Why You Need Solid Landing Pages

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Does your website have landing pages?

Are they giving you the results you want?

Do you know the difference between a landing page and a normal web page?

In this article we are going to go over all these points.

The landing page is a critical piece in the puzzle of internet marketing. It is not just any web page however.

A landing page is a page is not any of the normal pages in your website’s navigation. It is a specifically created page, not attached to your site’s navigation, which can only be reached by having clicked on an ad or some other link.

Landing pages are used in conjunction with internet ads.

When you create an ad on the internet you want the viewer to then click the ad and then go to your website. But you don’t want it to just link to your home page, or even your product page. It is absolutely vital that you create a unique page for them to ‘land’ on.

The purpose of the landing page

The purpose of ads is to get sales, and to get sales on the web you have to control the user’s ‘journey’ through your web pages. If you have it so your ads go to your home page or service pages you are letting go of control, since the visitor can now click on other links and leave, and you won’t get the sale, or contact form submission or whatever you are trying to get from them. In this sense, consider a landing page to be a ‘squeeze page’, you get the visitor and you don’t let him go, and don’t give him a chance to click off the page.

Additionally, the text on your home page or product/services pages might not be strong enough and focused to get a sale from someone who clicked on your ad. You need to have very ‘salesy’ text for your landing pages, since you paid for the ad you want to get a sale, so this is expected. You might not want to have ‘salesy’ text on your home page and main site pages, which is why you create a separate page for people who click on your ads to land on.

Key components of a landing page

  • No navigation links
  • No ‘off-site’ links
  • Testimonial with photo and name
  • Several ‘buy now’ buttons
  • A message and photo from the CEO or relevant staff member
  • Finely crafted sales text which creates desire and demand for your product and or service

Different types of landing pages

There are two types of things a landing page can sell

  • A product with a ‘buy now’ button, which they click and then go to a transaction page to get the product and enter credit card details. This is a sales landing page.
  • A ‘opt-in’ form, where the visitor will input his name and email in exchange for some free content (such as an e-book). This is an opt-in landing page.

Because the ‘bar’ is lower and it does not cost anything, an ‘opt-in’ landing page which gets the visitor to sign up and give his email will get more conversions than the sales landing page.

The choice of a sales or opt-in landing page depends entirely on your goals and what you are trying to get out of your ad campaign.

Conclusion

If you don’t have a solid landing page created in conjunction with your ad campaign, you will literally be throwing money away, as people will click the ads and never be ‘sold’ anything, and will instead just slip through the cracks.

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