SAMPLE LANDING PAGE FOR TRAINING

What Is a Landing Page?

In digital marketing, a landing page is a standalone web page, created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign. It’s where a visitor “lands” after they click on a link in an email, or ads from Google, Bing, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or similar places on the web.

Unlike web pages, which typically have many goals and encourage exploration, landing pages are designed with a single focus or goal, known as a call to action (or CTA, for short).

It’s this focus that makes landing pages the best option for increasing the conversion rates of your marketing campaigns and lowering your cost of acquiring a lead or sale.

What are the different types of landing pages?

There are two basic structural types of landing page: Lead Generation landing pages (sometimes referred to as lead gen or lead capture pages) use a web form as the Call to Action, for the purpose of collecting lead data such as names and email addresses. This is the primary type of landing page used for B2B marketing.

What is a post-click landing page?

A post-click landing page is a standalone web page, disconnected from a website’s navigation, created for the sole purpose of convincing a visitor to act (to sign up, buy, download, etc.). As businesses become more data-driven, post-click landing pages become more popular for their ability to deliver high ROI.

The importance and benefits of a landing page

Landing pages are different from other pages on your site because they focus on specific, short-term goals so that you can get the results you want. Besides increasing conversions, improving paid ad campaigns, and yielding new audience insights, landing pages can:

• Boost your credibility: Users typically appreciate clear, simple messaging that explains the value of what you’re offering. A well-planned landing page shows your customers that you have their best interests in mind. They’re also places where you can insert testimonials about your product or service, which are an element of social proof. Social proof has been shown to increase conversions.

• Reinforce your brand: You’ve already put in the work to build a digital brand, so use what you’ve learned. This is the result of maintaining consistency in your website’s appearance, tone, style, and copy. Having a clear and strong brand has several benefits. When your users don’t convert immediately, a strong brand identity can help them remember you in the future, respond to your remarketing efforts, or recommend you to their friends.

• Generate leads: Both types of landing pages can generate leads for your business and increase sales. Landing pages are more targeted, allowing them to focus on conversion rates rather than education and information. Instead, you can highlight the features of your products and services and sell more to a targeted audience that’s already interested in your offerings.

• Increase traffic: Even if lead generation isn’t your main goal, you can still increase website traffic with a landing page, increasing brand awareness and allowing potential customers to learn more about your business. When your landing pages are optimized for SEO, they can further target organic traffic to increase the potential for conversions.

Clearly, landing pages are essential to your marketing strategy. And the more optimized landing pages you have, the better. But that raises 2 questions: how should they be optimized, and what should they be optimized for?

16 landing page best practices

Of course you want your landing pages to be well-oiled conversion machines. But it's also important that you design them for search engines, a practice known as search engine optimization (SEO). This will make your pages more visible in organic search results, which can help increase traffic and conversions.

Here are 16 landing page best practices so that you can boost your landing pages’ SEO and optimize them for conversions:

1. Target long-tail keywords

These are highly specific keywords or key phrases that tend to be 4 or more words. For instance, “best copywriting tips for landing pages” is a long-tail key phrase, unlike the much simpler keyword “landing pages.”

As a rule, it’s much easier to rank for long-tail keywords than short-tail keywords because long-tail keywords are less competitive. And because landing pages feature very specific CTAs, it’s easy to place long-tail keywords on them naturally.

2. Segment your traffic

It's likely that your target audience consists of more than 1 persona. For example, if you’re selling reusable water bottles, you’ll want to market to several kinds of buyers: athletes, travelers, hikers, and so on. Because these buyer personas are different, you’ll need several approaches to appeal to them.

Consider creating separate landing pages for each segment of your audience. This will require researching the keywords each persona would use to find what you're offering. When you segment your traffic, you can boost your visibility in search engines and tailor your message to appeal to people with different needs.

3. Improve page loading speed

It’s hard to hold a potential customer’s attention when so many other companies are competing for it. Users can be impatient and easily distracted, so if your landing page loads slowly, your chances of them converting get smaller.

To maintain a high conversion rate, landing pages have to load at lightning speed. Fortunately, because they only have 1 purpose, it’s easy to optimize them. Reducing image sizes is just one way you can speed up your page’s loading speed.

4. Earn backlinks

These are links that point from other sites back to yours. They send traffic to your landing pages, essentially acting like votes of confidence in the eyes of search engines. When they come from well-established, high-authority websites, backlinks show that what's on your page is valuable. As a result, your site’s rankings on search engine results pages will increase.

Consider contacting other websites for guest posting opportunities to build backlinks, but beware of any site that asks for payment—Google frowns on link-building schemes of this nature.

5. Make your content shareable

That means making it unique or novel in some way. Remember, all of your potential leads are connected with others who might also want what you have to offer. When you allow them to share your landing pages, you can tap into these larger networks. Besides driving more leads to your page, this added traffic will boost your search engine rankings.

6. Write an enticing headline

Reel users in with an intriguing and well-written headline. You can draw attention with specific keywords like “free” or “now.” Couple your engaging title with strong copywriting to keep your users on the page long enough to convert.

7. Match your H1 heading to the meta title that your users clicked to get to your landing page

This reassures users that they've landed in the right place. Doing otherwise can damage your reputation and your search engine rankings, because both readers and search engines tend to regard inaccurate meta titles as deceptive and misleading.

8. Try to position your CTAs above the fold

Your CTA should be one of the first site elements that visitors see. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible, especially when you’re designing for mobile users. In such cases, refer to tip #4.

9. Use directional cues to guide users to your CTA

Good examples include arrows or a picture of someone looking toward your CTA. This is especially important if your CTA isn't above the fold. Skillfully placed cues encourage visitors to scroll, keep reading, and convert.

10. Show your product or service in use

A video or product demo can provide context if you offer something uncommon or not widely understood. This information also helps potential customers picture themselves using your product or service.

11. Provide social proof

Do you have testimonials from happy customers? If so, include them in your landing page copy. If your product or service is popular, you can also note how many people have already taken advantage of your offer. Providing social proof can convince others to hop onto the bandwagon and try your product or service themselves.

12. Use bullet points

There's likely more than 1 feature or benefit to what you’re offering, so list them out using numbered lists or bullet points. This is more reader friendly because it’s easier on the eyes and more scannable than a large block of text.

13. Repeat your CTA

If your page features a heavy amount of text, it can help to place your CTA at the beginning and the end—and even in the middle. Presenting more conversion opportunities to your readers increases their chances of taking action, but be careful not to overwhelm them. Here are some more landing page design tips to consider.

14. Provide your contact info

Giving your leads the option to reach out to you with questions or concerns will put them at ease, even the ones who won’t actually do so. Why? Providing your contact info is a sign of legitimacy, telling customers that you’re there to help should they need it.

15. Deliver your message via video

Not everyone will stick around to read the copy on your landing page, which is a part of why video content is rising in popularity. This doesn't mean that your website should be free of text, though. Pairing text with video content can be an effective way of capturing and maintaining users’ attention. Because many users don’t turn on their sound, it’s also a good idea to include subtitles whenever possible.

16. Test several variations of your pages

Different headlines, visuals, calls to action, and more can produce different results. Conduct A/B tests to experiment with variations of your landing pages and see which ones perform the best. This can help you optimize your landing pages for the most success.

Landing pages: FAQs

Why do I need a landing page?

Landing pages can help you attract new customers through effective digital advertising campaigns. With a dedicated landing page for each of your campaigns, you can effectively target each customer segment to increase conversions and lead generation. Additionally, landing pages can help you attract leads by offering a lead magnet in exchange for customer data.

Landing pages are more focused than other areas of your website, allowing you to give someone information about one specific offering. With only one call-to-action and offer, you can keep your audience focused and prevent distractions that are common with regular websites.

What should a landing page include?

Effective landing pages have the same elements that improve performance and generate more leads. Landing pages must include:

• A headline

• Description of the offer

• Supporting images and videos

• Social proof in the form of testimonials or reviews

• A dedicated form for capturing customer data.

How can I create a landing page?

You can create a landing page using a landing page builder, such as Mailchimp’s page builder, that allows you to easily drag and drop design elements, including videos, images, icons, and text, without the need for a website developer or coding skills.

Landing page builders allow you to test every element of your landing page to ensure you’re getting the most out of your design and copy. For example, you can test different headlines, body copy, and even edit your offer to determine what increases conversion rates.

Create must-click destinations

Because they help convert leads into paying customers, landing pages are a critical part of your digital marketing strategy. These pages help guide users further along your customer journey because they act as a nudge to take action. Every unique landing page is an opportunity, and there's no limit to how many landing pages your website can have. Most studies show that the more landing pages a website has, the more conversions it sees, so long as its landing pages aren’t competing with each other. To ensure that your landing pages aren’t competing for traffic, make sure that each one targets a different demographic or encourages your users to take a different action.

Now that you know what landing pages are and how to optimize them, you’re ready to create one. Use Mailchimp’s website builder to create an effective landing page and test different elements to ensure better performance with each click.