Landing pages allow you to take the first step towards better leads and higher conversions. The market scenarios have become complex due to tools and software that promise to make a brand’s promotional work easy.
But in the midst of all this, marketers tend to forget the basic terms for creating a compelling marketing campaign.
A landing page is a prime requirement of any company if it wants to provide a personalised experience to its target audience.
So in this blog, I will walk you through landing pages explained and how they work. I will cover all the common questions people have about landing pages and how to utilise them for business growth.
Table of Contents:
- What is a Landing Page?
- History of Landing Pages Explained
- Understanding Modern Landing Pages With Example
- Landing Page Vs Website
- Working of Landing Pages Explained
- How to Use a Landing Page?
- Benefits of Landing Pages
- Message Matching
- Different Types of Landing Pages
- Conclusion
What is a Landing Page?
A landing page is a standalone page on a website designed to enable a specific action. It’s where a visitor “lands” after clicking on a link in an email or an ad from Google, Facebook, Youtube, or other channels.
Usually, landing pages are hidden from the main navigation of the website and designed to convert visitors into leads.
History of Landing Pages Explained
The concept of landing pages began in late 2003 when Microsoft’s IT department was looking for a strategy to improve online sales of their key product, MS Office. Let’s see how landing pages looked back then:
Clearly, a lot has changed now.
I remember creating landing pages directly within the CMS of a website. So effectively, you would either code the page or use a simple template within WordPress.
Later in 2009, Unbounce showcased their landing pages builder tool, which was specially built from the ground up for just landing pages.
Today there are hundreds of landing page builders out there, and every year I see a trend where tech companies are pushing AI to come up with easy-to-manage landing pages.
Understanding Modern Landing Pages With Example
Modern landing pages explained through an example is the best way to learn about today’s landing page standards.
Here, I have taken the example of a landing page by Emerge Global. It is a brand that offers a lot of different courses and programs.
Let’s explore Emerge’s landing page specifically built to generate leads for their public speaking course.
On this page, we can see there are links at the top that actually just link to different sections on the page. Such navigational queues on the landing page help elevate the user experience, and having no external links prevents distraction from the CTA.
The header focuses on the benefit and the USP of the services offered on the landing page. Further, the landing page copy fills the visitors with the necessary information required, the intro of the host, pricing, course schedule and modules, FAQ, and social proof to build credibility.
The structure of the whole landing page works for one single objective: to get prospects to sign up for the course.
Landing Page Vs Website
Over the last decade, many people have asked me this question. What is the difference between a landing page vs a homepage or any other page on a website?
Let’s take the most common differences between a website and a landing page:
Website:
- Typically Describe your company, products, or services.
- Is aimed at serving everyone.
- It usually has several pages linked by a navigation menu.
- I may offer a function or service, such as online checkout, customer service, or access to data.
But on the other end,
Landing page:
- Describes a single offer, product, or service;
- Aimed at serving a particular persona or audience.
- Typically there are no navigation links. So visitors can’t go to different pages.
- The goal is to keep them focused on one action, whether filling out a lead generation form or click-through to a product checkout page etc.
Suggested Read: Landing Page vs Website: Key Differences Explained
Landing Pages in Google Analytics
You might have come across a landing page report in Google analytics. Today, however, we are talking about marketing campaign landing pages that are different from the GA report.
The Landing Page report in Google Analytics shows a list of pages on your website that gets the most traffic from external sources. We will talk about the landing page report in GA in a separate blog.
Working of Landing Pages Explained
It’s important to realise that landing pages create a win-win. As a business, you generate leads, and for visitors, it saves time and effort by showing relevant information quickly with fewer distractions.
A visitor will fill out a contact form on the landing page if they feel the information you provided was valuable to them.
Lead generation landing pages work somewhat like this:
- A Visitor sees a call-to-action (CTA) and ends up on a landing page.
- The Visitor can then browse the page, and if the information is trustworthy, convincing, and relevant, the prospect could fill out the form and become a lead.
- This lead is then stored and passed via email or some notification.
- Based on the data you collect about the lead, you can then reach out to them and start your selling process.
Suggested Read: Lead Generation Landing Page Examples and Best Practices
