Have an initiative that needs to take off?
Discover the power of landing pages.
At its core, the goal of marketing is to create the desired action from the messages communicated. Individual marketing goals (desired reactions) vary—ranging from general awareness to successful conversion. However, when you are seeking interaction and conversions, efforts built on a laser-focused digital strategy with an integrated landing page fly high.
You might wonder “Why would I need a landing page when I have a great website?”
A good website is a must for organizations conveying information, sharing entertainment, or offering experiences, services or products. However, many websites start out vast and complex by the nature of their purpose. Even e-commerce sites often fit this description. And the complexity of most websites seems to be ever-increasing, in some cases exponentially. So much so that it seems more and more often it is difficult to find what you’re looking for, even though a search engine may have brought you to a particular website indicating it contained the information or product you were looking to find. This can be very frustrating for the user who is trying to find specific information about your organization. And with our attention spans (and patience) shortening, consumers will often quickly move on. This is obviously the exact opposite of what we want them to do after we have spent so much effort getting them interested in you.
Enter the well-conceived, well-written, well-designed landing page. The information sought is available when the visitor arrives or is found in a click or two. The target audiences are not distracted from their original purpose. Every decision during the creation of the page was made strategically to lead to the desired goal.
A great landing page presents information like instructions from an air traffic controller. The information presented is easily understood and the desired action can be taken quickly. The user is directed to the CTA (Call to Action). In many cases, this action or conversion results in increased sales, leads generated, followers, or data collected. It’s the culmination of marketing that is truly measurable.
Below is a summary of narrowly focused goals that landing pages can successfully accomplish according to the digital marketing experts at Tubik Studio:
- Purchase a product or service
- Book an experience
- Download a mobile application
- Read more about an issue
- Subscribe to updates
- Download a free ebook or other deliverables
- Start the free or discounted trial of a product
- Leave a comment or share an opinion
- Share information on social networks
- Browse the educational or informational resource
- Fill in the form or survey, etc.
Unbounce, an established marketing publication and landing page service, conducted research to identify and analyze lead generation landing pages across 10 different industries (with a total of 74,551,421 visitors). In this particular study, the average landing page conversion rate was 4.02%1
1 Unbounce added up the median conversion rates of the 10 industries and divided by 10 to calculate the overall average conversion rate.
The Unbounce conclusion in this study? Landing pages outperformed many commonly used media channels and only Pay-Per-Click advertising, search engine marketing and a couple of social media channels outperformed the 4% landing page conversion rate.
And of course, a measurement of the effectiveness of a landing page can also be page visits, the length of visits and where the landing page led the visitor (if not to the desired CTA/s).
One thing to keep in mind is that, because landing pages will often be a visitor's first impression of your brand, they should be as well-conceived, well-written and well-designed as your overall website AND in keeping with your website to ensure they serve as an effective general supporter of brand awareness and recognizability.
In addition to conversions from the page itself, search engines and other pay-per-click channels factor Landing Page Experience into their algorithms. According to Unbounce, “When done correctly, landing pages can have a positive impact on Google Ads Quality Score. That means a lower cost-per-click and higher conversion rates when compared to sending traffic to a website.”
A landing page in its purest form is a single page with minimal links out and just enough information to move the viewer to the Call-to-Action (CTA). An important part of creating an effective landing page is understanding your target audience. This understanding helps keep your message focused.
- What imagery would be persuasive?
- Would a testimonial, industry review or social proof cause the target to act?
- Are price or timing key factors?
- Where in the purchase funnel is your customer?
- How will people find your page? In print? From a link in an email? Search? Pay-Per-Click ads?
Once all these factors are considered, writing and design begin. Remember, your target audience wants to be persuaded or rewarded. Everything from word choice to imagery and graphical elements should lead to the ability to discern the information presented and take action quickly.
Here are the elements of a well-designed and well-written landing page:
A Catchy Hero Image
An image/text at the top of the page (above the fold) that instantly grabs attention and allows for setting the quick visual, emotional and informative connection with the user.
Concise and Persuasive Copy
Write to accomplish the purpose of the landing page. Mix larger scannable subheads with longer paragraphs that provide the benefits your target needs to know to convert.
Social Proof or Testimonials
Brief statements from users or experts give added credibility to your offerings.
Highly Visible Call-to-Action Element
Make your CTA stand out using color, whitespace, contrast, and directional cues. Repeat if the page is long.
The principles of good design apply to all marketing efforts, but when creating landing pages, selection of legible fonts, a harmonious color palette and a strong sense of hierarchy aid in guiding the user to each piece of persuasion and, ultimately, the CTA.
Ideally, a landing page stays on brand; matches the content that directs the target to the page; and is optimized for desktop, tablet and mobile viewing. Even though the content is simple, a good user experience is important to success.
Taking the time to AB Test your efforts can provide valuable lessons about the target markets’ preferences. Try directing your targets to landing pages that serve the same purpose but feature different imagery or text. Measure the results and adjust.
We’ve used landing pages for many different purposes across several industries. The following are landing pages we created that really helped lift our clients' campaigns.
Landing pages are effective tools to promote events or highlight attractions for destination marketing.
The Albany, GA Convention & Visitors Bureau employs landing pages to register and inform runners seeking to participate in its annual marathon. This page looks different from its parent page, visitalbanyga.com. It’s designed to appeal to the target audience but stays on-brand with its color palette. Albany promotes its Civil Rights Trail using a landing page designed with the elements and style of Visit Albany, GA. This strategy works well as the Trail is a collection of places and events also featured individually under the EXPLORE section of visitalbanyga.com. A landing page allows for a more collective narrative that does a good job selling the Trail as an experience.
Landing pages can help a brand-building campaign take off.
Visit Columbus GA is a long-time digital client of Stamp. When new opportunities and challenges in the market appeared, we launched a new campaign based on updated research. The Chattahoochee River flows through the lively Uptown district of Columbus. The power of the river was harnessed to create the world's longest urban whitewater course. A visitor can take part in several different classes of whitewater experiences depending on the time of day, then zip line across the river from Georgia to Alabama and then zip line back across to Georgia to eat a fantastic meal only steps away from the river. The excitement created by the extraordinary outdoor offerings found in Columbus was the genesis of the “Go All Out” campaign. Print, social and digital ads drove potential travelers to this landing page with the unique URL goalloutcolumbusga.com. Several CTAs directed users to pertinent parts of VisitColumbusGa.com.
In addition to being recognized with multiple regional awards, the “Go All Out” campaign produced an amazing ROI for Columbus. In the first four months of the campaign, traffic to the website increased by 21% year over year.
Landing pages for initiatives put pertinent information one click away from the community it serves.
Over the last several years, Baptist Health has successfully used landing pages to educate the community, announce new partnerships and showcase facilities. Baptist Health consists of three hospitals, dozens of clinics, specialty clinics, and a network of physicians’ offices. Their website by its nature houses a vast amount of information. Landing pages simplify the consumer journey.
Advanced Heart Check Saves Lives
The hospital’s initial goal for the campaign was 300 heart checks. Coupling a strategic social media campaign and landing page with additional traditional marketing efforts, the hospital performed more than 800 Advanced Heart Check procedures during the initial campaign and, more importantly, 45 patients received lifesaving or life-extending procedures directly attributed to the heart checks. This campaign continues to run so successfully that Baptist Health has purchased additional equipment to meet demand. The Hero Graphic features a dropdown list of risk factors and a price point to inspire immediate action. Brief copy points explain how simple this screening is and the video testimonial is compelling.
Many of our landing pages for Baptist Health utilize a video component for a variety of purposes like testimonials, video tours and informative purposes. Campaigns that incorporate video experience 34% higher conversion rates (Aberdeen Group). The use of video on web and social is predicted to increase dramatically in 2020.
Why Baptist is Best
Baptist Health knows having the most caring and compassionate nurses on their team is central to providing the best care in the region. Actively recruiting nurses from all over the southeast requires a digital effort beyond job boards. This landing page is frequently updated to target a wide variety of hiring strategies as the need arises. Featured CTAs drive potential applicants to the careers page on the website and has a form to collect names for future recruiting.
Build a landing page and watch your marketing efforts take off!
Landing pages are some of the most versatile and measurable marketing tools you can use. Their simplicity and focus keep them cost-effective. The ability to easily test and tweak messaging makes them an invaluable tool to gather insights about what appeals to your target market. Keep the principles of focused design in mind as you build your own. Or, if you’d like some help creating a landing page, we’d love to help you Make Your Mark! Contact us and we can discuss your needs.