A general landing page basically represents a page that visitors see after arriving on your site. Landing pages could also be the new form of direct marketing. If you are not familiar with these types of pages, it might be necessary to understand what makes them so important.
Notice: This post was updated on October 11, 2021
Think about this, a major part of online marketing simply refers to where you or anyone else sends traffic.
Why landing pages?
- It’s a page where visitors click to go to other pages
- It can serve as a reference point where a visitor can purchase products or services
- It’s a page that visitors can brag about to their friends or associates
- It’s a page where visitors can comment or leave valuable feedback
- It can be an extremely important page in helping you to gain subscribers
What makes an effective landing page?
- Includes engaging headlines
- Simple and specific content
- Outline benefits before features
- Clear and compelling
- Express specific calls to action
- Clearly state any type of guarantees
How to create effective landing pages
Any type of landing page should be creative, but most of all effective. Most internet marketers will say that landing pages should be flawless, persuasive and above all, grab full attention of visitors in order to convince them in taking action.
Keep navigation to a minimum
Once you drive your targeted audience to the page, do not confuse or distract them with useless navigation. Keep the number of the possible exits from the landing page in order to make your visitors focused on filling out the form.
Make sure there is some kind of value
In the case that you have some kind of unique and valuable offer, your visitors are going to give out to you their contact information in the exchange of the offer. Make sure that your offer is compelling to the audience and that your landing page demonstrates that values.
Keep it short and sweet
If your landing page ends up being too long, you are going to cause confusion to the whole lead capture process. If your lead is short, easy and to the point, you’ll notice an improved path with conversions.
Clean design and completely organized
How it looks, the overall feel and combined structure of your design will make a huge impression on the effectiveness of the page, and it will help determine the viability of conversions. Take notice of color and the incorporation of useful images.
Include headers to help broadcast your offer and value
A good landing page should have a strong offer and must be able to give an explanation as to why the offer is valuable in very clear and concise terms. The header and the sub-headlines must provide key opportunities to promote the value of the offer.
Create your other landing page: a squeeze page
Many internet marketing professionals agree that you can’t run a business if you don’t have a list. Your success depends on building a profitable list. Your greatest asset is your customer list. Your customer list is your personal goldmine in internet marketing.
Once you have solved the problem of traffic generation to your website, you will need to collect the email address and name of each visitor to build your customer base. Failure to do so will result in your business ultimately failing.
It is amazing to me to see how many people invest a lot of time and money to get visitors to their website. They pitch a product or service offer to make a sale, but then they fail to capture the visitor’s email address and name.
Instead of focusing on making your first sale, you should be concentrating your efforts on building your customer base. Only 1 in 100 people will think of your promotions once they visit your website. To be able to show your promotions, you must collect the names and email addresses of the remaining 99 visitors.
You have a few options to collect visitor information and create a list. These are the primary options, which are the most powerful.
1. Creating a squeeze page
2. Adding a popup to your pages
3. Including an easy opt-in form on your site
The squeeze page is the best way to build a list of all three methods. A regular opt-in form may get a 10%-15% opt-in rate while your squeeze page is likely to generate a higher 25%-45% opt-in rate for the total number visitors to your site.
What is a squeeze page
A squeeze page is a page that only has one purpose: to collect information about your visitor. Because you do not allow visitors to access your website without their name, email address and other details, the squeeze page is different than using a popup or regular opt-in form.
A squeeze page should “resonate” your website’s benefits to visitors. A squeeze page should have a compelling headline that highlights the benefits of your site, bullet points that highlight the benefits, and a call-to-action.
The most effective squeeze pages don’t take too long. Don’t make the visitor scroll down to opt-in. Another best practice is to place your photo on the page. Make sure you highlight every bullet point. Finally, put a box around what you call “call to action”, which is your opt-in form. In no uncertain terms, tell the visitor what to do.
Squeeze people into signing up
Your visitors must be able to easily identify you and leave their email address. To “squeeze” customers into signing up for your mailing list, use good copywriting and persuasive sales techniques. You will need to bribe people to opt in.
To bribe your visitor, offer some type of no-cost gift. To entice your visitor to sign up for your mailing list, you can offer a short report, a course or tutorial, subscription to your newsletter, audio or video files, or a subscription to your membership. Your call to action should inform your visitors that they will receive their free gift as soon as they submit the form.
Here’s a hint: Your customers will not be sent to your website immediately after they have entered their details. Instead, you’ll send them to the “One-Time Offer” page. This is the subject of another article in my series on list building.
Many newbies are afraid to use any type of landing page or squeeze page. Many people believe that not enough people will opt-in to their mailing list. You will have to write persuasive copy and offer valuable gifts to convince your visitor to opt in. Visitors who do not opt-in need not be worried. Visitors who aren’t interested in your email address will probably not be interested in listening to a promotion from you.
