In the previous post I wrote about how to create effective emails, but  an email campaign is nothing without a good landing page.

Landing pages are one of the most important elements of digital marketing, however it’s common to give more attention to a website’s homepage instead and they while still an important element of a website, are typically less focused on a particular task because they are serving a larger audience.

A landing page  is a crucial must have for any website because it provides a targeted platform for converting higher percentages of visitors into leads.

The best practice, is for marketers using email marketing, social media, PPC advertising and other online channels to send traffic to specific locations (landing pages) containing the right messages for each audience.

The job of a landing page is to tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do and why they should do it.

An effective landing page:

1. Never use your homepage as your landing page

2. Limit the navigation (or remove it at all): a landing page is used for the purpose of encouraging visitors to take one specific action (CTA).  Leaving the navigation might induce the visitor to browse in other pages than are not optimised for the specific objective you want to reach.

3. Keep it simple and clear: make clear what the page is about and what you want the visitor to do. Limit the amount of content and links to only what’s necessary. The call to action (CTA) must be clear for the visitor.

4. Match the content of your landing page with the previous source: from the source to the end of the conversion funnel, the messaging must match throughout the entire funnel.

5. Focus on the value proposition: offer something of value (white paper, webiminar, a demonstration, free trial…) to your audience you want to reach with the particular campaign, this will help you to generate more prospects, that convert to lead and finally sales.

6. Ask for what you or your sales team really needs and when they need to click button (call to action) name the button with what they are getting in return (e.g. Download the white paper, Try our new app, Join our mailing list…).

7. Make a landing page for every campaign, test and improve (tweak) on a continuous base. The more landing pages you have, the more opportunities for converting more traffic into lead and sales.

8. Use social media share tools to spread the word and reach a larger audience.

Elements to consider:

1. Your logo
2. No navigation – No distractions
3. Headline
4. Promo content (simple, clear and use bullet points)
5. Proof elements (i.e. testimonials)
6. Forms (ask what your teams need)
7. Privacy policy (let then know how you treat the data)
8. Clear call to action
9. Social media share tools