“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” A very Cliché statement. But does it hold true in the 21st century? Let’s face it. Everybody judges everything by cover, be it a book, a restaurant or even a person. Human tendency is to make their opinion of something by the first appearance of something. A person going to a restaurant may not enter it if he doesn’t like the outer look of it or if the dish that you ordered doesn’t look appealing then you make negative views about it even though it might be good in taste. Same happens with websites. A person tends to spend more time on a website if its landing page looks attractive. If you are a web designer you must know what that is. So what is a landing page? And what are the components and importance of a landing page?
Let’s cut to the chase.
What is a landing page?
Landing page is an important aspect of Digital marketing. A landing page is basically a web page where a user lands after clicking on ad links from Google, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or pages like that. These are particularly for marketing or advertising campaign. These are not meant for exploration like a normal web page but they have a single goal called as Call to action (CTA). The focus here is to increase the conversion rate of marketing campaigns and lowering cost of acquiring a lead or sale.
Difference between a landing page and a home page
In a homepage, there is no focus on a specific link. There are multiple links which can become a potential distraction for the user. On the opposite side, in a landing page, there are fewer links on which the focus is concentrated which increases conversion rate. Having many unfocused links can carry the visitors away from the Call to action. That’s the reason why, an exclusive landing pages is used to draw the maximum amount of traffic.
For example, a regular homepage has everything a company is about, introduction of company, different products and their details and other extra information. So user can go anywhere. He might go to the career section which lessens the chances of him actually buying anything. But with landing page, the focus is solely on selling the product; offers are promoted on these pages trying to turn the visitor into a customer.
Components of a landing page
Let’s first see the components of a landing page
✤ Heading
Whether it’s an article or a new chapter of a book, heading is what the person sees first. So it should be catchy, not too long, and not too short. It should be precise, to the point. It should be such that it gets stick into somebody’s mind. The visitor should clearly understand it and he must get an idea of what he is going to get out of it.
✤ Main body
Main body is the content section of a landing page. It is where all the textual information is provided. To make sure that the visitor doesn’t exit the page reading halfway through it by losing interest, avoid putting big paragraphs, use short lines and arrange them as bullet points which will not look boring to read. The content should provide clear understanding of what you offer.
✤ Adding Keywords
Keywords are an important factor of any website. Putting right keywords in the title of the page and the main body should look appealing to the visitor. Keywords give away the gist of the offer you are showing on the landing page.
✤ Social media sharing buttons
Sharing is the most essential thing on online platforms whether it’s sharing a YouTube video or a Facebook post. Sharing increases the visibility. Add some sharing button by clicking on which the user can share the landing page with people he knows. Use all the social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter etc. You can frequently spot ads of e-commerce websites on these social media platforms which takes you to that specific product.
✤ Pictures
Having visual content on websites increases the chances of the visitor to stay for longer duration. It can be boring to read the text for many people, so putting relevant images can keep those visitors on the site for long. The images should give the visitors an idea of what you are offering to them.
✤ Clear Call to action
Your landing page should straight away command the user to do what you want. For that have a clear Call to action. The visitor should not get confused as to what to do. He should clearly see that the site is meant for making a purchase.
Importance of landing page
After going through the components of a landing page, it is necessary to know the importance of it so that enough attention is given to it by the web designers during website development.
✤ Improving Paid Search campaign
SEM or search engine marketing is a paid strategy to gain crowd and clicks. This depends on click through rates that are further influenced by landing pages. This is done by running ads on your website. They are supposed to direct your visitors to a page that is specific for advertising purpose, if they just provide regular information then the visitor will end up being confused in the information. For instance, you are using SEM campaign to bid keywords to make your brand show up when somebody searches ‘Leather jacket’. The link from that ad should direct your visitor to a landing page made specifically for the purchase of that leather jacket. If it lands them on the home page then that is of no use. Directing them on a landing page specific to the leather jacket would generate leads.
✤ Lead generation
This brings to our main motive which is lead generation. The purpose of the landing pages is to convert the visitors into customers. A normal website may only draw crowd but not actually create any customers. Besides doing that, landing pages generate leads and also gather their information. Leads are generated by sending the visitors to landing pages rather than home page.
✤ Track data
Data can be tracked from landing pages. It helps in knowing which prospect is downloaded multiple times or which one is the most visited. It helps in analyzing how your marketing offers are performing. You can make out the comparison between what is working well and what is not.
To wrap up
Landing pages provides many advantages if we utilize them correctly. First of all, it is necessary to understand the Do’s and Don’ts while designing a landing page. You need to take every factor into consideration. This can be very fruitful in giving your marketing strategy a boost which is the motive of landing pages.
