Your Business Needs a Simple Landing Page And Here’s Why
Landing pages direct traffic to a spot that meets the specific needs of a segmented audience. They are meant to engage the site visitor and keep them interested in your offer long enough to put the right information in their hands. Landing pages don’t have to be complex, but there are some specific reasons you need one.
Companies with 15 landing pages get about 55% more leads than companies with 10 or fewer. The key is keeping each page simple and focused on the offer at hand. There is a golden rule in marketing that one offer gets one page. It’s OK to start with a single offer, but as you add new ones, you should also add new landing pages.
There are many advantages to creating a specific area on your site for an offer. Here are the top six reasons why your business needs a simple landing page and how to execute one successfully. Special thanks to Negative Space for the cover image!
1. Highlight Special Offers
One reason you might need a landing page is to highlight a special offer. This can be a trial period, a discounted price, bonus materials or anything along those lines. There should typically be a time limit or it won’t be all that special. Never state that the person has 48 hours for an offer and then turn around and make the same offer again. Your potential customers will feel you aren’t being honest with them and will lose trust in you. 
Bath & Body Works does a good job of creating landing pages for special sales it runs from time to time. Notice how it highlights seasonal products and then mentions the buy-three-get-two-free offer. Because the offers change frequently, the landing page changes along with the special.
2. Compete With Other Businesses
When users are searching for a company to do business with, they might visit several websites. You can make yours stand out. One of the advantages of being a smaller enterprise is that you are in charge of building your own website, and you can include the elements you know speak to your current customers. Start by studying other businesses and see what types of landing pages and offers they have in place.
Take notes on what methods might work best for your own model and what wouldn’t work with your buyers. Your page needs to be unique but still hit the main marks a landing page needs, such as a strong call to action (CTA).
3. Showcase Your Offerings
A landing page can also be used to highlight the different products or services you offer. Many times, your client base will be interested in more than one thing at a time. This type of landing page is often used as the main home page of a website to gently direct users toward the area that most closely meets their individual needs.
Carolina CAT does a good job of creating a simple landing page that then moves users through the buyer’s journey. Note the three areas of construction, power generation and truck. When the user clicks on the buttons, they are taken to another page that explains those products in more detail.
Related: The Importance of Before and After Images
4. Encourage Free Product Trials
You can use a landing page to get people to sign up for free product trials or demos. This works particularly well for tech companies that offer software or online services. The user gets a chance to try out the item before deciding whether or not to buy. You could also offer a limited-feature free download. To access the more advanced options, the user has to purchase a pro package.
5. Gain Newsletter Signups
Getting people to sign up for your online mailing list makes good business sense. All the Facebook followers in the world aren’t much use to you if you have to pay additional money to find your fans. The only way you can be sure you can reach your contacts when you want is by collecting their contact info. You can offer a free e-book, webinar or other value if the person shares their first name and email. Don’t make this process too complicated. The easier it is for the user to share their info and get the freebie, the more likely they are to sign up.
List Building School offers a free seminar in exchange for your name and email. Note how it highlights the advantage of getting a free ticket to its online symposium. When you click on “Get My Free Ticket Now,” a pop-up appears that explains you’ll gain more than 40 in-depth sessions, and then asks for your name and email.
It offers to let you subscribe via Messenger if you’d like. It also provides a limited time discount to get lifetime access for $67 instead of the $607 retail price.
6. Increase Conversions
Because landing pages are so highly targeted to a specific audience, they often have higher conversion rates than more generic ones. You can use the keywords and emotional triggers that work with a particular buyer persona. Study the results of the page through heatmaps and A/B testing to see what works well and what needs tweaking. Over time, your landing pages should get better results.
Create Your First Landing Page
A strong landing page engages visitors and is beneficial to businesses in many ways. Creating your first landing page doesn’t have to be complicated. Simply focus on a single goal and moving the user from the page into conversion. With a little practice, your landing pages will rival the biggest companies out there.
Author Bio
Lexie Lu is a designer and writer. She constantly researches trends in the web and graphic design industry. She writes weekly on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner.
