What is a Landing Page? Why Does it Matter?

What is a Landing Page? Why Does it Matter?

While channels such as blogs and social media have come to the forefront of online marketing, a business should never lose sight of online marketing basics for lead generation, such as the use of a landing page.

What, exactly, is a landing page?

A landing page is a location on your website, or a single webpage under your control, where an online visitor will “land” after having clicked a link elsewhere on the Internet. It consists of one page of information that should be sufficiently engaging and compelling enough to motivate your site visitor to fill out a form or select a call-to-action, ultimately moving them further along your sales or lead generation funnel.

What and where are the links that direct an online user to your landing page?

You can place links directing visitors to your landing page virtually anywhere. Many businesses choose to put these links on their own social media networking sites, company blogs, primary websites, or on affiliate sites as part of a link sharing program. The call-to-action button or anchor text (the text in which your landing page link is embedded) should be specific to the content that will be found on your landing pages, and should also be tailored to generate immediate interest.

What type of content should be on a landing page?

Effective landing pages should focus on one particular product, brand, service, or idea– communicated through a clear and concise headline. The text and images contained on the landing pages should support the central focus of the page without detracting from the primary goal, which is to convert the landing page visitor into a viable lead.

Calls-to-action on landing pages should be clearly visible and leave no confusion as to what action you wish the site visitor to take. While a sense of urgency can be effective, a better method of creating landing page calls-to-action is by appealing to the emotions, wants, and needs of your site visitors. You are offering something that they shouldn’t be able to live without, so make sure you tell them what it is, why they have to have it, and what they can do to get it.

The most important ingredient of an inbound-optimized landing page is the form. The form is the key to gathering essential contact information; it should ask for just enough information to serve its purpose without coming across as intrusive. Typically, the further along the sales funnel that a landing page is found, the more information it can ask for.

Why are landing pages important in online marketing and lead generation?

A landing page has historically been a critical component of online marketing (even before inbound) because it encapsulates advertising into an “at a glance” page of information. Internet users prefer not to sift through pages of data and images to find relevant content, and they can quickly lose interest when their needs are not being met immediately.  A well-designed landing page catches a visitor’s attention and motivates them to choose whatever it may be that you are offering.

Inbound landing pages focus less on salesmanship and more on establishing a relationship through useful offers such as eBooks, tutorials, downloadable guides, newsletter enrollment, and other actions. Ideally, each offer will provide you with a new and interested lead for which you can personalize an experience for and extend additional offers to in the future.

Envision Creative Group is an inbound marketing agency in Austin, TX. We design landing pages daily — and love every second of it!