Happy Landings! How To Get Started With Landing Pages

When it comes to digital marketing, a landing page is different from your company’s home page. In fact, it’s different from your website in general. A landing page is a curated single web page with a form.

A website has multiple pages and gives digital visitors the freedom to click around, but a landing page is single and stagnant. Proper landing page design includes no back button and opening into a new tab. This difference in navigation is what sets landing pages apart from your website pages. It draws attention to what’s most important to your high-quality visitors.

A website has multiple goals, including lead nurturing and upselling products or services, but a landing page is mainly used for lead generation and conversion optimization. Its goal is to convert a high-quality website visitor into a lead by offering a gated promotional or informational offer. The offer could be any piece of content marketing, including a free digital guide, video demo, or printable checklist.

To capture a high-quality lead on a landing page, proper design includes a form and call-to-action (CTA). A featured CTA explains exactly what a lead should expect to receive from the landing page after filling out the form.

In its simplest terms, the goal of your website, even the home page, is to gain visitor traffic. The goal of your landing pages is to convert that traffic into leads and eventually customers.

Understanding the Benefits of Landing Pages

The goal of a landing page is to increase lead generation and optimize conversion rates. While other web pages on your site prompt visitors to click around, a landing page guides visitors to a specific content offer. Let’s dive deeper into the benefits of landing pages.

1. Landing pages increase conversions by setting up a clear action for visitors to take.

Targeting landing pages correctly can increase your conversion rate by up to 300 percent. How? With a clear CTA.

A clear, focused call-to-action is one of the most important components of a landing page. It directly influences the next steps for web visitors to take. This increases higher-quality lead generation and ultimately the conversion rate for specific content.

It also helps the web visitor understand exactly what they’re getting from your company. Web visitors are more wary than ever about giving away personal information, even if it’s only their first name and email address. A clear CTA, such as “Download our guide,” “Print our checklist,” or “View our new video” tells visitors why they should fill out the form — because you can provide a solution.

2. Landing pages generate useful data and analytics.

Website visitor tracking is one of the most important pieces of data to an informed and insightful marketing strategy. Tracking web visitor behavior on landing pages allows you to see which personas want to know more about your solutions, what long-form content is connecting with your target audience, and so on.

You also gain a better understanding of how web visitors are reaching your landing page. Is it through a Resources page on your website? Is it organic or paid SEO? Is it a social media channel? Knowing how your visitors are getting to your landing page allows you to fine-tune your marketing strategy and paves the way for future campaigns as visitor data evolves.

3. Landing pages increase credibility and brand awareness.

At the core of digital marketing are people with problems who need solutions. If you offer a solution to a specific problem, a landing page can provide a clear click stream to that helpful gated content. They’re often one of the first interactions users have with your brand beyond your website. If your content can help, a landing page is the first step in showing a user that you understand their problem.

The workflow automation that follows makes it even easier for web users to get the solution they requested. It shows them you put in the effort to help by creating an easy user experience designed to offer a solution. This builds credibility between you and your users. If they enjoy your content, they will begin to trust it and continue coming back to it, all thanks to a landing page.

Additionally, landing pages increase brand awareness. Utilizing landing pages that align with your company’s branding (design, color scheme, imagery) adds another layer of consistency across marketing materials. By combining well-branded landing pages with helpful gated content, landing pages are an important part of building trust between your brand and target audience.

4. Landing pages remove distractions and focus on lead generation goals.

Landing pages are a vital part to all digital marketing strategies, especially when it comes to lead generation and conversion optimization. Because websites, social media, and content marketing offer more information than a landing page, they often cover multiple goals. A landing page is the best marketing strategy for honing in on a single goal: Lead generation.

Landing pages remove distractions and allow users to focus by removing navigation, social sharing buttons, internal and external links, and references to related content. They typically feature three main components:

• A clear, focused CTA
• A form to capture a lead’s information
• A description of the gated content offer through short bulleted lists, relevant imagery, and branding

What Can a Landing Page Be Used For?

While the main goals of a landing page are lead generation and conversion optimization, landing pages can be used for multiple marketing initiatives. Aside from gating download able content offers like guides, checklists, and videos, landing pages can be used to:

• Prompt high-quality leads to get a free demo
• Ask for sign-ups for an exclusive webinar
• Keep track of RSVPs for a digital or in-person event
• Subscribe to recurring newsletter or blog content
• Sign up for a new product launch
• Follow up from a PPC or paid search ad

Setting up and promoting landing pages across your website, email marketing campaigns, social media, and paid search campaigns can result in higher conversion rates and trackable data for your marketing strategies.

How to Track Landing Page and Campaign Performance

Now that you understand the benefits of landing pages and how to incorporate them into your marketing strategy, let’s look at how to track the success of your landing pages using UTM codes.

A UTM code is a short snippet of code that you can add to the end of any URL to accurately track the performance of your marketing efforts. It has two components: a UTM parameter and a tracking variable. A typical UTM tracking code snippet looks like this:

http://example.com/your-post-title/?utm_source=twitter

This example UTM code is designed to track where your users are coming from. In this example, your visitors are being sent to your website via Twitter. However, five kinds of URL parameters can be tracked:

• Traffic Source, which tracks where the traffic originated from
• Medium, which tracks what type of traffic the visitor originated from
• Campaign Name, which tracks the performance of a specific campaign
• Keyword Term, which tracks which keyword term a visitor came from, specifically in paid search ads
• Content, which tracks which link was clicked in content under the same URL, such as an email with two CTAs

You can also use multiple tracking variables in a single UTM code to determine more data.

Measuring data through UTM tracking variables helps you adjust and optimize marketing strategies overtime. This is especially useful for landing pages, as you can attach hard data to view which content offers are resonating with your target audience and how they’re getting to the landing pages.

Tips for Creating Successful Landing Pages

Wondering how to create a successful landing page for your next campaign? Even if graphic design isn’t your passion or in your technical skill set, you can still create clean, successful landing pages using platforms like Mirabel’s Marketing Manager. These marketing automation software offer templates for landing page designs with drag-and-drop features to add branding, edit copy and images, and more.

Marketing automation software makes it easy to create and update high-converting landing pages, but you need to keep in mind a few best practices before going live. Double-checking for the following essential elements will ensure that you are on the right track:

• A main headline with the focus keyword
• A supporting sub headline and/or copy with keywords and a clear description of the benefits that the gated content offers
• An eye-catching, relevant image
• A clear, focused CTA
• Proper branding in logos, color scheme, font, and more
• White space between each element
• A lead-capture form that asks for contact and other relevant information
• Contact information, including a phone number, live chat, and/or support email

Including these elements ensures that you cover all best practices for landing page creation and optimization. Once you create and track a few landing pages in a marketing automation software, you’ll get a better idea of who you’re targeting, where they’re coming from, what content works best, and where to implement data-driven improvements.

With each landing page you deploy, you become one step closer to converting leads into customers while gaining relevant information on your visitors and their click streams. You’ll also boost brand awareness and credibility while identifying new strategies to reach your marketing goals.

For more information about the basics of digital marketing strategies, download A Beginner’s Guide to Email Marketing by Mirabel’s Marketing Manager. Click below to learn more: