The 1-2-3’s of Landing Pages

It is typical for people to jump into landing page development without first establishing a clear digital marketing strategy, and then confirming the purpose of their landing page.  Most landing pages have no clear purpose and not surprisingly, they don’t perform as well as intended.  Let’s start with a few questions you should ask yourself before your landing page is developed.

 Is the content you’re planning to use for your landing page critical?

Much of the content on a typical website is not critical and thus should not be included in a landing page.  Some possibilities that fit this category are company mission statement, bios, job openings, and investor relations.  The most critical actions you want your landing page visitors to take are Call Us, complete a form, download our whitepaper, sign up for a free trial, etc.  If there is content that you feel will not add meaning to your desired action, don’t include it.

Who is your desired Landing Page audience?

Here are some possible visitor groups:

Ø  Prospective Clients

Ø  Current Clients

Ø  Strategic Business Partners

Ø  Media

Ø  Potential Investors

Ø  Employees

Many landing pages attempt to address the needs of all these groups, even though one group may be more important than another.  Your landing page should be developed for your most critical audience.  You should also consider building multiple landing pages if you have more than one critical group.

Understand the Desired Conversion you want to occur

Your desired action may not necessarily be to process an order.  Typically conversion actions are mini-actions that eventually may lead to an ultimate sale.  That sale may occur at a later date as you help your prospects down a path to conversion.  The most important criteria for your desired conversion is that it must be measureable.  Examples include download or print, subscriptions, click-through, form submission, phone calls and of course purchases.

Take the time to think through your Landing Page strategy and you will be rewarded with conversions!

Written by: Alison Lindemann

 WSI consultant 

Top 3 Tips for Your Business’ PPC Campaigns & Landing Pages

In spite of the size of your business, its industry or the nature of your digital marketing strategy, I am sure that we can all agree on one thing:

There is very little point in spending money attracting people to your company’s website if your pages aren’t doing the job properly!

Poorly implemented pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns and ineffective landing pages will give you nothing but a high bounce rate, a nonexistent ROI, and pathetic conversion rates. So rather than wasting precious time and money (for both you and your online customers) here are 3 of my PPC campaign and landing page tips to that will work to boost your conversion rate and turn online visitors into paying customers.

3 PPC & Landing Page Tips to Attract Your Online Customers

1. Actually create a landing page!

It might seem simple enough, but using your site’s home page as your landing page is one of the most common mistakes among business owners on the Internet. Leading visitors to your home page forces them to have to search through pages and pages (…and pages) of your website to try and find the product or service you’re promoting. And if there’s one characteristic common among all Internet users, it’s that they have very short attention spans. If it’s not convenient and easy, your online visitors will lose patience, get distracted and go elsewhere.

It is much easier and more effective to create small landing page that is not a website! It will show your customers exactly what you want them to see; it will hold their attention and, ultimately, will be more likely to bring in the sales.

2. Create the relationship between your landing page and your PPC ad.

Many business owners make the mistake of creating an extremely generic landing page. Realistically, you should have a specific, distinct landing page for each of your paid ads. The fact of the matter is that someone clicked on your link because they were interested in the specific product or service in your PPC ad. So, correspondingly it’s very important to create a landing page with specific information and messaging pertaining to that product/service.

3. Make it appealing to hold visitors’ attention.

Creating a confusing and unorganized landing page is another very common mistake that many businesses make online. Whether offline or on the Internet, selling a product or service demands that you be as clear and as precise as possible. Keep your landing page simple, organized and professional. Some factors to consider might include clear call-to-actions or buttons, minimal navigation, or easy-to-scan copy.

Written by: Ron McArthur ,WSI consultant