a valuable conversion tool.

If you're not sure what a landing page is for and why you need one, or you haven't had success with landing pages in the past, read this short guide from Perth's digital marketing experts to find out:

• What is a landing page?
• Why they drive conversions and sales
• How to create a landing page that converts

What is a landing page and how does it work?

A landing page is a stand-alone web page that's created for a specific campaign offer (and ideally, for a specific audience segment). This is where users will 'land' when they respond to your digital marketing message and want to know more.

Unlike most websites that promote a range of products or services and give users multiple options, landing pages are tied to a specific campaign and have a single task to accomplish. This may be:

• selling a product or service
• building an email list
• announcing a launch, event or other important news
• and more

A good landing page that engages your audience is a powerful marketing tool that streamlines the path to conversion.

Why do I need a landing page?

So why not just send users straight to your homepage to interact there? Why do you need to make a separate page?

There are many good reasons to make a landing page, but these are the main benefits:

Reduce bounce rate

Your homepage is the hub of your online business, so it's natural to want to drive traffic there. But if someone clicks through to your website from an ad or social media because they like a specific offer, it might not be obvious where they should go to find what they're looking for. This kills the momentum and most people will click away and look elsewhere.

A landing page tied to a promotion tells people exactly what they want to know without any unnecessary distractions.

Increase conversions

A well-optimised landing page gives users the basic information they need, persuades them to take the next step and makes it easy for them to do it – all as quickly as possible.

Your homepage might give users multiple choices about what to do next. A landing page ideally narrows the options down to one, encouraging decision making.

Support your digital marketing

As well as selling your products and services, a landing page is the perfect springboard for other digital marketing activities.

It can be used to encourage people to check out your latest ebook, video or blog post or to grow subscriptions to your email newsletter or event.

Measure your success

Another benefit of landing pages being tied to specific marketing campaigns is that you can easily analyse the success and ROI of different campaigns and identify which ones need some work.

How do you make a good landing page?

There's no one-size-fits-all template for a landing page. It should be tailored to your offer and your audience. But there are some general rules of thumb to keep in mind for the positive user experience that leads to higher conversions.

Here are 8 tips to help make your landing page a success.

1. Grab their attention

You've already piqued the user's interest, but your landing page needs to make a great first impression if they're going to take the next step. Successful landing pages often use:

• catchy headline explaining the main benefit to the user
• subheading with more information
• at least one image (see point 4)
• contrasting colours so your offer stands out against the background

2. Keep it simple

A landing page may be a few sentences long or it may be a longer page or spread across several tabs. This depends on what you're offering and how much persuasion is needed. Either way, the page should be kept as brief as possible and have a single focus.

A clear layout with plenty of white space and legible fonts will make your page easier to read and digest. The tone and language should be appropriate to your target audience.

3. Target relevant keywords

The basics of SEO apply to landing pages as much as any other content, as you want to attract the right audience at the right time.

When researching keywords, always keep user intent in mind and think about what people are actually searching for.

4. Use images or video

People respond better to visual information than text alone, so you should always include a relevant image on your landing page – whether it's a photo or graphic.

Eye tracking shows that people (at least native English speakers) look at the left side of the screen first, so placing an image here will get their attention.

A video landing page can be very effective, if your offer needs more explanation or persuasion. According to HubSpot, video is now the number one form of media used in content strategy in 2020.

5. Summarise the benefits

You might have said everything you need to in your headline and subheading, but if more explanation is needed, this should be presented as succinctly as possible.

For ease of reading, list 3 to 5 benefits in a bullet list to explain how you can solve the user's problem.

6. Feature testimonials

If you're selling a product or service, or asking for more than just an email address, testimonials from satisfied customers/clients can be very persuasive, especially for younger generations who trust social proof over traditional marketing.

Include a few real samples of positive feedback you've received, or better still, a video.

7. Clear call to action

Last but not least, your landing page needs to have a single, simple and obvious call to action (CTA) element, so it's clear what the user is supposed to do.

Depending on the page, this might be a link to your website or e-commerce platform, an email form or other interaction.

Make your CTA stand out by making it big and using a contrasting colour. Buttons convert better than text links, especially on mobile.

8. Test to see what works

If you're running several campaigns that each have their own landing page, this is an opportunity to mix up the styles a little so you can see what people respond to best – everything from the wording and layout to the colour of the CTA button.

Testing helps to refine campaigns and improve ROI, but according to HubSpot, only 17% of marketers run A/B tests on landing pages.

Ready to get started?

If you want some help creating a successful landing page or improving your website, talk to iST Digital's web design experts in Perth. We work with businesses of all sizes to optimise campaigns and connect you with your target audience.

Get a quote today